Going on a date ... with investors

DURHAM -- Nicholas Napp moved to Raleigh from Phoenix in the fall, and he's been trying ever since to meet the right people: those with money.

He got his chance on Tuesday at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's first "Start-up Speed Dating" event. A play on the speed dating that is popular among singles, it is an effort to hook up investors and entrepreneurs.

Napp, who started a software company, disruptorMonkey, last year, was giving it a shot. The company is developing software that helps businesses track down long-lost files and data on their computers. It has a product on track for release by the end of the year, and he hopes that the company will soon support itself with sales. Until then, a $256,000 investment could help.

Waiting for the event to start, Napp is surrounded by people in suits, many of the men wearing ties. Napp and chief technology officer Logan Holt are wearing white polo shirts freshly screen-printed with disruptorMonkey's logo, a cartoon monkey holding a ray gun. Napp is unruffled.

"We don't want to come in like we're too slick and have them think we're going to waste our money," he says of his attire. He says he's nervous but excited.

At 1 p.m., Council for Entrepreneurial Development employees usher the entrepreneurs into meeting rooms, where pairs of investors are seated.

Napp takes a seat at the far end of a long table in front of two investors, and Holt settles into a chair behind him. CED staffer Phebe Cornell explains the rules. Each "date" will last five minutes, with a two-minute warning so the entrepreneurs can wrap up their pitches and answer questions. Napp, who has prepared for just three minutes with each investor, raises his eyebrows.

Cornell sets the timer, which beeps, and Napp begins his pitch: "My company's name is disruptorMonkey. My name is Nic--"

The entrepreneurs beside him interrupt. "Wait a minute," they say. The time hasn't started.

Everyone chuckles and with another beep, the five minutes begin.

1:07 P.M.: Entrepreneurs scoot down a chair; the next date starts. This time, Napp has a smoother start: "I'm Nick Napp, CEO of disruptorMonkey, and I'm here to talk with you about managing the long tail of corporate data."

He goes through the problem that disruptorMonkey hopes to solve, how its product works, its target market, the management and advisory teams, its scheduled product release and the amount of money he is seeking. He is talking fast, glancing down occasionally at a Powerpoint presentation he has printed out.

1:27 P.M. Napp is only partway into his pitch before David Rizzo, CEO of NC IDEA in Durham, starts grilling him about how disruptorMonkey plans to reach the small and midsize business market. Rizzo is not satisfied with Napp's answer.

"My only advice is this: The investment community is going to be very concerned about how you get to that market," he says. "There are lots of dead bodies on the way to that market."

1:38 P.M. Napp has just described his software in the same terminology he used in seven other presentations when Bill Warner with Paladin and Associates, a local consulting firm, interrupts.

"Can you say that in English?" he asks. Napp explains that the software uses a system of labels, keywords and user history, but Warner persists. "I can't picture myself doing this thing. What am I doing?" Napp elaborates, then tries to return to his pitch.

1:43 P.M. Finally, chemistry. Napp and Charlton Owensby, an individual investor from Charlotte, hit it off instantly.

As Napp describes his company's software, Owensby stops him to restate and elaborate on the way businesses will use it. "Exactly," Napp replies.

1:55 P.M. The rotation pauses for a five-minute break. "You are a machine," Holt says as Napp dashes off in search of water.

2:13 P.M. Napp has adapted his pitch to anticipate questions. He describes how the company plans to deliver its software over the Internet, gives Oracle as an example of a big company that can't solve the problem disruptorMonkey has targeted and volunteers that his company has signed two customers and is close on a third.

2:30 P.M. It's over.

On the way out, Napp hands a disruptorMonkey button to Adam Smith, a familiar face from Square 1 Bank and an investor at one of the few tables where Napp didn't get to make a pitch. Smith asks how it went. "My head's spinning," Napp replies.