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introductions

mr. witzel: good morning. i'm fran witzel, director of investor services at the morino institute and the potomac knowledgeway netpreneur program. thank you for being here, and thanks to our sponsor the mid-atlantic venture association (mava).

two months ago, our may 21^st coffee & doughnets featured a panel of netpreneurs who shared experiences, advice, even the spreadsheets from their funding experiences. based on your feedback, this morning we have the flip-side of that event, a panel of funders who invested in those companies (as well as many others) who will also share their perspectives and advice.

moderating our forum is esther smith, a principal at the poretz group, an investor relations firm which she joined this month. she is also an advisor to the morino institute and to the president of post-newsweek business information. esther was founder of washington technology and technews, inc., where she served as president and ceo from 1986 until its sale in september of 1996 to the washington post company. in 1982, she was founding editor and general manager of the washington business journal. she currently serves on the board of directors of womenconnect.com and provant, inc., a publicly traded boston roll-up in the $13 billion training industry, as well as the kilby awards foundation in dallas. esther has been most generous with her help and no-nonsense advice for our netpreneur community, so please join me in welcoming her now.

ms. smith:   it's great to be here with you all. each member of our panel has three questions that they are going to address individually, then we'll get to the q&a. the three issues that they are going to talk about, building on that previous coffee & doughnets are: how did they size up the netpreneur they invested in? what types of deals are they looking for, and how do they evaluate them? and lastly, what do they advise other netpreneurs to focus on when positioning there businesses for equity financing.

next: tom smith:good entrepreneurial horseflesh >