Last night, I told Hank Dearden, the organizer of the Capital Cabal “This is the best event in this town”.  The venue was convenient to get to, large enough for the crowd that was there (probably 150 people filtered through) and the crowd was an amazing diverse group of business owners, consultants, contractors, investors and people looking for work and people offering work.  The perfect mixture that makes for some excellent networking.  It was an energetic and friendly crowd.  People were moving around, introducing themselves, and talking up a storm.

Best part is that you would hear this “That’s a great idea…hey, talk to such and such over there.  I just talked to them and I think they could help you.”  Real networkers…not the mentality of “what can you do for me” but “what can I do for you.”

And guess what…I got to talk to a couple VCs and took the opportunity to pick their brains.  Everyone I spoke to said Why Go Solo has a lot of potential and is a good valid concept.  They (the VCs) confirmed a lot of things I was starting to suspect and said how to proceed once we meet certain criteria. 

Jonathan Aberman, Managing Director, from Amplifier is one of the VCs I spoke with…it was great to have David who I had met 15 minutes earlier…ask Howard, who he has known for a while to introduce me to Jonathan.  Talk about how things should flow!! 

Anyway, I visited Amplifier’s website before and didn’t realize they offered classes such as Venture Capital 101, Business Plan Course 101, and Non-Traditional Financing Sources.  Registering is very easy.  The cost of each class is $75 which is a little steep (at least for me) but I’ll attend a class and report back to let you know if it was worth it. 

I also spoke with a couple MBA students from the University of Maryland: Robert H. Smith School of Business who are helping a firm with their next fund and finding potential companies to invest in.

I met some other great people who are not investors and we had great conversations about what they did and what Why Go Solo is all about. 

So check out the Capital Cabal’s website and sign-up for the mailing list.  Next event is December 11^th.