Searching for New Directions

How do I make sense of it? I still believe in the disruptive impact of technology on how business works, how companies organize, even how governments deliver services. What I no longer believe is that technology alone is powerful enough to displace long-standing incumbents. In that sense, govWorks was too ambitious. We clearly underestimated the time needed for governments -- or any other entity, for that matter -- to adopt a new technology and integrate it into their existing operations. I also learned that you can't take for granted your employees, customers, competition, and, as many of us found out, your sources of capital.

It's been a humbling year, but I haven't given up on the promise of long-term change. Now is the time for smart, forward-looking investors to reevaluate companies and get back in the game. I'm especially interested in companies that are currently out of favor, distressed, and even bankrupt, because there's a lot of value to be unlocked in many of them. And in a couple of years, we will see the benefits of the massive infrastructure buildout of the past five years.

Like many of my peers, I'd say that this has been the most difficult professional environment that I've ever faced. But I'm too young to be embittered. I'm only 28. By going through an experience that in many ways can be classified as a failure, I grew up -- fast.

José E. Feliciano (jose@tennenco.com) joined Special Value Investment Management LLC, a Tennebaum & Co. affiliate, last April. Now defunct, govWorks's rise and fall was immortalized in the documentary film Startup.com.