BY MARGARET YOUNG

Money's tight, the days of instant millionaires are gone, and don't even think of getting venture capital funding if you don't have experience. Speakers delivered that sober advice at the Business School's fifth annual Conference on Entrepreneurship Saturday.

Venture capitalists, experienced chief executives and young entrepreneurs all rang a cautionary note, saying that the collapse of the over-the-counter market in April 2000 had made funding for new companies, particularly those founded by novices, extremely difficult to obtain. "It was the biggest bubble I've ever seen in my 40 years of business and the biggest meltdown," said one of the conference's two keynote speakers, William R. Hambrecht, founder of WR Hambrecht + Co. and Hambrecht & Quist. "I think it's difficult to underestimate the damage to the market."

During a panel on women entrepreneurs, Judith Hamilton, chief executive officer of Classroom Connect Inc., a company that markets Web-based curricula, said that "the climate for raising money -- I don't care if you're a man, woman or a chimpanzee -- is really brutal out there."

Venture capitalists agreed. "NASDAQ is giving 1929 a run for its money, and I'm normally an optimist," said Ron Conway, a general partner at Angel Investors, L.P. "It really was a bubble, and it really did burst." Conway saw little prospect for change in the short term. "It's going to stay this way until the IPO market reopens," he said. "Investors are looking for reasons not to invest."

While the current financial outlook is grim for new ventures, speakers did offer ways of coping with the situation and keeping a long-term perspective. Keynote speaker Jeff Hawkins, founder and chairman of Handspring and founder of Palm Computing, noted that the market slowdown also meant less competition. "When you're trying to do something really new, you'll make mistakes," he said. Hawkins advised young entrepreneurs to "go slow; take your time," and debunked the conventional wisdom that being first to market will make or break a company. "PalmPilot came out five years after the Newton came out," he noted.

Others pointed out that while consumer-oriented and even business-to-business oriented dot-coms can't expect ready funding, there are opportunities for startups with cutting-edge technology. "It seems to be a law of the universe that the speed with which an established company can exploit a new technology is slower than a group of sharply focused engineers," said Michael Goguen, partner at Sequoia Capital. Sequoia, he said, was focusing on smaller deals and early-stage startups that would require smaller amounts of funding over the short term.

Hambrecht also highlighted the importance of a good idea. "If you get a bold vision, you realize so much energy that you have a shot at making it," he said.

Besides inspiration, endurance is also key for surviving the current slump, according to Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. "It really is a marathon, not a sprint."

Margaret Young is a freelance writer.