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Its small size and limited number of investments have not held Tech Ventures Inc. back from identifying potentially profitable companies and boosting economic development in Upstate New York.
Tech Ventures--with less than $1 million at any time invested in a collection of area companies--has charted a modest course, in part because of its limited capital. Yet the venture-capital firm has also dared to risk money in early-stage companies--the ones that other investors often shun in favor of more established choices.
Penfield-based Tech Ventures has limited the number of its investors to 99 at a time in order to avoid Securities and Exchange Commission regulations for larger investment firms that require more elaborate--and expensive--reporting.
"In one sense (Tech Ventures) has clearly not been successful because we have not grown as we would have liked. In another sense, it's too soon to say," said Paul Pineo, a limited partner in one of the pools and secretary of Tech Ventures.
Tech Ventures has been "very good for the community, probably better for the community than they have been for their investors," Pineo said. "This has been a tough market for venture capital."
Though Paul Cherin, Tech Ventures' president, calls the fund the most successful of small local venture-capital funds, the emphasis is on small.
"Returns are highly dependent on the amount of money you have...