Is it time for you to start that company you’ve always wanted? Do you think you have the next Google in your garage? Or are you and your executive team seeking your next round of funding? In 2007, you certainly were not alone.

Over the course of 2007, we’ve been very encouraged here at The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) by the intense growth in startup activities. Unless you are involved in collaborative efforts around economic development, or you participate in organizations like ours, you may not have noticed the seedlings of these new companies cropping up all around you in former tobacco fields.

One area in which we are seeing a great deal of growth is the Web 2.0 space (e.g., wikis, blogs, social networking, RSS feeds, etc.). The founders of three Web 2.0 local companies — CarPeeple, Five Points and Wisteme — recently completed one of the CED’s most well-known programs, FastTrac.

FastTrac is a 10-session comprehensive training program led by successful entrepreneurial coaches. It is designed for entrepreneurs starting, growing or seeking to sustain innovation-based, high-impact companies. In October alone, more than 15 founding members of startup companies graduated from one of the 10-week programs.
In addition to the Web 2.0 companies participating in FastTrac, we’re also seeing a great deal of growth in mobile technologies, and hardware and software technology companies. In fact, more than 35 percent of our membership base is in the technology sector.

Rich Support Systems

The Triangle has a wealth of expert organizational support agencies for entrepreneurs, such as the CED & NCIDEA and local universities. One example is the CED’s University Innovation Showcase, which will connect local university innovators with industry leaders. This event provides NCSU researchers the ability to showcase their technologies to investors, entrepreneurs and corporate-level executives.
The 25th anniversary of the Southeast’s largest venture conference, CED Venture Conference, showcases companies in the area with the hottest technology. The attendance at the 2007 conference was record-breaking, and we are expecting the same this year. Our conferences and programs support the needs of the startups through all their stages of growth.

The CED is currently seeking high-growth companies from an array of industries and stages that are looking to raise initial or subsequent rounds of private equity capital. Selected companies will present to hundreds of venture capitalists, angel investors and other financiers from across the country at CED Venture 2008. Applications are available on CED’s Web site (www.cednc.org).

Since 2001, Venture presenters have raised more than $1.2 billion in venture capital. Last year’s event brought together more than 800 key dealmakers to network with more than 60 of the Southeast’s and mid-Atlantic’s strongest companies. One in four companies that presented at Venture in 2007 have received institutional funding to date. Total money raised by those 12 companies in 2007 is $170.82 million, an average of $14.25 million per company.

The technology startups in the Triangle are also winning awards for innovation. rPath, for example, won the award for “Most Innovative Software Idea” at the Computing Technology Industry Association’s (CompTIA) Annual Conference.
If 2008 is anything like 2007, it will be a great year for entrepreneurs indeed.