Maple Leaf Angels Managing Director Rob Koturbash interviewed on Startup North

Yesterday Craig Hayashi (a member of Maple Leaf Angels) contributed an interview of Rob Koturbash, managing director of Maple Leaf Angels, to the online publication StartupNorth. This interview provides an overview of Maple Leaf Angels, common pitfalls for entrepreneurs seeking funding, and some good advice to them.  The keywords of the day are  relationships, persistence, and external referrals.

This interview is the beginning of a series of articles by Craig on the funding sources available to startup enterprises – don’t miss a one!

links for 2009-07-07

• peHUB » Dollars Tick Upward for Clean Tech Investments
  Thanks in part to the roughly $92 billion dollars that clean tech startups are hoping to wring out of President Obama’s economic-stimulus bill of earlier this year, VC investment into so-called “green” technologies jumped meaningfully between the second and first quarters of the year, according to Greentech Media, which covers the industry exclusively.

  In a newly released report, Greentech counts $1.2 billion in 85 deals in the second quarter of 2009, up from $836 million in 59 deals in the Q1.

• Despite End of IPO Drought, U.S. Venture-Backed Liquidity Market Hovers at 6-Year Low
  SAN FRANCISCO, July 1 /PRNewswire/ — Even with the end of a nine-month drought in initial public offerings (IPOs), the second quarter was one of the worst for venture capital-backed liquidity since the doldrums of early 2003, according to leading industry tracker Dow Jones VentureSource. Overall venture-backed liquidity fell 57% from $6.48 billion in the second quarter of 2008 to $2.8 billion in the most recent quarter.

  Venture capitalists generated $2.57 billion through mergers or acquisitions (M&As) of 67 portfolio companies in the second quarter, a 60% decline from the $6.48 billion raised via 89 M&As in the same quarter in 2008 and the lowest quarterly M&A deal total since 1999. Three venture-backed companies made public-market debuts in late May and June, raising a total of $232 million. In the prior 13 months, only one other VC-backed company completed an IPO, in August 2008.

  (tags: vc liquidityevent)