Blogging from SEVC – ‘Optimism abounds,’ and ‘entrepreneurs are the heroes’

Updated March 12, 2009

Blogging from SEVC – ‘Optimism abounds,’ and ‘entrepreneurs are the heroes’

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By David S. Jones, special to LTW

Editor’s note: David Jones is a partner with Raleigh-based Southern Capitol Ventures.

ATLANTA - Attendance is up at the Southeast Venture Conference from 2008 with over 700 people. The event, which opened Wednesday, is being put on by the publisher of TechJournal South.

Optimism abounds from entrepreneurs and service providers as the market looks to have two consecutive positive days.

Tim Draper, founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, delivered the opening keynote.

His key messages:

1) Entrepreneurs are the heroes and will be big drivers in pulling us out of the recession.

2) He concluded with leading the entire audience in singing his famous song: “The Risk Master.”

What is interesting to Draper:

1) Personal healthcare - you work with doc on decisions

2) CleanTech - gas stations will be dinosaurs

3) Mobile devices as a PC

4) Moving social networking into the business setting

5) Breakthroughs in power generation

Wednesday night update

The afternoon was packed with late-stage and growth company presentations.

Most companies already have revenue and several were north of $10 million n sales.

The evening was capped by keynote presentations from Robin Weiss at NYSE Euronext and Chip Perry, President and CEO of AutoTrader.com

Looking forward to a full day Thursday of panels in the morning with topics such as: "Where's the Exit? Limited Partner Discussions. CFO Roundtable."

"Looking for the Upside" in a down market will be interesting, and then it's on to more company presentations in the afternoon.