By JIM KOZUBEK
Special to the Union Leader

NASHUA – October 19, 2009--The New Hampshire High Tech Council has grown its popular Speed Venture Summit, drawing in $20,000 in corporate sponsorship, 50 participating companies and a groundswell of support, according to its producer, Tim Platt.

Platt, a council director and Concord lawyer who founded mergers and acquisitions firm Preti CorporateFinance, said that after an initial start last year, in which no investor-startup relationships were publicly reported, it will be a make-or-break year for the fledgling event.

"Last year there were two extenuating factors: It was our first year and we had to bootstrap capital," Platt said. "The second is investors were all subject to reverse capital calls -- they had to make sure existing portfolios were supported, and any reserves went to re-up returns to investors."

Matt Pierson, an angel investor and president of the council, said he made no investment in companies at the event last year. Hollis McGuire, a key member of the Northeast Angels and a director of the council, declined to comment on her investment position.

Paul Schuepp, CEO of Conway-based Animetrics Inc., a maker of facial-recognition software who won a popular vote for best innovation at last year's event, said talks with investors after last year's event stalled, and he was unable to secure any investment as a result.

In fact, last year's event was held amid stubborn economic conditions.

Jeffrey Sohl, head of the Center for Venture Research Institute at the Whittemore School of Business at the University of New Hampshire, released a year-end report citing a 26.2 percent decline in angel investment in the United States in 2008, down from $26 billion to $19.2 billion.

This year, Platt said, the summit needs to meet three criteria: It must draw 300 people; it must be oversubscribed with investors and companies that want to participate; and at least one relationship must form that can be publicly discussed, he said.

The first Speed Venture Summit was held last October, and 104 companies sought entrance. The event admitted just 50 to meet with 25 private investors, who sat at card tables and listened to pitches for money at 15-minute clips over the course of three hours.

The fast-paced summits, which were once popular in the region in the late 1990s, are patterned after speed-dating events and designed to pair investors and young companies for five-minute "dates," which can lead to follow-up phone calls and e-mails.

The second Speed Venture Summit will be held Wednesday, Oct. 28, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Crowne Plaze Hotel in Nashua.

The event will again accept 50 companies. Many of the 25 investors that participated in the first summit -- such as Borealis Ventures, the Breakfast Club and Ascent Venture Partners, each of whom profess an interest in investing from $100,000 to a few million -- have said they were interested in returning.

Companies participating this year include Boston-based City Squares Online Inc. and Newmarket-based Highest Wind LLC.

A quarter of last year's investment-seeking applicants were from New Hampshire, and the remainder were from other sections of New England.

Many inventors, such as Highest Wind's Dmitri Cherny, said he thought it was a great place to look for capital. Evan Bontemps, however, a Newmarket-based serial inventor who started Holase Inc., is among those who will skip the event.

"You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you kiss a prince," Bontemps said.

Companies participating in this year's event are:

2020 Tactical Vision LLC; Abierto Networks LLC; American Energy Independence Co.; Anterion Therapeutics Inc.; Artascope Playworks LLC; Atayne; Atropha LLC; BackStopp-USA; Back-Life Systems; Boston Heart Lab; Case Continuum LLC; ColdStor Data Inc.; City Squares Online Inc.; Compressor Energy Solutions Inc.; Endless Energy Corp.; EnerTrac Inc.

Also, Highest Wind LLC; Homeostasis Laboratories Inc.; ImmuRx Inc.; In3D LLC.; Infinity Aviation; Liquid Wireless; JungleTorch; KanDar Enterprises; Rain Bank; Lender Sentinel; MindScout; Morpheus Technologies Inc.; MSB; Muvo; Network For Work LLC; NovelEdge Technologies LLC; NuOrtho Surgical; OpenExchange Communications; OPTIONS for Career & Life Planning LLC; Planetary Emissions Management Inc.

Also, PonderaPharmaceuticals.com; Practical Solar Inc.; Rezzonate; SafetySpan Inc.; Single Digits Inc.; Sorriso Technologies Inc.; StringSoft Inc.; Sweet on Geeks; Telling Stone Software; TravelBrains; Tripleseat Software LLC; Valde Systems Inc.; Virtual Homes Real Estate; Vitex Extrusion LLC; Zeomatrix LLC.

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