Q4 is upon us, and it is time for the next StartupLounge.com Capital Connections Event. There were over 200 entrepreneurs and investors at our last event, and the fun fest continues on Tuesday, November 27th!

To our knowledge there have been at least 10 deals that have gotten investor traction from our first two events, including a possible $3M series-A and many, many angel deals. Of course, the relationships and connections that have been formed through the event are worth far more than the capital. However, nothing serves our cause better than to hear the successful networking stories from entrepreneurs and investors - so if you have feedback, or a story to tell, let us know!

The quarterly StartupLounge.com Capital Connections event now routinely draws a solid base of investors. Past attendees have included UPS, Imlay Investments, Croft-Bender, Southern Capitol Ventures, Chrysalis Ventures, Noro-Moseley, Atlanta Technology Angels, Smith-Hoffman Capital, Kinetic Ventures, Grotech, Leader Ventures, EGL Ventures, Monolith Capital Partners, and many others.

If you are a fast-growth entrepreneur in the Southeast U.S., or an investor who’d like to network among such innovators to scout for new deals, you won’t want to miss it.

For this next event, there will be some changes to the format:

1. Based upon feedback from both entrepreneurs and investors, we are introducing something new to the event. Investors will be let in an hour or so before entrepreneurs. This will afford investors with an opportunity to network among themselves prior to the event. Additionally, the StartupLounge.com team will hand-select a group of deals that will participate in a 2-minute “fast-pitch” on the microphone. No slides, no frills. Just two minutes presenting your deal to a room full of investors. After an hour of private networking and fast-pitching with the selected deals, we’ll open the venue to all attendees. Our goal here is threefold. First, we want to provide investors an opportunity to connect with each other, in a “less frenetic” environment. Second, we want to provide our investor attendees with a quick look at a handful of fresh (qualified) deals. Finally, the benefit to the entrepreneurial community is obvious.
2. Due to the logistics involved in throwing a party for 200-300 people every quarter, we are now going to close off registrations for the event a week or two before the actual event date. This will give us ample time to get name badges ready, and will allow the venue staff to prepare accordingly.
3. We are capping attendance from here on out. Fortunately (and I suppose unfortunately), the CapConn events have taken on a life of their own. And this means the venue is on the brink of getting filled to capacity. This has the side-effect of making it fairly difficult to navigate the room and find deals or investors. Therefore, we’ll be capping the attendance at around 225 people. What does this mean for everyone? It means you need to sign up sooner rather than later, in order to hold your spot!

The cost is still free, of course, and the room will be free of job-seekers and service-providers. However, we are seeking a few more sponsors to augment the sponsors we currently have. If your firm (or someone you know) is interested in helping us sponsor this event each quarter, please have them get in contact with us. Service-providers are welcome sponsors – in fact, it is the only way they can get in the room.

To apply to attend as an investor or entrepreneur/company, click here.

Cheers.

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There was a great article today on thedeal.com entitled “Intel Capital Says Yes to Seed Investing”. Great read!

My favorite quote (attention all VCs, syndicates, and LPs in the Southeast):

Angela Biever, vice president of Intel and managing director of Intel Capital’s consumer Internet investments, explains that the venture group will invest in companies at any stage. When it comes to consumer Internet startups, it’s possible today to start a company so small that if an investor wants to get in on the deal, it must be prepared to play at an early stage. Also, many consumer Internet startups find themselves acquired before they get the opportunity to raise a Series B or an expansion round.

“If you’re not in a deal early, you frequently don’t get a chance to play,” Biever says.

I couldn’t agree more. For some reason, this got me thinking about LPs.

So much has been said about the lack of early-stage capital in the Southeast, and there are a lot of truisms there (along with a fair amount of rhetoric). However, not much has been said about the expectations of the limited partners (LPs) of those funds.

We need to obviously plant a lot of trees if we hope to have a good harvest in the market. Perhaps we should put more pressure on the LPs to give new venture funds some leeway in making some true “early-stage” investments as a small allocation of the larger fund. For without taking risk on little companies, we don’t get to enjoy the benefits of harvesting the larger ones.

Cheers.

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PlayMotion has enjoyed a long relationship with Wheeler High School here in Atlanta. Wheeler has a great magnet program in mathematics, science, and technology. We have had great experiences using Wheeler students as interns over the past few years.

Yesterday, I received a terrible phone call from the Wheeler folks, letting us know that Sam Eisen, a talented young man who was interning here as a software developer and game designer, was tragically killed in a car accident on the way back to school from our office.

Sam was a bright young man, and was blessed with an enormous amount of raw talent. We were very excited to have him here. The world has been robbed of the many great contributions that I was convinced he was destined to offer to us all. Sam was a very affable kid, and seemed to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. I quipped the other day about how amazingly more technologically savvy Sam and his generation are, coming right out of high school often already having familiarity with several different programming languages.

The atmosphere here at the office has been very somber since we heard the news. Our heart goes out to his family and friends.

Goodbye, Sam - you will be missed by many.

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If you will be attending the upcoming NASAGA 2007 conference, I’ll be delivering a cool keynote presentation (I hope!) on the trends surfacing with using interactive technology in the training and development space. The presentation will present my observations from the past (I spent quite a bit of time in the T&D/technology space with Cambridge Technology Partners and DCI), some observations about the present, and an overview of what I think the future holds (based upon current industry drivers). The latter two areas based upon our current work in the education market with clients at PlayMotion.

Link: North American Simulation and Gaming Association

I may turn the presentation into a video cast or something and post here - time permitting. Hope to see you there!

Cheers.

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FYI - we are hiring engineers against the profile below. If you or someone you know is interested in working in a cutting-edge Atlanta-based game studio, we’d welcome the opportunity to chat. PlayMotion is an exciting young company, and one that enjoys a marquee client list, including Atari, Nike, Google, Nokia, AT&T, Disney, Red Bull, and others.

Position: Experience Engineer (software)

PlayMotion is seeking a skilled software engineer to create computer vision-based entertainment experiences. PlayMotion creates a large spectrum of interactive entertainment experiences ranging from full-body interactive large displays (projected, LED, etc) for 3-8 players to large networks of massive screens capable of entertaining 250+ guests with games and artistic experiences. In addition to full-body interaction, PlayMotion works with kiosks, novel input devices such as wands, large multi-touch displays and auditory displays. Rather than calling our software creations videogames or toys, PlayMotion uses the term “Experience” to describe the variety of works we produce.

As a PlayMotion Experience Engineer, you will be responsible for the software design and programming of PlayMotion experiences. The task at hand is to write well-designed videogames using our SDK (Python-based, uses Panda3D engine) and our custom C++ based platform. You will work with a small team including Experience Designers and Engineers to create experiences that balance fun, laughter, challenge, visual beauty, and reward… for both single-player and large multiplayer (50+ simultaneous players) environments.

You must be proficient with the following tools and languages:

• Python
• C++
• OpenGL and Direct3D
• Networking (Sockets, or higher level API)
• Multithreading (OpenMP, Windows Threads, Pthreads, etc)
• Windows programming with MS Visual Studio

Above all, we value smart, creative, and driven people with a desire to learn new skills and the tolerance, tenacity and patience to function in a rapidly mutating work environment, dealing with world class customers and major installations.

Relevant skills include:

• storytelling & storyboarding
• foundation in design
• 2d design: PhotoShop & Illustrator
• videogame design

Helpful background experience:

You will work closely with a highly skilled team of visual effects and computer vision programmers, who create the engines upon which you design your experiences. You will also manage interactions with third party content development studios and contract 3d, 2d, and sound artists.

Please visit our website at http://www.playmotion.com in order to see examples of the types of content experiences you will be creating (and beyond!).

If you feel ready, please send your CV and work samples to:

PlayMotion!
ATTN: FunLab Studios
100 North Point Ctr E, Suite 305
Alpharetta, GA 3002

If you have a website you may alternatively email materials, with a cover letter explaining your qualifications, to matt@playmotion.com.

Cheers.

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