Dear Friends and Family,
I have been selected by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to become a member of the Birmingham MS Leadership Class of 2010, a group of Birmingham area professionals who have made an outstanding contribution to the business, civic and cultural betterment of our community. With this honor, I have accepted the responsibility of raising money to support the programs of the Alabama Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. I have a very ambitious personal goal of $2500.00 that I want to raise for the MS cause. Please help by making a donation - large or small - to fight MS.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is the only national voluntary health agency in the United States supporting worldwide research to find the cause of, a cure for, and the means to prevent multiple sclerosis. The Society invests more money in MS research than any other private funder in the world. This investment is paying off as we now have six treatments to help slow the course of this unpredictable disease. Locally the Alabama chapter provides vital programs and services to over 4,000 persons living with the challenges of MS and their families.
Whatever you can give will help! Together we can make a world of difference.
Sincerely,
Josh
Click here to get to my personal page and make a secure, online donation.
To send a donation: Make all checks payable to: National MS Society Mail to: Josh Watkins 2000 Southbridge Pkwy. #500 Feld Hyde Wertheimer Bryant & Stone PC Birmingham, AL 35209-1303.
Early and ongoing treatment with an FDA-approved therapy can make a difference for people with multiple sclerosis. Learn about your options by talking to your health care professional and contacting the National MS Society at http://www.nationalmssociety.org/ or 1-800-344-4867.
Kamis, 25 Februari 2010
Rabu, 24 Februari 2010
Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered...
I'm not sure who first used that expression with me, but it is one I have used a lot lately, especially when asked about our state bingo fiasco.
Why would anyone care what I think about bingo...because in a strange twist of fate, this Southern Baptist political moderate has been engaged to work with a couple of different bingo owners on some tax issues. I can assure you that when I was in law school dreaming of one day being a big time corporate lawyer, I never imagined it would in any way involve me in the showdown between Milton and Bob.
Nonetheless, taxes are a tool of the state and here I am.
So, you ask, what is the deal down in Montgomery and what does it have to do with swine? (insert a big grin)
The specific reason I use that phrase has to do with the bingo bill currently being proposed by the Sweet Home Alabama group. For some reason, probably having too much to do with hubris and ego, the big bingo players took a lot of public sympathy and support due to job losses, etc. and rather than simply saying "Fine, if the governor thinks the old Constitutional amendments don't cover electronic bingo, let the individual counties vote on new amendments that would be more clear." That would have a lot of sense and probably been hard to oppose. But nooooo, they had to swing for the fences and try to get a state approved monopoly out of the deal instead and in the process they may end up wasting all their public support.
So, there you go, pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
Why would anyone care what I think about bingo...because in a strange twist of fate, this Southern Baptist political moderate has been engaged to work with a couple of different bingo owners on some tax issues. I can assure you that when I was in law school dreaming of one day being a big time corporate lawyer, I never imagined it would in any way involve me in the showdown between Milton and Bob.
Nonetheless, taxes are a tool of the state and here I am.
So, you ask, what is the deal down in Montgomery and what does it have to do with swine? (insert a big grin)
The specific reason I use that phrase has to do with the bingo bill currently being proposed by the Sweet Home Alabama group. For some reason, probably having too much to do with hubris and ego, the big bingo players took a lot of public sympathy and support due to job losses, etc. and rather than simply saying "Fine, if the governor thinks the old Constitutional amendments don't cover electronic bingo, let the individual counties vote on new amendments that would be more clear." That would have a lot of sense and probably been hard to oppose. But nooooo, they had to swing for the fences and try to get a state approved monopoly out of the deal instead and in the process they may end up wasting all their public support.
So, there you go, pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
Kamis, 18 Februari 2010
The time may be NOW for Alabama to become a new economy leader
Interesting timing of my last post. The 2010 Silicon Valley Index was just released and already national publications are pointing to it's rather shocking reference of Huntsville, Alabama as a potential competitor to Silicon Valley, due to Huntsville's strong position in Federal procurement.
See: Business Week and Wall Street Journal Articles
Of course, that bold prediction can not come to significant fruition unless Alabama takes a more proactive role in understanding the oportunity that is available and providing appropriate resources and support.
Some of the challenges include:
1. Shortage of seed/startup stage funding
2. Lack of a large local biotech company to commercialize local medical university innovations
3. Connecting the managerial and innovation talent to the opportunities
4. National perception
There are certainly more challenges than those above, but those are some of the big ones. But, they are not insurmountable if our local and state leaders (both public and private) really want to tackle the issues that can help drive Alabama forward.
See: Business Week and Wall Street Journal Articles
Of course, that bold prediction can not come to significant fruition unless Alabama takes a more proactive role in understanding the oportunity that is available and providing appropriate resources and support.
Some of the challenges include:
1. Shortage of seed/startup stage funding
2. Lack of a large local biotech company to commercialize local medical university innovations
3. Connecting the managerial and innovation talent to the opportunities
4. National perception
There are certainly more challenges than those above, but those are some of the big ones. But, they are not insurmountable if our local and state leaders (both public and private) really want to tackle the issues that can help drive Alabama forward.
Rabu, 17 Februari 2010
Time for an Alabama Angel Investor Tax Credit and maybe more
Alabama's economy ranked dead last in Economic Dynamism according to the 2009 Astra report. That rank was not much better in the other entreprenurial indicators. This is despite ranking 21st in Federal R&D expenditures at colleges and universities.
To be sure Alabama has made some significant strides in economic development. The auto industry has certainly been a good catch for Alabama's EDO.
Also, in February 2004, the Alabama Certified Capital Company Program (CAPCO) created six new private equity funds. As a result, Alabama had $100 Million in new private equity dollars spread between six funds which range in size from $11 to $20 million each. Then, in 2008, an additional $100 Million in private equity dollars spread between six funds became available. The result was $200 Million of new venture capital available to qualified businesses.
Why then, in a state that contains some leading science and technology universities, aren’t new innovative technology companies springing up at the pace of other states? It’s because the new companies can’t find seed capital investors the way they can in other states. Without seed capital for high growth startups, there are very few later stage high growth startups that can make use of the CAPCO investments. The recent economic meltdown in the banking industry has only intensified this investment gap, as investment firms that used to look at earlier stage companies can now look at more established deals because traditional bank financing is not readily available.
Some 20 or so states have already seen the need to encourage investors to fill this investment gap. Those are many states where the government offers an Angel Investor Tax Credit — a tax credit that is given to people who invest in small but emerging companies.
If Alabama legislators want to really do something to encourage good organic economic growth in our state, they should look at what other forward looking state's are doing and provide some encouragement for our local investors to put their invesment dollars to work at home.
To be sure Alabama has made some significant strides in economic development. The auto industry has certainly been a good catch for Alabama's EDO.
Also, in February 2004, the Alabama Certified Capital Company Program (CAPCO) created six new private equity funds. As a result, Alabama had $100 Million in new private equity dollars spread between six funds which range in size from $11 to $20 million each. Then, in 2008, an additional $100 Million in private equity dollars spread between six funds became available. The result was $200 Million of new venture capital available to qualified businesses.
Why then, in a state that contains some leading science and technology universities, aren’t new innovative technology companies springing up at the pace of other states? It’s because the new companies can’t find seed capital investors the way they can in other states. Without seed capital for high growth startups, there are very few later stage high growth startups that can make use of the CAPCO investments. The recent economic meltdown in the banking industry has only intensified this investment gap, as investment firms that used to look at earlier stage companies can now look at more established deals because traditional bank financing is not readily available.
Some 20 or so states have already seen the need to encourage investors to fill this investment gap. Those are many states where the government offers an Angel Investor Tax Credit — a tax credit that is given to people who invest in small but emerging companies.
If Alabama legislators want to really do something to encourage good organic economic growth in our state, they should look at what other forward looking state's are doing and provide some encouragement for our local investors to put their invesment dollars to work at home.
Senin, 15 Februari 2010
Time to look outside of Wallstreet. Local startup capital wanted...and needed.
According to MoneyTree (report link) we only had three Alabama companies participate in venture capital rounds during the 4th quarter of 2009.
Let's do the math for a minute. According to the 2007 Kauffman Foundation study on returns (study link), "angel investors participating in organized angel groups achieved an average 27 percent internal rate of return on their investments" however the study also confirmed the conventional wisdom that the majority of those returns were produced by a small percentage of the portfolio. In the study, "the top 10 percent of exits account for 75 percent of the total cash returns in the sample." That means that at the MoneyTree reported rate, Alabama is barely investing in enough companies to consistently produce one significant success a year...for the whole state. No wonder supporting and using venture backed startups to impact the local economy isn't really viewed as a viable economic growth strategy.
But it is...
There are numerous examples of other regions that actively use high growth startups to energize the local economy and are all the better for it...Silicon Valley, NY, Austin, NC Research Triangle and even Nashville.
The strangest thing to me is that I get the feeling that many of our potential local investors think that startup investing is something that is done by "those other people, over there" or that establishing success startups can't be done here or is something akin to gambling. Of course, many of those same people have no problem at all putting money into a fund managed a thousand miles away, by a person they will never meet, to invest in companies they personally may know little or nothing about. And those returns have been dismal for a decade.
Now, I'm not advocating taking all your money out of the NYSE and putting it into some random local startup all by yourself, but for those that have the ability to diversify into some non-traditional investments...why not participate in a local invesment club (see: ACA or Birmingham Angel Network) and use some of that capital to do some good in your local economy, you just may end up finding some higher returns?
- Atherotech, Inc. Southeast AL
- Halo Monitoring, Inc. Southeast AL
- Silver Leaf Capital LLC Southeast AL
Let's do the math for a minute. According to the 2007 Kauffman Foundation study on returns (study link), "angel investors participating in organized angel groups achieved an average 27 percent internal rate of return on their investments" however the study also confirmed the conventional wisdom that the majority of those returns were produced by a small percentage of the portfolio. In the study, "the top 10 percent of exits account for 75 percent of the total cash returns in the sample." That means that at the MoneyTree reported rate, Alabama is barely investing in enough companies to consistently produce one significant success a year...for the whole state. No wonder supporting and using venture backed startups to impact the local economy isn't really viewed as a viable economic growth strategy.
But it is...
There are numerous examples of other regions that actively use high growth startups to energize the local economy and are all the better for it...Silicon Valley, NY, Austin, NC Research Triangle and even Nashville.
The strangest thing to me is that I get the feeling that many of our potential local investors think that startup investing is something that is done by "those other people, over there" or that establishing success startups can't be done here or is something akin to gambling. Of course, many of those same people have no problem at all putting money into a fund managed a thousand miles away, by a person they will never meet, to invest in companies they personally may know little or nothing about. And those returns have been dismal for a decade.
Now, I'm not advocating taking all your money out of the NYSE and putting it into some random local startup all by yourself, but for those that have the ability to diversify into some non-traditional investments...why not participate in a local invesment club (see: ACA or Birmingham Angel Network) and use some of that capital to do some good in your local economy, you just may end up finding some higher returns?
Rabu, 10 Februari 2010
Two Alabama Teams in the Running for Global Venture Challenge 2010
Teams from both UA and UAH have been selected to advance to the semi-final round of the 2010 Global Venture Challenge hosted March 25-26 by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Link)
What a great showing by teams from two of our local universities. These are the kind of achievements we need to support and applaud.
According to the website:
Good job.
What a great showing by teams from two of our local universities. These are the kind of achievements we need to support and applaud.
According to the website:
"Global Venture challenge is an educational competition featuring entrepreneurial and technology-based business proposals presented by graduate student teams from around the world.Glenn Kinstler and Alabama Launchpad have done a wonderful job putting a spotlight on technology entrepreneurship in our state universities, but we can always stand to see success in national forums as well.
The teams will be judged by panels of energy executives, venture capitalists, technologists, entrepreneurs and legal experts. The winning team will receive $25,000."
Good job.
Kamis, 04 Februari 2010
Facebook and Private Placements...is Facebook "public"?
Like many of my generation, I have a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile and a (rarely used) Twitter account. Since I work almost all the time, those sites have become an admittedly limited, but important, connection to my new and old non-work friends and I even have a lot of work friends that stay in touch there as well.
Being a budding workaholic, I have made some efforts to integrate my business life into my online social network, with a LinkedIn and Facebook page for our local ACA chapter (BirminghamAngels.com) that I am directing and I have a RSS feed from this blog for them all too.
Still, it seems like I could use the power of social networking better...not just for R&R, but for business too.
In brainstorming that for a while and searching on the web a bit, I ran across an article touting social networking with shareholders (E-Commerce news) and I began to think about how we could use our investment club and social networking better.
The idea seems to work well as an experiment in social workflow, a concept I vaguely understand, but being worked on locally by George Barckley (myWorkAlert and Kreatek).
The concept I had was to use our Angel Network LinkedIn and FaceBook pages to announce and update the progess of new private placements. Kind of like the recently announced AngelList. Sounds great huh...unfortunately, almost all of the securities registration exemptions also prohibit "general solicitation."
Now, I can certainly see a great argument for claiming that a Facebook/LinkedIn page is not "public" because a user has to actively join the group to be a member. On the other hand, almost anyone (in any state/location) with an internet connection can join a group, so they are not exactly private either.
The reality is that I probably won't push the envelope right away, but at some point the law is going to have to accomodate Web 2.0 with some additional clarity. Until then, I guess we will still have to use more traditional communication methods.
Being a budding workaholic, I have made some efforts to integrate my business life into my online social network, with a LinkedIn and Facebook page for our local ACA chapter (BirminghamAngels.com) that I am directing and I have a RSS feed from this blog for them all too.
Still, it seems like I could use the power of social networking better...not just for R&R, but for business too.
In brainstorming that for a while and searching on the web a bit, I ran across an article touting social networking with shareholders (E-Commerce news) and I began to think about how we could use our investment club and social networking better.
The idea seems to work well as an experiment in social workflow, a concept I vaguely understand, but being worked on locally by George Barckley (myWorkAlert and Kreatek).
The concept I had was to use our Angel Network LinkedIn and FaceBook pages to announce and update the progess of new private placements. Kind of like the recently announced AngelList. Sounds great huh...unfortunately, almost all of the securities registration exemptions also prohibit "general solicitation."
Now, I can certainly see a great argument for claiming that a Facebook/LinkedIn page is not "public" because a user has to actively join the group to be a member. On the other hand, almost anyone (in any state/location) with an internet connection can join a group, so they are not exactly private either.
The reality is that I probably won't push the envelope right away, but at some point the law is going to have to accomodate Web 2.0 with some additional clarity. Until then, I guess we will still have to use more traditional communication methods.
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