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Tom Stephenson has been on the verge of making something big happen for most of his life. Indeed, thinking big and working hard has its rewards.

I recently toured the new warehouse-redux headquarters for Stephenson's Verge Fund, a venture capital firm located on the top floor of the J.S. Brown Mercantile building in Downtown Albuquerque. I would say he and his partners have crossed the threshold, reaching a new convergence.

I met Stephenson when he was in his Õ20s, shortly after he moved back home to Albuquerque from Austin in 1997 to open up shop for Murphree Venture Partners, one of the state's first venture capital funds. Murphree had just funded Mode, which would become present-day Emcore, one of the region's "home run deals" in venture capital-speak.

Having a sense of his destiny at the time, I dubbed him the Bellwether Kid. His choice to leave a future-of-futures at the tech-hot Austin Technology Incubator to invest his grubstake in New Mexico foretold something important for his home state, as the past 10 years have proved.

It was clear Stephenson had packed some Dell-sized entrepreneurial ambitions along with his household effects and two diplomas when he traded three armadillos for a roadrunner at the state line on his way back.

During the prevailing years, Stephenson and I commiserated and conspired on a number of different catalytic civic ideas, ever-keeping pulse on the pace of change.

Two of our biggest brainstorms led to the creation of the New Mexico Info Tech and Software Association and the New Mexico Venture Capital Association. We also had positive effects serving terms as chairmen of Coronado Ventures Forum, the dynamic gathering of entrepreneurs and investors that meets in Santa Fe and Albuquerque every other month.

Progress happens at the speed of conversation, and so hasten the chatter. Listen for the frequency and volume of entrepreneurial ideas being hatched on napkins at local coffee shops, and you can start a stock market of dreams, or a venture capital firm. As the adage goes, every Starbucks in Seattle is a business incubator.

Several years ago, Stephenson and two of the region's entrepreneurial/venture capital patriarchs, Dave Durgin and Ray Radosevich, threw their fortunes together to launch the aptly named VergeFund.com.

Durgin has been involved in 20 or so successful tech startups in the region, either as entrepreneur or investor and sometimes both. He brought method to the madness of building and selling companies in the past 30 years. More than anyone else, Durgin knows how to succeed in the tech startup arena. If venture capitals hit home run deals, Durgin bats cleanup.

Radosevich is the former dean of the Anderson Schools of Management at the University of New Mexico, the region's first real champion of the entrepreneur and a scholar of tech transfer. He established several organizations, including the New Mexico Entrepreneurs Association, that have guided countless people along their paths. Before Verge, Radosevich was the regional partner for Valley Ventures, an endeavor he shared with Durgin.

Joining the dynamic trio at Verge is a roster of New Mexico's freshly minted entrepreneurial stars. It is an amazing team lineup on scale.

Bill Bice built and sold ProLaw, a powerhouse in the law firm information automation business. Ron McPhee, with Durgin's help, took Health First from an idea in a university physiology professor's head to selling it to Polar, the Finnish fitness firm. Jim Higdon led the dramatic growth of CVI Laser when he was CEO. He then negotiated its sale for a 20 percent annualized return for investors.

The state Investment Council's venture capital program is also a very strategic partner to Verge's success, helping seed Verge investments in new companies like Boomtime, TruTouch, Altela, Wellkeeper and Quadric.

It was Bice's and McPhee's purchase and keen remodel of the Verge building that gives their progress its new place.

As Brad Key, chairman of the New Mexico Info Tech and Software Association, noted on our tour, "Boston, meet Albuquerque."

Burge is president of the New Mexico IT and Software Association and principal at Proactive Teams.