Friday, October 17, 2008

Social site for VCs preps for relaunch

By Christopher Calnan

The New England Venture Network is relaunching its social networking website in January, a little more than a year after kicking off its beta version. The site, venturenetwork.vc, is a networking website targeting junior venture capitalists who are looking to leverage the web to syndicate deals and who may lack the established network that longtime senior partners have.

The updated venturenetwork.vc, established to help smaller, local VCs in networking activities, is scheduled to feature more wikis and is based on an open-source platform to enable connectivity with other VC groups, said NEVN chairman David Safaii, a principal at Lexington-based Windspeed Ventures.

The website, which is available to VCs, limited partners and NEVC sponsors, has attracted about 400 members since it was established. And about half of the members are located outside New England, said Safaii, who estimates that about 100 members use the site on a regular basis.

The NEVN, founded in 1999, established venturenetwork.vc in November 2007 with sponsor funding to create a “symbiotic ecosystem” for investors, Safaii said.

“I’m trying to build a sense of co-opetition in the junior ranks,” he said. “Though you do compete for deals, the ones you’re not doing you should be promoting to others.”

Members maintain their own profile pages that include details about firms, investment focus, personal background and experience. One of them, Michael Burgmaier, a principal at the Portland, Maine-based CEI Community Ventures Inc., said he’s used the website to locate people to help him complete due diligence on deals as well as recruit employees.

Since CEI, which was launched in 2003 with a $10 million fund, typically syndicates with other firms, the website has also been useful in identifying likely partners on deals, he said. “Our capital can only go so far, so we always look for other funds” to co-invest, Burgmaier said. “It’s nice to have a targeted social-networking niche.”

The website enables members to post and discuss information about deals, job openings and upcoming industry and live networking events. It also includes industry research collected from local analyst firms to help members with due diligence and strategic investment decisions. Finally, the site will feature question-and-answer sessions with experts in fields pertinent to the venture capital world, including the fields of law, accounting and marketing.