SBIC program, Vermont seed capital, and more writing

Steve Swartzman (an SBIC fund manager and on NASBIC's Board of Governors) made his case to congress for reauthorization and funding of the SBIC program. His piece echoes my article--posted by NASBIC on their news page--written for Mass High Tech. Speaking of articles, my Providence Business News piece just published on the recession's impact on the venture capital industry.

I am currently working on an application for the Vermont Entrepreneur’s Seed Capital Fund (VESCF), a recently authorized allocation of $2.15M to start an early stage fund targeting Vermont entrepreneurs. I’ve been doing seed/early stage investing for CEI Community Ventures (CCV) since 2003 and am about to launch fund raising for Clear Venture Partners, a $50-75M early/seed stage fund (wholly unaffiliated with CCV) targeting secondary New England cities, including those in Vermont. The timing would seem ideal in light of the leverage I could bring to the VESCF by supplementing it with Clear funds targeted to Vermont. I read with interest the earmark award of $1M to Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET) to start a seed capital fund identical to the one authorized by the bill signed in to law just a few weeks prior; in that announcement (featured in Vermont Business Magazine,) that organization’s manager noted his hope that VCET might win the mandate to manage VESCF, to leverage the earmark. While it would seem a significant challenge to any VESCF applicant to have to compete against an already issued seed capital earmark, I have full faith that VEDA (the agency that is responsible for choosing the VESCF fund manager) will choose the manager with the best qualifications to build and manage an early stage venture capital fund. VEDA had a similar mandate for a mezzanine fund a few years back and chose Brook Venture Partners (based in Wakefield MA) to manage the state’s money in that case. So, there’s reason for hope.