Early Stage East to vet 21 start-ups
It's not quite like the Internet boom of 10 years ago, but VC fever is back, says ex-DuPont Co. scientist Patrick Foley.
The latest edition of the Early Stage East venture capital show will bring 21 mid-Atlantic firms together with more than 100 would-be investors at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington next week.
Local companies seeking capitalists include Advance Mobile Solutions, Core Solutions and Healthy Humans, all of Wayne; Agilence, Camden; Information Assurance Corp., Wilmington; LMC Software Solutions, Chadds Ford; Sivox, Exton; and SonoMedix Inc., Doylestown. For a full list go here.
The show has survived a boom-and-bust cycle since its founding during the Internet bubble a decade ago.
"In the go-go years, we had people walking out of here with checks. Then we had a few years where all we could do was keep things going. And now venture capital is back," says Patrick J. Foley Jr., the former DuPont Co. biochemist and new-business executive who's now managing director of the state-backed Delaware Innovation Fund, an Early Stage organizer.