Boise tech start ups impress at venture capital conference

The first-ever Venture Capital in the Rockies Fall Conference wrapped up late last week in Sun Valley, with two Boise start ups reporting warm receptions.

“We’re certainly having ongoing discussions with several of the venture capital firms that were there, which is good news for us,” said Shane Vaughan, vice president of marketing for media planning firm Balihoo. “Any time that you can get in front of a group like that and go through your business is great.”

Regional high tech blog techrockies.com reported Salt Lake City-based vSpring Capital was impressed by Balihoo’s presentation, which detailed the firm’s software that streamlines advertising buying and selling, and expressed interest in the growing three-year-old start up.

“They've hit the market pretty hard and, in the first couple of quarters, they've shown significant market penetration,” techrockies quoted vSpring co-founder and managing director Paul Ahlstrom. “That's one of the plays we haven't invested in that we would take a serious look at."

Renewable power research and development company M2E Power Inc., which recently unveiled a new motion-charged battery, also presented an overview of the company and introduced potential investors to its innovative power generation technologies, which have market applications from cell phones to vehicle batteries.

“I had a bulging stack of business cards, especially after the presentation,” said M2E President David Rowe. “We got a lot of compliments across the board on the pitch. I really appreciated that we were invited to present …. I think we have a good pathway forward and that was universally recognized.”

A total of 13 companies presented at the event, with only Balihoo and M2E hailing from Idaho. The other presenters came from Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Utah, and included a provider of construction integration software, a firm that makes small nuclear reactors and a regional Web-based news service.

The conference was hosted by the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association, a group of venture capital firms from throughout the Rocky Mountain West, and included speakers from tech industry giants Yahoo, Google, Hewlett-Packard and Amazon.

Mark Solon, of Boise venture capital firm Highway 12, chaired the conference, which was organized to compliment Venture Capital in the Rockies’ longtime annual winter meeting in Beaver Creek, Colo. Next year’s VCIR Fall conference will be held in Park City, Utah.