I have been a venture capital investor in technology companies since 2000 (hence the name of this blog). I am currently a general partner in two funds. The first fund was created in 2000, is fully invested and is in the process of turning those investments back into cash. The second fund was created in 2006 as an innovative partnership with a government agency in order to find cutting-edge technologies that could assist that agency in its attempts to “go where no man has gone before” (actually, to go back to where 12 men have gone before, but you get the idea).
Unfortunately, the second fund was prematurely cut off at the knees due to a high-level government decision that private equity investing should be in the private sector, which led to a prohibition of government participation in venture capital as an investor. At the time, only one investment had been made in that fund. That one investment was in a marvelously innovative company called AlterG, which had great success in helping several athletes accelerate rehabilitation of injuries in time for them to participate in the Olympics in Beijing.
You can see an athlete (Andrew Bynum of the LA Lakers) working on an AlterG machine at the LA Lakers web site.
I spent two years as the half-time CFO at AlterG, helping it grow and putting systems in place to help it manage that growth. In September 2010, the company needed a full-time CFO – so I had the pleasure of recruiting and hiring someone to replace myself.
I continue to stay in close touch with AlterG at the board level, and continue to believe that this will be a very special company.
