California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

Forbes released a new list illustrating ‘America’s Top 20 Most Promising
Young Companies’.  But to achieve prominence on this list, a company had
to go through extensive screening and evaluation.

Forbes teamed with the Irvine- based, The Venture Alliance, an advisor to
early-stage companies which has devised a rating system for young companies.
The companies were scored on a host of characteristics, including the size
of the markets they serve, the strength of their intellectual property, the
extent to which founders put their own capital at risk, the experience of
their management teams and their record in hitting product-development
benchmarks promised to equity investors.

In addition, Forbes collected data via a detailed survey that took candidates
nearly two hours to complete. Entrepreneurs who had raised outside capital
gave business plans to TVA for further vetting; the rest completed an even
more exhaustive survey. (Both surveys have subtle double-checks built in, to
make sure the companies' storylines track.) TVA also brought in software experts
and engineers to evaluate product plans (all signed nondisclosure agreements),
and Forbes reporters interviewed the finalists. The 20 highest scorers appear
to have a better shot at raising capital--and thus are considered more promising
than their peers.

California had eight or 40 percent of the Top 20, two from northern California
and six from southern California, see the list below.

The Top 20 Most Promising Young Companies in America from California

2.   Kerosene and a Match, San Clemente

6.   Sundia, Oakland

8.   Auri Footwear, Laguna Beach

12.  Private Access. Irvine

13.  Genea Energy, Yorba Linda

15.  EEDAR, Carlsbad

18.  Bigstage, Sherman Oaks

19.  Bi3 Solutions.com, Redwood City

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.