Yesterday I had the privilege of being a part of a very dynamic panel discussion on Web 2.0 and what is true merits are to Michigan and its investment community. The Panel was made up of Rick Warner- CEO of ParkingCarma.com, Howard Brown- CEO of Circlebuilder Software and Circlebuilder.com, Steve Schwartz- CEO of RateMyStudentRental.com, and myself Joe Minock- CEO of J.Edward Media Group and Project AccuGet.com and Moderator Ian Bund- Chairman of Plymouth Venture Partners.
The discussion started off with Mr. Bund playing a “Simon’esque” role as moderator asking traditional VC questions such as whats your business model, are you profitable, whats your exit strategy and so on. His remarks were rather pointed, and he did a good job in helping the panel establish a good rapport with the audience. Upon the completion of Mr. Bund’s questions, the audience was provided the opportunity to ask more Web 2.0 questions and the energy in the room shot through the roof. The questions were phenomenal, and I’d confidently say that my fellow panelists and I provided well thought out answers to every question asked. Being a Web 2.0 Entrepreneur, its was very nice to engage the New Enterprise Forum with the conversation that came from the questions and to start a dialogue that has been needed for some time.
Special thanks go out to Barb Shoffner and Diane Durrance for making this panel possible and also to my fellow Digital Edge Mi members for making the panel such a success.
Look for more to come from Digital Edge Mi soon!
