Venture capitalist 'a Gator already'

Dan Rua, founder and managing partner of Inflexion Partners, graduated from UF with a BS in computer engineering

Dan Rua, a venture capitalist with Inflexion Partners, poses outside the Grooveshark offices in Gainesville on Friday. Rua has invested in the local business Grooveshark, which is an on-demand music listening platform. Brad McClenny/Staff photographer

By Anthony Clark, Business editor
The Gainsville Sun

May 8, 2011

Why does Gainesville have only one venture capitalist?

After all, the area has investment opportunities in dozens of university research spinoff companies and a growing community of student startups.

Dan Rua, the resident VC, turns the question on its head. With just a few venture capital firms based in Florida and just one dedicated to early-stage companies, how did Gainesville happen to land one?

One answer is that an early-stage VC firm needs a large research base such as that provided by the University of Florida.

The other, Rua said, is "I'm a Gator already," having graduated from UF with a bachelor of science degree in computer engineering.

Rua is a founder and managing partner of Inflexion Partners, with an office in the Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center.

That's not to say the area doesn't have other investors. Several successful entrepreneurs have pooled their money to invest in startups, an arrangement known as angel investing.

Other VC firms — with full-time partners who invest in companies on behalf of large institutional investors such as pension funds and corporations — have a drop-in office or come through periodically to meet with entrepreneurs or UF's technology licensing office.

Inflexion was formed in 2003 in partnership with Boston-based Village Ventures, UF, the University of Central Florida and some of the state's largest corporations.

It has investments in nine companies based in Florida or with Florida ties in the fields of info tech, medical devices and clean tech and is in the process of raising money for a second fund.

Rua's partners, Jim Boyle and Charles Resnick, are located in the University of Central Florida business incubator in Orlando.

The partners individually provide seed funding to companies, in Rua's case to Gainesville-based music streaming company Grooveshark.

In addition to being the area's only full-time venture capitalist, Rua is also one of the area's foremost mentors and cheerleaders of tech startups, providing advice to such up-and-comers as Grooveshark, Fracture, Trendy Entertainment, Youtorial and RoomBug.

He volunteers for UF entrepreneur events and is active in the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce's Innovation Gainesville economic development plan.

Last year, as president of the Gainesville Area Innovation Network, he was active in launching the social media site GAINnet.org and in partnering with Gainesville Regional Utilities in the bid to try to win Google's contest to install a gigabyte fiber-optic network.

"There is nothing more exciting than growing startup companies," he said, referring to the ups and downs as a roller-coaster ride.

He said he also enjoys associating with young entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world.

"The people involved are just exemplary people. They're passionate about what they do," he said.

Rua also is motivated to grow Florida's startup ecosystem so that his daughters might grow up to start companies here instead of moving away.

He was handling East Coast investments for Silicon Valley VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson when he noticed a shortage of investors in Florida for the number of early-stage entrepreneurs.

Florida investors traditionally have made their money in other ways such as real estate and agriculture and didn't have to turn to tech companies for returns, he said.

The growth of any venture region is a long-term process that starts with one success spawning another fund, he said.

"We need that seed kernel to land in Florida. That's what we're hoping to do with Inflexion."

Dan Rua
Age: 42
Occupation: Managing partner, Inflexion Partners
Personal: Married to Melissa Rua; two daughters, Delaney, 12, and Riley, 10
Pets: A golden doodle named Snickerdoodle and recent memories of a 17-year-old Himalayan Periwinkle
Dream partners for lunch: John Galt (character in “Atlas Shrugged”) or student entrepreneurs dreaming big
Favorite book: “‘Atlas Shrugged' by a wide margin.”
Favorite movies: “Avalon” and “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Playing in his car: Mumford & Sons via Grooveshark “or whatever the sharks are listening to.”
Hobbies: Social media/mashups, App ideas, fantasy baseball
Education: BS Computer Engineering, University of Florida; MBA, University of North Carolina; and juris doctorate, UNC School of Law