I attended Golden Capital Networks’ Yolo venture community launch yesterday in Davis. The event started with a startup seminar, aimed at helping new entrepreneurs understand what goes into starting a business and ended with a reception launching the venture community.

The seminar was an interesting format, with several area business school professors giving short lectures on different areas of entrepreneurship ranging from how to innovate to financial planning to pitching to investors. The presentations were so constricted by time, however, that few of the topics were explored in enough depth to be useful.

The general level of knowledge in the room was somewhat surprising. Most of the attendees are truly new at this. One gentleman began explaining his concept for a business that involved pooling money from lots of individuals to invest in new companies. He was obviously quite proud of his idea, and apparently unaware that the venture capital business isn’t a new concept.

There’s obviously a need for this sort of content. Few, if any, of the attendees appeared to have previous experience starting a business, so it was helpful to have a professor explain to them what a market feasibility study is and how it can help them. Unfortunately, since all of the presentations were from academic types, there was very little real-world experience. One presenter suggested that people get NDAs signed before they discuss their ideas with anyone.

At the Yolo Venture kickoff reception, I was struck by how many attendees were government types. At least half the people in the room were from economic development organizations. Talking to a few people about SacStarts, they seemed genuinely confused about how a startup community could exist without some sort of public assistance.