Vic Gatto (at left), a partner in Solidus Company, responded to Bruce Lynskey this morning. Gatto is, as is Lynskey, a participant in the Chamber Entrepreneur Project. He said, "I basically agree with Bruce, with [differing views on] a couple of subtle issues. There is no question that there is a scarcity of Seed/Early stage capital in Nashville. However, zero seems to be inaccurate. Solidus [VC player] invested in seven new companies last year (5 in Nashville) -- that is not zero. What I tell people is that there is not enough capital by a factor of 3-4X. This doesn’t mean that there is 'zero'. It does mean that many exciting companies with strong management teams should get funding, but do not. Additionally, I do not agree that 'it’s a culture thing.' In my opinion, this is inaccurate and wrongly suggests that the city will not be able to foster a strong venture presence. I believe there is a strong culture of entrepreneurship and early stage (angel) investors to finance them. For multiple reasons, these people, successful former start-ups and investment firms have never organized them into a venture community like occurred in Boston and Silicon Valley."
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