Show #98 Listen (38:03) Download

Ken Deemer was there at the beginning of Tech Coast Angels; he was the 2nd chairman and the original website designer. Listen to Ken describe his strategy for angel investing. He was a founder of Los Angeles Social Venture Partners which supports local innovative non-profits; he's the treasurer on the national board, too. One of Ken's social venture interests: charter schools.

In other news recently, the Kauffman Foundation and the Angel Capital Education Foundation (ACEF) jointly announced today that ACEF will become an independent, charitable education and research organization focused on the growing field of angel investing, details.

What I'm reading: Marc Averitt of Okapi Venture Capital has begun a blog about the Venture Capital Ecosystem in and around Orange County, check it out.

Why have I been delinquent with a recent podcast? It was a week off with the kids so many might forgive me a little time away, but I was working and freezing in Florida last week. I recorded a dozen interviews of an oral history nature and posted them to my more personal site; check them out at cdmBeach.com. Before I found my groove here with entrepreneurs and VCs I dabbled with interviews across the spectrum of the business and arts communities in southern California. I'll be posting some of my favorites from time to time.

Show #97 Listen (33:43) Download

"Bored and greedy" while working away in commercial real estate, techie Mark Friedman left to start Accruent. It's software to manage real estate contracts; his customers include Staples, Rite Aid, Best Buy, Eddie Bauer and Foot Locker, just to name a few. A consistent winner of Deloitte's Technology Fast 50, the company has venture capital partners Innocal, Sierra Ventures and Red Rock Ventures.
"A classic startup at the beginning", this interview with Mark Friedman is the first in a series featuring entrepreneurs who have grown with their companies, instead of outgrowing them.

It's been 2 years since I've shot any dance, so maybe that's long enough. Here are a few photos from when I sat in on Donald McKayle's rehearsal last week. Dance Visions 2007 Feb 7-11 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre UCI Box Office

More photos...

I've shot dance for years, it's the therapeutic salve I applied after running my software company for 15 years; I was ready for a major change and there I was living in New York, just 2 blocks from LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, a public school. They needed a volunteer to shoot the dancers. They needed head shots for their portfolios, then once I was there, they needed ballet poses for their college applications, then while I was there one day I brought my camera to a rehearsal; I was hooked. I knew of Degas and the beautiful images of dancers he captured; that was inspiring.

Talk about immediate gratification! Shoot a dancer today and return tomorrow with the photo that the dancer will appreciate, the faculty and staff will love and the dancer's mother will die for. In a matter of months my photos were plastered all over the school.

I was a computer guy shooting with the latest Nikon digitals which cost $5k at the time. Color images were rare until that time because film was limiting when shooting the stage, but for a digital camera the tungsten stage lights were just another white balance adjustment. The photos got attention outside the school and when word spread there was a free photographer shooting dance the invitations to concerts outside the school started coming.

Once I had a modest portfolio I brought it to Donald McKayle at UCI; I cold-called him and he returned the call. Years later now I like to joke, "you just let me walk in" and his rebuttal is "it sounded like a good deal." That began a period of three years as a bi-coastal dance photographer, what fun. I'd shoot in NY for a week or more and when it was time for a change I'd return home and shoot at UCI. The travel wore me down and I eventually settled in southern California. I ended my involvement with LaGuardia by publishing three years of photos in Dreams of Grace.

I always liked that dance photographers entered humbly through the back stage door, but now I've graduated to the Claire Trevor School of the Arts Dean's Leadership Council; the Dance department really needs a fund raiser more than a photographer. So for the past few years I'd say to friends that it's too difficult to balance a photography interest with the business of Tech Coast Angels, but for the next week I'm gonna give it a try.

See photos from my Dec 2005 exhibit in Amsterdam.