Venture Forth

I’ve been spending a lot of time at venture conferences this year. And while my stated goal of attending was to meet potential clients, I’ve actually come away with more insights than business cards.

If you’ve never attended a venture conference, it’s sort of a huge speed dating event with bright enthusiastic entrepreneurs on one side and savvy, sometimes skeptical, investors on the other. The main events are presentations, where entrepreneurs have seven to 10 minutes to summarize their organization, technology and market potential into a convincing “ask” of millions of dollars. It’s like American Idol without snarky judges and text voting.

These conferences usually feature keynote addresses by entrepreneurs and innovators, many of whom are legendary. At February’s Southeast Venture Conference (SEVC), I heard Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales one day and Google’s Chief Evangelist Vint Cerf (also known as the Father of the Internet) the next. Hearing them talk about the future of their companies is like traveling to the future itself. While I’m excited about Google Earth, they’ve moved onto Google Mars. Think Wikipedia is a great open source encyclopedia? That’s so 2009. Wikia is the latest thing. And are you worried about bit rot? Well, you should be.

I return from venture conferences rejuvenated and inspired, and not just by the celebrity speakers. I’ve met amazing people with tremendous ideas—from medical technology that detects cancer sooner to solar technology that powers roadside lighting with asphalt paint to my own client, Todd Pope of TransEnterix, whose innovative surgical device will change minimally invasive surgery around the world.

Heady stuff.

In the recent economic downturn, we’ve seen traditional industries struggle and sometimes collapse—from homebuilders to banks to big box retailers. Venture conferences remind me that innovation will lead us out of this recession.  (In fact, you could say recessions inspire innovation.) Either way, spending time around people with big ideas and big dreams is a great catalyst for generating your own big ideas and dreams. Or, in our case, helping clients spark theirs.

Dress for Success

As a group of professional women that are passionate about our careers and the creative contributions we make to our clients, the Sinclair & Co. team has decided to share our valuable experience and resources with other women in hopes of assisting many to establish their professional careers.

We are excited to announce that we will be partnering with Dress for Success, an international not-for-profit organization that maintains a mission to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

We encourage our friends, family, clients and vendors to join us in cleaning out our closets! Through our collected donations we hope to contribute to the confidence needed for women to jump-start their careers.

Please look for more information on our website in the weeks to come. And don’t hesitate to call one of the Sinclair & Co. team members to find out how you can help!

Congrats, Emily!

Today Emily received the Triangle Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Leadership Award.  She shared the stage with a prestigious group of local professionals, including Luke Roush of TransEnterix.  Check out this year’s recipients on the TBJ’s website and read our announcement here.

Save Ferris

A recent lunch discussion among the Sinclair & Co. crew led to the observation that social networking has not been used much in recent mainstream movies.  Considering the role it plays in our day-to-day communications, it seems like Hollywood has some catching up to do.

Since that conversation, I’ve been thinking about how some of my favorite movies from my teens would be different if social networking sites like FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube were part of the story.  With a nod to John Hughes:

Imagine getting a text message saying “Save Ferris! Donate $5 now by texting “Ferris” to 12345.”  Or consider how much more complicated Ferris’s cover-up would have to be if his Danke Schoen performance were a YouTube sensation?

It certainly would have been nice for Grandpa Howard to Tweet that Long Duk Dong was coming to Jenny’s wedding in Sixteen Candles so Sam could have been prepared.  Farmer Ted’s FaceBook page would have hundreds of out-of-focus pictures of the prom queen in a Rolls Royce.

If Clark W. Griswold had been following the Wally World Twitter feed, he would have known about their scheduled maintenance before hauling the family truckster across the country.

Besides being an entertaining thought, it’s made me see how much social media is changing the story of our lives.  It’s not about Farmville or tweeting which breakfast cereal you chose today.  It’s about sharing bits of ourselves to make connections to help each other out — and isn’t that what marketing is all about?

Client Spotlight: Metrics

Back in the day, we had this great client named Metrics. They were easy-going and fun to work with, with a unique personality that set them apart from other pharmaceutical companies. But they were also smart, driven and had a great business plan to build an analytical lab in Eastern North Carolina.

That was in 2001, and Metrics’ business has changed and grown substantially from a start-up analytical lab into one of the fastest-growing contract pharmaceutical development and manufacturing organizations in the United States.

Over the past ten years, we’ve seen Metrics change and evolve as their business and the market they serve has grown. When we had our first meeting, it was in a closet of an office in a small building in Greenville, NC. Now, Metrics has their own 96,000 square foot facility, built to exacting cGMP standards and equipped with state-of-the-art pharmaceutical drug development and manufacturing equipment. They even have a dedicated lab on-site for potent and cytotoxic testing that is the first of its kind in the US.

Haven’t heard of Metrics? We’re not sure why. They’ve been recognized by the Pitt County Economic Development Commission as “Business of the Year” and as a “Business Champion” by Business Leader Magazine and Wake Tech Community College. They have recruited some of the best minds in pharmaceutical development, expanded their services with a presence on the West coast, and one of their founders, Dr. Bray, was even Tarheel of the Week in the Raleigh News & Observer.

After all this time, we like to look back and see how we were able to help a great company like Metrics become a leader in their field. Sinclair & Co. is proud to say we’ve worked with Metrics 10 years, and we’re looking forward to many more!