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CALL 248.372.7300 Certified Public Accountants & Consultants www.virchowkrause.com © 2007 Virchow, Krause & Company, LLP DETROIT BUSINESS MAIN 04-23-07 B 18 CDB 4/17/2007 2:46 PM Page 1 GROWING A NEW ECONOMY HelpingHelpingpg BusinessesBusinesses GrowGGrow Women ToT Their Full Potential ■ From Page 16 To Their Full Potential search, women represented 13.8 percent of angel investors in 2006. Nearly 13 percent of entrepreneurs who sought angel capital last From idea to implementation. year were women, and 21.5 percent of them received angel investment, the center says. From start-up through financing. The Kauffman study contends that hav- From a dream to a successful exit. ing fewer women venture capitalists means fewer deals with women-led firms because The experienced attorneys at venture deals often depend on personal con- Fraser Trebilcock Davis & Dunlap, P.C. nections, and male venture capitalists tend to form connections with male-led firms. counsel businesses every step of the way. “To a large degree, it’s based on who you know,” said Linda Paullin-Hebden, a partner with Warner, Norcross & Judd L.L.P. in Southfield who helps advise woman-led firms on venture-capital deals. “Venture- capital firms are primarily run by men, and William Deneau, President of Aurora Oil & Gas Corporation and Attorney Iris Linder at AMEX. they have relationships with other men.” Campbell said much of the issue depends on whether women own companies that fit Working in the Venture Capital a VC firm’s investment criteria. “How many of those are venture-backable arena for over 20 years, the firm’s types of companies, with proprietary tech- Business Department helps clients www.fraserlawfirm.com nology and potential to become a $100 mil- grow to their full potential. lion company?” Campbell said. And Mina Lansing - (517) 482-5800 • Detroit - (313) 237-7300 Sooch, founder and general partner of Kala- mazoo-based Apjohn Ventures, pointed out that women have entered the ranks only in recent decades, while men have had a con- sistent presence in the industry. But, Sooch said, “in the last five years, I’ve seen more women in venture capital than I’ve seen before,” she said. As women rise through the ranks, there will be more opportunities, said Jan Garfin- kle, managing partner of Ann Arbor-based Arboretum Ventures L.L.C. and past president of the Michigan Venture Capital Association. But, she said, women may steer away from startups or VC firms because of con- cerns over work-family balance. Garfinkle said about a third of Arbore- tum’s 12 portfolio companies have women CEOs. “When they need to work hard, they work incredibly hard,” Garfinkle said. “If they need to get to a soccer game, they go and they work later on that night.” Campbell said she sees evidence of women staying clear of the industry in how many apply each year to participate in Uni- versity of Michigan’s Wolverine Venture Fund, of which she is an advisory board member. “We have a difficult time recruiting women, and men banging down the doors,” she said. A good start to changing that trend would be to educate women entrepreneurs about venture capital and how they can make connections to compete for funding, Paullin-Hebden said. “Getting in the door often takes knowing some people,” she said. Sheena Harrison: (313) 446-0325, [email protected] Page 18 FALL 2006 SPRING 2007 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS CDBmagazine.qxp 4/16/2007 10:10 AM Page 1 In the past six years alone, 55 companies have spun out of University of Michigan research. Below are some of our funding partners that have launched great business opportunities from Michigan. With $800 million in annual research, you wouldn't want to miss out on our next great opportunity! Bank of America Venture Partners | Brentwood Capital | Battery Ventures | SAIC Venture Capital | Technology Partners Thomas Weisel Partners | Topspin Partners | Enterprise Development Fund | Dow Venture Capital | Flagship Ventures Latterell Ventures | Plymouth Ventures | Great Lakes Angel Network | Vertical Group | Pfizer Strategic Investments Qualcom Investments | Sofinnova Ventures | Wolverine Venture Fund | Tullis-Dickerson | Apjohn Ventures | Ardesta Arboretum | Arch Development Partners | Domain Associates | Rho Ventures | Sevin Rosen | Menlo Ventures Meritech Capital | Morganthaler | New Enterprise Associates | Interwest | Perseus | US Venture Partners | Grand Angels Ann Arbor Angels | RPM Ventures | Arch Venture Partners | Duchossis Technology Partners | Scale Venture Partners 3i | Partech International | Enterprise Partners | Chrysalis Ventures | North Coast Technology Investors | Amherst Fund Contact us: UM Tech Trasfer tel: 734.763.0614 http://www.techtransfer.umich.edu DETROIT BUSINESS MAIN 04-23-07 B 20,21 CDB 4/17/2007 4:10 PM Page 1 GROWING A NEW ECONOMY: CRAIN’S GUIDE TO PRIVATE EQUITY, ANGEL INVESTING AND VENTURE CAPITAL Taking the long view view VC veteran and professor discuss how to get Michigan back to its place as a hotbed of entrepreneurism n 1974 David Brophy wrote a book David, you’ve been preach- in venture capital companies. the East and West coasts. ing the need to diversify the titled Finance, Entrepreneurship and Kinnear: That’s a small fund Kinnear: Michigan used to I economy for more than 30 Economic Development, in which he in California … it’s a start. be the entrepreneurial state. years. You’ve been trying to Brophy: But it doesn’t feed Before autos there was the wrote about the need to diversify hook up local entrepreneurs the bulldog ... I logging industry. with investors since 1979. Is Michigan’s economy away from got a call from a Brophy: Even there finally a light at the end Lansing paper “Michigan back to fur trad- reliance on the auto industry and to of the tunnel? asking what ef- ing. The supre- develop small, technology-based Brophy: The realization is fect the Venture auto jobs me irony is what companies. here that we need new Michigan Fund made us what we sources of economic growth. has had. I said, didn’t go to were was entre- Then, Honda was The resources we have in “Call me back in preneurial fi- known for cute the state are fairly vibrant, seven years.” It’s China or nancing when long-term. We that didn’t exist motorbikes, Detroit including private-sector technology and university need critical Japan. They in other states. was the undisputed technology. But the number mass. We’ve got Now we have car capital of the of experienced entrepre- to turn the Queen went to just the opposite. neurs is still not at critical Mary, and we’re We’ve got a lot of world and venture mass. doing it with a ca- Tennessee and technology com- capital was a term Brophy noe paddle. panies in Ann Why has this diversification barely known We’ve got to Kentucky and Arbor who have taken so long? catch up with to go to the Sili- outside Boston or Kinnear: I’ve been asked what the rest of Ohio and con Valley Bank San Francisco. whose fault all of this is, and the bloody world to get financing. the answer is: The world is doing. In San Kinnear: When Crain’s reporter Mississippi. happened. Jose, you see a the Venture Tom Henderson Brophy: Traditionally, our headline “The Michigan Fund Chinese Are They went to went out to bor- talked to Brophy, biggest enemy was a good year in the auto industry. Coming,” that’s row $200 million, Kinnear right-to-work director of the We had a long history of good news. You they did it University of Michigan’s Center for having it too good in the see it here, it’s states.” through a Ger- auto industry, but it’s come bad news. We’ve man bank. No Venture Capital and Private Equity and got to get to the bank in Michigan home to roost. — David Brophy an associate professor of finance, and Kinnear: Success had its point where would dream of Tom Kinnear, professor of marketing own cost. The cost was we’re thinking it. If you want to malaise. like San Jose. find venture banking, you at UM and executive director of the Brophy: We’ve had pockets Kinnear: Michigan auto have to leave the state. business school’s Zell Lurie Institute, of entrepreneurial activity, in jobs didn’t go to China or Japan. They went to Ten- What was the genesis for the about the past, and future, of Ann Arbor, in Oakland Coun- book? ty, in Grand Rapids, in Kala- nessee and Kentucky and entrepreneurism in the state. mazoo. What we don’t have, Ohio and Mississippi. They Brophy: The question was, how could we start so many Kinnear is also managing director of yet, is a pan-Michigan mis- went to right-to-work states. sion. We have to have that. companies in Michigan, the Wolverine Venture Fund, the David’s book talks about the then plateau and never do critical role Michigan’s banks school’s student-run venture-capital We do have the two state anything? So I spent a year funds, the 21st Century Invest- played in taking a chance on on the East Coast and the fund, and chairman and president of ment Fund and the Venture the fledgling auto industry, and West Coast.

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