Content area
Full Text
Even the most promising startups in Northern Colorado share a common struggle: finding capital to fuel their innovations.
In part, that's because VC firms typically evaluate pitches from hundreds of companies annually, but fund only a few. While that's a hurdle anywhere in the nation, landing VC is even more difficult in Northern Colorado because the region is home to very few active investment firms.
Venture capital firms tend to be concentrated around Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area. That means they also tend to invest in companies in those regions. And when these firms do invest in Colorado companies, oftentimes they want them to relocate to be closer to the VC.
That's because the VCs want per sonal relationships with their companies, said Brian Wallace, incoming board chairman of the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association.
"It's harder when you have to get on an airplane to go see them," he said. "It seems like an obvious statement, but it's really true."
As a partner in Access Venture Partners in Denver, Wallace invests in information technology, consumer internet and clean-technology companies. The firm invests in two Longmont companies, Rebit Inc. and TerraLUX. each does business in giant markets: the former in information technology software, the latter in light-emitting diodes.
Access...