I was sorry to have missed June's meeting, but had the opportunity to attend this year's Convergence Forum in Providence, RI. A plug for the forum's sponsors, J. Robert Scott and Foley & Larder LLP, I have to say that this was one of the best life science conferences I've attended.

A terrific panel focusing on the impact of new technologies on the cost of healthcare with Charlie Baker, President and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Paul Levy, President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center was covered by Mass High Tech as well as a talk by Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer. On the funding side, my sense from the panel discussions and conversations with attendees was that even though capital raising (for both entrepreneurs as well as VCs) continues to be tough, and a lot more of investors' time is being spent with existing portfolio companies, new deals are still getting done. And although concerns about the exit environment are real, several of the investors I spoke with still seem to view this period as one of opportunity, as I do (it was also nice to see some venture backed IPOs in Q2 - hopefully a sign of good things to come).

For July's ROCC meeting, we will be joined by Dennis Kessler, an active local angel investor, executive professor of business administration at the William E. Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester, and co-owner of Kessler Restaurants, LLC, the largest Friendly's franchisee in the country. Dennis earned a Law Degree from Yale University, a Master's Degree from the City University of New York and a Bachelor's from John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York.

As always, it was great to meet several new companies this month including Tenrehte, a fabless semiconductor company offering Wi-Fi system on a chip solutions and Jorsek, a software company providing solutions that allow users to edit and restructure their websites as easily as they edit a Word document.

Peter's parting words for us:"Understand your goals and audience before trying any new advertising or digital media tool". Thanks Peter for your time and terrific insight. Special thanks to Melissa Geska, founder, Fabunation, LLC and co-founder of ROCC, for referring Peter.

For more information on "good" uses of Twitter check out Business Week's recent article "Twitter: Building Businesses Tweet by Tweet", and for some additional stats on social media use, a recent presentation by Barry Hurd of 123SocialMedia.com provides some great info. Peter also posts some great information on the Butler/Till website.

In addition to his current role with Butler/Till, Peter has held prior positions with dockside.net, ICE Communications, Saatchi & Saatchi and Rumrill-Hoyt. His experience brings together a unique combination of account management, technology and strategic planning. Peter is committed to helping businesses realize the true value that the internet can provide to a company's bottom line. He cringes at some of the business models and plans that many former dot-com companies tried to implement in the past and will talk with ROCC members about what he believes are the best methods for leveraging the internet to maximize business and marketing objectives.

We heard from Jennifer Sertl of Agility 3R, who coaches both entrepreneurs and corporate executives, and shared some words of wisdom on leadership. Jennifer's advice of not overacting to things that cannot be controlled, but staying focused and open to new opportunities during turbulent times seemed particularly relevant. Thanks Jen for joining us!

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On April 10, Will Hoy, partner at Harter Secrest & Emery LLP, will join us for a Q&A roundtable discussion.

Will is head of HSE's Private Equity and Venture Capital Group and represents both private equity and venture capital funds in all aspects of portfolio financing transactions, including portfolio company acquisitions, dispositions and recapitalizations, preferred equity structures, stockholder arrangements, and management employment and equity compensation arrangements. Will also represents a broad range of private and public clients in mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and general corporate matters. Prior to joining HSE, Will represented both private and public clients with McDermott Will & Emery LLP in Chicago.

Will is making himself available to answer any and all questions, on financing, equity compensation, general corporate matters, etc., and yes, he promised 'the clock will be off'.

Luda (who phoned in to the session from Florida) opened the session by outlining four key factors that angels look at when considering whether to invest in a company:

* Does the company and its product or service meet a demonstrated need or pain in the marketplace?
* Are its products or solutions sufficiently differentiated from what's in the market already?
* Is there a solid team in place?
* Exactly how does the company plan to make money?

Luda noted that angels are most likely to invest once a concept is proven. In the absence of any sales or customers, that can be a bit of a hurdle, which you can address by gathering evidence of how your company will fare in its market. "The more validation, the better. What can you anticipate? Put together a landing page. Demonstrate acceleration. You still might not have customers, but you've validated. You're moving away from assumptions. Figure out a way to get data for each of your parameters. Say to investors: 'I know it's a risk, but I know I can get there and here's how.'"

Ken remarked that risks are a key part of a memorandum. "Listing them forces you to think about them, and you'll be ready for questions."

As you consider seeking funding from angels, risks are just one (albeit important) thing to consider. Overall, it's critical to gauge how you'll get to where you need to go. How much money will you need. When? From whom? Can you get to cash flow positive from angels alone?

"I guarantee that the amount of money you need is going to be double what you think you need," said Ken. "Also, it's not just a function of money, but more of time. It will probably take twice as long as long as you think it will."

What should those seeking funding look for in an angel, and what steps can one take to ensure a successful relationship?

The best investors are those who understand your space and can provide connections. Ken considers his investors to be part of his company. He advises thinking carefully in advance about the type of relationship you'll have with your investors and always keeping good lines of communication open. That might mean creating a private website where progress reports and feedback can be shared.

As for finding those angels willing to invest in your company?

Tough economic conditions are leading everyone, including angel investors, to be more cautious, but there's always money, even in a downturn, and truly great ideas and promising technologies will always be attractive.

Angels, and their money, are out there. Finding them, and then convincing them to invest in your company, require solid homework and persistence. And you've got to get over the hurdle of asking for money, which gets easier the more often you do it.

Thanks to Luda, Ken, and everyone around the table for an informative session.

Congrats to Aaron Newman & his team -- Nicely done!

On Friday February 27, Ken Rosenfeld, Co-Founder and President of eHealth Global and Luda Kopeikina (via teleconference), President and CEO of Noventra Corporation and a member of Common Angels in Boston, will share their views and first hand experience with angel funding. Ken and his co-founder Mike Margiotta successfully capitalized their company by raising enough from individual angels to fund their company for its first two years of operations through to cash flow break-even. Luda has sat on both sides of the table, having founded several companies and also as a member of Common Angels in Boston. She is also a published writer and a prominent business speaker on topics of innovation, entrepreneurship, clear business decision making and leadership. If you've ever wondered how to successfully raise angel financing or the pros and cons of raising money from individuals directly or through an organized angel network, this will be a great opportunity to learn more. Of course there will be general networking, as always, before and after the discussion.

Upcoming ROCC meetings: Friday February 27, March 27, April 10, May 8 and June 12. Meetings will be held from 8:30am-10:00am at the Bagel Bin Café. Future dates to be announced.

On Friday, January 23, Steve Zamierowski (better known as "Zam"), a member of Deloitte's technology and life sciences practice and director of Deloitte's Tech-Venture Center in Boston, will join us from 8:30am - 10:00am at the Bagel Bin Cafe in Brighton for 30 minutes of Q&A with ROCC members, followed by general networking.

Zam will be in Rochester presenting "The State of the Venture Capital Industry" at MIT's Ignite Clean Energy kick-off event, being held from 5:30pm-7:30pm on Thursday, January 22 at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester (more info here), and has agreed to stop by and share his perspectives with ROCC entrepreneurs. Thanks Zam!

Hope to see you this Friday. If there are certain topics or speakers that are of interest for future meetings, please let us know...

Several new ideas are being discussed for ROCC in 2009, so stay tuned, and as always, we welcome your thoughts!

For some good perspective as you prepare for the year ahead, check out Don Dodge's latest post, Tough Times Never Last, Tough People Do.

For those looking for a more "glass is half full" perspective on the current economic times, Don Dodge's recent post is a worthwhile read on why now could actually be a great time to start a company. We're back at Spin Café on Friday, November 14. See you then!

One example: Adam Bates, one of the founders of ROCC, who joined us at Spin Café in September. Adam moved to Rochester from Boston where he previously worked for venture-backed MusicMatch, acquired by Yahoo! in 2004. Adam now commutes to his job with another venture-backed on-line music startup based in CA, TopSpin, which is backed by Redpoint Ventures and the Foundry Group.

Benjamin Golub, a developer for CA-based FriendFeed also came out for the first time in September. Founded by former Google staffers, FriendFeed is a great online service that allows users to create a customized feed of the content their friends are sharing across the web, from posts on YouTube to updates on twitter, Facebook or Flikr. Its worth checking out if you haven't already.

Regardless of where people in our tech community have come from or where they may be commuting to, I'm a believer that only good things can come from talented people connecting, so thanks to all who come out to ROCC, and let the networking continue!

This will be in place of our normal Friday coffee meeting.

It looks like we're going to have a good turn out with some new faces as well. Hope to see everyone there.

We heard from Les Fritzemeier, Founder & CEO of Wakonda Technologies, about his recent $9.5 million Series A financing, raised from a syndicate of top Boston VC firms. Wakonda has been working closely with RIT and Cornell University to develop a patent-pending technology for developing low-cost, highly efficient solar cells. Wakonda serves as a very positive example of the types of technologies that can be commercialized from our local universities. Congrats to Les and his team - we hope to see you & hear about your progress at future open coffee club events!

I also had an interesting conversation with Jason, a local entrepreneur who's a corporate engineer by day and working to develop a new online application nights and weekends. He heard about ROCC from a friend and seemed interested in connecting with other tech entrepreneurs in our area. I was thrilled to talk with him, as he's exactly the type of person ROCC is meant to support - smart, driven and looking to make a jump into the entrepreneurial community (actually, he has been involved in a successful startup previously). I hope we continue to attract new participants like Jason that share our enthusiasm for growing Upstate NY's tech community.

For August, we're heading to Northfields, 3001 Monroe Ave., for an early evening gathering. Hopefully the weather will work with us and we can take our gathering outside on the patio. Look forward to seeing everyone then!

I was excited to hear of some great progress with a number of local companies: Emmi Technologies, Leveractive, Novipella, Sweetwater Ethanol, Sydor Instruments, Techrigy, and others...nicely done guys, and thanks for taking the time to come out during these exciting and busy times.

It was also great to meet Brian O'Shaughenessy, an attorney at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC in VA, who heard about ROCC from Dave Lincoln of Novipella, and decided to join us while he was in town. Brian is from Upstate NY (SU and RIT grad) and focuses on IP law. He seemed very willing to work with local companies, so if you'd like to connect with Brian, let me know.

Several ROCC members mentioned that they really liked meeting in the early evening vs. the early morning - a few of the reasons: "easier to break away", "easier to stay longer", and "just plain easier than early morning" (this from a couple of late night software guys).

Someone suggested alternating morning and evening gatherings every other month. I think it's a great idea, so unless I'm outvoted by the other ROCC organizing committee members, I say we give it a try starting in August - any nominations for an evening venue? For July's gathering, it's back to coffee at Spin Café. Look forward to seeing you then!