While I was away, John Rife posted an excellent assessment/announcement over at his blog FindingJohn. I've been friends with John for about a year now. He has a lot of passion for both Orlando and for technology, and a ton of experience when it comes to investing. We've had a number of conversations over the last couple of months sizing up the local tech scene and trying to determine our collective needs. It's great to see him moving in this direction, as I think it will help our community a great deal.

Why More Local Venture Funds are a Good Thing

As most of you probably know, Gavin and I have so far chosen to self fund Emurse.com and our other web products (hoping for a new yet-to-be-announced-product to launch soon, possibly barcamp?) The #1 reason for doing so is, well, because we can, but a close second is the lack of available options locally. We do not intend to leave Central Florida. In fact, I moved back to Central Florida from DC largely because of our growing company. The idea of packing our bags and heading west feels like we'd be selling out. We don't particularly have a problem with the west coast, but we don't particularly love it either. Orlando, we love.

Many of the issues entrepreneurs have with outside investment (besides the obvious equity exchange) revolve around losing control, losing corporate identity and risking their culture. When there are a plethora of options available, these risks are minimized by the presence of choice. If you don't like the investors, don't work with them -- there are others to choose from.

To give you an idea of what goes into choosing an investor.. I can't speak for everyone, but in our case, it's not so much the money that would be important as much as the connections the money might carry. Being on the east coast, someone with west coast ties would be appealing. We're in the HR space, so someone with strong local ties would be nice (easier to pilot beta products with someone right down the street). Then there are other questions, like what are the other companies in the investment groups portfolio? Are there in house partnership opportunities? How does the web industry view the investment group? Are they well received, controversial, or flat out hated? This might all come across as being picky, but investment is more than just money, it's an added business partner.

No one investment group will appeal to everyone, and thats where the necessity for multiple firms comes into play. Off the top of my head, Dan Rua and Inflexion comes to mind. There is also the option of the UCF incubator, but from what I've been able to gather, it wouldn't necessarily address our particular needs. The EDC can also help match up investors with investments, but I'm not sure their capacity. All in all, the Central Florida region desperately needs choice. We're far from establishing our own version of Sandhill Road.

Why Orlando?

I get asked pretty often why we chose to base ourselves out of Orlando. In most folks eyes, it's the tourism capitol of the world and not much more. What is sadly overlooked is the rapidly growing $10 billion a year technology industry that resides here in Metro Orlando. The fact that the metro area has 7 airports gives us easy access to other markets when we need to be there. Florida has an extremely friendly business tax system (Tax Foundation named us 5th in the nation), and no state income tax. UCF, UF and USF are all within a hundred mile radius of Orlando. UF is the 3rd largest school in the country, UCF is the 6th largest in the country, and USF is the ninth. All in all there are more than 25 colleges and universities in metro Orlando, and more than 50 technical schools. There's plenty of talent here, and it's cheap talent, because our cost of living is so low. In the last couple of years, more than a few leading business magazines have echoed the same sentiments -- Orlando is a great place to be an entrepreneur and a great place to live.

We have a great community locally that's finally starting to come together. Ryan's done amazing things with Florida Creatives, and Gregg appears to be organizing the barcamp to end all barcamps. Josh's blogOrlando format has not only taken root here, but all over the eastern seaboard. There's a ton of money here in Central Florida, and more choice in the venture arena can help get financing into the hands of people who need it. The success of our area's new companies will help create even more mentors and knowledge locally, and that will help create even more success.

Orlando's monstrous growth rate, local wealth, ample qualified talent, great weather, low taxes and creative spirit make it an amazing place to live and work. All that's left for this town is for the startup scene to start connecting the dots.