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

Today, Utah Information Technology Association or UITA, held its annual meeting.  There, it recognized Josh James, Omniture's founder, as its CEO of the year.

The other news at the event today, was the completion of the marriage between the Utah Life Sciences Association (ULiSA) and UITA.  After years of informal discussions, circumstances recently shifted making the marriage work for both groups.

The new group will be known as the Utah Technology Council or UTC.

I've recently been giving some thought to the on-line practice of building and selling databases of venture capital firms.  It seems like such a great idea to buy a directory, especially if you can get actual E-MAIL addresses.

I once had a client who had purchased a list of 2,000+ venture capitalist e-mails and was planning to casually send a blast e-mail to everyone on the list.

I almost killed myself trying to jump in front of that train. I've often said that there is no such animal as an angel investor--only friends and family who happen to know what they are doing.  That is an exaggeration, but the fact is that angel investors and venture capitalists don't like to invest in people that they don't know or can't vet with people they know well.

The process of raising capital can, therefore, take many months or even years as you build your network in the venture community.

As an entrepreneur or mid-market executive, you really want to know a few key people in the "deal community" in your local market.  Typically, these folks can be found in one place, one group, one organization, one association.  In larger towns, there may be several key groups to join.

In Salt Lake, where I live and work, there are several organizations.  The first group on the scene was the MountainWest Capital Network (formerly the MountainWest Venture Group).  Over the years, a number of other important groups have been formed, including a local chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth and the Utah Information Technology Association, among others.

As an officer of the MountainWest Capital Network (MWCN), I want to use MWCN as an example of the benefits that come from networking within a networking organization of this sort.