Venture Capitalists

Last night, in the old warehouse behind Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a select group of budding high-technology firms tried to break into the major leagues.The fledgling firms were gathered for the Maryland Incubator Company Showcase, an event designed to bring technology entrepreneurs into contact with potential investors."In the growth stage, companies need high visibility," said Jane Shaab, executive director of the Greater Baltimore Committee Technology Council, which helped sponsor the showcase.

In a Baltimore hotel laden with a thousand venture capital investors and entrepreneurs, one participant surveyed the ballroom - the ice rink-size chandeliers and giant video screens - and likened it to a Vegas casino. But the scene also resembled a high school dance, full of energy and anxiety, with potential partners taking a measure of each other. It wasn't teen hormones in the air, though. It was money. On one side of the room stood John Ticer, a 42-year-old executive seeking several million dollars to build his Virginia-based software company.

Billy Cundiff didn't exactly hear whispers. His friends and family were always too polite to say anything out loud, or at least within earshot. But he and his wife, Nicole, saw the occasional looks on people's faces. Those looks said plenty. It's been a long time since Billy had a kicking job with an NFL team. Wasn't it time to get serious about a life after football? Shouldn't all his focus be on looking for a real job? When is he going to, well, move on with his life? Cundiff smiles as he tells this story.

It was Monday morning, and Ian Gilchrist was patiently trying to explain to a visitor how his space-age invention works and why anybody would want to buy one.The invention, a "3-D space digitizer," is a futuristic contraption that can translate the strokes of a cursor or stylus into images in a computer. The process uses a complex mathematical algorithm worked out by Mr. Gilchrist to translate points on paper into a computerized image, much as conventional two-dimensional digitizers already do.But unlike conventional digitizers, the Gilchrist invention can track points in space.

There could be a lot of money changing hands after today. Capital Connection 2001, a fair that links venture capitalists from around the country with growing technology companies looking for money, returns to Baltimore today after a six-year absence. "There's been dramatic growth in venture capital going into technology companies in the Baltimore County, Baltimore City area," said Frank A. Adams, managing partner and founder of Grotech Capital Group. "Likewise, there's been tremendous growth in the amount of venture capital firms."

While U.S. venture capital investment in overseas companies has been rising for the past several years, the predicted rush to forsake American entrepreneurs for those abroad has yet to happen, according to a survey released yesterday. The results suggest that investors still have faith in domestic innovation and that the so-called "brain drain" of talent leaving the United States for less regulated countries may not be as strong as thought. "U.S.-based [venture capitalists] are essentially dabbling in global markets," said Mark Jensen, a managing partner with financial firm Deloitte & Touche LLP. His organization, along with the National Venture Capital Association, of Arlington, Va., surveyed 528 venture capitalists on several continents to gauge their global investment activity, hoping to assess which regions are considered hotbeds of innovation.

SmithKline Beecham Plc announced an alliance yesterday with a small Rockville biotech company that could give the pharmaceutical giant access to a wealth of research on human genes.The two companies said they would work to convert the gene data into drugs and diagnostic products and services.But Human Genome Sciences Inc. said it retained the rights to use the information to develop gene therapy and other products, which could be a significant segment of its new products, according to its new chief executive and chairman, William A. Haseltine.

Although the Alex. Brown & Sons name has officially disappeared from the Baltimore scene, such legacies as the locally based ABS Capital Partners venture capital group should help guarantee the once-venerable investment bank is never forgotten. Started in 1990 within Alex. Brown, ABS Capital became a separate company in November 1995. The firm has made a mark by investing in good companies, generating double-digit returns for investors and making sure its venture companies are on solid footing when they are sent on their way, ABS officials and its partners say. "If you invest in great companies, and help them become even greater companies, they will continue to do well over a long period of time," said Timothy T. Weglicki, who co-founded the firm with Donald B. Hebb Jr. (ABS Capital Partners, at 400 E. Pratt St., shouldn't be confused with ABS Ventures, a group still associated with Deutsche Bank, the owner of what was once Alex.

NEW YORK - International Business Machines Corp. has created an advisory panel of venture capitalists to help identify startup companies that may become suppliers, customers or acquisition targets. Investors from seven firms, including Accel Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and U.S. Venture Partners, will meet with IBM executives four times a year to suggest products and companies that may be of interest, IBM said yesterday. IBM's venture unit has identified more than 850 startups around the world with the help of venture capitalists and provides the companies with sales prospects and advice, said Mark L. Hanny, an IBM vice president.

The Maryland Technology Development Corp. and two corporate sponsors are seeking nominations for a new award to highlight successful young companies that began in one of eight small-business "incubators" in the state. The Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Award, modeled after Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award, is aimed at giving small but promising technology and biotechnology companies the kind of exposure they need to attract capital and expertise. The award's corporate co-sponsors are American Express Tax and Business Services and Saul Ewing LLP, a 235-lawyer firm with a unit that handles technology companies.