Venture Capital

Terry Williams, who operates both an executive-search firm and a venture capital company, says most venture capitalists tell him they make their investments by gut. He describes their thinking process like this: "I think he's a good person. I've met him at the Roundtable three times. . . . Here's a check for $17 million. " Williams, whose bachelor's degree is in psychology and criminology, said he thought there was a better way. It involves delving a lot more deeply into the psyches of people who want investors' money.

In the world of corporate finance and venture capital, James C. Wheat Jr. is considered a man of vision. A civil engineer by training, Wheat took the tiny firm founded by his father in Richmond, Va., in 1922 and created Wheat First Securities Inc., a respected company with 50 offices in the mid-Atlantic region and one of the largest investment-banking staffs outside New York. That Wheat, 67, has been blind since age 24 is a fact that merely enhances his reputation. "Jim has an amazing memory," said William V. Daniel, a Wheat executive vice president.

Terry Williams, who operates both an executive-search firm and a venture capital company, says most venture capitalists tell him they make their investments by gut. He describes their thinking process like this: "I think he's a good person. I've met him at the Roundtable three times. . . . Here's a check for $17 million. " Williams, whose bachelor's degree is in psychology and criminology, said he thought there was a better way. It involves delving a lot more deeply into the psyches of people who want investors' money.

Sam Hinkie just completed his eighth full season with the Rockets. He has been the executive vice president of basketball operations since 2010. He was hired in Houston as the youngest vice president in the NBA in 2007. Before that, he spent two seasons as special assistant to the Rockets general manager. He is seen as an expert in analytics, the day-to-day management of basketball operations, the salary cap, and scouting college and other pro players. Before joining the Rockets, Hinkie advised two NFL teams on draft strategies and using statistical analysis to improve decision making.

The third quarter was one for the books as Philadelphia-area companies received more than $151 million in venture-capital funding. Naviant, a Newtown Square data-mining company, was the big winner, with $64.75 million in capital raised, while Rosemont's And 1, a basketball shoe and apparel manufacturer, scored with $31 million. The Inquirer/PricewaterhouseCoopers Venture-Capital Survey shows that 24 local companies received funding from venture-capital firms in the quarter ended Sept.

A sophisticated Main Line swindler who used bogus stocks and promises of capital from fictitious investors to con victims in Pennsylvania and four other states is going to prison. On Monday, the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles sentenced Thomas D. Dempsey, 52, to four years in prison followed by five years' probation and ordered him to pay restitution to his victims in California and Pennsylvania. Dempsey, known here as Thomas deRacz, pleaded guilty Sept. 6 to federal securities and mail fraud charges four days before his trial was to begin.

The Philadelphia region finally was home to one of the nation's biggest venture capital deals last quarter. Unfortunately, what the company does won't set imaginations afire because, I'm sorry to say, developing software for the insurance industry just isn't as sexy as, say, software to help you organize and share your digital photos. Still, Exton-based iPipeline Inc. did raise $71.44 million in January, good enough to place No. 8 on a list of the nation's largest venture deals included in the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Report, released Friday.

The Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System credits foreign stocks, real estate and private investments for its strong returns last year. All three investment categories did better than U.S. stocks and bonds during the year ended June 30. But in two of those categories - real estate and private investments - PSERS says its returns were roughly twice what other investors collected from the same kinds of investments. PSERS said its private real estate investments gained 41 percent, more than double the performance of the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries Index, the measure PSERS uses to judge the performance of the properties it buys.

It's been a busy and heady week for the Internet start-up Half.com. Last Wednesday morning, the Conshohocken-based company launched its e-commerce site that company officials call a "person-to-person marketplace" offering used and remaindered books, CDs, movies and video games for at least half price. Later that morning, Half.com's 28-year-old founder Joshua Kopelman was interviewed by Katie Couric on the Today Show. That night, the city council of Halfway, Ore., (pop.

ANNE-MARIE CORNER is a 39-year-old seasoned University City entrepreneur whose company is at the front edge of a biotechnology revolution: transforming the way women protect their sexual health. Her company, Biosyn, is in a race to produce the first "superlube," a product that, when inserted vaginally before sex, would prevent AIDS, genital herpes and other sexually-transmitted diseases. Hot stuff. But, while Corner has been able to raise millions from the New York-based Warburg, Pincus Equity Partners L.P., she hasn't found any backers among the venture capitalists here.