Firms compete for capital in capital city

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Sep 26, 2003 by Dickinson, Casey J

SYRACUSE - Five Central New York companies will take the stage in Albany Oct. 1-2 to compete in the third annual SmartStart. Venture Forum. The companies include Critical Technologies, DEALTEK, Healthcare One, NovaSterilis, and Viral Therapeutics. Each company will have eight minutes to pitch its business to an audience of 100 investors. Last year's event attracted more than 350 participants. More than one-third of the event's past presenters has secured funding, according to Robert Buckley, coordinator of the Empire State Venture Group, Inc. The SmartStart Venture Forum features 28 companies from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

A mentoring group is helping the Central New York companies to polish their presentation skills and business plans prior to the forum. Members of the group include Robert Trachtenberg, president of the TDO; Roger Trabucco, commercial applications manager at Syracuse University's CASE Center;

Mikio Miyawaki, an attorney with Bond, Schoeneck and King; Peggy Adams of the Greater Syracuse Business Development Corp.; and Dirk Sonnneborn managing partner of Exponential-Newtek.

"New entrepreneurs tend to want to talk about their product rather than the potential market or competition," says Trachtenberg.

The mentor group has held coaching sessions designed to focus the participants on appealing to venture capitalists. Trachtenberg served as a judge in the preliminary round of the competition. He doesn't mix his judging and coaching duties. The TDO has participated in the SmartStart Venture forum since the event began, and the TDO has coached companies for other competitions over the past decade, says Trachtenberg.

Michael Schattner, president Onondaga Venture Capital Fund, also helped prepare local finalists for their time on stage. The coaching sessions involved presentations followed by a panel critique. The coaches addressed everything from speaking styles to the proper use of PowerPoint, he says. Even if the initial presentation doesn't result in immediate funding, says Schattner, the experience can help future efforts.

"The forum gives them visibility to investors," he adds.

DEALTEK founder Rhett Weiss will be presenting his company's online, economic-development software. He says he's grateful for all the support his company's received in preparation for SmartStart.

"These are all busy people that have other things they can be doing with their time," says Weiss.

Skaneateles-based DEALTEK has developed a Web-based software tool, known as DEALS that helps corporate site selectors and economicdevelopment agencies compare sites for development, expansion, and location. The program uses a number of relevant data points, such as tax rates, employment levels, energy costs, and salaries to model development scenarios.

Weiss relocated DEALTEK from Virginia to be closer to the software expertise at Purplewire, LLC. A staff of 12 engineers created the DEALS program incorporating Weiss' dealmaking criteria. Purplewire's Jay Mortensen, chief technology officer and Dr. Chung-Chi Cha, president of the software developer, have spent many hours helping Weiss improve his eight-minute presentation.

"The principals at Purplewire have been extremely helpful," says Weiss.

The advice coaches offer is sometimes contradictory, Weiss explains, reflecting the different visions of each coach.

"Different businesspeople have different visions of how to tell the story," he adds. "It's all an exercise to sharpen your message."

Ithaca-based NovaSterilis is seeking $2 million to expand its business, says David Bums, president of NovaSterilis. The company uses a patented process to sterilize medical products using carbon dioxide. Developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NovaSterilis' technology can be used to sterilize plastics and human skin. The three-employee company is hoping to market its product to tissue banks and medical offices.

Other sterilization methods, Burns explains, use high heat or toxic materials. NovaSterilis' method will allow medical facilities to cut the risk of infection while reducing the use of dangerous processes.

Held at Albany's Desmond Hotel and Conference Center, the two-day SmartStart Venture Forum features funding presentations as well as an ongoing trade show of participating companies.