You could hardly say that optimism is everywhere, so it’s nice to see today’s New York Times story announcing that Despite Downturn, Financing Exists for Small Companies:
With all the grim earnings news from corporations and banks lately, not to mention the continuing credit squeeze and widespread talk of recession, it would seem that most small companies, too, would be having a hard time finding financing.
But that was not the case at a recent conference in Southern California, where 1,000 investment professionals came from all parts of the United States to hear and talk to 330 aspiring companies–50 of them from China. Many of the companies sought by investors were developing environmental, clean energy, cell phone, water treatment and biomedical technologies.
The economic gloom actually encouraged the crowd, said Byron Roth, chairman of Roth Capital Partners, the Newport Beach, California, investment bank that was the host of the conference. These days, Mr. Roth said, “established large companies may not offer earnings growth but we can show investment managers fast-growing small companies that few people in broader markets know about.”
The story, by James Flanigan, goes on to quote a number of professional investors and cites several recent conferences.
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small business, venture capital
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
