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Florida Venture Blog by Dan Rua

No-BS Venture Thoughts for No-BS Entrepreneurs.

A running perspective on Florida's growing tech and venture community, with an occasional detour to the Southeast/national scene, venture capital FAQs and maybe a gadget or two....

By Dan Rua, Managing Partner of Inflexion Partners -- "Florida's Venture Fund".

SEBIO Update: Florida Catches North CarolinaOctober 9

Guest Post by:

Mike Schmitt, MD

Life Science Analyst and Editor of the Florida BioDatabase

Mike can be reached at M2Schmitt@aol.com      

Florida is ready to make a good impression at the upcoming Southeast BIO (SEBIO) Conference to be held on December 4-5, 2008 in Palm Beach.  SEBIO is a non-profit public/private partnership to promote the development of the life sciences throughout the Southeast.

Our State has tied North Carolina (this has not happened in recent years that I’m  aware of) with each State having 8 companies selected for the conference (actually, Florida shares an additional company in that NC based Pique Therapeutics has R&D activities in Miami).  Overall, SEBIO has selected 29 companies to participate in this year’s forum.

The conference offers an “early stage” event focused on newly emerging companies along with a “presenting” companies event for those ventures that hav

Jim Kukral Cracks Me UpOctober 9

I've followed Jim Kukral since well before he called one of my entrepreneurs a f*cking marketing genius, and really enjoy his unique blend of social media advice and humor. As I was reading his "Do Not Give Up" post for entrepreneurs, I noticed this subscribe banner on the bottom.

The man is funny...

Let's get to know each other, Join FVB, my venture capital blog community!

Make Sure You 'Get' This MemoOctober 8

A couple memos are making the rounds today that are worth sharing. Uber-angel Ron Conway and Sequoia both delivered portfolio-wide guidance to raise money sooner (if possible), cut expenses ASAP and survive (forget about thrive). The only no-BS color I'll provide is that during the tech bubble, West coast firms felt this pain about 3-4 months earlier than East coast firms. As a result, the East coast companies that internalized the message early were in the best position of all -- getting lean while still having a window of funding options.

Don't let this be one of those "Didn't you get the memo?" moments for you and your board/investors:

Conway Memo: (via TechCrunch)
——— Forwarded message ———-

What Should Entrepreneurs Look For in Company Counsel?October 3

During a talk today with Dave Felman at UF's Law School (Professor Danny Sokol's class), a student asked what I look for in venture capital counsel.  It was a good question, and the answer for me is similar to what I'd recommend for entrepreneurs vetting company counsel.

Although good lawyers come in many packages, there are really four main things I look for:

1) Experience doing venture capital deals: There is no substitute for firms who have done venture captial deals before.  Don't let them spin "corporate law" into "venture or startup law" because the issues involved can be quite different -- not to mention entrepreneurs are unique customers that take getting used to.

2) Business-minded, not legal theory: The best venture lawyers operate like business partners, not lawyers. �

Burnham InstituteOctober 2

Guest Post by:

Mike Schmitt, MD

Life Science Analyst and Editor of the Florida BioDatabase

Mike can be reached at M2Schmitt@aol.com

As a follow up to last week’s post (Neurodegenerative Disease Treatment) I wanted to mention that the meeting gave me a chance to meet some of the Florida Burnham staff and get acquainted with the Institute’s activities in Central Florida.

One of the first people that I met at the conference was Greg Roth, Ph.D., director of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology.  If Greg is any indication of the Burnham staff, then the Institute is off to an excellent start.  Greg is bright and outgoing and makes you feel instantly at ease.  It also turned out that we had some “geography” in common as we both have connections to western upstate New York.

For those of you not familiar with the Burnham Institute for