Supported Intelligence LLC Proposes Streamlined Valuation Service for Entrepreneurs, Incubators, and Investors

Supported Intelligence, LLC (SI) was formed to develop and market a breakthrough decision analytics product.  SI’s primary product, the Rapid Recursive® Toolbox, is the world’s first commercially available decision support software that uses the patent-pending Rapid Recursive® methodology. Patrick Anderson, Supported Intelligence’s Executive Chairman, today announced that his firm planned to provide a streamlined valuation service to the other entrepreneurs and investors participating in the MGCS conference.

“For too long, valuing start-up and entrepreneurial firms has been something of a ‘black art,” said Anderson. “The difficulty of obtaining solid valuation advice penalizes both entrepreneurs and investors, as well as causing unnecessary time and expense in due diligence. That is especially the case with most entrepreneurial companies, which are exposed to significant asymmetric risks, have tremendous ‘real option’ to develop promising technologies, and have little or no track record of profitability.” Anderson noted that standard discounted cash flow methods are notoriously unreliable in evaluating firms of this type, but until recently there have been few alternatives. “The recursive model captures more information about what is valuable in start-up companies, and better recognizes the risks they face,” he said. “More information and a better method yields better results.”

Supported Intelligence has bundled the initial release of the Rapid Recursive® software with a valuation template for start-up firms. Supported Intelligence is now discussing with a handful of economic development agencies an effort to improve this tool and make it available to a wider audience. In conjunction with one or more of these entities, and their accredited consulting partners Anderson Economic Group LLC, Supported Intelligence will be offering a streamlined valuation service to an initial set of entrepreneurial companies. The company intends to offer special discounted pricing to the MGCS presenters and other participants at this year’s conference, including venture capitalists and agencies that are assisting startups.

Matthew Irey, President & COO of Supported Intelligence, invited MGCS attendees to stop by the Supported Intelligence presentation and table, and learn more about the forthcoming streamlined valuation service. “Interested entrepreneurs and investors should check out the free technical papers available on our website,” he said; “We have already demonstrated how the Rapid Recursive model works to better value actual companies than traditional methods when asymmetric risks and real options are present.”

For more information, please contact Matt at mirey@supportedintelligence.com or (517) 333-7024.

About Patrick Anderson

Patrick Anderson is the founder of Supported Intelligence, LLC and its Executive Chairman. He is a recognized authority on finance and economics, and the author of three books and numerous articles on business economics.

Mr. Anderson literally wrote the book on strategic business valuation. Patrick Anderson’s most recent work, The Economics of Business Valuation: Toward a Value Functional Approach (Stanford University Press, 2013), describes the recursive method of valuation that is utilized in Rapid Recursive® software.  Other books by accredited consulting partners include Applied Game Theory and Strategic Behavior (CRC Press, 2009) and Business Economics & Finance (CRC Press, 2004).

About Matt Irey

Matthew Irey is President and COO of Supported Intelligence, LLC. He is a former IT Executive with Electronic Data Systems/Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services. His last position with HP ES was as a Sales Consultant with the Strategic Sales Center, selling and negotiating contracts at the CIO/CTO level on IT-outsourcing deals with a minimum value of $100 million, with some exceeding $1 billion.

Mr. Irey has recruited and led diverse ITO teams that included nearly 400 cross-functional engineering and solution-delivery professionals on multiple billion-dollar accounts both domestically and globally (Brazil, Europe, India, China, Kuala Lumpur, North America). His list of clients includes Symantec, Vale, ABN AMRO, Kraft, Weyerhaeuser, International Paper, Xerox, and GM.

About Supported Intelligence LLC

Supported Intelligence provides advanced analytics for investment modeling, valuation, financial modeling, risk assessment, and decision optimization. Their primary product, the Rapid Recursive® Toolbox (patent-pending), allows end users to apply advanced techniques from economics and dynamic programming to analyze critical decisions. Whether applied in investment analysis, new product development, risk management, or academic research, the Rapid Recursive® Toolbox puts knowledge to work in ways traditional decision models cannot.

MGCS Founder David Brophy Tees Up Tomorrow’s 32nd Michigan Growth Capital Symposium

With the 32^nd Michigan Growth Capital Symposium set to open tomorrow morning, MGCS founder David J. Brophy tees up the event by providing a quick snapshot of the current growth capital investment landscape.  

That landscape is evolving rapidly, says Brophy, who is professor of finance at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. The dramatic shifts taking place in both the venture capital and private equity industries provide savvy entrepreneurs and owners of young, high-potential companies with significant fundraising and growth opportunities, if they can ride the wave of change.

Currently, the VC sector remains tepid and lackluster as a result of sluggish economic growth. However, the PE industry is booming, especially in the middle market area, and picking up the investment slack by moving deeper into the growth capital side of the business. Brophy reports smaller PE shops are now more willing to take a growing company through the later stages of fundraising and to manage it until it is sold or has an initial public offering. “PE firms have adopted a two-pronged approach,” he explains. “They’ll provide growth capital and/or they’ll do buyouts. If you want money, they’ll feed your company, and if you want to sell it, they’ll buy it from you. The PE link to venture capital is getting extremely tight.”

Brophy expects this trend toward a gradual melding of the VC and PE industries to continue. Already the growth capital industry is seeing more leverage for recapitalizations and partial ownership deals, as bigger PE funds move into that investment space. These new entrants are creating greater competition for existing venture capital funds, but also generating opportunities to partner in areas such as seed and early stage investing, which are less familiar ground to larger funds. The potential for more available capital, from seed stage through later fundraising rounds, would be a bonus for entrepreneurs.

One bright spot in the venture capital investment scene today is the emergence of innovation hotbeds outside Silicon Valley. In Michigan, the venture capital industry is gaining momentum and attracting attention as it continues to thrive despite the national dip. “Right now, everybody else in the country seems to be down, and we’re up,” Brophy says. “I think that reflects the fact that we had a nice clustering of deals that have come together at one time. The trick is sustaining that momentum. Success is vital.”

Over the past decade, Michigan has built a strong ecosystem of entrepreneurship, innovation and venture investment that has made its University Research Corridor, or URC, one of the top seven university innovation clusters in the U.S.  The URC has generated $15.5 billion in economic impact statewide, exceeded $2 billion in annual research expenditures and awarded more than college 31,600 degrees in a single year. “We have a cadre of good, smart entrepreneurs, great universities and a tremendous intellectual-property pump,” Brophy says. “We’re only now beginning to figure out how to turn these assets into economic production.” The most successful sector plays for venture capital thus far have been medical devices and health care, but information technology and energy efficiency also offer great potential.

Michigan’s slow but steady rise as an investment hotspot reflects its ongoing support for motivated venture investors, entrepreneurs and high-growth start-ups. Currently, the state has 25 business incubators, 25 venture-capital firms, eight angel funding organizations and 2 funds-of-funds with $325 million in capital to invest in VC firms that support Michigan companies. The MGCS has fueled this success by connecting entrepreneurs with venture investors for three decades. Venture-backed Michigan start-ups have had 25 successful exits over the past 10 years.

“We’ve got a very effective venture capital and private equity provision through Credit Suisse and the Michigan 21^st Century Investment Fund and Venture Michigan Fund,” Brophy says. “That’s a public/private partnership program that’s absolutely working.”

Kelly Williams, the global head of the Credit Suisse Customized Fund Investment Group, will provide an industry perspective of the Michigan venture capital industry when she delivers the keynote address tomorrow at the MGCS. Her talk, which begins at noon, will touch on the key drivers behind the state’s success, provide comparisons against a national backdrop and examine emerging trends that are shaping today’s growth capital investment landscape.

Michigan Growth Capital Symposium Announces Presenting Companies for 32nd Midwest Venture Capital Conference

This week, organizers of the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium (MGCS) announced the 36 companies that will be presenting at the 32nd annual conference. Presented by the University of Michigan Zell Lurie Institute at the Ross School of Business, this year’s Symposium will be held May 21-22, 2013 at the Marriott Resort in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

More than 400 entrepreneurs, researchers, investment professionals and business executives are expected to attend and nearly 100 regional and top national venture capital firms will be represented. The two-day event will host dozens of industry speakers, including a keynote address from Kelly Williams of Credit Suisse’s Customized Fund Invest Group. The MGCS will also showcase early to later stage Midwest, high-growth companies seeking institutional investment of one million to tens of millions within the next 12 months. Since the Symposium’s inception in 1980, the event has helped more than 800 companies raise funding and has forged countless valuable relationships that continue to foster growth in the region’s startup community.

Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Vestaron, which is developing the next generation of environmentally safe yet powerful insecticides using peptides isolated from spiders, has presented at the Symposium multiple times and found it to be extremely valuable to the company’s growth. “It was useful and important to be visible at what is arguably the Midwest’s most significant venture capital symposium,” said Robert Kennedy, Chief Science Officer at Vestaron. “Subsequent to the Symposium, we were able to close a $10 million Series B round of financing. The overall effort was successful and the MGCS was a part of it.”

The 36 companies selected to present represent a broad range of industries. About one third of the companies are from out of state. The full list of presenting companies is available at http://www.MichiganGCS.com. Following is a partial list of companies:
• Algal Scientific – pioneer of algae-based biological water treatment process to convert concentrated food and beverage industry process streams into valuable bio-products
• BuyerCurious.com – free, online real estate marketplace that enables people who want to buy a home or sell a home cost effectively to do so
• Complexa – biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative therapies for the treatment of inflammatory and metabolic diseases
• Cool-X LLC – nanotechnology oil treatment that burnishes and cools improving fuel economy and saving money
• ENT Biotech Solutions – provides a surgical tool tailored to adenoid removal
• Madison Vaccines – developing a pipeline of proprietary plasmid DNA vaccines designed to prevent bone metastases and associated morbidities for patients with prostate cancer
• Mitostem – a research accelerator that offers both stem cell lines for sale as well as patient cell line generation and expert tissue culture consultation
• SpearFysh – sales technology solution that helps salespeople sell more, managers lead more effectively, and marketers identify opportunities faster and more accurately
• TM3 Systems – enables intelligent management of electricity in remote and off-grid environments

In addition to the formal program, the University of Michigan’s 2012 solar car “Quantum” will be on display at the event. Quantum is the 11th car built by the University of Michigan Solar Car Team, comprised of more than 100 University of Michigan students from many different backgrounds, disciplines and colleges within the university, ranging from undergraduate to doctoral studies.

To see the full list of presenting companies, learn more or register, visit http://www.MichiganGCS.com and follow conversations about the Symposium by tracking #MGCS on Twitter.

Zell Lurie Institute’s Jim Price Cited in Recent US News and World Report article

In a recent US News and World Report article, Robin Madell offers tips from successful businesspeople on how to be happy at work.  Robin offers insight from Jim Price, Adjunct Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Studies, about the satisfaction that comes from following an entrepreneurial path, specifically sharing Jim’s assertion that “if the business is your own, even the drudgery work—and there’s never a shortage of that—can be strangely exhilarating” and “as an entrepreneur, you always have a sense that what you decide and what you do have a direct impact on the business. What you do every day moves the needle.”

For the complete article, check out US News and World report here.

David Brophy Shares His Thoughts on start Garden

David Brophy recently chatted with Joe Boomgaard at MiBiz to offer his thoughts on Start Garden, the new Grand Rapids–based seed venture fund. David focused on seed capital availability, and points to what Michigan still needs to transition from early stage seed money to professional money.

For the complete article, check out the MiBiz article here.

The State of Michigan’s VC Industry: What the Buzz is All About

The Michigan venture capital industry is gaining momentum and attention as it continues to thrive despite a national dip. Michigan Growth Capital Symposium (MGCS) Founder David J. Brophy, Director and Professor of Finance at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, joins us this month to discuss the state of Michigan’s VC industry – what’s going right and what people are buzzing about.

The president of the National Venture Capital Association recently used the term “the Michigan Miracle” while describing the VC industry in this state. Do you agree with him?

Yes and no. It’s a miracle that people have pushed the boulder uphill for a good many years – it’s a ’30-year overnight success.’ Right now everybody else in the country seems to be down and we’re up, and I think that reflects that we had a nice clustering of deals that have come together at one time. The trick is always sustaining it, and success is vital to that momentum.

Why has the VC industry grown in Michigan while contracting in other areas of the country?

We planted a slow-growing tree here a long time ago; it’s gradually developed and we got a good crop this year. Other areas may have crested a little earlier than we did. Remember, the same people that are praising us now didn’t have much time for us a few years ago when other places were hot. That doesn’t diminish what we’re doing and what we’ve done. And I do think we’re on a sustainable highway as far as this business is concerned. I think it’s the fruits of a lot of good hard work over the years.

What is the overall industry reputation of Michigan?

It’s definitely improving and growing. When we stand out, like we’re doing now, it can have a ratchet effect on the attitudes of people who otherwise would not see a trip to Michigan as potentially profitable. The MGCS is a bell-ringing event. On one hand it’s going to attract people to see what’s going on, and on the other hand it’s going to strike people as an affirmation of the quality of people – like Mark Weiser and Tony Grover – who they got to know out in California, and who moved back here and are doing very well.

What is the secret to Michigan’s success?

Just hard work, and ultimately the absolute need to do it. In a way, it finally took the dislocation of our industrial base, and we now have a total revision of the economic pillars of the state. We’ve got a new and philosophically different governor, and we’ve got right-to-work legislation. We’ve got a very effective venture capital and private equity provision through Credit Suisse and the 21^st Century and Michigan Venture funds of funds. That’s a public/private partnership program that’s absolutely working.

We also have a cadre of good, smart entrepreneurs. We’ve got one of the great universities in the world here at the University of Michigan, and many others. So there’s been a tremendous intellectual property pump, and we’re only now beginning to really figure out how to turn it into economic production. We’ve got a heck of a lot going on, and it’s catching the attention of people around the country and around the world.

What are the most promising sectors for VC in Michigan?

The one big area where we’re doing quite well is in medical devices and healthcare in general. Where we’ve got potential that has not yet been fully realized is in information technology. Those two are inter-dependent in a way, because there’s a lot of IT opportunity in healthcare, so we’ve got an opportunity to blend the talent pools here. You can say the same on the energy side, and I think our long suit in that area is in efficiency improvement.

Beyond that, we’ve got sophomores and freshman who are busy creating smartphone apps and all kinds of online companies. We’ve got probably fifty meet-up groups that are just humming all the time. Overall, we’re building an entrepreneurial community here that is going to grow to challenge anybody anywhere. 

The best place to get a pulse on Michigan’s VC industry is at the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium. For more information on this year’s event, visit www.MichiganGCS.com.

New Infographic Demonstrates the Momentum Making Michigan a Hotbed for Venture Capital Investment

Today, organizers of the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium (MGCS) unveiled a new infographic that demonstrates the factors driving Michigan’s growth as an investment hub. Although well-established venture capital hubs like California and New England are leaders in venture capital, regional hubs are playing an increasingly critical role as consistent drivers of venture-backed companies. In the Midwest, Michigan is on the rise as an investment hot spot and this infographic details the impact such activity will continue to have on job creation, revenue growth and industry development. View the full infographic at: http://michigan-gcs.com/media/infographic.html.