Middle Market Deals and how to buy, sell and raise capital from $5 to $500 million

I had a great opportunity on Wednesday to sit on a panel discussion at a seminar presented by the Wayne Brown Institute on the 21st Century Entrepreneur.  It is a fun, small group format with a lively discussion between the panelists and the audience, largely comprised of entrepreneurs.

The panelists are listed below:

The panel, including a few entrepreneurs, an angel investor, a few venture capitalists and a lone investment banker was quite diverse.  I think that those who attended the conference came away having learned something!

This afternoon I had the privilege of leading a panel discussion on future trends in venture capital, as part of Brad Bertoch's Investors Choice Conference hosted by the Wayne Brown Institute (read Tim Stay's extensive coverage of the event on VCSmart).  We had hoped to get some clear vision into the future, but at least we came away with a fair image of the present and a good picture of the recent past.

The real question that we wanted answered is what is the next big thing?  Corley Phillips of American River Ventures responded jestingly, by quoting a notable VC, that "I wouldn't answer that if you were my mother."  Of course, every VC's hope is to find the next big thing--all alone--and to make that 100 fold return--just once (or twice).

We did discuss some arenas like VOIP, nanotechnology and web 2.0.  These are areas where lots of money has been made, begging the question are there any opportunities remaining?  The point was made in response that venture capitalists are unlikely to back another Skype or Vonage, but that doesn't mean that there aren't opportunities to develop VOIP related technologies that will move the migration of Internet telephony forward.  The key for entrepreneurs is to find a relevant spot on which to push.

Over the years, Brad Bertoch, President of the Wayne Brown Institute has learned that you have to entertain the venture capital types he invites to Utah for his Investors Choice conference.  For years, he's invited the group to a ski day but this year he added a bobsled run.

What a hoot!

The run was much more exciting than I had anticipated.  The setting of the one-mile track is fabulous, up in the Wasatch Mountains at the Utah Olympic Park, site of the 2002 skeleton, luge and bobsled olympic events.   I captured some short video and some photos of the event that can be viewed here.