Venture capitalist Trevor Loy of Flywheel Ventures sets sights on Colorado

Firm eager to make seed money available in Colorado

Venture capitalist Trevor Loy wants to invest in Colorado entrepreneurs who have great ideas but no money.

By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News

He wants to find bright people who have mortgaged their home to operate a business out of their garage and need seed money to take it to the next step.

"I’m putting my entire net worth into these companies, and I like people with passion," said Loy, managing partner of Santa Fe- based Flywheel Ventures, http://www.flywheelventures.com/ which supplies seed money to startup firms.

Loy attended a meeting of venture capitalists Tuesday, where Gov. Bill Owens and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper spoke at an economic development breakfast.

The event was sponsored by the law firm Cooley Godward LLP of Palo Alto. The firm also has an office in the Interlocken Business Park in Broomfield.

Loy liked what he heard, not only from Owens and Hickenlooper, but from the panel of venture capitalists.

"More than anything, I’d like to see more seed funding available" in Colorado, said Chris Christoffersen, a partner with Morgenthaler Ventures and former president and CEO of Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, which is based on University of Colorado Nobel Prize winner Tom Czech’s research on RNA.

Loy said he can fill that niche.

He’s putting together a $30 million fund that could provide $100,000 to $500,000 in initial funding to startups in information technology, communications, software and advanced materials.

"We don’t look for sexy companies," Loy said. "We want a well-defined business."

He would become involved in running the companies.

"If I need to be its first salesman, I will," he said.

And he plans to stay with the company until it is sold.

"One of the dangers of seed money is that money coming in at later stages does what is called ‘cram downs’ and they kick you out. So even if the company wins, you lose," he said.

He said he helped fund one startup called Samba, which provides Web-based access and reports on commercial records, he said.

"The Denver Public School system is one of our biggest clients," Loy said. "You can go on the Web and find out how many of your bus drivers have ever gotten a ticket or been charged with DUI."

The company had $3.5 million in revenues last year and is already profitable, he said.

"My last fund returned 170 percent to investors," he said. And the 10 investors made their money during the past two years, when the stock market was in a slump.

Loy said he will look for companies in the Boulder-Denver area as well as in Colorado Springs.

He keeps an office on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley, which was considered the heart of venture capital during the dot-com boom.

"I never believed that all the good ideas were occurring within a few miles of Sand Hill Road," Loy said. "I think it is important to build bridges and reach out from California to the Rocky Mountain region."

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_2164542,00.html