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Jeb Bush
'Brett.Doster
2/9/2003 12:07:37 AM
Re: Venture Capital

Good plan
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-----Original Message----From: Doster, Brett <Brett.Doster

To: Dana, Pam <pam.dana
Jeb Bush <jeb@jeb.org>
CC: Shanahan, Kathleen <Kathleen.Shanahan
Bayliss, Slater <Slater.Bayliss
Sent: Sat Feb 08 18:17:05 2003
Subject: Venture Capital
I had set up a meeting on Thursday for Tim Draper of Draper, Fisher, and
Jurvetson to make a presentation to the Florida State Board of
Administration regarding a new venture capital network centered around the
administration of a new Draper fund called the MetaFund. During the course
of that meeting, Coleman Stipanovich, Bill James, and Frank Fernandez made
it clear that they were very interested in pursuing investment opportunities
with venture capitalists as a part of their alternative investment strategy
but also made it clear that while they could not commit to the Draper fund
on such short notice. Draper is trying to close his new fund by the end of
March.
Coleman and his staff went on to brief all of us on the fact that they were
working very hard to file legislation that would exempt certain VC
investments at the SBA from the Sunshine Laws due to the fact that the
disclosure requirements of the Sunshine Law would make it difficult for the
SBA to invest directly into VC funds especially early-seed funds. I
suggested to Coleman that we may want to bring Florida-based VCs up here to
spend a day during session lobbying their respective legislators on the need
for the SBA to receive this exemption. If the SBA does not receive their
exemption, it will endanger their ability to go forward with the 300 million
dollar venture program that was unveiled last year.
My thought is that we could actually kill two birds with one stone. Several
of the Florida-based VC firms have expressed frustration that Florida is
exporting its capital into other states through a banking system that is by
and large headquartered in other states. Those other states receive the
benefit of the capital investment, and while Florida banking executives
sympathize, they can do nothing without approval from the home office.
During the legislative session, we could set aside one day as an Access to
Capital Initiative. The first half of the day could be spent coordinating
the lobbying efforts of Florida-based VCs on the disclosure legislation
filed by the FSBA. During the second half of the day, the Governor could
host a round table with Florida-based VCs and banking execs from all of the
national big dogs such as Wachovia, Bank of America, SunTrust, and Citibank
to encourage those larger instutions to give the green light to their
Florida presidents to allow some capital to flow directly into some of the
Florida funds.
Brett Doster
Deputy Director
Governor's Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development
(Fax)