Street smarts propel MX Logic.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: Small Biz - Biography

JOHN STREET KNOWS HOW TO LAUNCH STARTUPS AND RAISE MONEY, and he knows better than anyone how the venture-capital market has changed since the go-go late '90s.

As chairman and CEO of USA.NET, Street raised more than $100 million in private equity financing from 1997-99. Before that, he ran Telephone Express and grew it from startup to annual sales of $60 million before selling it in 1997.

Now Street is chairman and CEO of MX Logic, a Denver-based company launched in April 2002 that offers e-mail threat-management services--most notably spam filtering. MX Logic was one of seven Colorado companies that received first-time financing in this year's third quarter, as it garnered $5.5 million in a round led by Chicago-based Adams Street Partners and including Phoenix-based Grayhawk Venture Partners and Broomfield-based Vista Ventures.

MX Logic won't disclose revenues, but it has more than 600 customers, and revenues have increased 250 percent in the last five months. Street plans to use most of the $5.5 million in VC money to build sales and marketing.

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Street, 47, knows it's not the best time to be nurturing a startup, but the economy is improving, and he believes it's his job as an entrepreneur to step up and show some confidence in the country's near-term economic future. That's exactly what he told prospective angel investors during MX Logic's infancy after putting up much of the startup seed money himself.

"I ran into so many people who were so afraid of everything," Street recalls. "I was like, 'You guys, this is exactly when you need to step up!' I kidded one of my investor friends, 'Man, it's your patriotic duty! We're at war, man. You've got to help. You've got to employ some people!'

"That kind of got him over the edge," Street remembers. "I said, 'You know what? It's going to be a good investment anyway, but this is your little contribution to American commerce.' I just shamed him into it."

Street laughs.

"I didn't shame him enough, though. I only got a little bit out of him."

Street, who was an accountant for Arthur Andersen before striking out on his own in 1984, goes on with his message of patriotism and investing: "It really bugs me that all these guys made all this money and then they get too conservative. We all didn't get this far by being afraid of our own shadow. When the country needs it, we ought to all step up."

Of course, venture-capital firms are swayed by profit potential, not patriotism. Kirk...