2011 Southeastern Venture Conference Day One

Today I attended the Southeastern Venture Conference for the first time and came away impressed. The program, now in its fifth year, brings together investors from around the country with startups from the Southeast. Each year it rotates to a different city and this year it’s at the Ritz Carlton in Buckhead. Here are a few notes from the conference:

• Several VCs expressed their opinion that there’s a bubble in the market with the valuations for Facebook, Twitter, and Groupon causing startups that don’t have as high a profile to have unrealistic valuation expectations
• The increased activity from angels and super angels, especially in the Valley, is viewed as a blip on the radar compared to the the dot com days because of the small amounts being invested
• There’s a good mix of companies from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida (not much from the other Southeastern states)
• IT and healthcare represent the majority of the presenting companies

The SEVC conference is well done and does a great job bringing investors and entrepreneurs together.