Startups looking for potential investors will have a one-on-one opportunity with Bull City Venture Partners and Cisco at a “pitch” event coming in February.

Cisco is an investor in Bull City, the Durham-based venture firm led by VC veterans Jason Caplain and David Jones.

“The format of Calling All Entrepreneurs is simple: Each company gets 10 minutes to present followed by 5 minutes of Q&A and feedback,” Caplain explains. “The goal is to quickly determine if there is mutual interest for BCVP and/or Cisco for a next meeting.”

This isn’t the first time for what Bull City labels its “Calling All Entrepreneurs” format. But it’s the first in a good while and the first time Cisco has participated.

“Given the overlap with some of our interests, we have invited Cisco to participate with us,” Caplain says. And Cisco plans a major presence. Cisco Corporate Development, Sales, and Engineering teams will be on hand.

Caplain tells WRAL TechWire’s Skinny the two are breaking some new ground in a format that’s worked for Bull City in the past.

“We have done this kind of event before without Cisco, and that’s how we met Zvi Band the CEO of Contactually [which is a] current portfolio company the first time,” Caplain says.

Caplain also sees having Cisco as a partner adding to the appeal of the event.

The face-to-face meeting “allows us to leverage the Cisco relationship nationally and locally to benefit entrepreneurs in our region.”

Plus, Caplain adds, there’s potential benefit for Cisco, which has a huge campus in RTP.

“This is the first time Cisco has done something like this,” Caplain explains.

Why bring back “Calling All Entrepreneurs”?

“We started Calling All Entrepreneurs to address the feedback we hear from entrepreneurs that they think VCs aren’t accessible or are unsure how best to approach them,” Caplain notes at the BCVP website.

No promises

“We believe this will give founders an opportunity to pitch, quickly get more exposure and hear direct feedback from BCVP and Cisco,” Caplain says.

But there are no strings attached.

“While we don’t promise a partnership or funding will result from this, we can say the right people will be listening and offering advice to each company,” he explains.

Do your homework

Startups need to be prepared, Caplain points out:

“We ask companies apply and also that they are focused on a problem in one of the following areas:

  • Data/analytics/business and operational intelligence
  • IoT – applications, data/analytics, business intelligence, security
  • Security – Hybrid cloud/Datacenter security; Application & data security, IoT security, Threat & vulnerability/Security Analytics, Security Ops – incident response, forensics
  • Identity management

The event is set for Feb. 16.

Startups must apply.

Learn more at:

http://www.bcvp.com/calling-all-entrepreneurs