Venture awaits

There are some business leaders who would give almost anything just for the chance to say hello to Thomas James.

The partners at Ballast Point Ventures? They get a monthly meeting with the chairman of Raymond James Financial. That's helped make the St. Petersburg-based venture capital firm, a successor to Donald Burton's South Atlantic Venture Funds, a success.

“He saw an area here in the early 1980s that was completely underrepresented when it came to venture capital,” says Matt Rice, one of three partners in the firm with Drew Graham and Paul Johan. “Everyone focuses their money out west in Silicon Valley, or in the Northeast in places like New York and Boston. But Don knew there was plenty of opportunity here, and that's the tradition we're continuing.”