David Blivin has had a long and successful investment and entrepreneurial career. In addition to starting CTG he helped found Cottonwood Technology Fund, one of the only institutional providers of seed/start-up capital based in the southwest. Cottonwood Capital Partners, the general partner of CTF, now has over $50M under management. Immediately prior to starting Cottonwood Technology Group Mr. Blivin worked directly with early-stage companies on their strategic focus, market validation and fund raising under his company Lighthouse Partners. Prior to Lighthouse, Mr. Blivin founded and served as Managing Director of Southeast Interactive and over a five-year period successfully built the team that established the first and largest information technology-focused fund based in the Southeast. During Mr. Blivin’s tenure, Southeast Interactive raised three funds totaling over $175 million. He was directly involved in fund raising and was an early investor in companies which have represented a realized enterprise exit value totaling in excess of $1 billion. He has generated cash on cash returns on his directed investments of over 4X.
Before founding Southeast Interactive, Mr. Blivin served as the Chief Financial Officer of Montrose Capital Corporation, a merchant-banking firm that formed and managed over 20 limited partnerships representing in excess of $100 million in equity and $350 million in total capitalization. Prior to joining Montrose Capital Corporation, Mr. Blivin worked as a Senior Auditor with Arthur Andersen LLP where he audited several companies in the technology and communications fields. Mr. Blivin has also participated on numerous boards of directors including The Pantry (nasdaq-PTRY), Opensite (sold to Siebel), Accipiter (sold to CMGI), Nitronex, Channelogics (sold to Scientific Atlanta) and Buildnet. He served as President of the Durham YMCA and lead their successful effort to secure $9 million and build a new facility in Downtown Durham. Mr. Blivin received his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.