“The pipeline is full.” — Dan Allred, Silicon Valley Bank
MORRISVILLE — A strange, positive confluence of events is a somewhat awkward but perhaps the best way of capturing the mood at the second TechExec networking event Thursday evening.
Early arrivals saw first hand the fallout of the blown tech bubble — plenty of empty office space and parking places in and around the clusters of buildings put up to support RTP’s once booming tech sector.
But by around 6 PM, some parking lots were filled, a tent outside to house TechExec was packed, and people were lined up inside Peak 10’s new headquarters for tours of its web hosting and network management facility as part of the second TechExec event. Attendance more than doubled the first.
The venue was the old Interpath headquarters just south of I-40 and in the direct flight path of RDU.
If there is one symbol of the region’s high-tech overreach and fall, it’s the Taj Mahal-like facility Interpath’s parent, the old CP&L, built to house the once promising Internet Service Provider. Just 10 years ago, Capitol Broadcasting launched an effort in conjunction with MCNC to create a privately held regional ISP that became Interpath. Later sold to CP&L, the company went through several evolutions, invested millions alone in the building, and ultimately failed along with many other networking hopefuls.
Peak 10, which is based in Charlotte, got the building and some hardware for cents on the dollar and has subdivided the space with USI Networks (formerly known as Hired Guns). USI leased the network operations center, which looks like something out of US Command for “Operation Iraqi Freedom” with huge monitoring screens and other high-tech toys. Peak 10 is transforming its 10,000 square feet into a secure hosting facility complete with thumbprint scanners and human security guards.
One major client has a big chunk of space secured behind a steel cage and doesn’t want people to know where its hardware is located.
An Interpath reunion
Interpath’s demise certainly opened the doors for other entrepreneurs to step in.
Interestingly, three of Interpath’s founding employees turned out for the TechExec, and they are involved in their own new ventures. The old company is gone; the desire to succeed of many people who worked there is not.
Charley Bratton and Mike Ramsey are executives involved with PotsTek, a startup making rapid progress in a tough telecommunications hardware sales environment. (Bill Sarine, a former executive with Larscom, which once had a major presence in RTP, is the company’s CEO.)
Jason Botts is teaming up with two other partners to launch a web-based venture that sounds very intriguing.
And Bill Willis, who put much of the cutting edge infrastructure at NC State before joining Interpath shortly after it was acquired from Capitol by CP&L, is still with Cable & Wireless as vice president of systems strategy even as C&W pulls out of the US and is helping a local venture firm as an advisor.
Holt Anderson, a longtime executive at MCNC who really helped clear the way for Capitol to get Interpath off the ground, was there talking about the North Carolina Health Information and Communications Alliance, which is making hay off those wonderful HIPAA health rules.
Looking up and forward, not down and back
They each are positive about what the future holds, committed to turning new and existing ventures into home runs despite the knuckleballs this crazy economy keeps throwing. Their attitudes were reflected by many of the other executives — from telecom to life science, sales execs to consultants and CEOs.
“The pipeline is full” is how Dan Allred, who now runs RTP operations for Silicon Valley Bank, describes his busy schedule. SVB just closed a $7.5 million deal with Paradigm Genetics.
Jason Caplain of Southern Capitol Ventures knows the VC market is thawing — but can’t talk about details.
Max Wallace, former CEO of the late Cogent Neuroscience, beams as he talks about his advisory role at NCSU’s Institute for Emerging Issues and a new venture he has under development. Serial entrepreneurs like Wallace don’t know how to spell that four-letter word “Quit” is how Dan Davies, publisher of Business Leader, describes the attitude.
Barrett Joyner is all smiles as he talks about Mi-Co’s growing sales in wireless data. Here’s a guy who left SAS to be an entrepreneur. Now that’s bold.
Dave Jones, who runs Peak 10 and acted as host for the evening, is in RTP constantly as the company builds its customer base in a very competitive market segment.
Watch out for Kimo Kong. A driving force behind RTP’s wireless startups, he already is working on a new company after leaving Avesair.
Steve Rao is busy shaking hands as he touts the new RTP office for GurukulOnline, an online learning company.
Danna Dorroh can’t talk enough about the continuing growth at HumanCentric Technologies. (See today’s Guest Opinion from Barry Beith, the firm’s president.)
Troy Webb, managing partner at Incentric Solutions, is working closely with IBM on a number of projects and is especially excited about opportunities he sees in the life science sector alongside Big Blue.
Joe Fredosso of Cisco talks about new wireless integration technology with Miles Beam, a pioneer in satellite software development. (Their conversation quickly moved above my pay grade.)
Greg Donovan of Alpheon is quite busy, he says.
Michael Warren drove in from Greensboro to tout his new business, Syndetyx.
Craig Stone of HireNetworks and Anastasia Pucci of Carlyle & Conlan work the crowd looking for tech talent.
Leslie Alexandre, president and CEO of the NC Biotech Center, is talking about the first satellite office recently opened in Winston-Salem and the Center’s drive to grow the state’s biotech sector.
Best friends Joshua Chodniewicz and Michael Marston are all smiles as they talk about the continuing growth of “dot com” survivor Art.com. Hey, Christmas season is almost here.
Alfred Childers, one of the founders of Magellan, which is now part of CardinalHealth, talks positively about the emerging opportunities in the health industry.
Sherry Bastion, a veteran with RTP startup TriNet that later became part of Interpath, remains passionately committed to web site development at Archesite.
Another good example of people turning adversity into opportunity is Tim Tompkins, who recently joined Grant Thornton after leaving the CED. Tompkins is constantly moving, shaking hands, looking for new business. Grant Thornton’s Raleigh and North Carolina offices reflect how death of old firms turned into life for new ones. Grant Thornton’s local offices were launched with many employees from Anderson who chose to stick together even as the firm buckled in wake of Enron.
Yes, office space is plentiful. Yes, parking lots aren’t full. Yes, few companies are hiring. And, yes, talk across the crowd at times focused on troubled companies that might not be able to hang on.
But more than 300 people don’t turn out on a hot summer evening under a tent to shed communal tears. They come to talk, to renew old friendships, to trade business cards, to schedule meetings, to look for new business — and to keep the entrepreneurial spirit fired up.
How do you spell “quit”?
Rick Smith is managing editor of Local Tech Wire and was the first VP/GM of Interpath. LTW was a co-producer of the TechExec along with ClearImagePR. Peak 10, SAS, Cisco, WindChannel, Insignia MetaPartners, BusinessWire and Morrisville Chamber of Commerce were the sponsors.
