Middle Market Deals and how to buy, sell and raise capital from $5 to $500 million

On Friday evening this week, I'm hosting a little gathering to talk to people about Utah's Referendum 1 regarding private school vouchers. 

There is a lot of vitriol in the debate, which I wholeheartedly regret.  I understand emotions running high because the issue is so important.  What is more important than our kids and our state's future?

Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com and Jordan Clements of Peterson Partners will be making the presentations on vouchers and will be available for some one-on-one discussions following their presentations.

If you would like to come to my home on Friday evening to learn more about vouchers, we'd love to have you.  Please visit our on-line invitation to learn more and RSVP.

My friend, Eric McFarland from Merrill Lynch, has organized a group of Young Finance Professionals to gather regularly for a luncheon with a speaker.  The folks who speak are impressive.

Click here to learn more.

Click here to e-mail Eric.

I'd say I'd see you there, but I'm too old!

This from CNN:

U.S. citizens Mario R. Capecchi and Oliver Smithies and Sir Martin J. Evans of Britain won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for groundbreaking discoveries that led to a technique for manipulating mouse genes.

The widely used process has helped scientists use mice to study heart disease, diabetes, cancer, cystic fibrosis and other diseases.

Capecchi, 70, who was born in Italy, is at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Smithies, 82, born in Britain, is at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Evans, 66, works at Cardiff University in Wales.

They were honored for a technique called gene targeting, which lets scientists inactivate or modify particular genes in mice. That in turn lets them study how those genes affect health and disease.

Utah faces a referendum on November 6 regarding vouchers for private school education.  The actual language for the ballot from the Voter Information Pamplet is as follows:

In February 2007, the Utah Legislature passed H.B. 148, Education Vouchers. This bill will take effect only if approved by voters. The bill:

• Establishes a scholarship program for:

• qualifying school-age children who newly enroll in eligible private schools; and

• lower income school-age children who continue their enrollment in eligible private schools;

• Provides for scholarships within that program of $500 to $3,000, depending on family size and income, increasing those scholarship amounts in future years; and

• Allows school districts to retain some per-student funding for scholarship students who transfer to private schools.

Are you for or against H.B. 148 taking effect?

I will vote yes. 

As the President of the MountainWest Capital Network I want to be sure to remind anyone who happens across my blog about the upcoming Utah 100 program on October 22, 2007.

The MountainWest Capital Network Utah 100 program recognizes the fastest growing companies in Utah.  It is a huge celebration with more than 1000 people in attendance.   

The event will be held at the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City at 11:15 AM on Monday, October 22, 2007.  To register, visit the MWCN web site. 

Laxman Jha asked to learn more about what an analyst does in the investment banking world. 

There are really two answers.  On Wall Street, analysts work crazy hours (on the order of 100 hours per week) supporting transactions involving companies whose executives they've never met.  Exactly what the day-to-day routine is, I don't know (perhaps some kind Wall Street analyst will post a comment to let us know). 

The Key Bank Tower in downtown Salt Lake City was imploded early this morning.  From the roof of my downtown condo I had a great view of the action.  I video taped the event and took a few hundred still photos.

Here you can see the video.

Today we held the first annual Cornell Graduate School Alumni Group of Utah Park City Picnic.  This was the first ever activity of this particular group.

We had some great fun with a small group.  Scott Carman of vSpring organized the event.  Donald Rands of Zions Bank, Matt Horlacher of Holland & Hart, John Clawson who recently sold his company and I (Devin Thorpe of Thorpe Capital Group) were the only alumni there.  Laurlyn Berry represented her family, which includes Brent Berry, of DWG & Associates. 

The event was sponsored by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, vSpring and Thorpe Capital Group. 

A video slide show of all the fun we had follows the jump! 

Today was the Wayne Brown Institute Deal Forum.  The forum is set up to expose early-stage deals to angel investors and to give the enetrepreneurs involved an opportunity to get feedback from the investors.

I was invited to sit on the investor panel.  There were two presentations given.  One was fantastic and the other wasn't.