Tuesday, May 23, 2000

Step into the vortex--Venture Vortex


Venture Vortex filled the Flaminco club in the East Village on Tuesday, May 23, with venture seekers, venture capitalists and new dot-coms. A Disco ball and flashing lights amused the eager eyes of guests as they waded through the mass to get a drink or some hors d'oeuvres in the back. Garnet Heraman, managing director, was playing the role of good host for this company's launch party. UPOC's Catrina Gregory and Trovia.com's Bruce Colwin chatted with me for a bit about some of the parties of late, and Cyber Solutions' David De Santo came over to bring me up to date on his latest ventures. Richmond Research's Louis Giacalone was out on the drizzly evening, and I snapped a quick pic of him, Deidra McIntyre of Redlbis and Go2smb.com's Leonard Zavala and Alison Dahlman. Matt Toner told me on his way out (to another party, of course) that he's now going to be heading up the Toronto office of Oven Digital. Hurrah! Rob Steir of MBAFreeAgents.com was working the crowd, and The Humor Network's Eric Targan handed me a flashing pin with their logo. There's some branding! Just before heading out I got a quick tour of the site and learned about their roadmap to help startups get started. The 13 steps outline a phase of development, and the site is organized into two main categories: the Roadmap, which is the community area where you can ask questions and interact with many other companies, and the Builder, which is where you can have a one-on-one relationship with another company. These options make it easy for companies to learn, network and develop as they grow.