The MIT Club of Colorado put on “Ask the VC” at the beautiful ATLAS building at CU last night. Jim Pollock admitted he swiped the name from the well known blog, but it was a very appropriate name. We watched about 45 minutes of a video from MIT where this guy made a bit of an ass out of himself a couple of times much to our amusement.
The Boston panel talked about private equity and hedge funds and all kinds of crap that while generally interesting, didn’t have much to do with the entrepreneurial scene here in Colorado.
Then the fun began. The audience started quizzing the live, local, and far more P/C panel (consisting of Jason Mendelson, Catherine Merigold, Sandy Keziah, Derek Pilling, and Chris Scoggins) about topics ranging from how Denver/Boulder compares to Silicon Valley on various fronts to what the hot topics are for VCs these days to how to get in the door to see them. The Q&A period went on for about 90 minutes. The panel did a great job of addressing some common myths (like they always immediately replace management teams) and talking about the differences in the market and talent here in Colorado vs Silicon Valley, Boston, and elsewhere. The panel seemed to think the technical and general management talent here is as strong as anywhere (or perhaps stronger on some fronts) but felt that one skill generally lacking here is in the area of strategic marketing.
We captured the whole event on video, and once Brian over at Onsight Media finishes editing (thanks Brian!), we’ll post it here for you to watch.