The symposium was definitely worth going to, even if just for the case studies, but there was some other good stuff too.
After the opening address was a panel discussion about investment in the WA context. The panel consisted of three VCs (CM Capital Investments, Foundation Capital and Innovation Capital) and two institutional investors who invest in VC funds (ING and Westscheme). More than anything it gave good insight into the "other" side of being a VC: the VC-institutional relationship. Interesting take away was that, for its population, Western Australia is under-represented in private equity but over-represented in public offerings (with many companies listing earlier than they should).
After morning tea was a case study of Immersive Technologies, makers of training simulators for equipment like mining trucks. The most amazing thing was they bootstrapped themselves from $100 and 2 people (Peter Salfinger and his brother) to profitability and 58 people before they got venture funding for expansion (from Equity Partners)
After Tim Mazzarol introduced what the UWA Graduate School of Management is doing with their Centre for Entrepreneurial Management and Innovation (CEMI), James Thompson of Quadrant Capital gave a talk on exit strategies. James gave a couple of really interesting examples of creative exit strategies. Also interesting was the breakdown of exits in 02/03: 28% trade sale; 28% IPO; 13% liquidation or write-off; buyout by other shareholders 13%; other 18%.
After lunch was another great case study of Worldwide Online Printing, another company that was large before going for its first round (again for expansion). Fascinating information about the print industry in Australia: there are over 6200 businesses in the industry and no player with more than 3% market share. WOP's model is a hub and spoke that centralises production equipment for economies of scale and low outlet setup cost. Other highlight was a very nice business modeling spreadsheet and outlet KPIs fed into a scoreboard.
This was followed by an insightful case study of the Kailis and France MBO and then, after afternoon tea, a humorous talk by Chris Golis (author of the excellent "Enterprise and Venture Capital") on what makes a good entrepreneur.
The cocktail party and buffet dinner afterwards was a good opportunity to meet a few new people and a couple of familiar faces (such as Running Code's Ashley Aitken whom I knew from Curtin University). It did get a bit tiring having to explain why mValent is in the US and I'm in Perth, though :-)
I'll definitely try to make future AVCAL events.