Jason Caplain, a venture capitalist at Southern Capitol Ventures in Raleigh, estimates there are 45 to 50 Triangle software companies whose product is delivered over the Internet -- an industry sector known as software as a service.
That's why the next event in Southern Capitol's ongoing "Entrepreneurs' Series" will focus on "Building a SaaS Company from Funding through IPO."
Executives of four local SaaS companies will be featured in a panel discussion during the Sept. 19 program: Joe Colopy, CEO of Bronto Software; Jesse Lipson, CEO of Sharefile; David Spitz, president of ChannelAdvisor; and Steve Wiehe, CEO of SciQuest, which went public last year.
A panel featuring venture capitalist from four out-of-town firms that have invested in SaaS companies will follow. They are: Paul Grim of Sunbridge Partners, Roger Krakoff of Cloud Capital Partners, Michael Ramich of Frontier Capital and Jason Trevisan of Polaris Venture Partners. Also, Laura Lederman, co-group head of the technology sector for William Blair & Co., will discuss SaaS trends.
Time has been set aside for networking at the end of the program.
Caplain said that Southern Capitol has invested in more than a half-dozen SaaS companies "and we're looking for more."
Tickets are $49 in advance and can be purchased here.
David Ranii has been a business reporter at The News & Observer since 1993. Over the years he has covered information technology, banking, insurance, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, media businesses and real estate. Contact him at 919-829-4877 or 
