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Customer demand has made us focus on the US energy market. And due to customers arriving from other parts of Northern Europe, we no longer focus solely on Danish customers. For those reasons, the name Boston Denmark Partnerships no longer applies, and so we have a new website: Muninsight
MIT's Energy Club organizes occasional trips to interesting companies in the Boston area. On Friday 11 February 2011 we visited EnerNOC, a company that manages energy for utilities, industrial customers, and institutions such as MIT itself.
EnerNOC's main revenue derives from its demand response management. When utilities approach the limits to their capacity, which typically happens on hot summer days, they need to act to prevent blackouts. They can increase capacity but they can also pay EnerNOC to reduce the demand.
Again this year, Arne Hessenbruch of Boston Denmark Partnerships will lecture and teach in 3.207, an MIT course on innovation and commercialization. The course explores in-depth projects on a particular materials-based technology. Students investigate the science and technology of materials advances and their strategic value, explore potential applications for fundamental advances, and determine intellectual property related to the materials technology and applications. They map progress with presentations, and are expected to create an end-of-term document enveloping technology, intellectual property, applications, and potential commercialization.
Boston Denmark Partnerships was one of the co-organizers of Boston Cleantech Venture Day that took place on 5 November 2010. 18 mainly European companies in the cleantech field attended along with US-based strategic partners and investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Siemens Venture Capital, and Braemer Energy Ventures. Keynote speaches were given by Bill Aulet of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center and Bill Hogan of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group.
Join us at the 17th Annual International Business Forum & Networking Evening - Global Trade & Economic Outlook: Implications for international business in the year ahead.
For more information, see:
http://www.mass.gov/export/events.htm#networking
Palle Pedersen from Boston Denmark Partnerships will be available at the event to talk more about doing business in and with Denmark.
In September 2010, I went to the Venture Cafe at Cambridge Innovation Center (an incubator close to MIT) to talk to Justin Caldbeck from Bain Capital Ventures.
I wanted to know whether they would be interested in learning about investment opportunities in Danish startup companies. I explained that Denmark is strong in a number of fields, such as life sciences, cleantech, and software, and that while seed stage funding is fairly easy to come by in Denmark, it is harder to get later stage rounds.
Justin stated his interest in having companies run by him, and was helpful in explaining what kind of companies Bain likes to invest in.
On a warm July evening, some one hundred excited young entrepreneurs came to witness start-up companies pitch to VCs. The VCs then gave them feedback and took questions from the audience.
The atmosphere was electric while also laid back - notice the bare feet!
Full report: http://www.foley.com/files/EmergingCompaniesSurveyResultsNov10.pdf
Summary:
The investor community is demonstrating a preference for quick and safe
investments, while emerging companies are experiencing greater difficulty closing
“B” round funds.
Emerging company executives are actively hiring and are optimistic in forecasting
hiring plans.
Emerging company executives are continuing to rely on the M&A market as their
primary exit strategy as the influence and prevalence of strategic buyers remains
strong in today’s market.
Although economic conditions are improving, emerging company executives are
continuing to experience difficulty raising capital.
A demand response experiment was carried out succesfully in a part of Denmark. Software was written to effectuate demand response involving 47 wind turbines, 4 combined heat and power stations, and 13 substations - in such a way as to match up in optimal fashion the resources with the demand.
Chris Sheehan has just published a nice overview of the angel investors in Boston:
http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2010/04/06/the-boston-angel-market/?single...
Having read this article, one might still wonder how one gets access to angels, and I think the answer is discouraging for impatient entrepreneurs: you have to socialize and network, and it all takes time.
Danish and other companies looking to enter the US market, will need support with bookkeeping, back office work, accounting and financial management. This entry will sketch out some of the options available to them in the Boston area.
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