Welcome to the Flywheel Ventures blog.
Back in the saddle
It’s been awhile since we contributed our $0.02 to the blogosphere. The growth of our own firm, and our portfolio companies, has necessarily taken priority over the past few weeks. We’re back now and you should see more constant content updates now.
Posted 03-18-2006, 01:19 pm, by Trevor Loy
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Thanks to Next Generation Economy, Inc. for the kind words
Our friends at Next Generation Economy in Albuquerque had some kind words about Flywheel partners Kim and Trevor in their recent newsletter item about Southwest Creations Collaborative and the role of Social Venture Partners - New Mexico in helping to build capacity for that innovative non-profit organization. Thanks for the kind words, as always. That said, we never lose sight of the fact that entrepreneurs - whether technology-based or social entrepreneurs - are the real innovadores who do the heavy lifting to help all of us see los vistas de manana. So in that vein, kudos again to Susan Matteucci and her team at SCC. Please help us support this important organization however you can, financially or otherwise, to help them lay the groundwork for a new era of manufacturing competitiveness - and enhanced dignity for the low-income women who form the heart of the organization.
Posted 11-02-2005, 08:50 pm, by Trevor Loy
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Flywheel Ventures Regional Opportunity
The Regional Opportunity The Flywheel Team believes that its target Southwest/Rockies region bears striking similarity to the historical development patterns of Research Triangle Park (RTP) in North Carolina and the San Diego, California region. Flywheel also believes that the quality of investment opportunities that emerged from the growth of RTP and San Diego can be successfully matched in the Southwest/Rockies for the financial benefit of participating investors in the Fund.
RTP catapulted from an agrarian and textile-based economy in the 1950’s and 1960’s with per-capita income ranked second-to-last in the U.S. to a contemporary rank of 5th in the nation for overall venture capital investment. RTP’s successful development was built on the foundation of university-based research and development spending; the area’s 3 major institutions (Duke, North Carolina State, and the University of North Carolina) conduct over $400 million per year in sponsored research. The successful commercialization of this R&D, coupled with the area’s lifestyle advantages, has led to the employment of over 40,000 technology workers in the area’s private sector companies.
In Flywheel’s view, San Diego of the mid-1980’s bears an even more striking resemblance to Flywheel’s target region, and especially the Firm’s headquarters location in New Mexico. During a series of economic crises in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the economy of the San Diego area was dependent on tourism, real estate development, and defense spending. At the same time, the area housed a large number of academic and non-profit research institutions. These facilities conducted almost $2 billion/year in R&D activity. Leveraging the local technology expertise brought by government contracting, along with these academic research assets, the region has subsequently grown well beyond its dependence on defense spending.... more »
Posted 11-02-2005, 09:46 am, by admin
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Flywheel Ventures’ portfolio company New West wins prestigious awards
We couldn’t be prouder that one of Flywheel Ventures’ portfolio companies, the online publication New West, won two awards at the Online News Association annual gathering this past weekend. New West won the “General Excellence” award for best small publication (the New York Times won the large category award). New West won two awards, sharing honors with the New York Times and Slate.com as the only multiple-award winners. All this from a start-up venture less than eight months old. Here is one quick writeup.
Posted 11-01-2005, 12:17 am, by Trevor Loy
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Social Entrepreneurship: Southwest Creations Collaborative
Emily Esterson of New West wrote a great article today about Southwest Creations Collaborative and founder/Executive Director Susan Matteucci. (By the way, Flywheel is an investor in New West).
Susan is an outstanding example of a “social entrepreneur,” and if it seems a bit odd to write about social entrepreneurship on the Flywheel Ventures blog, it shouldn’t. My partner at Flywheel, Kim Sanchez Rael, who is also a co-founder of Social Venture Partners New Mexico, likes to emphasize that we “can’t build world-class companies in mediocre communities.” Social entrepreneurs are increasingly recognized as key contributors to building the world-class communities that we all want to live in, and which in turn attract other sorts of technology and commercial entrepreneurs and innovators.
Back when I worked with Tom Byers at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, we used to teach that entrepreneurship was a “way of thinking, leading, and managing” that was relevant in almost any organization, context, or domain. In those days it was still considered somewhat heretical to teach entrepreneurship to science and engineering students in addition to MBA’s. Increasingly, now, entrepreneurs are recognized for what they are: creative individuals and teams who doggedly pursue opportunity and value creation regardless of the current constraints they face. Nothing about that situation is unique to business, nor should it be.
Posted 10-17-2005, 07:14 pm, by Trevor Loy
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Welcome to the Flywheel Ventures Blog
Welcome everyone to the Flywheel Ventures Blog. Over time, we will be posting on a variety of topics related to venture capital, technology innovation, and entrepreneurship. Our particular focus will, of course, be our target geographic region of the “Southwest / Rockies,” with special emphasis on Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. We look forward to your comments!
Posted 10-17-2005, 07:10 pm, by Trevor Loy
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