KALAMAZOO – Southwest Michigan First has revamped its popular Venture Tuesday programs, where start up life sciences companies pitch potential investors, to every other month and by invitation only – some of the changes that have taken place since new CEO Ronald Kitchens took over last summer.
Kitchens said the format change came about after the economic development group talked to its customers – private equity finance players and the life sciences and pharma companies that sought their advice and money – and found out there were a lot of people who attended the events just to sell them something.
“In some cases, they were getting bent out of shape about it,” Kitchens said. “The Venture Capital folks were coming to look at deals, but they couldn’t look at deals because they were bombarded by people trying to sell them things.”
The change was made in January, when the format shifted to every other month. Some 40 certified investors attended the newly christened Kalamazoo Venture Forum at the Radisson Hotel, twice the usual number, Kitchens said.
“We still invite entrepreneurs to come, but they need to call us in advance,” he said. “We don’t think we need volume to create success.”
Another successful carry over from the Barry Broome administration, the summer two-day investor conference that often featured two dozen promising technology companies, will return this year, Kitchens said. It was not held last year because of the changes at the top of the organization, which brought Kitchens to Kalamazoo from Texas. Details will be announced shortly, he said.
The first investments by the new Southwest Michigan Life Sciences Venture Fund, with some $50 million available to pump much needed cash into promising area life sciences and pharmaceutical companies, will be be announced sometime within the next 90 days as well, Kitchens said.
“We then hope to make a couple of investments each quarter for the next 18 to 24 months,” he said.
