Introduction

Intro 

Is there anybody out there…………..  Dara Shareef here……  I've been thinking about doing a blog for a while now.  Actually, I have had a blog going for almost a year now although the subject and related content is quite a bit different; my preemie daughter Mikaila.  For those interested: growmikailagrow.blogspot.com

You can track her life experience beginning with her very early arrival at 1 lb 5 ½ ounces through the present time.  In the early goings, I updated the blog every day or so.  In the last several months I have been less diligent.

Back to the intent of this blog.  I don’t have the traditional VC pedigree, at least as it relates to educational background.  My undergraduate degree is from Lehigh and my MBA is from the Simon School at the University of Rochester; fine schools yes but certainly not of the ilk of the Whartons, Harvards and Stanfords of the world.  Perhaps I am the exception that proves the rule. My background suggests I can help early stage businesses.  At the beginning of the decade, I worked with CEOs to commercialize their vision.  On their behalf, I wrote business plans and investor decks.  For most of the decade however, I have been on the other side of the table with Counter Point Ventures and Glenmont Venture Fund.

About two years ago, two partners and I began the process of raising an early stage fund.  We did the market research to pull together the investment thesis and story.  We wrote the PPM, pitch deck and accompanying materials and went to market.  Although we gained some traction in the investor and entrepreneurial communities, we hit a brick wall in the fall and decided to shut it down.

In the subsequent months, I have built a small, and for the most part, serendipitous consulting practice.  I have taken on a few projects to keep the lights on but the ephemeral nature of these engagements and the transient lifestyle conflict with my desire to spend time with my wife and baby. 

These consulting clients seem to value hearing the perspective of a VC without the pressure that comes with the bag of money we typically carry.    Quite the paradox, I know.  A VC without a checkbook.

I'll add a few posts in the next day or so related to a trip I made to Pennsylvania where I worked with economic development groups, CEOs of emerging businesses, incubators, investors and service providers to build a comprehensive program; a program that will attempt to expedite the transition of a traditional industrial/manufacturing economy to one based on innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurialism.