Local business consultant Steve Nilan usually helps entrepreneurs launch new companies. Now he's starting his own.
He's partnered with venture capitalist Jack Crawford Jr. on Start-up TV Network, an online business that helps investors hook up with early-stage companies.
The business is still in "stealth" mode. The company's Web site is not operational and an official launch probably won't occur for several months.
But the general idea is to create a Web site that - for a fee - serves as a networking spot for people who back new ventures. As Nilan puts it, a "MySpace for angel investors."
The site will have tools for investors, such as search functions, financial analysis and syndication information.
And - here's where the TV idea comes in - it will include video of entrepreneurs making brief "elevator pitches" about their companies.
"There are other matchmaking sites out there, but none like this," Nilan says.
Down the road, the backers hope to get their concept onto financial cable TV channels. Also in the works: Development of a reality TV show where entrepreneurs compete for funding.
Helping hand: Speaking of Crawford, he just returned from a week of volunteer construction work in New Orleans.
He heard about a disaster relief group called Operation Blessing, then signed up for a seven-day hitch.
He fixed fences, put up drywall, painted, even did some plumbing. Does he have those kinds of skills?
"Not at all," he says. In fact, he expected to be assigned some supervisory tasks. "I'm a venture capitalist, right? I'm good at managing processes."
Instead, he showed up and "They said, 'Here's your crowbar and hammer.'"
The volunteers slept on bunks in a gutted grocery store and ate "MREs" - the military's ready-to-eat meals. Not exactly four-star dining.
But, Crawford says, it was rewarding to play a small role in the city's recovery. And sobering to see the "scale of the devastation" - endless blocks of destroyed neighborhoods.
Small world: One of the Highway 50 corridor's marquee properties has quietly changed hands in a $29 million deal.
Under new ownership is the Catholic Healthcare West regional headquarters at 3400 Data Drive. The place houses about 600 workers - administrative types for CHW and its local Mercy hospitals, employees of the Mercy Foundation, IT folks and others.
It's been owned since 1992 by an L.A. group called Davril Sacramento Properties L.P. The buyers - who made an offer for the property at the suggestion of their broker, Elaine Hartin of Cornish & Carey - have not yet been identified.
CHW moved into the building three years ago. It previously had served as headquarters for Foundation Health Corp., which merged with another firm and became Health Net.
The health insurance firm vacated the building in 2001.
Here's a medical oddity: CHW's previous headquarters site was right around the corner on White Rock Road. One of the current tenants there is ... Health Net.
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