Ignite Clean Energy (ICE) Team Building Event
January 7, 2009
Tonight we are blogging live from the ICE teambuilding event. Well, not really live… Turned out there was no WiFi in the auditorium, so it is slightly delayed coverage with live note-taking :-).
Ignite Clean Energy (ICE) is a business plan competition for entrepreneurs in the clean energy industry. It includes a year’s worth of coaching and access to legal, financial, operational and strategic expertise.
The event was co-sponsored by the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) and took place at MCNC in RTP. Other sponsors include Progress Energy, SJF Ventures and the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge.
Agenda:
5:30 pm - 6:00 pm: Registration
6:00 pm - 6:15 pm: Investment Landscape for Cleantech Companies
David Kirkpatrick, Founder & Managing Director, SJF Ventures
6:15 pm - 6:30 pm: ICE Info Session
Clark Waterfall, Co-founder & Managing Director, BSG Team Ventures
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm: Panel Session - Funding Opportunities for Cleantech Companies in North Carolina
Moderator: David Kirkpatrick, Founder & Managing Director, SJF Ventures
Panelist: Dr. John Hardin, Acting Executive Director, North Carolina Board of Science and Technology
Panelist: David Rizzo, Managing Partner, IDEA Fund Partners
Panelist: Scott Clark, Executive Vice President, Vanir Energy
Panelist: Clark Waterfall, Co-founder & Managing Director, BSG Team Ventures
7:30 pm - 8:30 pm: Networking Reception
Notes from each of the speakers:
The event was opened by Joan Siefert Rose, the President of the CED.
- This is the first of several events from CED around clean energy.
David Kirkpatrick:
- Spoke about the investment landscape for cleantech companies.
- David asked about the attendees. They broke down roughly like this: entrepreneurs (both supply and demand side), professional services people, finance people, and a few from government and education.
- SJF is a VC and advisory including for clean energy. Seeks out “positive impact” investments.
- David’s slides are available on the SJF website.
- Investment in clean energy growing even in reduced VC environment.
- Investments are diversified globally, but the US is in the lead.
- 2001 to 2007 1000% growth in clean energy investment.
- Solar energy is the biggest segment of clean energy ($1B in 2007).
- NC has played a leading role in the south-east in clean energy development.
- There are few clean energy VC’s or angels in NC.
- As an additional resource for clean energy startups, David pointed out the sustainable business accelerator program called BASE at UNC.
David Rizzo:
- Pointed out that there is money available. IDEA Fund invests in startups and also offers grants up to $50K (no equity required).
- Check NC Idea and IDEA Fund Partners
Dr. John Hardin:
- Spoke about the Green Business Fund from the NC Board of Science and Technology
Scott Clark:
- Spoke about his experiences as a green energy entrpreneur, his learnings and his succcesses.
- “We were chasing rainbows and we were thinking too big, too quick”.
- Don’t try to do it all yourself. Find seasoned profs to be part of your mgt team. This will give angels more confidence in investing.
Clark Waterfall:
- Angel capital: timing is the hard part of dealing with angles.
- There is money out there that is looking for a purpose.
- Angels tend to invest locally.
- LinkedIn has several clean energy groups.
- Another great source is the Renewable Energy Business Networks.
- Think of ICE as another source of funding for clean energy startups.
- ICE provides the winners with mentors, pitch to experts, meet investors, publicity.
CED expects to organize future events around clean energy startups.
