There's new leadership in Washington at the SBA and new sensitivities on potential conflicts of interest. I've served on the TriTech Small Business Development Center Advisory Board for at least 3 years, first in Orange County then followed them when they moved to Riverside. Early in my career I was a consultant and I remembered the thrill of making that kind of contribution. I started working on getting invited onto their Advisory Board.

I immediately admired TriTech and their consultants; they provided free services to entrepreneurs who hoped to build successful high tech startups. All these entrepreneurs hoped to eventually raise funding for their startups, too, so the fit seemed mutually beneficial. Tech Coast Angel Luis Villalobos and I put on an afternoon training session for the TriTech team, if they better understood who we were and what we looked for in a fundable startup then theoretically TriTech could better coach their clients and achieve a higher level of economic impact. It seemed a match made in heaven, but over the next few years it would become increasingly more challenging to get funded.

We found the perfect interface between the 2 organizations; there's a PreScreen review in the TCA process, companies that pass this evaluation will be invited to present to the local group of angels. This is the perfect time to refer the entrepreneur to TriTech where they could get much practical advice and practice pitching. Later, several more TCA members would join TriTech as paid consultants; who better to work across the table from the fledgeling entrepreneur? Then along came new conflict of interest guidelines; there was sensitivity that perhaps board members and the TCA members acting as TriTech consultants would benefit personally from the expenditure of SBA funds for consulting the entrepreneurs.

At first I bristled at the new restraints: "you wish there was more funding and more of a conflict of interest", but over a few days I've had time to consider the potential for a perception of conflict of interest and as recent posts on this blog have shown, personal integrity is essential to a healthy ecosystem for funding new startups. So last night I forwarded my resignation to Mark Mitchell, TriTech's Executive Director. We can still collaborate on individual projects and we'll meet for those occasional cups of coffee, but my term on the Advisory Board is over. Good luck TriTech.