I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday's Venture Outlook, hosted by Bull City Venture Partners.
One of my biggest takeaways from the event was Paul Martino of Bullpen Capital, who suggested that his firm gets involved in ecosystems with heavy activity at the seed funding level. Not rocket science here - if the local business community is supportive at the seed level, the ecosystem thrives, and in turn there are more companies that make it to the Series A stage. In Paul's mind, a successful ecosystem should have 8-10+ strong seed funds.
Why is this relevant? As a serial networker, I can't tell you how many professionals in the Raleigh-Durham area claiming to be interested in early stage company growth but express frustration with the lack of support our geography gets from larger PE/VC money - that starts with each of us (entrepreneurs, service providers, investors, educators). For RDU to truly get noticed and gain even more support nationally, we have to be active with our money early and often if we want to put our market on the map.
The next time I hear said frustration, I am going to ask point-blank - what are you doing the fix the problem?
Comments