Beyond all the buzz of next-big-thing technologies, visionary entrepreneurs and furious networking, the bottom-line reality is that even great ideas need money.

The Washington area is now anchored by giants like America Online Inc. and MCI Communications Corp. and inspired by start-up stock-market successes like Ciena Corp. and Yurie Systems Inc. But as it matures as a technology center, Washington must also cultivate a financial network to nurture its neighborhood companies and keep Washington investments in the nation’s tech pipeline.

The financial circuitry is now being built by venture capitalists, which include wealthy individuals known as “angel” investors; investment and commercial bankers; experts in IPOs (initial public offerings) and M & A (mergers and acquisitions).

Finding money – and from the VC’s perspective, finding a good company to invest in – is not easy. "People will get stars in their eyes about potential returns," says Mark Warner, managing director of investment firm Columbia Capital in Alexandria and former U.S. Senate candidate from Virginia. "You’re not going to have every entrepreneur funded."

Bob Nelson, CEO of Reston-based Internet start-up CrossMedia, agrees. "There’s a real disconnect in expectations," he says. "The area needs more maturity about how the VC process works."

Silicon Valley also went through a process of self-education when it came to financing technology companies. It’s still experiencing growing pains – witness the wavering fortunes of Netscape Communications Corp.

In Washington, traditional money sources like commercial banks have found it particularly difficult to adjust to the speedier life cycle and uncertain marketplace of the technology industry. Fred Bollerer, former CEO of Riggs Bank and the new president of Potomac KnowlegeWay in Herndon, agrees, and warns that "banks [in D.C.] have got to change or die." But Bollerer is confident that the financial infrastructure will grow and change. Led by the example of Silicon Valley Bank (which has an office in Northern Virginia), Bollerer thinks banks here will learn tech lending.

On the investment-banking side, local firms such as Ferris, Baker Watts Inc. of Baltimore and the Arlington-based Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group are leading the tech charge. However, it is important not only for these firms to invest in and track Washington companies, but for them to grow and adjust to the rapid-fire pace of technology.

For example, FBR was ranked as the top firm in the country in lead IPOs in the first quarter of 1998 by Securities Data Corp. The company, which went public in December of 1997, is a model of growth itself. "Our world has changed," says W. Russell Ramsey, president of FBR. "A year ago we were a small company."

Especially in the IPO market, FBR is an anomaly in Washington. Ramsey prides himself on the firm’s physical distance from both Wall Street and Silicon Valley. "Despite what a lot of people say, we don’t have Silicon Valley envy," says Ramsey. "We really believe this area has got its own home-grown strengths."

The Washington region also boasts an East Coast VC powerhouse: Baltimore’s New Enterprise Associates, which makes mostly early-stage investments in information technology companies such as UUNet and NetStart (now CareerBuilder Inc.).

Some of the area’s other top technology VCs include Timonium-based Grotech Capital Group, which provided early funding for Digex Inc.; McLean-based Blue Water Capital LLC, which helped fund Landmark Systems Corp.; and Novak Biddle Venture Partners of Reston.

There are also a growing number of funds that are specific to a certain industry or type of company, such as Calvert Social Venture Partners in Bethesda, which invests in companies that serve a social purpose; Reston’s SpaceVest Inc., which helps bankroll space-related businesses; and Women’s Growth Capital Fund in Washington, D.C., which invests exclusively in women-owned businesses.

And then there are the "angels," investors who pour money into private companies, and range from friends and family of the entrepreneur to "super-angels" like Potomac KnowledgeWay founder Mario Morino and AOL co-founder James Kimsey. Local groups like Morino's KnowledgeWay and the University of Maryland's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship offer networking opportunities for needy start-up firms and investors. John May, an area venture capitalist who is a regular at such networking events, also runs the Private Investor’s Network – a firm dedicated to facilitating relationships between angels and growing companies.

The infrastructure exists, the good ideas keep coming, and the investors are hungry for the next "killer app." The trick: Fostering awareness, networking like crazy, and realizing that growing pains are just part of the process. Stay tuned, Washington.