I have been looking at the “water sector” (broadly defined) for awhile now but haven’t seen many investments being done thus far… so I was pleased to see fellow local VC, SAIL Ventures, announce that they recently made such an investment.  In fact, I reached out to Walter Schindler and asked him to send me a brief Op-Ed on the company for my readers as one of the things I’m looking to do more of is to have guest bloggers of relevant interest to my readers.  So, without further adieu, tell us about your fund’s latest water investment:

“SAIL’s latest investment is in a company with breakthrough technology in the area of industrial waste water recycling.  MicroMedia Filtration (MMF) represents a remedy to the growing global problem of industrial waste water. According to the World Bank, 80 countries are now experiencing water shortages severe enough to have an impact on the health and economic output of their populations.  2 billion people - roughly 40% of the earth’s population - do not have access to clean drinking water or sanitation. In the midst of this emerging water shortage, many industries simply waste water or recycle waste water inefficiently.  MMF’s unique process changes how wastewater is treated. This system has an 80% smaller physical footprint, can be built at half the capital cost, uses 85% less electricity, resulting in clean water with virtually no greenhouse gas emissions. MMF is a win–win –win – recycling waste water more efficiently, allowing a greater supply of drinking water, and using less energy at lower cost.”

Stay tuned for more guest bloggers in the weeks to come and feel free to write me with suggestions.

I thought I’d expand on a post written by Ben Kuo (Venture Capital Booms in the OC) and point out while our county’s start-ups have raised ~$110M in the last week or so, we have also had our recent share of liquidity events.  A very big congratulations to Michael Hajeck and his team at SiliconSystems and to their new parent, Western Digital, as it was announced last week that WDC acquired SiliconSystems for $65M cash!!!  I also feel compelled to congratulate the guys over at Miramar Venture Partners as they were early investors in SiliconSystems.  Looks like a “3-way” win for Orange County to me…

For all you night-owl entrepreneurs who struggle to make it  to our early morning affairs, we’ve heard you and are responding.  Register FAST, this will “sell out” ’cause, what’s not to love???  Booze, food, digital media, and Laguna Beach… 3 of my favorite things.

DATE: Thursday, April 23rd

TIME: 5:30-9:00PM

LOCATION: [seven-degrees] 891 Laguna Canyon Rd. Laguna Beach

At OCVG’s first evening event of ‘09, learn from some of the quickest minds in Digital Media how they’re challenging the powers that be, raising BIG $$$ from VC’s and creating some of the coolest companies on planet earth.  As an added bonus, OCVG will host this mega networking event at [seven-degrees] in Laguna Beach — one of the hottest venues in Orange County.  We’ll have lots of munchies and FREE wine & beer.  Don’t miss out.  Stake your claim and RSVP NOW at www.OCVG.com.Our panelists include:

Dennis Mudd, Founder & CEO, Slacker, Inc. – Slacker creates the perfect personalized radio station for every listener by combining the knowledge of music experts with your preferences..  Since inception five years ago, the company has raised $53 million from “A-list” VC’s including Mission, Centennial, Rho, Austin Ventures and Sevin Rosen.  Before Slacker, Dennis was CEO at MusicMatch, sold to Yahoo for $160 million in 2004.

Jason Feffer, Founder & CEO, SodaHead.com – SodaHead is the premiere opinion-based social community for user-generated Q&A on today’s hottest topics.  Founded only two years ago, the company has raised more than $12 million from savvy investors including Mission Ventures, Mohr Davidow, the Tech Coast Angels and legendary Silicon Valley “über angel” Ron Conway.  Before founding SodaHead, Jason was VP Operations at MySpace.

Mark Kern, Founder & CEO, RED 5 Studios Inc. – Red5 is an independent online game developer led by the talent behind Blizzard Entertainment’s Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) hit, “World of Warcraft.”  To help fund their drive to become the leading studio for creative, original MMO games for global markets, the company has raised more than $18 million from top-tier Silicon Valley VC’s Benchmark and Sierra Ventures. 

MODERATOR: Bong Koh, Venture Partner, Prism Venture Partners – An expert in starting, growing and selling companies, Bong focuses on digital media and consumer Internet investments at Prism’s Santa Monica office.  With $1.25 billion under management, bi-coastal Prism is a leading investor in digital media start-ups. Before joining Prism two years ago, Bong was a VC at Advanced Technology Ventures.  Prior to this, Bong was co-founder of Mobilocity, a mobile solutions provider he sold to a joint venture of Qualcomm and global ad agency Omnicom. 

So far, so good.  We’re averaging 8 entrepreneurs / VCs so I guess I’ll keep this party going and see where it ends up.  This month, we will be meeting March 19th, 9am-11am, at the Pacific Whey in Ladera Ranch at 25672 Crown Valley Parkway (in the Mercantile West Shopping Center).  Hope to see you there.  As always, any last minute changes will be communicated via http://twitter.com/ocvc.

Well, January has come and gone and the year is off to a “shaky” start in case you haven’t been paying attention to what is going on in the global economy.  Some are faring better…some worse.  In the end, we will eventually pull out of it as life goes on.

Enough luke-warm pep talk.  We had a whoppin’ 6 folks show up for January’s OC VC Office Hours, but since I didn’t know 3 of them I’ll keep this going for the time being and see what (if anything) comes of it.  We had an excellent discussion about what is going on in the local, national, and global VC markets and I suspect this dialogue will continue for most of this year as funding continues to be elusive for start-ups.

The next OC VC Office Hours will be February 12th, 9am-11am, at the common area between Pacific Whey and Starbucks in Crystal Cove (between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach on PCH).  Please join us as we continue to discuss the VC markets and local innovation.

That’s right, Mixergy’s Lunch 2.0 is back in The OC, baby!  Please join Andrew and I at Earth Media Group for lunch tomorrow.  Details and registration can be found here: http://blog.mixergy.com/wp-content/invite/EMG.html

After an overwhelmingly positive response, I’ve decided to give the “office hours” idea a go for the first six months this year and then will make a decision as to whether to continue them.  My hope is that this becomes something that continues without my presence or involvement — a free, no-hassle, relaxed atmosphere for folks in the start-up ecosystem to network over coffee.  I’ve decided the third Thursday of every month is good (at least for me for now), but will rotate between south and north county venues.  So, the first OC VC Office Hours will be Thursday, January 15th from 9am-11am PST Pacific Whey in Ladera Ranch.  If this begins to build a crowd, I’ll use a widget to list the upcoming dates, times, venues, etc. on this blog and will send out updates.

I will send out real-time updates via Twitter if things change.  You can sign up for them at Twitter and rest assured that I’m not a prolific Twitterer.  I look forward to meeting you on the 15th.  I’ll wear be wearing a black hat with the Okapi Venture Capital logo on it to make it easier to find me the first few sessions.

While my free time allocation to blogging has waned of late, I have been spending more time out and about discussing a variety of topics with lots of interesting people.  I’ve enjoyed these meetings and, based on the feedback I have received from a number of folks, think I will make a go of “OC VC Office Hours” in 2009.  So, if your interested in meeting with me to discuss technology, markets, start-up investing, or other such topics, stay tuned for more details.  I will attempt to establish some sort of regular schedule, publish it on this blog, and provide any updates/changes through my Twitter account (so, if you’re interested in attending and haven’t already done so, sign up to receive my updates at http://twitter.com/ocvc).  Perhaps I can now finally get some value out of Twitter.

In the interim, please have a safe and happy holiday season and I’ll catch you next year.

I’ve been toying with the idea of holding regular “office hours” at a set time and place to meet with folks in the community — be they entrepreneurs, service providers, or others — in lieu of some of the traditional networking events and thought I’d throw the thought out to all of you to see whether this is something you would be interested in.  I have ~ 150 subscribers (via email or RSS) and a thousand more readers so I can only assume that some of you are local.  Anyway, let me know your thoughts here.

If you haven’t already registered for VC in the OC, get to it as tickets have been going fast and we’re on track to sell out (again) this year.  For details, and to register, visit VC in the OC.  Like last year, I will be moderating a panel and will take any questions thereof in advance.  The most common questions will be asked as well as a few “zingers” that I come up with real-time.  Please submit your questions to me via email.  Unlike last year, we’ve turned our program on its proverbial head and are featuring a panel of successful, local entrepreneurs (i.e., those that have done “it” before) rather than our standard panel of “VC talking heads”.  We are also very pleased to welcome back Mark Heesen from the NVCA who will once again provide an illuminating keynote on the state of venture worldwide…nationwide…statewide…and, of course, here in our own backyard.

Special Request — I will be wearing two hats come VC in the OC: 1) President of the Orange County Venture Group; and 2) Guest “VC Blogger” Moderator…so please do yourself a favor and don’t pitch me on any companies until after the event.  I’m easy enough to reach so you really shouldn’t feel the need to pitch me at the event.  Simply send me an email and we can go from there.