VLAB

The Business of the Brain
2010-05-18 18:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
The Business of the Brain **Video Available!**

When

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment

7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where

Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School

Event Description:
Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) promises a quantum leap in human interaction with technology—enabling our thoughts and emotions to control devices and enabling devices to know what were “really thinking” and feeling. Currently, there are more than 300 million brain toting people in the United States alone, making the opportunities for BCI products far-reaching.
BCI is bringing fresh and often unexpected perspectives to established industries, from entertainment and transportation to medicine and information systems. In this emergent phase of consumer-related BCI, innovators are redefining sleep management, gaming, user interfacing, courtroom evidence, and national security—and this is only the beginning.
For the first time, neuroscientists and savvy entrepreneurs, from a number of traditionally unrelated industries, are teaming up to move BCI technology out of research and medical labs and into our everyday lives. The Business of the Brain event will address the challenges and opportunities of this exciting revolution, including limitations of wet sensors, noise interference, government regulation, novel user interfaces, designing industry-specific BCI applications and the cost engineering of current applications.
Meet the minds behind this wave and find out how entrepreneurs are using the way we think to drive the future of technology.

MODERATOR

Christie Nicholson
Freelance Science Journalist; Contributing Editor, Scientific American
Christie Nicholson is a science journalist based in New York. She hosts and produces Scientific American’s 60-Second Psych, which covers the latest research in neuroscience. Last year she participated in Discovery Channel’s Neuroethics Salon, that culminated in her co-authoring a Nature paper on communicating ethical issues in neuroscience. This year she spoke on brain-machine interfaces at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, TX. She is an on-air contributor to Web and TV shows on Slate, Scientific American, Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. A graduate of Columbia University’s School of Journalism, she co-created the “Science of Sex,” that won two Webby Awards. Currently a contributing editor at Scientific American, she teaches Web journalism each summer at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

PRESENTER

David P. Dickinson
President & C.E.O., Zeo, Inc.
After a long career with four Fortune 500 corporations, Dave is now the Chief Executive Officer of Zeo, Inc. (f/k/a Axon Labs), an early stage startup founded by an entrepreneurial team of computer science and engineering students at Brown University.

Prior to Zeo, he was the Chief Operating Officer and a division President/CEO of StemCyte, a global umbilical cord blood stem cell banking company. In addition, Dave has held numerous executive positions including Director and President/CEO of Pericor Science, and Vice President, New Ventures, and Vice President, Global New Business Development/Innovation for the Mead Johnson Nutritionals Division of Bristol-Myers Squibb after starting his career in brand management with Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products and sales with Procter & Gamble. Dave received a B.S. in Industrial Economics from Union College in 1977 and an MBA in Marketing from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 1982.

PANELISTS

Lawrence A. Farwell, PhD
Chairman & Chief Scientist, Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories
Dr. Farwell invented Brain Fingerprinting, a scientific technology for detecting concealed information in the brain using EEG. It proved over 99% accurate at the FBI, CIA, and US Navy, was ruled admissible in court, and helped catch a serial killer and free an innocent murder convict.

He invented the first EEG-based brain-computer interface, using EEG to communicate to a computer. He patented a system using brainwaves in detection of Alzheimer’s. He conducted pioneering research using brainwaves to determine the impact of advertising. He is a Harvard graduate, former Harvard research associate, and Chairman and Chief Scientist of Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories, Inc. TIME Magazine selected him to the TIME 100: The Next Wave, the innovators who may be “the Picassos or Einsteins of the 21st Century.”

James Sullivan
VP of World Wide Sales, NeuroSky
James Sullivan brought over 25 years of experience in high-tech sales experience in both hardware and software, to the NeuroSky founding team. Through his success developing OEM/ODM relationships and technology partnerships he was able to identify the unique opportunity of creating a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) platform technology that focuses on usability and low cost.
Prior to NeuroSky Jim was involved in several early stage and start up opportunities, and was part of explosive growth and success on more than one occasion including an IPO and follow on Public Offerings. His success has included tenures at Lanier, Canon, Arrow Electronics, Novell and Nuance Communications.

Timothy Chang
Principal, Norwest Venture Partners
Tim brings a combination of operational, technical and international business experience to NVP. He focuses on investments in mobile, gaming, digital media, and also leads NVP’s investment practice in China and Asia-Pacific. Tim led NVP’s investments in and joined the boards of directors of ngmoco, Lumos Labs, Brite Semiconductor and 3jam. He also led NVP’s investment in PCH International, a turnkey global supply chain services firm based in Shenzhen. Tim is a board observer working closely with Borqs, deCarta, Double Fusion and Veveo.

Jamie Hyneman
Host of Mythbusters and Serial Entrepreneur
Jamie Hyneman is now best known as the host of the Discovery Channel’s Emmy-nominated program, “MythBusters.” He has worked on 800-plus commercials and feature films, holds several patents, has a degree in Russian linguistics from Indiana University, an engineering degree from University of Maine, and a Doctor of Engineering Degree from Villanova University (both honorary). He has been a Screen Actor’s Guild member for over a decade, is a member of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators, a member of the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, and a lifetime member of the California Teacher’s Association.

Today, while his work for the Discovery Channel occupies the majority of Hyneman’s professional time, he is actively involved in developing cutting edge technologies and prototypes for a variety of industries, ranging from defense and aerospace to green vehicle design.

The Future of Video
2010-04-27 18:00 - 20:30 | Fenwick & West LLP, 801 California Street, Mountain View, CA, 94041, United States
Draper Fisher Jurvetson and VLAB present a special event – The Future of Video

When
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
6:00PM to 6:30PM – Registration and Networking
6:30PM to 7:45PM – Main Event
7:45PM to 8:30PM – Networking

Where
Fenwick & West LLP
Silicon Valley Center
801 California Street
Mountain View, California 94041

Event Description:
The way we consume video is inexorably changing. YouTube alone sees a full day’s worth of video content (24 hours) uploaded to its servers every minute. The iPhone changed everything in regard to consumption of video on the go and now the iPad is shepherding in a new generation of smart mobile platforms that will enable video consumption to be richer and more flexible than ever seen. Content, conduit, and consumption are all expanding. What will the next phase of the video ecosystem look like and how will it be monetized? What metaphor will dominate how end consumers navigate the unfathomably large volumes of video available? Who will win in the new value chain?

Moderator

David Price, VP Business Devlopment, Harmonic Inc

Panel

Erick Hachenburg, CEO – Metacafe

David McIntosh, CEO – Redux
Margaret Stewart, Head of User Experience – YouTube
Michael Yang, Venture Partner – Comcast Interactive Capital, Former VP Yahoo Media Group
Paul Wehrley, Co-founder and COO of Clicker, former VP Strategy IAC

Register Now!!

Please click here to log into your VLAB account before registering

For any questions, please email ebf@vlab.org

Bios
David Price, Vice President, Business Development and Corporate Communications – Harmonic Inc
David is responsible for pioneering Harmonic’s leading position in digital video broadcast, contribution, distribution and IP-based delivery technologies. An experienced speaker, he has presented at many conferences throughout the world. He has over 27 years experience in the telecommunications industry and is currently Vice President of the MPEG Industry Forum. Mr. Price was selected in 2003, 2004 and 2009 as one of the “Euro 50” by Cable & Satellite Europe. Originally, an electronics engineer on the design team of the world’s first CAT scan system, he graduated from CIT with a Fellowship MBA and has an Honors Bachelors degree in Cybernetics, Instrument Physics and Mathematics.

Erick Hachenburg, CEO – Metacafe
Erick brings more than 15 years of experience in market creation, global expansion, operations and publishing to his role as Metacafe CEO.

Prior to joining Metacafe, Erick was Electronic Art’s senior vice president of global online publishing and managing director of EA China. In this role, he developed and led key strategic initiatives, including the company’s entry into the digital distribution of retail games. Erick joined EA following the company’s 2001 acquisition of Pogo.com, the industry leader in the casual games market that he founded and built to nearly 1.5 million subscribers.

Erick began his career as an intellectual property attorney at Fenwick & West. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois.
David McIntosh, CEO – Redux

David is the founder and CEO of Redux, a crowd sourced video company that taps into users’ friends and people that share their interests to deliver a uniquely addictive and personalized entertainment experience. David previously co-founded the mobile photo sharing site, Fotodunk, which was acquired by iLike, and while at Prosper, built most of the site’s loan performance visualizations. BusinessWeek named Mr.McIntosh one of the top 25 US Entrepreneurs under 25 in 2007.

Margaret Stewart, Head of User Experience – You Tube

Margaret Gould Stewart manages the User Experience Team for YouTube. Prior to that, she spent two years leading Search and Consumer Products UX at Google.
Margaret has been a practitioner and manager in the field of User Experience for over 10 years. After graduating from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program in 1995, Margaret consulted extensively with New York media companies such as the New York Times, Time-Warner, and Scholastic to develop many of their first forays into the web.
She subsequently joined Tripod, Inc, the pioneering homepage building site and online community, in 1995 as its first Creative Director. Tripod was acquired by Lycos, Inc in 1998. Margaret served as General Manager of Tripod.com and Angelfire.com, and then as Senior Director of Network Design and Integration for the Lycos Network. In 2005, she joined Wachovia as its Web Usability Manager. She relocated to California in early 2007 to join Google, and in early 2009 moved to YouTube to lead their user experience team. Over the course of her career, Margaret has had the privilege of managing the user experience of 5 top 10 most visited websites in the world.
Margaret has served on the jury for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards, and is a frequent speaker about design, user experience, creative management, and the changing landscape of media at a variety of industry events such as the TED Conference, Adaptive Path’s Managing Experience Conference, and The Future of Design Conference at the University of Michigan.

Michael Yang, Venture Partner – Comcast Interactive Capital
Michael is a Venture Partner at CIC based in our Silicon Valley office. He is involved in sourcing, identifying, and evaluating new investment opportunities and is actively part of the decision making process at the fund. Prior to joining CIC, Michael was a Vice President/General Manager at Yahoo! in the Media Group as well as the Local Markets & Commerce Division. During his tenure at Yahoo!, he managed Yahoo! Autos, Yahoo! Real Estate and Yahoo! Health; co-led Yahoo! Shopping; and was part of the team that formed Yahoo!’s strategic alliance with the Newspaper Consortium. Previously, he was a Principal with Atlas Venture, a trans-Atlantic venture capital firm, where he focused on early stage enterprise software and IT investments in New England. Earlier in his career, he served as senior director of product marketing and business development for Zaplet, a venture-backed collaboration software company, and was a member of AOL’s Business Affairs team which focused on e-commerce and interactive marketing partnerships. Michael graduated from Harvard University with an MBA. He also graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Economics from The Wharton

Paul Wehrley, Co-founder and COO – Clicker
Paul leads all business operations functions at Clicker. Prior to founding Clicker, Paul spent nine years at Ask.com / IAC in both operational and M&A roles. As Ask’s VP Strategy & Operations, he oversaw the Ask P&L, drove its strategic planning process, and managed the company’s business development group. Previously, as Ask’s VP Corporate Development, he completed over 15 M&A transactions, including the acquisitions of Teoma Technologies, Interactive Search Holdings, and Bloglines. Before working at Ask, Paul was a Financial Analyst in the mergers & acquisitions group at Volpe Brown Whelan & Co, a San Francisco-based technology investment bank. Paul holds a BA in Economics from Stanford University. rd University.

Innovation, Inspiration, and Fundraising: Secret Recipes from Leading VCs
2010-04-26 18:00 - 20:30 | Fenwick & West LLP, 801 California Street, Mountain View, CA, 94041, United States
Innovation, Inspiration and Fundraising – Secret Recipes from Leading VCs
Tips and strategies from leading VC’s in the valley.

When
Tuesday, April 26, 2010
6:00PM to 7:00PM – Registration and Networking
7:00PM to 8:15PM – Main Event
Where

Fenwick & West LLP
801 California Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
Event Description:
Venture capitalists invested $21.8 billion in 3,277 deals in 2010, an increase of 19 percent in dollars and a 12 percent rise in deals over the prior year according to latest MoneyTree Report, which tracks the industry. The rise in venture investments in 2010 represents the first time the annual investment level has increased since 2007.
Now that you have decided to launch a company, how do you ensure that you have the right recipe for a successful business? What does it take for an innovative idea to land a top investor in its early days? How do investors gauge the chances of success for a startup beyond early days? How do they partner with entrepreneurs to ensure a successful exit?
Our event panel, consisting of top notch silicon valley investors, will discuss their secret recipe for picking the right startups early on and helping them become successful businesses.
This event is a special VLAB fundraiser event for Japan Tsunami Relief. All ticket proceeds will be donated to American RedCross.

Moderator

* Peter Sims, Author, “LITTLE BETS”, speaker, and entrepreneur
Speakers
* Howard Hartenbaum, August Capital
* Jeff Clavier, SoftTech VC
* Rob Coneybeer, Managing Director, Shasta Ventures

For any questions, please email ebf@vlab.org

Detailed Bios

Peter Sims
Peter Sims is an author, LITTLE BETS, speaker, and entrepreneur. He was the coauthor with Bill George of True North, the Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek best-selling book. His next book is Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries, from Simon & Schuster: Free Press. His work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Tech Crunch, and Fortune and he’s a contributor to the Reuters, Fast Company, and Harvard Business Review blogs. He received an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business where he and several classmates established a popular course on leadership and has had long collaboration with faculty at Stanford’s Institute of Design (the d.school). He frequently speaks or advises at corporations, associations, and universities, including Cisco Systems, Eli Lilly, Current Media, Qualcomm, and Stanford University. Previously, he worked in venture capital with Summit Partners, a leading investment firm, including as part of the team that established the firm’s London Office.
He lives in San Francisco and his great-great-great grandfather, Jacob Gundlach, founded Gundlach Bundschu (GunBun) in Sonoma, California’s oldest family-owned winery, which is run today by his cousins who, unlike Peter, know a lot about wine.

Howard Hartenbaum, Partner, August Capital
Howard Hartenbaum joined August Capital in 2008. Prior to joining, he served as a General Partner at Draper Richards LP where he was the founding investor in Skype and a former member of the board of directors where his achievement resulted in his joining the Forbes Midas List of top venture capitalists.
Before entering the venture capital field, Howard was at Hughes Electronics, where he was responsible for supporting business development, marketing and sales of satellite, information security and automotive technologies developed by HRL Laboratories. He also worked in engineering positions in ergonomics and user experience at Honda Motor Company and manufacturing at Teledyne Relays.
Howard has worked overseas for a total of ten years in Luxembourg and Japan. He is a graduate of M.I.T.
Current Investments: Bubbli, Livemocha, Memolane, Pixazza, and RelayRides.
Previous investments: Skype (acquired by eBay – EBAY), Photobucket (acquired by Fox Interactive Media – NWS), Bebo (acquired by AOL – TWX), Netkraft (acquired by Adea Solutions) and DimDim (acquired by Salesforce.com – CRM)
Jeff Clavier, SoftTech VC
Jean-Francois “Jeff” Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Web 2.0 startups. Since 2004, Jeff has invested in close to 100 consumer internet startups (Fund I, Fund II, Fund III) in areas like social media, monetization, search, gaming or B2B/B2C web services. These investments are typically located in Silicon Valley, New-York and Boulder. With over 20 years of operational, entrepreneurial and venture capital experience, Jeff is able to add relevant perspective and value to his companies as they grow from inception to maturity, and hopefully, success.
In 2007, Jeff was recognized as one of the 13 “Web 2.0 King Makers” by (late) Business 2.0. BusinessWeek named him one of “The 25 Most Influential People on the Web” in 2008, and one of the “Top 25 Angels in Tech” in 2010. He was also nominated in the “Best Angel” category at the Crunchies in 2009 and 2010. He is often noted for his investments in categories such as “passion-centric communities” or online gaming, or for having sold a number of his Web 2.0 startups to the likes of Yahoo, AOL, Intuit or more recently Twitter and Groupon.
In September 2007, after successfully investing as a business angel, Jeff announced the formation of SoftTech VC II, L.P. – a $15M seed fund backed by a mix of institutional and private investors to invest in 60+ consumer Internet companies over 3 years.
Some of Jeff’s representative investments include Mint (Intuit), Brightroll, Truveo (AOL), Userplane (AOL), Rapleaf, Ustream, Milo (eBay), Blekko, Eventbrite, Tapulous (Disney), DNANexus, FanBridge, BillFloat,…
Rob Coneybeer, Shasta Ventures
Rob Coneybeer brings to Shasta Ventures deep experience in building startup companies. Prior to co-founding Shasta Ventures, he was a general partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA) where he led 15 early-stage investments in core infrastructure technologies spanning semiconductors, software and networking equipment. Prior to joining the venture capital industry, Rob served as a lead integration and test engineer in the Astro Space division of Martin Marietta. While at Martin Marietta, Rob helped build the first EchoStar spacecraft.
Rob’s current areas of active interest include mobile, wireless, and sensors, as well as technology applications that leverage new infrastructure technologies in novel and creative ways. He is particularly interested in startups that have discovered creative new approaches to connecting the “real world” to the Internet, whether via smartphones, low-cost sensors, or other innovative new devices.
Rob earned a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia. He also holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was named a Palmer Scholar.

For any questions, please email ebf@vlab.org

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Dissecting the High-Tech Term Sheet: A Look at the Latest Trends and Structural Issues in VC Investing
2010-04-15 18:00 - 20:30 | Sonnenschein, 1530 Page Mill Road, Suite 200, Palo Alto, CA, United States
Sponsor Event: Sonnenschein Presents, CEO Bootcamp
Dissecting the High-Tech Term Sheet: A Look at the Latest Trends and Structural Issues in VC Investing
Featuring:

North Bridge Venture Partners
Cali X. Tran, Principal

Sequoia Capital
Christopher Olsen, Partner

Blumberg Capital
Bruce K. Taragin, Managing Director

Sonnenschein Venture Technology Group
Daniel R. Zimmermann, Partner

When: Thursday, April 15, 2010
8:00 am – 10:00 am

Where: Sonnenschein, 1530 Page Mill Rd. Suite 200, Palo Alto, CA

RSVP Here!
Please indicate:
…if you are a member of VLAB
…your profession (and optionally, your interest)

Contact Maria DeLuca at mdeluca@sonnenschein.com with any questions.

A Sprout Incubator event.

Sonnenschein Venture Technology Group is ranked in the Top 10 nationally by Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst. Our CEO Boot Camp Series brings together senior management of emerging growth technology companies and leaders in the tech sector for an informal discussion of industry trends and topical issues.

Entrepreneurs: Uncensored
2010-03-30 18:00 - 20:30 | Fenwick & West LLP, 801 California Street, Mountain View, CA, 94041, United States
Draper Fisher Jurvetson and VLAB present Entrepreneurs – Uncensored!
Speaker Series 4 – ‘”How I beat my competition by out-executing them’ with Gurbaksh Chahal and Lyle Fong”.

When
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
6:00PM to 6:30PM – Registration and Networking
6:30PM to 7:45PM – Main Event
7:45PM to 8:30PM – Networking

Where
Fenwick & West LLP
Silicon Valley Center
801 California Street
Mountain View, California 94041

Event Description:
You have the right idea for your business. You have recognized your target. You are focused on making your service ubiquitous and coping with growing pains. You equate success with managing the customer experience. You want to be unique.

The myth in the valley is if you want to start a business, you have to be different from the very beginning. Not true at all. Out-executing the competition to get to parity and then innovating to trump competition works very well too.

Come join Gurbaksh Chahal and Lyle Fong as they discuss how ideas are overrated and how one can compete on execution.

Moderator

Ravi Belani, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Panel
Gurbaksh Chalal – Founder & CEO, gWallet
Lyle Fong – CEO & Co-Founder, Lithium

Bios
Gurbaksh Chahal
Gurbaksh is a die-hard internet entrepreneur. In January 1999, he started his first company, ClickAgents at the age of 16. It was one of the first ad networks focused around performance based advertising. Eighteen months later he sold it for $40 million to ValueClick
In January 2004, he launched his second company, BlueLithium. The company was focused on data, optimization, and analytics and became a pioneer of behavioral targeting. BlueLithium was named one of the top 100 private companies in America three years in a row by AlwaysOn, and in 2006, it received highest honor as Top Innovator of the Year. (Previous winners included Google, Skype, and Salesforce.com.) On September 4th, 2007, Yahoo! announced that it was acquiring BlueLithium for $300 million in cash.
He has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Bonnie Hunt, EXTRA, Neil Cavuto, among others, and has been profiled in such publications as The New York Times, Entrepreneur magazine, and The San Francisco Chronicle.
Chahal is also an international best selling author of “The Dream,” the true to life inspirational tale of his entrepreneurial journey. In September 2009, Chahal launched, gWallet, a virtual currency platform for social media.
Lyle Fong
Lyle is responsible for the strategic direction and corporate vision at Lithium. He assumed the role of CEO in December, 2006.
Prior to starting Lithium Technologies, Lyle co-founded GX Media, where he was the CTO. He drove the development of Gamers.com, which was rated the #1 independent gaming portal by Nielsen NetRatings. Lyle was instrumental in raising a total of $15M in funding led by CMGI, negotiating multi-million dollar technology licensing deals with Dell, Sony, AltaVista, and Ziff-Davis, and spearheading the spin-off of Lithium Technologies. Lyle was also the driving force behind the creation of technologies for professional gaming, including a global rankings system, tournament engine, and a real-time match reporting and spectating system. These technologies were the key success factors behind the AMD PGL, the most successful and highly acclaimed professional gaming league to date with over 100 million media impressions, and also numerous tournaments for Sega.
Before Lithium Technologies and GX Media, Lyle launched two other startups – a specialized computer services business which has since expanded into one of the largest ISPs in China and a software consulting business, NetStreams.
Lyle studied at UC Berkeley, majoring in Computer Science, where he received the Hewlett-Packard Scholarship Award and National Youth Leadership Award.

Ravi Belani
Ravi Belani is an Associate at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, where he serveson the boards of DesiHits, Redux, LiveMedia, TinyPictures, YieldSoftware, and Vizu. Ravi also led the firm’s investments in Komli andPubmatic.
Ravi is a Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi graduate of Stanford University, holding a BS with Distinction and MS in IndustrialEngineering and Engineering Management. Ravi also holds an MBA fromHarvard Business School. As a Board Fellow at Harvard, Ravi served theGlobal Board of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). Ravi is also a graduateof the Kauffman Fellows Program.

For any questions, please email ebf@vlab.org

The Internet of Things: Sensors Everywhere
2010-03-16 18:00 - 20:30 | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
The Internet of Things: Sensors Everywhere ***SOLD OUT***

When

Tuesday, March 16, 2010
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where

Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School

Event Description:

Today, an increasing number ofpervasive and connected sensors are intelligently monitoring our dailylives and contributing to the rapid dissolution of the divide betweenour physical and digital worlds. This sensor revolution is creating anew layer of the Internet — what some analysts and researchers callthe “Internet of Things”.

Driven mainly by innovations inpower consumption, size and ubiquitous connectivity, sensors aregathering and reporting data on a variety of areas including medical,transportation, energy, security, general consumer and industrialmanufacturing.
Gartner reports “By year end 2012, physical sensors will create 20 percent of non-video internet traffic.”
Come discover how new companies are addressing sensor-based market opportunities.

What sensors are currently embedded in the world, what data are they producing and how are businesses leveraging that data?
The coming 5 years promises to hold an explosion of ubiquitously embedded devices and sensors. Where will these sensors be and what will they do? And how will the data and analytics be of value to businesses and consumers?
What will be the primary pain points in a world characterised by sensors everywhere?
What are the top opportunities for start ups in the space and what will business models look like?

MODERATOR

Michael Chui, Senior Fellow, McKinsey Global Institute

PRESENTER

Anant Agrawal, Co-Founder, Cantaloupe Systems

PANELISTS

Dr. Peter G. Hartwell, Senior Researcher, HP-Labs
Warren Hogarth, Venture Capitalist, Sequoia Capital
Henry Holtzman, Chief Knowledge Officer, MIT Media Labs
Andrew M. Thompson, Chief Executive Officer, Proteus Biomedical

BIO’S
Michael Chui, Senior Fellow, McKinsey Global Institute
Michael Chui is a Senior Fellow of the McKinsey Global Institute. He is based in San Francisco, CA, where he directs research on the impact of information technologies, such as Web 2.0 and the Internet of Things, on business and the economy. He has served clients in the High Tech, Media and Telecom industries on strategy, innovation and product development, IT, sales & marketing, M&A and organization. His research has been cited globally in publications such as Fast Company, The Times, and Les Échos.

Michael holds a B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University and earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science, and a M.S. in Computer Science, from Indiana University. His Ph.D. dissertation, entitled “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For: Web Searching as Query Refinement,” examined Web user search behaviors and the usability of Web search engines.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Michael served as the first Chief Information Officer of the City of Bloomington, Indiana, where he re-architected the enterprise architecture using Open Source technologies and led a project that resulted in Bloomington becoming the first community in the world to offer both live and archived video streaming of public meetings on the Web.
Before that, Michael was founder and executive director of HoosierNet, Inc, a nonprofit cooperative Internet service provider that provided dial-up and broadband access to the Internet to consumers, nonprofits, governments and businesses.

PRESENTER
Anant Agrawal, Co-Founder, Cantaloupe Systems

Anant Agrawal is the Co-founder, Director and Head of Sales and Marketing for Cantaloupe Systems, Inc. of Berkeley, CA. Cantaloupe Systems is the leading provider of wireless remote machine monitoring systems and software management services for the Vending industry. More than 120 of this country’s largest vending operators employ Cantaloupe’s “Seed” Wireless Monitoring and SaaS Solutions. Currently, these vendors have equipped over 40,000 of their machines with Seed units and between 3,000 and 4,000 new units are being added each month.
Since its inception in 2002, Cantaloupe Systems has received numerous industry awards for its innovative technology and its achievements as well as being recognized by leading business publications. Forbes Magazine, in its December 14, 2009 edition, began its two page article on Cantaloupe with the headline; “Cantaloupe Systems brings order to vending’s chaos.” In addition Cantaloupe has been profiled in the prestigious Inc. 500 and the SF Business Times Fastest Growing Private Companies lists.

Anant has held several leadership positions including supply chain management, financial controls, product management and engineering before heading up Cantaloupe’s Sales and Marketing efforts. Anant holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.A. in Economics from UCLA.

PANELISTS
Dr. Peter G. Hartwell, Senior Researcher, HP-Labs
Dr. Peter G. Hartwell is currently a senior researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Palo Alto, California. As a member of the Information and Quantum Systems Lab, he is the lead of the Central Nervous System for the Earth (CeNSE) team developing a broad sensing system to bring environmental awareness to information technology infrastructure. CeNSE was selected one of 20 “World Changing Ideas” in the December 2009 issue of Scientific American. Peter has extensive experience in commercializing silicon MEMS products, working on advanced sensors and actuators, and specializes in MEMS testing techniques. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1992 with a B.S.E in Materials Science and from Cornell University in 1999 with a PhD in Electrical Engineering. He did brief post doctoral work at HP Labs before joining the staff in 2000. His work at HP has been documented in numerous technical papers, patents, and articles in publications such as The New York Times, Forbes, IEEE Spectrum, and EETimes.
Warren Hogarth, VC, Sequoia Capital
Warren is a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital focusing on clean technology and energy investments. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2008, Warren completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering, where he developed fuel cell technology. During this time, he was a visiting Fulbright Scholar to Princeton University and a Guest Scientist at Germanys Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. Warren has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland. In addition to being early stage investors in such companies as Apple, Cisco and Google, Sequoia’s current investments in the wireless/sensor space include eMeter, eCardio, SynapSense, Jasper Wireless, Quantenna and Ruckus Wireless.
Henry Holtzman, Chief Knowledge Officer, MIT Media Labs
Henry Holtzman has been a member of the MIT community since 1981, joining the Media Lab as a researcher when it opened in 1985. Currently, he is the Lab’s Chief Knowledge Officer, director of the Digital Life consortium, and director of the Information Ecology research group. In addition, Holtzman directs the Lab’s CE 2.0 initiative, a collaboration with Media Lab sponsor companies to formulate the principles for a new generation of consumer electronics that are highly connected, seamlessly interoperable, situation-aware, and radically simple.

Holtzman has led research projects in the areas of tangible networking and image compression, resulting in desktop applications for RFID such as the Smart Mousepad, multicast network architectures for multimedia, IP television, scale-free image representation, and knowledge-based video representation. As a member of the MPEG standardization committee, he helped to define MPEG-2 video technology, used in DirecTV, DVD, digital cable, and digital TV broadcasting. Holtzman has been granted multiple patents for his inventions.

Holtzman has extensive experience with RFID, computer programming, hardware design, operating systems, and network architecture. He was founder, CEO, and CTO of Presto Technologies, Inc., a Media Lab spinoff that introduced the “Internet of Things” to the market, including many novel uses for RFID. He received his MS in media arts and sciences, and his BS in computer science, both from MIT.
Andrew M. Thompson, Chief Executive Officer, Proteus Biomedical
Mr. Thompson is President, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Proteus Biomedical and has led the company since inception. His vision for Intelligent Medicine is focused on expanding global access to care, dramatically increasing the value delivered by drugs and creating a sustainable model for innovation that leverages computer technology in healthcare.
Mr. Thompson began his career as an industrial trainee at Metal Box PLC. Later he was a management consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton specializing in operations management. For the last 20 years he has lived in Silicon Valley and focused on the start-up and development of technology based medical businesses. Companies that have completed successful IPOs or have been acquired by Fortune 100 businesses where he played an important role include: Cell Genesys (NASDAQ IPO), Cytotherapeutics (NASDAQ IPO), Abgenix (NASDAQ IPO), CardioRhythm (acquired by Medtronic), FemRx (NASDAQ IPO, acquired by J&J), Northstar Neuroscience (NASDAQ IPO) and QRx Pharmaceuticals (ASX IPO).
Andrew Thompson grew up in the United Kingdom and was educated at Cambridge University, where he gained an M.A. in engineering. He was a United Kingdom National Engineering Scholar from 1982 to 1985. He also holds an M.A. in education from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
He is married with five children and lives in Portola Valley California. Andrew is active in his community as a soccer coach, Sunday school teacher, Cub Scout Den Leader and School Board Member.

Biofuels 2.0: Sustainable Startups - from Garage to Gargantuan
2010-02-16 18:00 - 20:30 | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
Biofuels 2.0: Sustainable Startups – from Garage to Gargantuan

When

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where

Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School

When

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where

Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School

When

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where

Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School

Event Description:

Biofuels 1.0 focused on using traditional techniques to derive ethanol from food crops. While many companies saw initial success, increases in the cost of food combined with falling oil prices sent ripples through the entire biofuels industry. A new generation of startups, Biofuels 2.0, is once again tackling the opportunity in liquid fuels. Some innovative technologies also offer alternatives to the use of fossil fuels for plastics, fertilizers, and commercial chemicals — creating additional ways to leverage investments and diversify markets.Armed with lessons learned, new business models, advancements in biotechnology, and an evolved understanding of how to minimize and control social and environmental impacts—all eyes are set on claiming a substantial portion of the global $3 trillion+ petroleum-based fuels market.
A panel of industry leaders, including early-stage biofuel CEOs, will discuss whether biofuels 2.0 can really provide sustainably better solutions, and how a new generation of companies are going from Garage to Gargantuan.
* Sustainability of business models, scaleability, and environmental impacts
* Opportunities for small, bootstrap startups in the biofuels value chain
* How failures in biofuels 1.0 are creating new opportunities in 2.0
* Counterpoint: The dark side of the revolution
* How to know if a company is sustainable
* Exit strategies and cheap oil: What models are most viable? What do VCs think about Biofuels 2.0?
* Industry partnerships: How best to use them to scale
* Informatics and genomics: Exponential drivers for development
This event is co-sponsored by BayBIO.org, the voice of the Bay Area biotechnology community, and CleanTech.org, the preeminent local investment community focused on game-changing technologies.

Moderator:

Jim Lane, Editor/Publisher of the BioFuels Digest

Jim Lane is Editor & Publisher of Biofuels Digest, the world’s most widely-read biofuels daily. He also publishes Biomass Digest, Biofuels Digest Asia, Geothermal Digest, and World Biofuels Markets. Biotech Digest launches later this year. He is author of nine books – most recently Citizen Cane: Essays for New Days in Bioenergy; his tenth, The National Energy Solution, is being published serially in the Digest this year. Jim was formerly a Senior Principal Consultant in clean energy at KEMA; prior to that, a group publisher at Reed Elsevier. He started his career at Harper’s. Lane has a BA from the University of Washington.

Presenter:

Jack Oswald, CEO of SynGest

Jack Oswald is CEO of SynGest Inc. and a nationally-recognized entrepreneur focused on commercializing and deploying clean energy solutions. His current focus is at the intersection of energy and agriculture a.k.a. “The Three F’s: Food, Fertilizer and Fuel”. SynGest is committed to the commercialization of a novel process to convert non-food biomass (e.g. corn cobs, wood chips, etc.) into highly valuable nitrogen fertilizer (NH3). Jack has been developing a National Clean Energy Strategy and to that end was a contributing member during the campaign to President Obama’s Energy and Environment Policy Advisory Group and was on the steering committee for Clean Tech For Obama (CT4O). He was also a member of the steering committee and has been elected to the board of the Clean Economy Network Foundation (CENF) (www.cleaneconomy.net). He is also serving as a Special Delegate to the U.S.-China Clean Energy Forum, an organization focused on large scale clean energy collaboration between the U.S. and China. Jack is also a member of Environmental Entrepreneurs’ (E2) (www.e2.org) DC Advocacy Strike Team. As a member of the Full Circle Fund (www.fullcirclefund.org, hands-on philanthropy) Jack co-led with Josh Becker a team to create the Green Cities California (www.greencitiescalifornia.org) web repository for sharing municipal best practices in sustainability. Jack is also an avid pilot holding Commercial, Multi-engine and Instrument Ratings/Certificates.

Panelists:

Eric McAfee, CEO AE Biofuels

Eric McAfee is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist with a lifelong commitment to agriculture and renewable energy. After growing up on a farm near Fresno, California, he co-founded Organic Pastures Dairy Company, a raw milk dairy and distribution company that is now the largest in the United States, and McAfee Farms, a producer of organic almonds. Mr. McAfee is a founding shareholder of Pacific Ethanol (Nasdaq: PEIX), a leading ethanol producer in the Western United States, and also a founding shareholder of several publicly-held energy companies: Evolution Petroleum (Amex: NGSY), Pacific Asia Petroleum (symbol: PFAP), Particle Drilling Technologies (Nasdaq: PDRT), and World Waste Technologies (symbol: WDWT). During his career, Mr. McAfee has funded more than twenty-five companies as a principal investor, and has founded six public companies with a combined high market value of $4 billion. In 2007, Mr. McAfee was awarded the Opportunity International Founder’s Award for his work related to third world development through biofuels. OI is one of the world’s largest micro-finance companies, with more than 1 million clients annually in 35 countries. Mr. McAfee graduated as the Dean’s Medalist from the Fresno State University business school, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Private Equity and Venture Capital program and the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program.

David Berry, MD, PhD, Partner, Flagship Ventures (Co-founder LS9, Joule Biotech)

David Berry is a Partner at Flagship Ventures, having joined Flagship in 2005 while completing his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. David was previously awarded a Ph.D. through the MIT Biological Engineering Division, where he studied the biological effects of complex sugars with advisors Professor Ram Sasisekharan and Professor Robert Langer. David also did his undergraduate work at MIT, graduating in 2000 Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, with a degree in brain and cognitive sciences. He was named as a member of the MIT Corporation – its Board of Trustees – in 2006. David’s work has led to 11 peer-reviewed publications, over 20 patents and applications, as well as over twenty-five awards and honors including the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize in 2005 for invention and innovation. David was also named as the Innovator of the Year by Technology Review in its 2007 TR35 list of world’s top 35 innovators under the age of 35.
At Flagship, David focuses on investing in and founding early stage life science and cleantech ventures. In 2005, he co-founded and helped launch LS9, and more recently co-founded Joule Biotechnologies where he previously served as the founding CEO. In addition, David serves on the Board of Directors of CGI Pharmaceuticals and works closely with several other portfolio companies.

Paul Bryan, PhD, Biofuels VP-Technology, Chevron Energy Technology Co.

During 12 years with Chevron, Bryan has been an R&D engineer, an R&D team leader, and most recently, manager of Chevron’s R&D Alliance in Perth, Australia. Previously he worked for Cargill and Union Carbide, and he held academic positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Colorado School of Mines. Bryan’s educational background includes a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and postdoctoral work in applied thermodynamics at the Ecole des Mines, Paris. He has been active in a variety of industry and professional organizations, including the Separations Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the North American Membrane Society, the Gas Processors Association, and the Gordon Research Conferences.

Leandro Vetcher, Co-founder & VP Business Development, Green Pacific Biologicals
Leandro Vetcher combines biotechnical expertise and a deep understanding of early-stage growth strategies in cleantech and life sciences. He is a biotechnologist with years of experience in plant biotechnology and drug development. He has had important roles in biotech business development and pharma M&A, and has also consulted with biofuel companies developing strategies for the commercialization of high-margin alternative products. He has an MA in Biotechnology from Columbia University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan.
As co-founder at Green Pacific Biologicals, he developed the business and strategic plan of the company. As responsible for business development, he led the licensing of key technologies, the efforts for a seed-round of financing and is focused in establishing strategic partnerships for biofuels and renewable consumer chemicals.

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Entrepreneurs: Uncensored 5
2010-01-26 18:00 - 20:30 | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
Draper Fisher Jurvetson and VLAB present Entrepreneurs – Uncensored!
Speaker Series 3- “How my company leap-frogged with the help of funding partners”.

When
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
6:00PM to 6:30PM – Registration and Networking
6:30PM to 7:45PM – Main Event
7:45PM to 8:30PM – Networking

Where
Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School
(click for directions & parking information)
Event Description:

Is venture capital still the lifeblood of start-up companies? With so much conflicting advice on funding needs, this whole raising-money thing can seem a little like applying to college: Everyone has a different idea about what it takes to succeed.
Is it as simple as a having a defendable technology or business model, paying customers, a proven team, a solid business plan and a clear exit strategy to garner interest from venture capitalists?
What is the best route for you? Should you bootstrap to build personal equity in your venture or seek funding at an early stage? Come listen to the view points of successful institutional venture capitalists and angel investors.

Limited Seating. Reserve your seats soon!

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Moderator

Ravi Belani, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Panel
Howard Hartenbaum – August Capital
Josh Kopelman – First Round Capital
Mike Maples – Maples Investment
Dave Strohm – Greylock
Bios

Howard Hartenbaum – August Capital
Howard Hartenbaum joined August Capital in 2008. Prior to joining, he served as a General Partner at Draper Richards LP where he was the founding investor in Skype and a former member of the board of directors where his achievement resulted in his joining the Forbes Midas List of top venture capitalists.
Before entering the venture capital field, Howard was at Hughes Electronics, where he was responsible for supporting business development, marketing and sales of satellite, information security and automotive technologies developed by HRL Laboratories. He also worked in engineering positions in ergonomics and user experience at Honda Motor Company and manufacturing at Teledyne Relays.
Howard has worked overseas for a total of ten years in Luxembourg and Japan. He is a graduate of M.I.T.
Current Investments: Pixazza, Swoopo
Previous investments: Skype (acquired by eBay – EBAY), Photobucket (acquired by Fox Interactive Media – NWS), Bebo (acquired by AOL – TWX) and Netkraft (acquired by Adea Solutions)
Josh Kopelman, First Round Capital
Josh has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization. In 1992, while he was a student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Josh co-founded Infonautics Corporation – an Internet information company. In 1996, Infonautics went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Josh founded Half.com in July of 1999, and led it to become one of the largest sellers of used books, movies and music in the world. Half.com was acquired by eBay in July 2000 — and Josh remained with eBay for three years, running the Half.com business unit and growing eBay’s Media marketplace to almost half a billion dollars in annual gross merchandise sales. In late 2003 Josh helped to found TurnTide, an anti-spam company that created the world’s first anti-spam router. TurnTide was acquired by Symantec just six months later.
In addition to being an active angel investor, Josh has served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Comcast Interactive Capital – a $350 million venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Corporation.
In 2001 Josh and his wife created the Kopelman Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on angel philanthropy to provide “start-up” grants to social entrepreneurs. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Main Line Health, suburban Philadelphia’s most comprehensive healthcare resource, operating four of the region’s most-respected hospitals. He also serves on as a member of the advisory boards for Wharton Entrepreneurial Center and the Weiss Tech House at the University of Pennsylvania.
Josh earned a Bachelor of Science degree cum laude in Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mike Maples, Maples Investment
Mike Maples, Jr. is the managing partner of Maples Investments, and was recently named as one of “8 Rising VC Stars” by Fortune Magazine for his investments in business and consumer technologycompanies. Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike was an entrepreneur and operating executive who worked in a variety of senior management roles in high-growth companies. His background spans a variety of markets including consumer technology, small business, and the enterprise, and he has led various functions in product development, marketing, business development, and corporate strategy.
Before founding Maples Investments, Mike co-founded Motive, Inc., the world’s leading broadband software company in 1997, and played key roles in its growth from raw start-up through sales of more than $75 million. Motive was one of the only successful technology IPOs in 2004, and the most successful infrastructure software IPO for the prior three years. At Motive, Mike was General Manager of Motive’s Corporate Business Unit, as well as Chief Marketing and Strategy officer.
Prior to Motive, Mike was responsible for worldwide product marketing at Tivoli Systems, where he managed the company’s product portfolio from its early-stage development through its 1995 IPO and growth to a $750M line of business within the IBM Software Group. Mike began his professional career at Silicon Graphics, where he served in business development and product marketing roles.
In his spare time Mike is an amateur artist, movie-maker, and calligrapher. He holds an Engineering degree from Stanford University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and a guest-lecturer on entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, Stanford University, Princeton University, and the University of Texas.

Dave Strohm, Greylock
Dave joined Greylock in 1980 and opened our west coast office in 1983. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Harvard Business School.
Dave is on the board of AtHoc, Bounty Jobs, Cuil, CoWare, EMC Corporation, OpenDNS, Progreso Financiero, richrelevance, SuccessFactors, Tabula and VMware.
Dave also led Greylock’s prior involvement with companies such as Doubleclick (Nasdaq:DCLK), Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), Kiva Software (acquired by Netscape), Legato Systems (acquired by EMC), Decru (acquired by Network Appliance), Internet Security Systems (acquired by IBM), Mentor Graphics, Mobile Automation (acquired by iPass), ccMail (acquired by Lotus/IBM), and Cygnus (acquired by RedHat), Net Effect Systems (acquired by Ask.com), Octane Software (acquired by Epiphany) and Wily Technology (acquired by CA).
Ravi Belani
Ravi Belani is an Associate at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, where he serveson the boards of DesiHits, Redux, LiveMedia, TinyPictures, YieldSoftware, and Vizu. Ravi also led the firm’s investments in Komli andPubmatic.
Ravi is a Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi graduate of StanfordUniversity, holding a BS with Distinction and MS in IndustrialEngineering and Engineering Management. Ravi also holds an MBA fromHarvard Business School. As a Board Fellow at Harvard, Ravi served theGlobal Board of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). Ravi is also a graduateof the Kauffman Fellows Program.

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For any questions, please email ebf@vlab.org
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Data Exhaust Alchemy: Turning the Web's Waste into Solid Gold
2010-01-19 18:00 - 20:30 | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
Data Exhaust Alchemy – Turning the Web’s Waste into Solid Gold

When

Tuesday, January 19, 2010
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where

Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School
(click for directions & parking information)

Event Description:

The internet and social media create a mountain of random, unstructured, and at times ephemeral data by-products, which may appear to be trash. Yet, one person’s trash is another’s treasure.From FaceBook to Netflix, people are spending more time sharing their thoughts, opinions, plans and perspectives as they socialize and conduct business online. With each of these Internet exchanges traces of information,or Data Exhaust, are left behind. When correlated or combined, these snippets can provide insight into political views, professional achievements,purchasing behaviors, and demographic information—pinpointing trend setters and leading indicators. Brilliant innovators now re-purpose this data stream, aggregating and analyzing the data to provide new products or services.
Consumers realize that the data they voluntarily contribute can help them and others make decisions, providing true value—improving their movie selections on Netflix, their music selections on Pandora, career paths of a company’s employees on Linkedin, and which sellers can be trusted on Ebay. In turn, they want to be treated fairly as individuals by the companies they utilize and support.
This event brings together experts, entrepreneurs, and investors to explore the business opportunities arising from the innovative ways Data Exhaust is being harnessed.

Moderator:

Roger Magoulas, Research Director, O’Reilly Media Inc.
Research Director at O’Reilly since 2004, Roger has been involved in data warehouse and quantitative analysis roles for more than 16 years both as an internal resource and as a consultant. At O’Reilly, Roger is involved in both quantitative and qualitative analysis, building a data warehouse infrastructure, including a multi-terabyte jobs data mart, and research projects covering big data, Facebook applications, geolocation technologies and other topics.
Prior to O’Reilly, Roger worked as a data warehouse consultant, helping build data warehouse and analysis infrastructures for organizations like the San Francisco Opera, the Alberta Motor Club, QAD Software, DigitalThink and Ofoto (Kodak Gallery), often deploying open source tools and platforms. Before consulting, Roger ran the research team at Sybase and helped build an early data warehouse at Pacific Bell.
Roger has an MBA from the Haas School of Business at Cal Berkeley, and BA degrees in Computer Science from Cal State Hayward and Finance from the University of Connecticut.
Panelists:

JB (Mike John-Baptiste) CEO, PeerSet
JB spent the last 14 years fueling technology companies where his emphasis has ranged from b2c and b2b digital media to financial technology. In all cases JB has played key roles in steering his companies into new markets with new partners. As CEO of Peerset, JB is responsible for evolving the Company’s product set, expanding the marketplace for customers and partners and seeking additional investment capital for future growth.
Before joining Peerset, JB was SVP at JumpTV a digital video company operating international tv and sports sites. He managed a 23-person team responsible for sales and distribution, sports programming, account management and distribution alliances.
JB spent five years in financial technology startups and five years at two investment banks including Robertson Stephens where he was a founding member of the Private Capital Group. During his four years with the firm he assisted dozens of entrepreneurs in obtaining venture capital and contributed to successful public offerings with digital pioneers such as Excite and CBS Sportsline.
JB is a resident of San Francisco and a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in Economics.

Dr. DJ Patil, Chief Scientist and Sr. Director of Product, LinkedIn
Dr.Patil is responsible for all analytics projects including reporting, web analytics, as well as products on the site that take advantage of leveraging LinkedIn’s unique data set. Some of their products include, People You May Know, Who Viewed My Profile, and the recommendation engines.
Previous to LinkedIn, Dr.Patil was a Distinguished Research Scientist and the Director for Strategy, Product, and Analytics of Corporate Architecture at eBay Inc. He’s conducted research in a wide array of areas as faculty at the University of Maryland where he helped start a major research initiative on numerical weather prediction. In 2001 he jointly received a 21st Century Award from the James S. McDonnell Foundation for innovative and ground breaking work on characterizing the complexity of weather. Two of his research papers are currently ranked #1 and #9 as the most cited papers in their areas.
As an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow for the Department of Defense, Dr. Patil directed new efforts to leverage social network analysis and the melding of computational and social sciences to anticipate emerging threats to the US. He also co-chaired a major review of US efforts to prevent bioweapons proliferation in Central Asia and co-founded the Iraqi Virtual Science Library (IVSL). In 2006 the Iraqi Ambassador to the US hailed the IVSL as one of the most important projects for education and helping Iraqi scientists, doctors, and engineers rebuild their country.
Jeff Hammerbacher, Vice President of Products and Chief Scientist, Cloudera
Jeff was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Accel Partners immediately prior to co-founding Cloudera. Before Accel, he conceived, built, and led the Data team at Facebook. The Data team was responsible for driving many of the applications of statistics and machine learning at Facebook, as well as building out the infrastructure to support these tasks for massive data sets. The team produced two open source projects: Hive, a system for offline analysis built above Hadoop, and Cassandra, a structured storage system on a P2P network. Before joining Facebook, Jeff was a quantitative analyst on Wall Street. Jeff earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from Harvard University.
Mark Breier, General Partner, In-Q-Tel
Mark Breier is an author, investor, and public speaker. His background includes 15 years as technology executive and 10 years in packaged goods marketing. His experience includes VP of Marketing at Amazon.com, CMO at Plantronics, and CEO of Beyond.com. Mark’s early years include marketing roles at General Mills, Kraft Foods, and Dreyer’s/Edy’s Grand Ice Cream. Mark grew up in Bethesda, MD and has a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University and M.B.A from Stanford Business School. He is an author of a management best-seller, 10 Second Internet Manager, blogger (http://10secondtips.blogspot.com), and is the founder of “The Great Turtle Race” www.GreatTurtleRace.com. He lives in Los Altos Hills, CA with his wife and 3 boys (8, 15, and 18).

Pablos Holman, Futurist, Inventor, Security Expert, and Notorious Hacker
Pablos holds a unique view into both breaking and building new technologies. At Komposite, he consults on bizarre invention and design projects that assimilate new technologies. Previously, Pablos created thigh holsters for cell phones; helped build the world’s smallest PC; spaceships at Blue Origin; artificial intelligence agent systems; and the Hackerbot, a WiFi-seeking robot. Pablos is working at the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory where a wide variety of futuristic invention projects are under way including a fission reactor powered by nuclear waste; a machine to stop hurricanes; a tool for deep brain surgery; and tools to help eradicate malaria.

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Virtual Goods: Runaway Growth Opens New Opportunities to Monetize
2009-12-08 18:00 - 20:30 | Sun Microsystems Auditorium SCA03, 4030 George Sellon Circle, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
Virtual Goods: Runaway Growth Opens New Opportunities to Monetize
Special Event from MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) and SVASE. Sponsored by Sun Microsystems. Location is at Sun Microsystems in Santa Clara (not Stanford GSB)

When
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshments
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where
NOTE: Location is NOT at Stanford

Sun Microsystems Auditorium SCA03. Limited Capacity!
4030 George Sellon Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054
Click HERE for map.

Online Registration Closed – Some tickets may be available at the door!
Online ticket sales close 5pm Monday December 7 or when Sold Out. Sell-out is likely! Please sign in before registering if you are already a member of VLAB

Event Description:
Virtual Goods are quickly becoming a powerful new online monetization model, with users buying gifts, swords, clothes, and other digital items to enhance their experience in social networks and games. Today the market for Virtual Goods (VG) is already $1 Billion in the United States alone, and is expected to grow 80% to $1.8B next year, according the authors of the report “Inside Virtual Goods”. In Asia, the market is already seven times that of the United States, $7 Billion, per the Virtual Goods Online October 2009 report. And more amazingly, in China, VG revenues actually exceed on-line ad revenues.

What are the best monetization strategies?
Do the secondary markets enhance the value of virtual goods?
What is the impact of financial regulations on the secondary markets?
What has contributed to the rise of independent creators of virtual goods?
Why is Asia so far ahead of the US, and what are the implications?

Come hear bold entrepreneurs talk about their business models and the online ecosystem for Virtual Goods and find out!

Moderator
Justin Smith, Founder, Inside Network

Justin Smith is the founder of Inside Network, the first and only service dedicated to providing business information and market research to the Facebook platform and social gaming ecosystem. Justin serves as Editor of Inside Facebook and Inside Social Games, and manages Inside Network’s AppData and PageData services as well. Prior to Inside Network, he was formerly Head of Product at Watercooler, one of the leading application developers on the Facebook Platform. Prior to Watercooler, Justin was an early employee at Xfire, the largest social utility for gamers, which was sold to Viacom in 2006. Justin holds a degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University

Panelists
Brian Balfour, Founder and VP Product Marketing, Viximo
Brian Balfour is the Founder and VP Product Marketing of Viximo which provides virtual good solutions to social networking, online dating, and casual gaming sites that enable and grow their virtual goods revenue. Prior to founding Viximo, Brian managed new product initiatives at ZoomInfo, and was founder of multiple online community startups, including the first college specific social network in early 2003. In addition, as a founding member of Betahouse, a co-working space for technology entrepreneurs, and co-founder of PopSignal, one of Boston’s largest professional networking organizations, Brian is actively contributing to the growth of Boston’s technology startup scene. Brian holds Bachelor’s degrees in Sports Business, Economics, and Applied Statistics from the University of Michigan.
Jude Gomila, Co-Founder and President, Heyzap
Jude Gomila is co founder and President of Heyzap. Funded by Union Square Ventures and Y Combinator, Heyzap is building the largest distributed online gaming platform. Heyzap monetizes through the sale of virtual goods inside the flash games and provides monetization, social and analytics APIs to game developers. Jude was born in London, UK and attended the UK’s Cambridge University and graduated with Honors in Engineering and Management. During his final year of University he started Sugar Global, a digital photo frame brand, making sales to UK stores including Harrods, Selfridges, Amazon and Firebox.com. Sugar products were featured in the What Hi-Fi Magazine’s Expo 2007. In 2004, Jude was awarded the Technology Partnership Award for excellence in Design while at Cambridge University and in 2005, the IBM EMEA Top Student Award. Jude Gomila also mentors at Seedcamp week in Europe and conducts interviews for intruders.tv
Bill Grosso, CTO and SVP Product, Live Gamer

As CTO and SVP of Product for Live Gamer, Mr. Grosso is responsible for the efforts of the technology and product teams,tailoring product offerings to customers’ needs and delivering the right solutions to Live Gamer’s global customer base. Previously, Mr. Grosso served as CTO for virtual economy platform provider Twofish, which was recently acquired by Live Gamer, where he headed the Twofish Elements product roadmap, platform development and engineering organizations. As an active participant in the software development community, Mr. Grosso has published two books and more than 20 journal articles. He also served as a long-time board member for SDForum, and has held various chief architect and executive engineering roles at companies including Engage, Echopass and Hipbone. He received his Masters of Mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Owen Mahoney, CEO, Outspark

As Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Electronic Arts, Owen was responsible for worldwide mergers and acquisitions and business development, and led all acquisitions from November 2000 to January 2009. Owen also has substantial operating and deal-making experience in Asia. Prior to joining EA, he served as Vice President with consumer technology company Xenote, Inc., where he oversaw business development for domestic and international operations. Before joining Xenote, Owen served as Vice President of International at PointCast Inc. where he was responsible for setting up and running its Japanese joint venture. Owen also held a variety of management posts with other technology companies including Claris Japan, Inc, Radius Inc. and Ray Dream, Inc. (now MetaCreations) where he oversaw sales, marketing, and business development for the Asia/Pacific region. Owen graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, and studied Japanese law and political science at the University of Tokyo graduate department of law. He is fluent in Japanese and lived in Japan for five years.

Online registration closed – Some tickets may be available at the door

Please sign in before registering if you are already a member of VLAB.

SSDs: Game-Changing Technology for Better, Bigger, Faster Apps and App Dev
2009-11-17 18:00 - 20:30 | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
SSDs: Game-Changing Technology for Better, Bigger, Faster Apps and App Dev

When

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where

Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School
(click for directions & parking information)

Event Description:

Described as “stupid fast,” solid state drive (“SSD”) technology is causing a dramatic shift in consumer rich areas, such as gaming and social networking. Exponential shifts in performance are also opening up new opportunities in large database applications. Some companies, such as MySpace, are opting in as well for the greener footprint that SSD technology provides. Faster and greener spells opportunity for the startup world.An SSD-enabled, networked world promises near real-time access and performance. Give us HD in 3D and ultrafast games! Delivering high performance across multiple platforms will require a range of new applications, some of which are already being developed. Come learn more about the rise of SSD technology and how it’s powering transformation and creating opportunity for entrepreneurs:

What are the developments in SSD’s and the impact on enterprise and consumer applications.
Given the widespread emergence of SSD, what problems are still to be solved, creating opportunities for startups in hardware and software?
What are the implications of faster access times to rich media and databases?
Will the physics of solid state providing faster access times and lower energy burden (i.e., longer battery life, reduced energy costs) create a paradigm shift?
What will application developers need to know to be ready for this evolution in storage and memory technology?

Moderator
Tom Coughlin, President, Coughlin Associates
Panelists

Bill Watkins, Former CEO, Seagate *NEW UPDATE*
David Bradford, CEO, Fusion-io

Mike Chenery, President, Pliant Technology

Mike Speiser, Managing Director, Sutter Hill Ventures
Sam Pullara, Chief Technologist, Yahoo! Inc.

Registrations Closed. Walk-ins are welcome and on-site tickets are available.

Bios

Tom Coughlin, President, Coughlin Associates
Tom is a widely respected storage analyst and consultant. He has over 30 years in the data storage industry with multiple engineering and management positions at high profile companies.
Dr. Coughlin has many publications and six patents to his credit. Tom is also the author of Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide, which was published by Newnes Press. Coughlin Associates provides market and technology analysis (including reports on several digital storage technologies and applications and a newsletter) as well as Data Storage Technical Consulting services. Tom is the publisher of the 2009 Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics Report, the 2009 Media and Entertainment Storage Report as well as the 2009 Survey on Storage for Professional Media and Entertainment.
Tom is active with SMPTE, SNIA, IDEMA, the IEEE Magnetics Society, IEEE CE Society, and other professional organizations. Tom is the founder and organizer of the Annual Storage Visions Conference (www.storagevisions.com), a partner to the International Consumer Electronics Show, as well as the Creative Storage Conference held in association with the NAB show (www.creativestorage.org). Tom is also the chairman of the annual Flash Memory Summit. He is also a Leader in the Gerson Lehrman Group Councils of Advisors and a member of the Consultants Network of Silicon Valley (CNSV). For more information on Tom Coughlin and his publications. go to www.tomcoughlin.com.
Bill Watkins, Former CEO, Seagate
Bill Watkins has served as Seagate’s chief executive officer from 2004 through January 2009.
Prior to being CEO, Watkins, 56, was previously Seagate’s president and chief operating officer, a position he had held since 2000. During that time, he was responsible for the company’s hard disc drive operations, including recording heads, media and other components, and related R&D and product-development organizations.
Watkins joined Seagate in 1996 with the company’s merger with Conner Peripherals. In 1990, Watkins established the Conner Disk Division and managed its success through the merger with Seagate. Prior to joining Conner Peripherals, Watkins held executive positions with Domain Technology, where he managed the MINT (Magnetic Information Technology) disc media manufacturing process.
Watkins graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from the University of Texas. He currently serves on the board of directors of Maxim Integrated Products, Flextronics and Vertical Circuits Incorporated in addition to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In December, 2006 he was named Knight Commander “Dato” by the Governor of Penang, Malaysia and received Distinguished Friends of Singapore medal from S.R. Nathan, President of Singapore.
David Bradford, CEO, Fusion-io

David Bradford is the Chief Executive Officer of Fusion-io which has developed what many have hailed as the “World’s Fastest Storage Device.” The award-winning ioDrive is a solid state storage device that accelerates data flow through any corporate enterprise. David joined Fusion-io as a Consultant in June of 2008, as Senior Vice President in September of 2008, and as Chief Executive Officer and Board Member in February of 2009. Recently he helped convince Steve Wozniak, Inventor of the Apple Computer, to join the company as its Chief Scientist.
David brings nearly 30 years of experience in technology leadership to Fusion-io. He is a proven business leader who has used innovation and foresight to play a significant role in shaping the expansive growth of the world of Information Technology. From April 2005 to June 2006, Mr. Bradford served as a Partner for the law firm of Greenberg Traurig working out of their Orange County, California office. From July 2000 to April 2005, Mr. Bradford worked as a consultant to a number of private equity funds, General Counsel to Dynix Corporation, a leading supplier of Library Software and Services, and General Counsel to Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman’s Transition team. Mr. Bradford served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel of Novell, Inc., a networking software company, from 1985 until July 2000.
Mr. Bradford received a B.A. in Political Science and a J.D. from Brigham Young University and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine.

Mike Chenery, President, Pliant Technology
Mike Chenery is a co-founder and president of Pliant Technology, an SSDsupplier founded in 2006. Before starting Pliant, he spent 12 years asthe vice president of HDD advanced engineering at Fujitsu ComputerProducts of America. At Fujitsu, he developed and managed the creationof an advanced architecture development group, as well as the designand introduction of three new serial interfaces. Under Chenery’sleadership, the launch of these products helped dramatically enhancethe market perception of Fujitsu’s technical leadership capabilities. He has 40 years of experience in the storage industry, and has heldmanagement positions with Memorex, Unisys, Andor Technology, andMicropolis Corporation. Chenery holds the equivalent of a B.S. inElectrical Technology from the South-East London Technical College.
Mike Speiser, Managing Director, Sutter Hill Ventures

Mike joined SHV from Yahoo!, where he was vice president of community products including Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Profiles and Bix. Mike joined Yahoo! in February 2007 through the acquisition of Bix, where he served as president and CEO. Prior to co-founding Bix, Mike served as vice president and technical advisor to Symantec Chairman & CEO, John Thompson. Previously, he was vice president of product marketing and product management at Veritas, which was acquired by Symantec. Mike also co-founded Epinions, worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, and was an analyst with CS First Boston. Mike holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar, and a B.A. from the University of Arizona.
Sam Pullara, Chief Technologist, Yahoo! Inc.
Sam Pullara is vice president and chief technologist at Yahoo!. While at Yahoo!, Pullara has led the Yahoo! Application Platform, played key roles in business and technology strategy, including business development and M&A, and also contributed to a variety of tech technology programs and initiatives, including work on grid computing (e.g., Hadoop), virtualization and large scale reliable data systems. Before Yahoo!, Pullara founded Gauntlet Systems while an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Accel Venture Partners . Pullara is a board member of the OpenSocial Foundation, founded by Yahoo!, Google and MySpace. He also contributes to open source projects and volunteers his time to the Java Community Process through participation in several expert groups. Pullara has a M.S. in Physics from Northwestern University and a B.S. in Physics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).

Registrations Closed. Walk-ins are welcome and on-site tickets are available.

MITEI on the Road: What MIT Is Doing about Changing the World of Energy
2009-11-04 18:00 - 20:30 | Silicon Valley Bank, 3005 Tasman Drive, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
MITEI on the Road: What MIT Is Doing about Changing the World of Energy
When

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment

7:00pm – 9:00pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where

Silicon Valley Bank, 3005 Tasman Drive, Santa Clara, CA 95054

Event Description:

Please join us for a very special opportunity to learn all about the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI). The topic includes the research being conducted at MIT in the area of solar photovoltaic and other renewable technologies. The featured speakers are Tonio Buonassisi, professor of Materials Science and Engineering, one of the foremost MIT faculty members in his field and Daniel Enderton, the Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy Revolution Program (SERP). This is a rare opportunity to get the inside scoop on MIT innovative technologies and cutting edge research and programs in the field of energy.

MIT President Susan Hockfield announced energy as one of the three strategic initiatives for MIT.
MITEI pairs the Institute’s world-class research teams with key players across the innovation spectrum to help accomplish two important goals: improving today’s energy systems and creating tomorrow’s global energy marketplace.
Learn more at
http://web.mit.edu/mitei/

Space is limited and the event is expected to sell out. VLAB members can register as MITCNC members to get the $30.00 rate! Please register now! (link)

Speakers
Tonio Buonassisi – Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering

Research Interests: adoption of renewable energy technologies, and photovoltaics in particular, via breakthroughs in efficiency, cost reduction, de-bottlenecking, and increased materials utilization. http://pv.mit.edu

Daniel Enderton, Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy Revolution Program (SERP)

SERP is the network of renewable energy research activities at MIT developed through the MIT Energy Initiative. The flagship program is in solar energy technologies, with growing programs in bioenergy, wind, geothermal and waves/tidal as well as the complementary areas of storage, grid and materials. Responsibilities include program and resource development focused on growing new research programs as well as coordination of existing programs.

About CNC:

The MIT Club of Northern California is run entirely by volunteer MIT alumni. The club organizes hundreds of events every year, serving approximately 8300 alumni in the Northern California area. Each year, the club publishes three newsletters; club members are also notified of upcoming events through a weekly email announcement. Since the Club does not receive funding from MIT, it is funded primarily from event fees, alumni donations and corporate sponsorships. Organization is led by a leadership team of over 20 alumni officers with a distinguished board of directors overseeing club operations.

This Event is kindly sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank www.svb.com

Entrepreneurs: Uncensored 4
2009-10-27 18:00 - 20:30 | Silicon Valley, CA, United States
Draper Fisher Jurvetson and VLAB present Entrepreneurs – Uncensored!
A six part speaker series highlighting the valley’s boldest entrepreneurs.
Event Description:
Each event in the series will be a case study providing meaningful advice on how to get to a meaningful startup milestone, like first paying customer or product launch. The event series will be a sequential progression of milestones in the trajectory of a startup, from product launch to exit.
Speaker Series 1 – “How I got to my first paying customer” with Max Levchin and Mike Cassidy
When
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
6:00PM to 6:30PM – Registration and Networking
6:30PM to 7:45PM – Main Event
7:45PM to 8:30PM – Networking

There is a nominal fee of $35 to attend.
Where
Silicon Valley/Bay Area (location disclosed to invitees)
Come and join us for the series and listen to Max Levchin and Mike Cassidy who have changed the industry and in the process have set a gold standard as role models for the next generation of entrepreneurs. Listen to how they managed to get their first paying customer.
This event is by invitation only.

Please fill up this form if you are interested in attending this event. We will email you an exclusive invitation for this two hour event.

Moderator
Ravi Belani, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Speakers
Max Levchin, Founder, CEO & Chairman, Slide
Mike Cassidy, Former CEO, Ruba, Xfire, Direct Hit

Bios
Max Levchin, Founder, CEO & Chairman
Max is the CEO and visionary behind Slide, the largest social entertainment company in the world and developer of the most engaging applications on social networks. Max is also renowned as the co-founder of PayPal, an expert in combating online fraud and one of the hardest working entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Before starting Slide, he incubated several other start-ups, including Yelp, where he currently sits as Chairman of the Board. Max started PayPal in 1998, took the company public in 2002 and then sold it to eBay for more than $1.5 billion at the age of 26. Originally from Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union), Max moved to Chicago at the age of 16 and later received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Max sits on the board of several other companies and trains for triathlons when he’s not obsessing over Slide’s business.
Mike Cassidy, Former CEO, Ruba, Xfire, Direct Hit
Mike Cassidy has been the Co-Founder and CEO of four start-ups: Ruba, Xfire, Direct Hit, and Stylus Innovation. Visual travel guide and tour site Ruba helps travelers all over the world share their favorite places and experiences. Xfire helps gamers play online with their friends much more easily. Xfire is also an instant messenger and peer-to-peer file download system designed just for gamers. Xfire has over 10 million registered gamers in over 100 countries. Viacom/MTV acquired Xfire for $110 million. Direct Hit was a revolutionary Internet search engine whose customers included MSN, Lycos, AOL, and dozens of others. Ask Jeeves acquired Direct Hit for $500 million. Stylus Innovation’s flagship product was the award winning computer telephony software Visual Voice. Mike is on the Board of Advisors of Jazz at Lincoln Center and is on the Visiting Committee Board of the MIT Media Lab. Mike studied jazz piano at the Berklee College of Music. Mike has a BS and MS in Aerospace Engineering from MIT. He graduated from Harvard Business School.
Ravi Belani
Ravi Belani is an Associate at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, where he serves on the boards of DesiHits, Redux, LiveMedia, TinyPictures, Yield Software, and Vizu. Ravi also led the firm’s investments in Komli and Pubmatic.
Ravi is a Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi graduate of Stanford University, holding a BS with Distinction and MS in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management. Ravi also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. As a Board Fellow at Harvard, Ravi served the Global Board of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). Ravi is also a graduate of the Kauffman Fellows Program.

I am interested in attending. Click here!
For any questions, please email ebf@vlab.or

Mobile Wallet: Can Your Phone Replace Your Wallet?
2009-10-20 18:00 - 20:30 | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
Mobile Wallet: Can your phone replace your wallet? *SOLD OUT*

* THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT! *

When

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where
Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School
(click for direction & parking information)
Event Description:
Whether scanning a cell phone to purchase a bullet train ticket in Japan or buying cattle in sub-Saharan Africa, the ubiquity of mobile phones is revolutionizing traditional banking and commerce. Gartner estimates by the end of 2009, 74.4 million people will use mobile devices to purchase goods and services worldwide, and will double by the end of 2012 . DoCoMo’s Japanese consumers have been buying mass transit tickets and vending machine goods via cell phones for ten years. Over 5 years ago, the m-Pesa project brought mobile phone micro-payments to the un-banked regions of Kenya. The proliferation of mobile phones brings new business models and opportunities to third world countries, and provides a chance to break cycles of poverty. The cell phone also creates opportunities for new business models, and new revenue streams for established players in finance and telecom.
Adoption of mobile technologies varies region to region. The race is on for who will control – and ultimately profit, from mobile banking. Banks, mobile carriers, security and technology providers have a lot to win, or lose, depending on technology advancements, partnerships, security and user adoption. There are nearly 4 billion mobile phone users, but only about 1.6 billion bank accounts.
This program will examine the emerging and existing business models enabling the mobile wallet in the US and abroad, plus the underlying trends which are driving growth opportunities. Technologies such as SMS based transactions, Near Field Communication and Direct Mobile Billing will be explored, along with security and the role of mobile carriers.
Come join us to find out about how entrepreneurs will change the way we pay, when we’re on the go.

How the mobile payment markets are evolving?

What are the opportunities for entrepreneurs?…in traditional and non-traditional businesses?
Would social networks and virtual goods catalyze mass adoption of mobile money? What are the roadblocks?
What are the complexities and differences between the markets in US and Asia?
Who would be the “big cheese” in the mobile payment transactions, financial institutions or carriers?

Register Now!
Please sign in before registering if you are already a member of VLAB.
Moderator
Scott Ellison – Vice President/Mobile and Wireless, IDC
Panelists
Wenceslao Casares – Founder, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Director, BlingNation
Eric Duprat – General Manager Mobile, Paypal
Dev Khare – Vice President, Venrock
Margaret Mackenzie – SVP Operations and Chief Financial Officer, Boku
Tyler Sloat – CFO, Obopay
Bios
Scott Ellison – Vice President/Mobile and Wireless, IDC
Scott Ellison leads IDC’s analysis efforts on the mobile consumer digital marketplace including the mobile Internet; mobile content and entertainment; mobile app stores; mobile advertising; location-based services; the competitive dynamics among mobile operators, Internet-based companies, and content providers; and the rapidly evolving competitive landscape among major mobile ecosystems including Android, Apple, Blackberry, BREW, Symbian, webOS, and Windows. A 20 year mobile industry veteran, Mr. Ellison’s mobile career includes the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA), MCI, Destia (where his work lead to Destia’s IPO and subsequent sale to Viatel), Viatel, and since 2001, IDC. At IDC he founded three analysis programs including Mobile & Wireless Entertainment, Wireless Business Network Services, and Mobile Data Services Qview. Mr. Ellison has won IDC’s Research Quality Award twice for individually authored research, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Mobile Giving Foundation. His media quotes and appearances include BusinessWeek, CTIA, Forbes, Mobile World Congress, NBC Nightly News, The New York Times, NPR MarketWatch, Reuters TV, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal.
Wenceslao Casares – Founder, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Director, BlingNation
Wenceslao Casares is a founder, co-Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of Bling Nation. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the long-term direction and growth of Bling Nation. He also is a cofounder of MECK, Ltd, a private investment firm based in Santiago, Chile.
Prior to Bling Nation, Casares, as a global entrepreneur had founded multiple ventures: Patagon, Latin America’s first comprehensive financial service portal, which was sold to Banco Satandar. He was also a cofounder of Banco Lemon that serves the unbanked population in Brazil; Wanako Games and Fundación Síntesis, a non-profit foundation based in Chile.
Casares is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and an elected member of the World Economic Forum’s “Global Leaders of Tomorrow” Class of 2001. Casares studied business administration at the Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires, Argentina and completed the Owner/President Management program at Harvard University.
Eric Duprat – General Manager Mobile, Paypal
Eric Duprat is a global executive who specializes in the strategic development of mobile payment systems. In his current position as General Manager of Mobile at PayPal, he has worked with such industry leaders as RIM, Apple, Sprint Nextel and Chase to develop and launch mobile payments systems.
During the past two decades, he has established a reputation as a results-oriented marketing and business development executive with a track record of directing global organizations to exceed corporate market penetration objectives by means of innovative strategies and gaining high customer satisfaction for Fortune 500 companies and customers in wireless, security and payment systems.
A raconteur with a gift for explaining how complex technologies drive changes in consumer products and behaviors, Mr. Duprat is a graduate of Columbia Business School and INSEAD (Institut supérieur d’Electronique de Paris).
Dev Khare – Vice President, Venrock
Dev Khare is Vice President at Venrock, a premier venture capital firm with offices in Palo Alto, New York, Cambridge, MA, and Israel. Dev sits on the board at Aha Mobile and SlideShare and is actively involved with Asoka, FutureDial, INRIX and Lavante. Dev previously co-founded Covigo, a mobile software company, which was acquired by Symbol Technologies (now part of Motorola). Venrock has a history of investments in payments- and billing-related ventures, including Qpass (mobile premium SMS payments), AthenaHealth (billing management), Aria (on-demand billing platform), IPCommerce (payment integration) and Semtek (credit card payments security). Dev blogs at http://www.NextWala.com and is on Twitter @dkhare.
Margaret Mackenzie – SVP Operations and Chief Financial Officer, Boku
Margaret brings over 20 years of venture andcorporate finance and operational management to the BOKU team. Mostrecently, Margaret co-founded Paymo and as CFO/COO, she was responsiblefor financial management of the company’s growth as well as for globaloperations. Prior to co-founding Paymo, Margaret was the CFO for mBlox,Inc, where she helped build the company into a leading mobiletransaction network. Before her success in international mobilepayments companies, Margaret was a Managing Director of SVB Securities,where she raised debt and equity capital, provided acquisition anddivestiture advice, and underwrote structured financings forventure-backed clients. She began her career at Itel Corporation, a SanFrancisco-based equipment leasing company.
Tyler Sloat – CFO, Obopay
As Chief Financial Officer for Obopay, Tyler is responsible for all of the company’s finance and accounting matters. His professional career spans various executive and leadership roles in finance and operations for several software and hardware technology companies varying in size from start-up to Fortune 500.
Most recently, Tyler was the Controller of the Emerging Products Group at Network Appliance, Inc, a position he was promoted into after the successful acquisition of Decru by Network Appliance in 2005. Earlier in his career, Tyler was the head of finance for the OnDemand business unit of Siebel Systems and prior to that was the Controller for POET Software Corporation, for which he played an integral role in their IPO.
Tyler is a registered C.P.A. in the State of California, has an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and has a B.A. from Boston College.
Register Now!

Please sign in before registering if you are already a member of VLAB.

Rise of the Machines: The Business of AI
2009-09-15 18:00 - 20:30 | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
Rise of the Machines: The Business of AI
When

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where
Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School
(click for direction & parking information)
Event Description:
The state of AI today is thriving. Google is one of the best examples of how it applies AI to data mining and text processing for its search engine. Businesses are increasingly adopting AI-based applications to replace human labor as evidenced by self-checkout counters and EZPass toll booths that can essentially do these tasks faster, cheaper and more effectively.
Recently “Adam” became the first automated robot to complete a science project in its entirety from hypothesis, to experiment, to reformulated hypothesis — with virtually no human intervention (link). The U.S. military went from using 0 robots in 2003 to now almost 20,000 ground and air robots. DARPA announced plans for an intelligent, long-distance flying drone that refuels itself by consuming biological matter in its path (link).
Software is being modeled on the idiosyncrasies of the human brain and has reached a point where it can learn our preferences and anticipate needs. How far are we from realizing self aware, self-sustaining technologies? Today we use computers for entertaining, information, socially connecting and communicating. AI systems, however, are on track to evolve from applications to co-collaborators that provide us with automated feedback and advanced correction capabilities.
This month’s event hosts leading companies and thought leaders in AI to discuss the current state of artificial intelligence, including autonomous robotics, learning systems and machine/human fusion and asks:
• What are the business opportunities in AI?
• Who’s investing in the space?
• What applications are most needed?
• What are the opportunities for entrepreneurs?
• How is AI being used to drive competitive advantage?
• What business models are likely to work?
• What’s next?
Check out this cool video of replanning and perception from one of our panelist companies, Willow Garage!
Come join us to find out about the next wave of AI-driven companies and learn how entrepreneurs are leveraging AI to drive business opportunities.
Online Registration is now Closed!
Last-minute tickets are available, first-come first-serve, at the door.

Moderator
Sven Strohband – Partner, MDV
Panelists

Dag Kittlaus – Co-founder and CEO, Siri
Paul Rhodes – CEO, Evolved Machines
Steve Cousins – President and CEO, Willow Garage
George John – CEO, Rocket Fuel, Inc.
Rob Haitani – Chief Product Officer, VitaminD
Bios
Sven Strohband – Partner, MDV
Sven Strohband brings engineering and operationalexperience to the MDV team and supports the partnership in sourcing andevaluating investments in the areas of software, systems and materials.
Prior to MDV, Sven spent three years at the Volkswagen ElectronicsResearch Laboratory (ERL) in Palo Alto where he was responsible fordiscovering new materials and electronics technologies for automotiveapplications. He was also the Stanford Racing team’s lead engineer. Theteam developed a robot that successfully navigated132 miles of unknownterrain fully autonomously in the fastest time, winning the 2005 DARPAGrand Challenge.
Sven has authored numerous papers on the simulation of materialssystems and authored various patents for novel automotive electronicsapplications.Sven received a doctorate and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. He also earned a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University.
Dag Kittlaus – Co-founder and CEO, Siri
Siri’s CEO is Dag Kittlaus, who founded the company as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at SRI.
A serial innovator and consumer wireless internet veteran of 10 years in Scandinavia and the US, Dag is working on creating his third consecutive mobile internet product with over a million users.
Dag has held leadership roles as VP of Consumer Internet Services at Scandinavian telecom giant Telenor Mobile, and several consumer product groups at Motorola including GM of xProducts and founder and GM of Motorola’s Interactive Media Group. He conceived and launched Screen3, a breakthrough consumer mobile application currently used by millions of users and adopted by Cingular, China Mobile, and Telefonica.
Paul Rhodes – CEO, Evolved Machines
Dr. Rhodes has been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and is the founder of Evolved Machines, Inc., a research organization pioneering the synthesis of artificial neural circuits and their application to olfaction and visual object recognition. The group is developing the first synthetic neural arrays which wire themselves by simulating neural circuit growth in 3-dimensions, and is the first company to harness the power of programmable GPU’s for the simulation of neural computation, now achieving > 100-fold acceleration of the computing power of conventional cores. The company’s goal is the development of the first generation of devices truly based on brain circuitry, pioneering the fusion of neuroscience and engineering to develop new categories of machines which embed some of the capacities of biological neural systems.
Dr. Rhodes received a Ph.D. and M.S. in Neuroscience under Dr. Rodolfo Llinas at NYU Medical School, and received an M.S. in Physics from Stanford University after graduating with an A.B. in Physics, Magna cum Laude, from Harvard University.
Steve Cousins – President and CEO, Willow Garage
Steve Cousins is a seasoned executive, entrepreneur and innovator with a strong track record for managing research and development organizations and realizing a significant return on investment. Prior to joining Willow Garage, Steve was the senior manager of the User-Focused Systems Research Group at the IBM Almaden Research Center, one of the top human-computer interaction research groups in the world. Earlier, Steve managed the Advanced Systems Development Laboratory at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and a researcher at Interval Research Corporation. Steve holds a PhD in CS from Stanford University, and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Washington University.
George John – CEO, Rocket Fuel, Inc.
George H. John is CEO of Rocket Fuel Inc., www.rocketfuelinc.com, a company full of rocket scientists who are building the world’s best technology for predicting consumer response to online advertising. Rocket Fuel was founded in 2008 by industry veterans from Yahoo! and DoubleClick. Rocket Fuel’s advertiser-focused ad network has run campaigns for major brands like Microsoft, Adobe, Nintendo, and many more.
Prior to Rocket Fuel, George led groups at IBM, E.piphany, salesforce.com, and most recently Yahoo!, where he managed behavioral targeting, recommendations, and click fraud. As a kid, George was overly influenced by “Star Trek,” which led to a short-lived interest in model rocketry (eyebrows grew back) and a lifelong interest in Artificial Intelligence. George earned BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Computer Science from Stanford, specializing in AI and statistics. During his graduate studies, he won a National Science Foundation fellowship and worked at NASA, earning his “rocket scientist” credentials.
Rob Haitani – Chief Product Officer, VitaminD
Rob Haitani co-founded Vitamin D in 2007 to develop solutions for the next generation of intelligent computing. Prior to Vitamin D, Rob was the Product Design Architect at Palm and part of the founding team at Handspring. He has been awarded 35 patents for designing the user interface of the original Palm OS, the PalmPilot and the Treo smartphone. Rob began his career in the computer video and display divisions of Sony in Tokyo, Japan. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Yale.
Online Registration is now Closed!
Last-minute tickets are available, first-come first-serve, at the door.

Exploring the Mobile Apps Opportunity: How to Get to Ca-Ching!
2009-06-16 18:00 - 20:30 | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
Exploring the Mobile Apps Opportunity: How to Get to Ca-Ching!

6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Location
Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School
(click for direction & parking information)
Event Description:
For several years now, consumers have download and installed a broad range of mobile apps onto their mobile devices. According to Frost & Sullivan, in 2008, U.S. premium mobile content grew 30%, with consumers embracing and downloading mobile apps like never before.
2009 is indeed shaping up to be “the year of mobile app stores” – as device manufacturers, carriers, software companies are all rushing to tap into the sizeable potential that online mobile application stores have to drive content sales.

Join us as a panel of experts explore opportunities in this dynamic, rapidly evolving mobile application eco-system. The event will bring together developers, carriers, device manufactures and VCs to collectively present a broad perspective on the mobile app eco-system. Attendees will hear from mobile app developer Steve Demeter and his highly successful experience with his “Trism” app that earned him $250,000 — in just 2 months (ca-ching!). The panel will also answer key questions in every mobile entrepreneur’s mind, namely: how do they get to ca-ching and build a viable mobile app development business.

What are the challenges that application developers face as they set out to build a viable business?
What should developers be focusing on in this highly fragmented eco-system?
Which comes first, the application or the platform?
Should developers first develop a killer mobile app and then try to figure out which platform to run it on, or should they first pick a device/platform and then optimize their app for that specific platform?

Moderator
Tom Krazit, CNET News
Panelists
Steve Demeter, Developer of the famous “Trism”, iPhone app
Adam Blum, CEO, Rhomobile
Matt Murphy, Partner and iFund Manager, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Pam Deziel, VP of Developer Marketing, Palm, Inc.
Tyler Lessard, Director, BlackBerry Alliances & Developer Relations
Detailed Bios
Tom Krazit, CNET
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple.
Prior to joining CNET, Tom worked for IDG News Service covering the chip and PC industries. He lives and works in San Francisco.
Steve Demeter, Developer of the famous “Trism”, iPhone app
Steve Demeter is at the forefront of the indie community on the iPhone. After releasing his game Trism on the AppStore at launch, Steve went on to reveal how he had gained success on a shoesting budget, inspiring a flood of developers to the AppStore. Steve speaks at conferences regularly, and has appeared as a focus of a documentary in the Apple iPhone OS 3.0 keynote speech.
Adam Blum, CEO, Rhomobile
Adam Blum is the CEO of Rhomobile. He has been VP of Engineering/CTO of several successful startups including Commerce One, Systinet, and Good Technology. He is an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, the author of several technical books, and an advisor to several other software companies.
Matt Murphy, Partner and iFund Manager, Kleiner Perkins Caufield &Byers
Matt Murphy is a Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; he joined in 1999. Matt manages the iFund at KPCB, a collaborative initiative with Apple and the iPhone platform, which focuses on defining applications for the mobile internet. His expertise is in network communications, compute infrastructure, and mobile applications. Matt is either a Director or works closely with the management teams of AutoNavi, Booyah!, Dash, GOGII, Pelago, Movius, Kodiak Networks, RGB Networks, Stoke, Aerohive Networks, Ocarina, and eASIC. Previously Matt was a board observer at Google (from initial investment to IPO) and director at Peakstream (acquired by Google).
Prior to KPCB, Matt led product management at a semiconductor start-up (Netboost acquired by Intel), worked at Sun Microsystems where he led business development for the Network Systems Group and was a Product Line Manager for networking platforms. He also worked in strategic and technical consulting for a number of years at Booz, Allen, & Hamilton and Accenture. Matt holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Tufts UniversityStanford Graduate School of Business. and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Pam Deziel, VP of Developer Marketing, Palm, Inc.

Pam Deziel leads Palm’s efforts to engage and inspire a vibrant and thriving developer community. She joined Palm in 2007 as vice president of software product management focused on the new webOS platform. She came to Palm after nearly ten years at Adobe Systems, where her roles included product marketing and management for Flash Player, AIR, Adobe Reader and developer tools, corporate development, and product marketing for Acrobat. Prior to Adobe, Pam was vice president of product management at Pumatech, which was later acquired by Nokia. Earlier in her career, Pam held positions at PalmSource (senior director, product marketing,) Apple Computer, and Sun Microsystems.
Pam holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Earth Sciences from Stanford University.
Tyler Lessard, Director, BlackBerry Alliances & Developer Relations
Tyler Lessard is the Director of the BlackBerry ISV Alliances and Developer Relations programs within Research In Motion’s (RIM) Global Alliances team. Since joining RIM in 2001, he has helped to build a community of over 1,000 wireless solution providers delivering custom applications and services for BlackBerry to large enterprises, government agencies, industry professionals and mobile consumers. Tyler is currently focused on initiatives to expand the scope and success of the BlackBerry Developer Program and to deliver new products and services to drive the success of consumer-focused applications for BlackBerry including Games, Multi-media, Content Syndication, Location-Based Services and more.

News in the 21st Century: Who Reads Print Anymore?
2009-05-19 18:00 - 20:30 | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
News in the 21st Century: Who Reads Print Anymore?

6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshments
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Location
Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School
(click for direction & parking information)
Event Description:
Reputable national newspapers such as the Tribune Company and New York Times are in financial crisis, and many local newspapers have stopped publishing. How will journalism and the news business evolve with technology? What are the new opportunities for entrepreneurs? How can high-tech innovators build new business models around news and the barrage of newly unemployed journalists?
Join us and explore opportunities presented by the turmoil in the news industry and the business models being tried out by incumbents and new entrants. This event will bring together both old and new media companies, journalists and investors trying to reshape the news industry.

Moderator
Heather Harde, CEO, TechCrunch
Panelists
Guy Kawasaki, Founder, AllTop
Rob Curley, President and Executive Editor of Greenspun Interactive, Las Vegas Sun
Ann Grimes, Acting Director, Graduate Program in Journalism, Stanford University
Norman A. Fogelsong, General Partner, Institutional Venture Partners
Larry Magid, Tech Analyst, CBS News & CNET and Columnist, San Jose Mercury News & Palo Alto Daily News

Register Now!
Please sign in before registering if you are already a member of VLAB.

Bios
Heather Harde, CEO, TechCrunch
Heather Harde is the CEO of TechCrunch. She spent the last ten years working within News Corporation. She held a variety of corporate development, strategy and operating roles both in Los Angeles and New York. Most recently, she was part of the founding team at Fox Interactive Media and their SVP Mergers & Acquisitions.

Prior to Fox Interactive Media, she held a variety of posts at News America Marketing, TVGuide and ASkyB. Before News Corporation, she also worked for Viacom at Showtime Networks. The common theme in her media life has been working on assignments that focus on the impact of technology on media. This theme continues, of course, with TechCrunch.
Heather is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Harvard Business School.
Guy Kawasaki, Founder, AllTop
Guy Kawasaki is the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web. He is also a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures.
Previously, Mr. Kawasaki was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. He is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way.
Guy Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
Rob Curley, President and Executive Editor of Greenspun Interactive, Las Vegas Sun
Rob Curley is the President and Executive Editor of Greenspun Interactive, the new-media division of the Las Vegas Sun and Greenspun Media Group. He joined Greenspun in June of 2008.
Rob began his career in 1996 as an education reporter and online editor at a small daily newspaper in Kansas. Prior to heading to Las Vegas, Curley was Vice President of Product Development at Washington Post Newsweek Interactive for two years. Before joining WPNI, Curley was director of new media and convergencefor the Naples Daily News and its sister publications along Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Rob earned a Bachelor’s of Integrated Studies degree from Emporia (Kansas) State University in 2001.
Ann Grimes, Acting Director of Graduate Program in Journalism, Stanford University
Ann Grimes is a former staff writer and editor for The Wall Street Journal where she covered technology and business. As Deputy Bureau Chief in San Francisco, she oversaw the newspaper’s coverage of Silicon Valley during the 1990’s dot-com boom and bust. While at Dow Jones & Co., she also worked on developing new-media strategy. Earlier, Grimes was on the editorial staff of The Washington Post. She is the recipient of several journalism awards including the Society of Professional Journalist’s Peter Lisagor award for Exemplary Journalism, the Education Writers Association National Award, and two Chicago Newspaper Guild Awards. She was a 1997-1998 John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford.

A former teaching fellow at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Grimes teaches classes in public issues reporting, business, technology and new media. She has a B.A. in English Literature from Georgetown University and an M.A. in Humanities from the University of Chicago.
Norman A. Fogelsong, General Partner, Institutional Venture Partners
Norm Fogelsong joined Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) in March 1989. IVP recently led Twitter’s Series C funding with Benchmark. With more than 29 years of high-technology venture capital experience, Norm currently emphasizes investments in private later-stage companies and in select public market opportunities. Norm began his career as a computer programmer and systems analyst at Hewlett-Packard. He then worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company where he specialized in product/market strategy. Prior to joining IVP, Norm was a General Partner with Mayfield Fund. He has served the local community as the Treasurer of the Children’s Health Council, the Secretary of the Churchill Club and as a member of the Major Gifts Committees at Menlo School and Stanford University.
Norm earned a B.S. in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University (Phi Beta Kappa), an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and a J.D. from the Harvard Law School.
Larry Magid, Tech Analyst, CBS News & CNET and Columnist, San Jose Mercury News & Palo Alto Daily News
Larry Magid is a technology journalist and an Internet safety advocate. He presently serves as Technology Analyst for CBS News & CNET News and he has a daily tech segment for KCBS radio in San Francisco. He is also a weekly columnist for the San Jose Mercury News and the Palo Alto Daily News and an occasional contributor to the New York Times. He’s written for Fortune, Family Circle, PC World, Information Week, ComputerWorld and numerous other publications. He’s been a guest several national and local broadcast shows throughout the country including The Larry King Show, CBS’ Early Show, NBC’s Today Show, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. In addition to traditional media, Larry has been an early adopter of new media including CBS podcasts, several news Websites, and blogging. He’s a board member of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and a member of the advisory boards of both GetNetWise.org and Family Online Safety Institute and served on the Internet Safety Technical Task Force. Magid has a doctorate of education from the University of Massachusetts and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He resides in Palo Alto, California where he helped raise two digital natives.
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Emerging Life Sciences Business Clinic: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times
2009-05-15 08:30 - 12:30 | Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Terrace 2C&D, 950 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, United States
VLAB Emerging Life Sciences Business Clinic
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times
Location
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Terrace 2C&D, 950 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
Event Description:
To use a Dickensian cliché, this is indeed a time of great upheaval in the life sciences industry. Words like “unsustainable trend”, “nothing like it in 50 years”, and “unprecedented change”, are routinely used in connection with healthcare in the US . As many of the old rules no longer apply, the time is ripe for new business models to emerge.
Join us is in an interactive ½ day session of discussion and ideas from representatives of life sciences businesses, entrepreneurs, VC’s, clinical research labs, universities, and government programs about the trends, challenges, and investment opportunities in this space. Pre-register online for $40 for general public, $20 for students, and on-site registration for $50. Deadline for registration is May 14 at noon.
Register Now!
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Agenda

8:30 Registration and Networking
9:00 Welcome and Introduction
9:10 Keynote Speaker: New Dimensions for Healthcare in the Future by David Ewing Duncan, author, journalist, Director of Center for Life Science Policy at UC Berkeley and host, Biotech Nation, National Public Radio
9:40 Interactive Panel Discussion: Our esteemed panel will explore the major factors that will influence life sciences ventures in the coming years.

The squeeze in funding from traditional sources (institutional venture funding, corporate investments, public markets, etc.)
New funding options in government grants and innovative revenue models
The reduction in traditional reimbursement for therapeutic drugs and device
The increased interest in diagnostics and personalized medicine
The lack of adequate regulatory structures and standard of care processes for novel technologies
The renewed focus on cost-effective health care delivery
The challenge of demonstrating clinical utility & proof of market in capital efficient way
The changing landscape of strategic partnerships and collaborations

Our panel includes representatives from venture capital, government grant programs, insurance and managed care, regulatory law, and clinical research. Our moderator and panelists will include
:

Facilitator – Dr. Geetha Rao, CEO, Springborne Life Sciences
Kathy Conte, Managing Director, Hercules Technology Growth Capital
David Ewing Duncan, author, journalist, Director of Center for Life Science Policy at UC Berkeley and host, Biotech Nation, National Public Radio
Boris Iossel, President, OSMOS Clinical Research
Michael O’Donnell, Partner, Wilson Sonsini
Susan Weininger, CEO, The Gene Pool, Inc.

10:45 Morning Break
11:00 Life Science Mash-up
For this interactive part of the workshop, entrepreneurs will be invited to present a 1minute fast-pitch with 2 minutes of questions. After the presentations the entrepreneurs will be positioned at designated tables, inviting attendees to find out more about their business, and provide input and feedback. During this networking session, each attendee will have two votes to award their entrepreneurs of choice – one for best potential investment and one for most novel or interesting idea.
11:45 Entrepreneur Awards: Entrepreneurs with the most votes will be announced
12:00 Adjourn and Additional Networking

Bios
David Ewing Duncan, Keynote Speaker
David Ewing Duncan is an award-winning, best-selling author of seven books and numerous other writings. David’s previous books include Masterminds: Genius, DNA and the Quest to Rewrite Life (Harper Perennial) and Calendar: Humanity’s Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year (Harper-Collins/Avon), the latter published in 19 languages, and a bestseller in 14 countries. He is a Contributing Editor and Columnist for CondeNast Portfolio, and Chief Correspondent of NPR Talk’s “Biotech Nation”. He has also been a Contributing Editor to Wired, Discover, and MIT Technology Review, a regular contributor to National Geographic, Life and numerous other publications, as well as a producer for numerous television shows including NOVA and Discovery. At UC Berkeley, David is the Director of the Center for Life Science Policy and a Visiting Researcher at the Graduate School of Journalism

For more information:

To find out more about VLAB’s Emerging Business Track, and the three teams associated with that track – clean, green/life science and high tech – visit here.
Please contact us if you would like to promote this event to your network or association and would like to offer your members and contacts the partnership rate.
We hope that you will join us as we investigate and explore clean energy opportunities ahead. Pre-register online today before the event is sold out.
Register Now!
Please sign in before registering if you are already a member of VLAB.

Emerging Technology Lab Event: Capitol Hill and Wall Street Come to the Valley
2009-05-14 18:00 - 20:30 | Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, 1530 Page Mill Road, Suite 200, Palo Alto, CA, 94304-1125, United States
Emerging Technology Lab Event: Capitol Hill and Wall Street Come to the Valley
Venture Connection Roundtable: How to Grab a Piece of the Stimulus Bill’s $50 Billion Cleantech Pie
This Venture Connection Roundtable event is supported by VLAB’s Emerging Technology Lab.

Date: Thursday, May 14, 2009

Time: 8:00 — 10:00 am 7:00 pm

Venue: Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, 1530 Page Mill Road, Suite 200, Palo Alto, CA 94304

Moderator: Victor H. Boyajian, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, National Chair of Sonnenschein Venture Technology Group

Speakers:
Tom Jensen, Partner, Public Law & Policy Strategies, Washington D.C., Sonnenschein
David Ethridge, Managing Director, Head of Alternative Energy Group, Cowen & Company
Shez Bandukwala, Co-Chair, Greentech Investment Banking, ThinkEquity Partners
John Bergwell, Director of Project Finance, Chevron Energy Solutions

David Thelander, Director and Senior Advisor National Cleantech Practice, Deloitte & Touche

Registration: Email Maria DeLuca at mdeluca@sonnenschein.com or 973.912.7184

To find out more about VLAB’s Emerging Business Forum and the Emerging Technology Lab, visit here.

The New Stimulus Package: What Does It Mean for the Valley?
2009-04-21 18:00 - 20:30 | Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
The New Stimulus Package: What Does It Mean for the Valley?
Event Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 6:00pm
Location: Stanford Business School
Billions of dollars are being made available to stimulate the economy. How will this infusion of capital impact innovation in Silicon Valley? Who is eligible to receive stimulus package money, what is the process for applying for grants and are there “strings” attached to those who receive money?
This month’s event will provide an overview of the stimulus package and share how several key funding segments – Health Care IT, Technology, and Energy – plan to use the stimulus package.
Each panelist, and the segment they represent, has an unique perspective on how they will leverage this infusion of cash. HealthCare/IT companies are looking to upgrade their computer systems, enable digital medical records and improve operational efficiencies. Our national laboratories see this as an opportunity to commercialize research projects/technology and bring new products to market. In the energy space, new and existing companies are addressing the challenges of energy use and energy efficiency.
Join us in learning how the largest stimulus package in history will impact innovation in Silicon Valley and gain a better understanding of the new business opportunities emerging out of this large influx of resources.
Moderator
Josh Becker, Founder and General Partner, New Cycle Capital

Panelists
David Katz, Director, Center for Technology Integration, El Camino Hospital
Eric Stenehjem, Director of Industrial Partnerships Office, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Donny Foster, CEO & Founder, Power Assure
Chris Wright, Vice President for Public Policy, Critical Connections

Emerging Business Forum: Integrating the Clean Tech Value Chain
2009-04-17 08:30 - 12:30 | Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, 3175 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, United States
VLAB Emerging Business Forum: Integrating the Clean Tech Value Chain
Linking Research, Businesses, Venture Capitalists, Service Providers and Government Stimulus
Location
Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, 3175 Hanover Street, Palo Alto
Event Description:
Today’s Clean Tech environment is top of mind in the world and especially the USA. Every address given by federal and local officials have “clean energy” as a pillar. Our traditional energy providers have been large utilities and corporate entities that have primarily based their economic models on oil and fossil fuel. Now the factors of oil price and scarcity, global climate impact, and energy independence set the stage for diversification. An entrepreneurial approach to solving this problem creates and enables diversification. The challenge is not a lack of ideas or exuberance but constructing and connecting a value chain that will accelerate the formulation, funding, adoption, and wide spread implementation of technologies and methods to build the “clean energy” pillar we need.
Join us is in an interactive ½ day session of discussion and ideas from representatives of clean tech emerging businesses, VC’s, labs, universities, and service providers about building the value chain from all sources to enter the clean energy market. Pre-register online for $40 and on-site registration for $50. Deadline for registration is April 16 at noon.
Register Now!
Please sign in before registering if you are already a member of VLAB.
Agenda

8:30 Registration, Continental Breakfast and Networking
9:00 Welcome and Thank You
9:10 Keynote Speaker: Winston Hickox, Chair of the California Market Advisory Committee
9:30 Panel One: Market and Offering, Current Position and Background, Challenges

Moderator – Dan Lankford – WavePoint Ventures
Chuck Horrell – VP of Engineering – Advanced Transit Dynamics
Dennis Murphy, VP Business Development – GroundSource Geo – CTO Winner 2008
Mohit Singh, Founder – Seeo Inc.
PR Yu, CEO – Solar for Life 3
Fraser Murison Smith, CEO – ElectraDrive – CTO Winner 2008

10:30 Morning Break
10:45 Panel Two: Clean Tech Value Collaborations: Investments & Trends, Collaborations & Advice for Start Ups

Moderator – Douglas Park, DYP Advisors, Inc.
Elias Blawie, Partner – Cooley Godward
Lee Cooper – PG&E Emerging Technologies
Stefan Heuser, CEO – Siemens Technology to Business (TTB)
TBD – Stanford University Professor
TBD – Lawrence Berkeley Labs

11:45 Thank Yous, Close and Additional Networking Until 12:30

EBF Clean Energy Forum Directions
Facilitating Clean Tech Value Chain Integration

Bios
Winston Hickox, Keynote Speaker
Winston Hickox is Chair of the California Market Advisory Committee, which supports the implementation of the state’s first-in-the-nation comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction program. Hickox is former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, instrumental in the enactment of legislation requiring new greenhouse gas emission standards for cars. He also established the Environmental Protection Indicators for California and led the implementation of Environmental Justice legislation in the state.
Since July 2004, he has been employed by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System as a senior portfolio manager and has assisted with the design and implementation of a series of environmental investment initiatives, including investments in clean technology and other investment initiatives focused on the impacts of climate change. Hickox currently serves on the Sacramento County Employees’ Retirement System Board, as well as on the boards of the California League of Conservation Voters, Audubon California and the Sustainable Conservation Board. He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Cal State University, Sacramento, and an MBA from Golden Gate University.
For more information:

To find out more about VLAB’s Emerging Business Track, and the three teams associated with that track – clean, green/life science and high tech – visit here.
Please contact us if you would like to promote this event to your network or association and would like to offer your members and contacts the partnership rate.
We hope that you will join us as we investigate and explore clean energy opportunities ahead. Pre-register online today before the event is sold out.
Register Now!
Please sign in before registering if you are already a member of VLAB.

New Music Models: New Paths to Revenue and New Opportunities - Featuring MC Hammer!
2009-03-06 18:00 - 20:30 | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
New Music Models: New Paths to Revenue and New Opportunities.
Featuring MC Hammer!

March 6, 2009
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Hors D’oeuvres
7:00pm – 9:00pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Location
Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School
(click for direction & parking information)
Event Description:
A variety of new models have cropped up in the past 18 months around monetizing music. What are these models and how viable are they? Come discover perspectives from a Pop Star, artist management, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists and hear their latest thinking around innovative ideas using technology — ranging from discovery engines to gaming to others — that have been leading the way toward new music models.
Moderator
Paul Bonanos – Music, Technology & Finance Journalist
Panelists
MC Hammer – Hip-Hop Pioneer & Multi-Platinum Recording Artist
Jordan Kurland – Artist Manager, Death Cab for Cutie and Partner, NoisePop
Jessica Kahn – Director of Engineering, Tapulous
Dorrian Porter – CEO & Founder, Mozes
Larry Marcus – Venture Capitalist, Walden Partners
Jeff Yasuda – CEO & Founder, Blip Inc.

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Bios
Paul Bonanos – Music, Technology & Finance Journalist
Paul Bonanos is a journalist, blogger and author. He covered technology, media, venture capital and private equity as a senior writer and West Coast correspondent for The Deal, and maintained a blog about startups in the digital music industry. He was a writer, columnist and editorial researcher for The Industry Standard magazine during the dot-com boom era, and served as a music editor for Spin magazine as it launched its first Web site in the mid-1990s. His writings about music have also been published by the Huffington Post, No Depression magazine, and VH1.com. Paul is also a co-author of Baseball Prospectus’s forthcoming book, I Don’t Believe What I Just Saw, about baseball in the 1980s. He plays about a dozen musical instruments, and performs onstage and in recording studios around the
Bay Area.
MC Hammer – Hip-Hop Pioneer & Multi-Platinum Recording Artist
MC Hammer is a rapper, dancer, actor and entrepreneur. Best known for his multimillion-selling early-90s hits including “U Can’t Touch This” and “Too Legit To Quit,” Hammer launched the Oaktown Records label early in his career, and has created several labels since then, including WorldHit and FullBlast. More recently, he co-founded DanceJam.com, a Web site featuring dance videos, contests and lessons. He has a thriving reality television career, including stints on a pair of VH-1 programs (The Surreal Life and I Married MC Hammer) and A&E’s upcoming Hammertime series. In addition, Hammer became a minister in the late 1990s, and records devotional music. The one-time Oakland Athletics batboy is now among the most prolific users of microblogging service Twitter, with more than 200,000 followers.
Jordan Kurland– Artist Manager, Death Cab for Cutie and Partner, NoisePop
Jordan Kurland is the owner of Zeitgeist Artist Management, LTD. Formed in 1999, with offices in San Francisco and Manhattan; Zeitgeist focuses on cultivating long-term careers for independently minded artists. The company’s roster includes Death Cab for Cutie, the Postal Service, Bob Mould, Matt Nathanson, She & Him, Rogue Wave, Grizzly Bear, Sondre Lerche, and producer Jimmy Tamborello and his projects DNTEL and James Figurine. Jordan is a partner in one of the nation’s longest standing independent music festivals, Noise Pop. The event runs throughout the city of San Francisco each year and garners bands and attendees from around the world. He also co-owns and co-produces the Treasure Island Music Festival.
Jessica Kahn – Director of Engineering, Tapulous
Jessica Kahn is Director of Engineering at Tapulous, a Palo Alto maker of applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Amongst Tapulous’ products is the wildly popular Tap Tap Revenge, the #1 game on the iTunes App Store in 2008, with over 6M users. Other music-related offerings in Tapulous’ lineup are custom games made for specific music artists and genres; three of these are shipping today, and more are currently in development. Prior to joining Tapulous, Ms. Kahn held various positions in Software Engineering at Apple, Inc., from 1999-2008, in engineering and management, with a focus on user-visible Internet-savvy features of Mac OS X. Most recently, she was a senior software engineer on the Safari Mac Platform team. Ms. Kahn received her bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College.
Dorrian Porter – CEO & Founder, Mozes
Dorrian Porter is the founder and CEO of Mozes. Mozes is the best way to connect with the bands, sports teams, clubs and brands that you love from your mobile phone. Dorrian is an entrepreneur who co-founded HigherMarkets, an on-demand software company in March 2000. He later became CEO and led it to its acquisition by a Nasdaq listed company in 2002. Dorrian worked with the combined company until July 2005, where he helped significantly grow the business and shape the company’s product offerings. Previously, Dorrian practiced law at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California where he represented a wide range of tech companies. Prior to joining WSGR, he worked in Canada as an associate at McCarthy Tetrault, an analyst at Harrowston, Inc. (now TD Capital) and at the Canadian Parliament, including the Prime Minister’s Office. Dorrian received his law degree and MBA from the University of Toronto and a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Ottawa.
Larry Marcus – Venture Capitalist, Walden Partner
Larry Marcus is a Managing Director at Walden Venture Capital, which is based in San Francisco, CA and was founded in 1974. Walden specializes in early stage institutional rounds in the digital media, consumer and enterprise technology enabled services and eCommerce sectors. Prior to Walden, Larry was a leading equity research analyst at Alex. Brown / Deutsche Bank and prior to that Robertson Stephens & company, both in San Francisco. Larry was among the first equity analysts to cover PC and video games, followed by internet media and enhanced TV (e.g. Scientific Atlanta, General Instrument, Gemstar, Wink). Through a hands on, product oriented approach, he developed a successful methodology and track record of backing products/companies at early stages of adoption that would eventually achieve mass market success, including Terayon, Edmark, Women.com, Netflix, CBS Marketwatch, Maxis, Activision and Spectrum HoloByte. Prior operating experience includes consulting for both Digidesign and Maxis, media planning at a major New York ad agency and general management in computer services retail. Larry received both his Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Business Administration from University of California, Berkeley. Larry is an avid drummer and a green tech enthusiast.
Jeff Yasuda– CEO & Founder, Blip Inc.
Jeff is the Chief Executive Officer of Blip Inc. which has developed Blip.fm. Call it “Twitter for Music,” Blip.fm is a social music DJ service powered by people. DJ your favorite songs to your friends or just kick back and listen to what your friends are playing. Previously, Yasuda was the Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Redwood Ventures where he held board directorships and managed investments in their technology portfolio. Prior to joining Redwood, he worked in Investment Banking at Lehman Brothers, concentrating on technology financings within Equity Capital Markets, where he was involved in initial public and follow-on offerings for software, hardware, computer services, semiconductor, semiconductor equipment, and telecommunications equipment companies. Before Lehman Brothers, he worked at Arthur Andersen, focusing on strategic consulting, mergers and acquisitions, and financial valuation within the Corporate Finance Group. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. He graduated with a BA in History from Dartmouth College and received his MBA from New York University Stern School of Business in Accounting and Finance. Jeff also is a co-founding Director of the board of Little Kids Rock, a non-profit established to teach contemporary music to children in public schools. He considers himself to be a true hack guitarist and has recently played in two San Francisco bands. Jeff is currently negotiating with his wife to start his third band.

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Young Entrepreneurs: The Next Wave of Innovation
2009-02-17 18:00 - 20:30 | Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
Young Entrepreneurs: The Next Wave of Innovation

6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Hors D’oeuvres

7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Location
Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School
(click for direction & parking information)
Event Description:
Each iteration of the Silicon Valley cycle begets a new generation of ideas and challenges. How are today’s youngest entrepreneurs thinking about the current environment and where are they focusing their talents? Join us for a discussion with some of the youngest and most promising minds to reveal their perspectives on the latest technology trends, building startups in the economic downturn, and the challenges and opportunities associated with being a young entrepreneur. Other questions we’ll explore include:

What are the next big opportunities and where are they?
How has growing up through the last boom affected their attitude on entrepreneurship?
How can youth and “inexperience” be turned from a liability into an asset?

Moderator
Christine Comaford, CEO, Mighty Ventures
Panelists
Aaron Patzer – CEO, Mint.com
Drew Houston – Founder, Dropbox
Matt Brezina – Co-founder, Xobni
John Bicket – CTO and Co-founder, Meraki

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Bios

Christine Comaford, CEO, Mighty Ventures
Bill Gates calls her “super high bandwidth.” Bill Clinton has thanked her for “fostering American entrepreneurship.” Newsweek says “by reputation, Christine is the person you want to partner with.”
New York Times bestselling author Christine Comaford is CEO of Mighty Ventures, an innovation accelerator which helps businesses to massively increase sales, product offerings, and company value. She has built and sold 5 of her own businesses with an average 700% return on investment, served as a board director or in-the-trenches advisor to 36 startups, and has invested in over 200 startups (including Google) as a venture capitalist or angel investor. Christine has consulted to the White House (Clinton and Bush), 700 of the Fortune 1000, and over 300 small businesses. She has repeatedly identified and championed key trends and technologies years before market acceptance.
Christine has led many lives: Buddhist monk, Microsoft engineer, geisha trainee, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. Her triumphs and disasters are revealed in her New York Times (and USA Today, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Amazon.com ) bestselling business book: Rules for Renegades: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career, and Revel in Your Individuality. The book is available at all major retailers or via www.RulesForRenegades.com.
Christine has appeared on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX Business Network, PBS, CNET and is frequently quoted in the business, technology and general press at large. Stanford Graduate School of Business has done two case studies on her and PBS has featured her in three specials (Triumph of the Nerds, Nerds 2.0.1, and Nerd TV ). CNET has broadcast two specials covering her unconventional rise to success as a woman with neither a high school diploma nor college degree. Christine believes we can do well and do good, using business as a path for personal development, wealth creation, and philanthropy.
Aaron Patzer – CEO, Mint.com
Aaron is both the visionary and technical mind behind Mint.com, now the leading free, online money management in the US. He designed Mint.com to meet the needs of people who value the immediacy of the web, simplicity and their free time. Prior to founding Mint, Aaron was an architect and technical lead for the San Jose division of Nascentric. Before Nascentric, Aaron worked for IBM and founded two web development and online marketing companies: PWeb and International. Aaron holds an MSEE from Princeton University and a BS in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering from Duke University. He has 10 patents filed or pending. Aaron’s innovation leadership has been recognized by national and international organizations. CNNMoney identified him as one of six Money Heroes in the US in 2008, and Inc. magazine included him in a list of the Top 30 US Entrepreneurs under 30. He was named one of just 34 worldwide Tech Pioneers by the World Economic Forum of Davos, Switzerland in 2008.
Drew Houston – CEO & Co-founder, Dropbox
Drew is the cofounder and CEO of Dropbox, the easiest way to store and share files online. Dropbox lets you get to your important files from any of your computers or the web. The company launched at the TechCrunch50 conference in 2008 and is backed by Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator.
Drew was named one of the top “Twentysomething Entrepreneurs” by BusinessWeek in April 2008. Before founding Dropbox, he was a lead software engineer at Bit9, a venture-backed network security company, cofounded a profitable online SAT prep company called Accolade, and held engineering roles in various startups since the age of 14. He received his S.B. in computer science from MIT.
Matt Brezina – Co-founder, Xobni
Matt Brezina co-founded Xobni, a San Francisco, CA based email software company, in 2006. Xobni raised over $11 million in capital from venture investors including Khosla Ventures, Cisco Systems, First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, Atomico Investments, and Y Combinator.
Matt received his B.S. EE with honors from Pennsylvania State University. Matt did his M.S. work in electrical engineering at the University of Maryland where he was an Institute for Systems Research fellow. Matt published his M.S. thesis research, which was a result of his work in space construction robotics at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Matt has worked as consultant to the Naval Research Lab.
Matt was the 2007 Bishoff Entrepreneur in Residence at Penn State University. Matt also sits on the advisory board of Genesis Interactive. His daily responsibilities at Xobni are focused on product and marketing.

John Bicket – CTO and Co-founder, Meraki

John Bicket is responsible for the technical direction and development of Meraki, an awarding-winning provider of Wi-Fi network solutions. He was most recently a Ph.D. student in the Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems group at MIT, where he co-led the research project that won several academic awards and later became Meraki. John holds a
B.S. in Computer Science from Cornell University, and an S.M. degree in Computer Science from MIT.
Meraki’s networking systems and cloud-based management services are fundamentally improving the quality, speed of deployment, and economics of providing high-speed wireless Internet access. Today there are thousands of Meraki-based networks in more than 125 countries throughout the world. Meraki is located in San Francisco, California, and is funded in part by Sequoia Capital and Google.
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Upside of the Downturn: What Business Models and Ideas Work in Today's Economic Environment?
2009-01-20 18:00 - 20:30 | Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
Upside of the Downturn: What Business Models and Ideas Work in Today’s Economic Environment?

6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Hors D’oeuvres
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Location
Stanford Business School

This event is SOLD OUT!

Moderator
Drake Mosier, Serial Entrepreneur & Investor
Panelists
John Hagel III, Director & Co-Chair, Center for Edge Innovation, Deloitte
Renaud Laplanche, Founder & CEO, Lending Club
Carol Sands, Co-Managing Member of The Halo Funds, and Founder of The Angels’ Forum
John Squire, Chief Strategy Officer & SVP, CoreMetrics
Rich Wong, Partner, Accel Partners
Event Description
Opening VLAB’s 2009 panel series, January’s event will highlight business models and business ideas positioned to succeed because of the downturn.
How has the downturn changed consumer and business behavior and how are business models being adjusted in order to meet those new needs? How can you think differently about the product or service your company offers in order to better meet shifting consumer and business requirements?
Despite a worsening economic environment, start ups continue to receive funding and companies previously struggling are experiencing unforeseen opportunities as a result of the downturn. Companies are succeeding by targeting their models, operations and financing strategies and are positioning themselves to emerge from the downturn in a stronger position.
Come learn about the opportunities the downturn presents for entrepreneurs. This panel will bring together start ups from the last downturn and this downturn, leading edge investors and pundits in identifying new business opportunities and models for a spirited discussion on how entrepreneurs can thrive in this downturn.
Bios
Drake Mosier, Serial Entrepreneur & Investor
Drake Mosier is an entrepreneur and pioneer in the online investment industry. In 1995, he founded mPower, the first online investment advisory firm, serving as Chairman and CEO until 2000, at which point the company had 14 million clients. In 2000, Drake became an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with Capital Z Partners in London, a $4 billion private equity and venture capital partnership. While at Capital Z, Drake purchased Sort Ltd and was Chairman and CEO of the semi-to-fully-automated pan-European investment advisory platform until it was sold to a US investor group. He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek, the Economist, The Financial Times, The London Times and more. He previously served as a member of both the American Savings and Education Council and the Association of Private Pensions and Welfare Plans and received the prestigious “In Five” Award for being an “on-line pioneer for bringing on-line advice to the masses” by the Plan Sponsor Magazine. Drake has sat on numerous boards including Individual Investor Inc (NASDAQ: INDI), Decision Analytics, LLC., the Gaslamp Foundation and several advisory boards and is an angel investor.
John Hagel III, Director & Co-Chair, Center for Edge Innovation, Deloitte
John Hagel III is co-chairman of the Deloitte Center for Edge Innovation, which conducts original research and develops substantive points of view for new corporate growth.. In nearly 30 years of experience as a management consultant, author, speaker and entrepreneur, he has helped companies improve their performance by effectively applying information technology to reshape business strategies. Prior to Deloitte, John was principal at McKinsey & Co., where he was a leader of the Strategy Practice and founded and led McKinsey’s Electronic Commerce Practice; chief strategy officer of 12 Entrepreneuring, Inc.; and senior vice president of strategic planning at Atari, Inc.
John is the author of a series of best-selling business books, including Net Gain, Net Worth, Out of the Box and The Only Sustainable Edge. He holds a BA from Wesleyan University, a B.Phil. from Oxford University, and a JD and MBA from Harvard University.
Renaud Laplanche, Founder & CEO, Lending Club
Renaud Laplanche is founder and CEO of Lending Club. Prior to founding Lending Club, he was the Founder & CEO of TripleHop Technologies, a VC-backed enterprise software company he founded in New York in 1999 and led to a market leadership position that resulted in its acquisition by Oracle Corporation in June 2005. Prior to founding TripleHop, Renaud was a Senior Associate at New York law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, where he specialized in technology and finance transactions. Renaud earned a Master of Business Administration from HEC and London Business School and was honored with the HEC “Entrepreneur of the Year” award in 2002. He won the French sailing championship twice, in 1988 and 1990.
Carol Sands, Co-Managing Member of The Halo Funds, and Founder of The Angels’ Forum
Since 2000, Carol Sands has co-founded and managed 4 venture funds that invest in early-stage, Silicon Valley based start-ups. Carol and her partners’ latest fund, Halo Fund III, was founded in 2007. She is also the founder of the Angels’ Forum, a revolutionary angel investing company that organizes individual investors with previous entrepreneurial experience to invest, as a single entity, using a venture capital model for due diligence, mentoring, and board management.Carol has 36 years of experience in investing, entrepreneurial and/or large corporate institutions. She has held marketing and sales positions with Motorola and Xerox Computer Services, as well as being an executive at Arthur Young (now Ernst & Young) and Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). She also founded Sands MarketingPlus, an international sales management and marketing consulting firm with advertising & PR agencies. In addition to her investment-based responsibilities, Carol is the Chair of the Global Women’s Leadership Network, and a board advisor to Facing History and Ourselves. She is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), an Advisory Board Member for Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE) and the ANZA Technology Network, as well as a member of The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & Executives (FWE&E) and the Women’s Forum West. She is also a Director of the Sands Family Foundation. ‘
John Squire, Chief Strategy Officer & SVP, CoreMetrics
John Squire is a recognized online marketing optimization thought leader. He is frequently asked to speak at noteworthy regional, national and worldwide events, such as Shop.org, eTail, WITI, Web Guild, Online Marketing World, and NCDM. Also known as an accomplished writer, his timely and most recently published article addresses “How analytics can protect your budget” in iMedia Connection. He also leads the Company’s vision of the market and technical strategy for Coremetrics solutions.
John has held various positions at Chemdex culminating into his role as Senior Director of Product Management and membership on the Executive Team. John also worked for 3Com in Market Development where he developed and managed partnerships with Siemens, Fuji Medical Systems, Acuson, GE Medical, and other medical application providers. Prior to 3Com, John spent five years with Chevron Products, USA as a Process Engineer. John holds an M.B.A. with High Distinction from the University of Michigan and a B.S. from the University of California, Davis.
Rich Wong, Partner, Accel Partners
Rich joined Accel in 2006, with a focus on mobile infrastructure and services. Rich currently serves on the boards of AdMob, the largest mobile advertising player, and Parature, a leader in SaaS based customer support. Rich works closely with the management team of Getjar Networks, the largest mobile development community and free mobile apps download portal. Rich also serves as a board advisor to Plaxo (acquired by Comcast), Sana Security, and Simplicita (acquired by Sandvine). Prior to Accel, Rich served as SVP/GM of Products, GM of Messaging Products, and Chief Marketing Officer at Openwave where he founded and chaired the Messaging Anti Abuse Working Group. He also was Chief Marketing Officer and EVP/GM of Value-Added Services at Covad Communications, and a management consultant for McKinsey & Company.

At the CTIA Wireless Internet Caucus 2008, Rich was awarded a “Mobile Six” award as one of the 6 most influential individuals shaping the wireless industry by executives in the InMobile.org community. Rich holds a B.S. and an MBA from MIT.

The Electric Vehicle Infrastructure: What's It Going to Take to Go Electric?
2008-11-18 18:00 - 20:30 | Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
The Electric Vehicle Infrastructure: What’s It Going to Take to Go Electric?
This event is SOLD OUT!!!

6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Hors D’oeuvres

7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Location
Stanford Business School
Moderator
Wendy Tanaka, Forbes Senior Technology Writer
Panelists
Richard Lowenthal, Coulomb Technologies, Founder and CEO
Jason Wolf, Better Place, North America
Gerd Goette, Siemens Venture Capital, Managing Partner
Byron Shaw, General Motors, Managing Director – GM Advanced Technology Silicon Valley
Event Description
Electric vehicles seem to offer a promising value — they go nearly twice as far as bio-fuel powered vehicles on the same unit of bio-mass, and nearly three times as far as a fuel cell powered vehicles for the same unit of electricity. What innovation is needed for a sustainable Electric Vehicle (EV) transportation model? This panel brings together leaders in EV investing, auto manufacturing, battery technology and charging station infrastructure for an insightful discussion of the necessary new business models, software and services and technological advancements needed to obtain transportation energy independence through electric vehicles. Key topics include:

Battery charging vs battery exchange services
Vehicle owner or charging network ownership of batteries
Charging network revenue models and ownership
Longer battery life vs. more charging locations
Software and hardware requirements for battery charging, vehicle use optimization and battery life

Spend an evening with leaders in the EV industry and discover what it’s going to take to go electric.

Bios

Wendy Tanaka, Forbes Senior Technology Writer
Wendy Tanaka is a Senior Technology Writer at Forbes.com. Wendy has covered technnology and business for 15 years at Forbes.com, Philadelphia Inquirer and other publications. Wendy has a B.A. in history from the University of California, Berkeley
Richard Lowenthal, Coulomb Technologies, Founder and CEO
From 1998 – 2006 Richard Lowenthal provided business formation consulting services for high-tech startup firms as sole proprietor of Berteleda Consulting. Through his consulting firm, he has been involved in starting several companies, including Lightera, Pipal Systems and Procket Networks. From 1996 to 1997, Mr. Lowenthal was vice president and general manager of Cisco’s WAN Access Products Division. From 1990 through 1995, Mr. Lowenthal was vice president of Research and Development for StrataCom, a telecommunications product development and manufacturing company. Prior to StrataCom, Mr. Lowenthal was co-founder and vice president of Engineering for Stardent Computers, a high-performance computer company in Sunnyvale, California. Mr. Lowenthal was also vice president of Engineering for Convergent Technologies in San Jose.
Mr. Lowenthal is also a former Mayor of Cupertino, California. He has chaired the boards of several organizations, including the Rotary Club of Cupertino, West Valley Community Services, Fremont Union High Schools Foundation and the Santa Clara County Libraries Joint Powers Authority. He is currently Chair of the Board of the YMCA’s of Santa Clara Valley. Mr. Lowenthal has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley.
Jason Wolf, Better Place, North America
Jason Wolf is responsible for business development in North America for Better Place. In this role, he strives to form strategic partnerships with energy companies, automobile manufacturers, investors, governments and other key parties in an effort to create infrastructure for the mass adoption of electric vehicles.
Wolf brings more than 11 years of management experience in the IT industry, having held various positions in strategic planning, product rollouts, sales and professional services. In his last role, Wolf served as president of Sterna Technologies USA, the pioneer of Business Positioning Systems software. Prior to joining Sterna, he held a number of positions during a 10-year career at SAP AG, including senior vice president of Strategic Initiatives and senior vice president of New Product Introductions.
Wolf holds a B.A. in Economics and Psychology from the University of Tel-Aviv, and an MBA from San Jose State University. From 1986 to 1993, he served as an officer in the Israeli military.
Gerd Goette, Siemens Venture Capital, Managing Partner
Gerd is Managing Partner, based in Palo Alto , CA . He specializes in investments in energy, communications and industrial solutions. His investments include Broadlight, Dune Networks, IP-Unity Glenayre, Kagoor Networks (acquired by Juniper Networks), Myrio (acquired by Siemens), Reactive NanoTechnologies and Verimatrix. In addition he manages SVC’s investments in G2 Microsystems, Prenova and SmartSynch.
With more than 20 years of worldwide industry experience, he combines a strong technical background with wide-ranging operational skills. Prior to joining Siemens Venture Capital in September 2000, Gerd held the position of Vice President and Head of CableTV Solutions in Siemens Information and Communication Networks. Additionally, Gerd’s managerial and operating expertise stems from earlier focus on R&D, system integration, product line management, technical sales support, project management and general management in the fields of telecommunication equipment and solutions.
Gerd received a master’s degree in electrical engineering (Dipl. Ing.) from Technical University Darmstadt, Germany.
Byron Shaw, General Motors, Managing Director – GM Advanced Technology Silicon Valley
Byron is currently responsible for building and developing GM’s advanced technology efforts in Silicon Valley. He began his career in the automotive industry as a GM Scholar with GM’s Harrison Division (Delphi) where he worked on advanced product development and integration, primarily within GM’s Opel vehicle division. He continued his career with Daimler Benz research labs in Stuttgart, Germany as a visiting scientist in Daimler’s combustion flow visualization lab. Byron was instrumental in developing the charter of BMW’s Technology Office in Palo Alto, CA, where he was the Manager of Advanced Technology and technical director of a 30-person engineering and marketing team and a $4 million budget where he oversaw the discovery and implementation of new and advanced technologies into BMW’s vehicle development process. After leaving BMW, Byron was the co-founder and CTO of a Photovoltaic Solar startup where he led the development team in releasing its first product launch and participated in venture fundraising. Byron has consulted for several high-tech Silicon Valley companies in the electronics and software industries and is a founding board member of SmallTech LLC, an IP consultancy focused on MEMS and nanotechnology.
Byron holds BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a BS in German Language and Literature from MIT. His PhD was completed at the University of California at Berkeley in the Vehicle Dynamics and Control Laboratory where his areas of focus were engine emissions modeling and control, high-speed embedded electronics and digital signal processing. His doctoral research centered on reduction of cold-start emissions of automotive engines using real-time in-cylinder monitoring and feedback.
This event is SOLD OUT!!!

Global Mobile: Where in the World Are the Opportunities?
2008-10-21 18:00 - 21:00 | Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
Global Mobile: Where in the World Are the Opportunities?

6:00pm – 7:30pm – Networking and Hors D’oeuvres

7:30pm – 9:00pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A
(Please note a slight schedule change)

Location
Stanford Business School
6:00pm – 7:30pm – Arbuckle Lounge (extended reception with more food and drink)
7:30pm – 9:00pm – Bishop Auditorium (delayed program due to GSB class)
Presenter
Faraz Syed, CEO & Co-Founder, Device Anywhere
Moderator
Ashok Narasimhan, CEO & Founder, Cinch (Founding CEO, Wipro IT)
Panelists
Connie Wong, CEO & Founder, Vidiator Technology, President, Hutchison Whampoa Americas
Kevin Leong, CEO & Founder, MoBlast
Cyriac Roeding, EIR at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Rob Trice, Senior Managing Director, SK Telecom Ventures

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(Please make sure you are signed in before ordering tickets!)
Event Description:
With the huge growth of overseas markets and resources, mobile start-ups need to shift away from a “local” only focus and go “global.” There are dozens of novel ways that mobile devices and services are being used globally thus creating a plethora of revenue opportunities. However, going global in the mobile world offers many more challenges than going global on the Internet such as wireless carriers operating “closed” networks (aka “walled gardens”), lack of device/applications standardization, stricter local regulations, and diverse user behavior. Companies need to possess the right combination of management capabilities, innovation, market savvy, infrastructure and an overseas footprint to compete on a worldwide scale. In today’s competitive mobile markets, what are the challenges facing mobile start-ups to compete on the global stage? What go-to-market strategies and operational capabilities must they have in place to succeed? What are the tools and technologies which help mobile companies to globally expand?
See link to article on Cyriac’s (panelist) global travels for a sampling of global mobile usage.
The presenting company, DeviceAnywhere, not only has a variety of customers around the world, but they also provide tools for other mobile companies to locally develop and test mobile applications across hundreds of handsets across live networks around the world. Faraz Syed, CEO & Co-founder of DeviceAnywhere, will share his experience of expanding his company globally, while helping other companies also go global. A global mobile panel including the founding CEO of Wipro, President of Hutchison Whampoa (owner of operator “3), an EIR at Kleiner Perkins, and more provides insightful analysis of the challenges of going “Global Mobile”.
Bios:
Faraz Syed, CEO & Co-Founder, Device Anywhere
Recognizing a need in the fast growing mobile industry to provide the first truly affordable handset testing service, Faraz founded Mobile Complete in April 2003. Faraz spearheaded Mobile Complete’s evolution from being a technology provider for testing to its role today as a comprehensive mobile development environment. Clients throughout the world can access real mobile phones linked to live operator networks, through the Internet on their desktops. Being one of the fastest growing mobile start-up companies in Silicon Valley, the company provides service to many of the largest Internet and mobile companies in the world with more than 650 clients using the service.
Prior to launching Mobile Complete, Faraz was the Director of Solutions at Brience, a mobile WAP applications company, and a Technical Architect at KPMG Consulting. While employed with Brience, he experienced the difficulty and expense required to develop new mobile applications when teams often had to travel abroad to set up testing labs and independently purchase new handsets. The challenge facing the industry presented Faraz with the vision for founding Mobile Complete. Faraz has also held technical positions at Oracle, KLA Tencor and AMD. He holds a MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the lead singer for a local rock band, Kaif.

Ashok Narasimhan, CEO & Founder, Cinch, Founding CEO, Wipro IT

Ashok Narasimhan is the CEO and Founder of Cinch, a consumer-branded, cross-merchant program focused on increasing conversion to sales at e-tailer sites. He was previously CEO and Co-Founder of July Systems, which provided direct-to-consumer mobile services globally. Before that, he was CEO & Founder of Prio, a Web and credit card based promotion service which was acquired by InfoSpace for $1B+ in 2000. Ashok subsequently served on the board of Infospace. Prior to Prio, Ashok was Head of Worldwide Marketing, Business Development, and Engineering for VeriFone from its early days thru the IPO. Before coming to the US, Ashok was a key pioneer in India’s early IT industry and was the founding CEO of Wipro’s IT organizations and led its expansion into global markets. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from Madras University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

Connie Wong, CEO & Founder, Vidiator Technology, President, Hutchison Whampoa Americas
Connie Wong has more than 30 years of experience in wireless and IT technology. She is currently CEO/Founder of Vidiator Technology, Inc. and also the President of Hutchison Whampoa Americas. Vidiator is a leading mobile multimedia company and has customers in over 20 countries worldwide and offices in 10 countries. Connie was formerly VP of AOL Mobile Asia and prior to that, Connie was VP of BizDev for Nextel International where she served on the boards of Nextel Japan, Philippines and a JV with China Unicom in Shanghai. In Hong Kong, Connie worked for Hutchison Telecom International where she bid on global wireless licenses and set up new operation e.g. Orange India. She was a founding member of SmarTone Communications in Hong Kong, the first GSM operator in Asia. Connie began her career in the computer industry in Asia for DEC, Wang Labs, and Data General. She is on the Washington State Attorney General’s Technology Advisory Board and Co-Chairs Women in Wireless for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). She also serves on the boards of The International Youth Foundation, Bahiastreet in Brazil, and Cocoon House in Washington State (for homeless teenagers).
Kevin Leong, CEO & Founder, MoBlast
Kevin Leong is the founder and CEO of the mobile web company (Mo’Blast) where he and his team of engineers in Europe, Asia and Silicon Valley have developed a flexible platform that enables the creation of location-based and mobile apps quickly. Prior to Mo’Blast, Kevin involved in two other startups ProxiNet and Zhanra, and held various technical leadership positions at IBM. Kevin appearances included recent JavaOne, Ars Electronica Festival (Linz) and S60 Summit (Barcelona). He has MBA from Haas, UC Berkeley, and a technical degree from University of Texas.
Cyriac Roeding, EIR at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Cyriac Roeding joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 2008 as Entrepreneur-in-Residence, to focus on next-generation cross-platform mobile and online venture concepts. Previously, Cyriac was EVP of CBS Mobile, CBS Interactive. He launched CBS Corporation’s (NYSE: CBS) mobile businesses across CBS Entertainment, CBS Sports, CBS News and The CW. In partnerships with technology start-ups, he created U.S. industry firsts such as location-based mobile advertising, mobile video breaking news and sports alerts, and avatar-based mobile games tied to major TV shows. He grew CBS Sports Mobile into one of the Top Ten highest traffic ad-supported mobile websites in the U.S.; created the first virtual reality video gaming experience across TV, online and mobile with “CSI: NY”; and launched the first Alternate Reality Game with full primetime TV drama episode (Numb3rs) and outdoor billboard integration. Prior to CBS, Cyriac was the Co-Founder of 12snap, a European mobile marketing and entertainment company with clients such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, L’Oreal, adidas and MTV Europe. Before that, he developed growth strategies at McKinsey & Company for global media, software and high-tech players in Europe and in Silicon Valley. Cyriac has received several industry honors, including the first Lion Awards for mobile concepts at the Cannes Lion Festival in France (in 2003 and 2004). In 2007, Cyriac and his CBS Mobile team received the only Emmy Award nomination for Mobile. He was also elected Global and North American Chairman of the MMA, with 600 member companies worldwide. He currently serves as Chairman Emeritus. Cyriac received a master’s degree summa cum laude in engineering and business administration from Germany’s Technical University of Karlsruhe, and studied Japanese management at Sophia University in Tokyo.
Rob Trice, Senior Managing Director, SK Telecom Ventures
Rob Trice brings a variety of domestic and international investing and business experience to SK Telecom Ventures. Prior to joining SK Telecom Ventures, he was a co-founding Partner of Nokia Growth Partners, the global growth-stage venture capital arm of Nokia with US$350m under management for direct and fund-to-fund investing. From late 2000 until the end of 2004, he worked at Nokia Venture Partners (now BlueRun Ventures) on early-stage venture investments in the US and overseas. Previously, he worked at DIRECTV in Los Angeles and Tokyo in a variety of operational and business planning roles. Rob also worked as an international policy analyst at a Washington, D.C. based think tank, the Center for Strategic & International Studies. He holds a Master of Arts from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia. Rob is based in Menlo Park, California.
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Finding the Green in Clean
2008-08-19 18:00 - 20:30 | Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, 3175 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, United States
VLAB Emerging Business Track: Finding the Green in Clean

Finding the Green in Clean
3175 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA 94304
The VLAB Emerging Business Track Clean Green Team would cordially invite you to
Finding the Green in Clean
Scheduled for
Tuesday, August 19, from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m., at
Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, 3175 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA 94304 (map).

To pre-register for $30 by visiting Click here to buy tickets!!!, or register on-site for $40 plus fees.
The VLAB Emerging Business Track, Clean Green Team is pleased to produce its first SIG, a panel of clean energy CEOs speaking on ‘Finding the Green in Clean’. In this VLAB Clean Green SIG event, successful clean energy executives will share their advice and stories about finding revenue models for their clean green companies.

Our panel will feature:
·
Moderator
Dan Lankford, Wavepoint Ventures

· Larsh M. Johnson, Founder, President and CTO, eMeter Corporation

·
Gary Conley, CEO and Chairman, Solfocus

· Kevin Surace, CEO, Serious Materials

·
Jonathan Wolfson, President and Founder, Solazyme

For additional information on:
·
The Emerging Business Track, visit
https://vlab.org/article.html?aid=185
.
·
The May 30 event meeting notes on clean green investment trends, visit
https://vlab.org/article.html?aid=204
.
·
Sponsorship opportunities, visit
https://vlab.org/sponsors.html
.
·
Volunteer opportunities, visit
https://vlab.org/article.html?aid=106
.

· VLAB, visit https://vlab.org.

Linda Holroyd
Chair, VLAB Emerging Business Track
Linda.Holroyd@vlab.org
650-996-3987

Cloud Computing: Creating Value for Web 2.0 Apps
2008-06-17 18:00 - 20:30 | Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
Cloud Computing: Creating Value for Web 2.0 Apps
The opportunities and challenges of cloud computing

6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Hors D’oeuvres

7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Location
Stanford Business School
Moderator
Ross Mayfield, Chairman, President and Co-founder, Socialtext
Speaker
Jonathan Bryce, Co-founder, Mosso, a Rackspace‘s company
Panelists
Paul McNamara, CEO, Coghead
Ping Li, Partner, Accel Partners
Michael Crandell, CEO & Founder, RightScale
Lydia Leong, Research Director, Gartner
Event Description:
Cloud computing increases capacity and expands computing capabilities without heavy investment in infrastructure, training or software licensing. Most importantly though it democratizes Web 2.0 application development. With the removal of two significant barriers to entry – cost and capacity access – suddenly even small, lesser-funded entrepreneurs can dream big and bring their grand Web 2.0 applications to market.
What are the ramifications of democratization? How are entrepreneurs exploiting cloud computing and leveraging Web 2.0? What challenges do these entrepreneurs face? Are they making money? What are the hot areas of development today and what will the next areas be? Will offerings from these new, small, nimble, creative thinking entrepreneurs change the Web 2.0 user experience? Will cloud computing live up to expectations?
On June 17th, Mosso co-founder Jonathan Bryce and a panel of industry experts, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will discuss these issues and more. Come hear what the Rainmakers of Cloud Computing predict.
Bios:
Ross Mayfield, Chairman, President and Co-founder, Socialtext
Ross Mayfield is the Chairman, President and co-founder of Socialtext, the first wiki company and leading provider of Enterprise 2.0 solutions. A noted blogger and industry expert, he is a serial and social entrepreneur. Mayfield has grown Socialtext to over 4,000 customers and served as CEO from 2002-2007. Socialtext is backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, SAP Ventures, Intel Capital and Omidyar Network and prominent Silicon Valley angels.
Previously, Mayfield served as VP of Marketing for a Fujitsu spinout and CEO of an enterprise risk management software company. Mayfield co-founded and served as president of RateXchange (AMEX:RTX), the leading B2B commodity exchange for telecom. Mayfield served as the marketing director of the largest privately held telecommunications group in Eastern Europe and was the internal lead manager of their Initial Public Offering. He also founded an ISP, a web-design company, and has served on a number of Advisory Boards of high tech startups.
Mayfield is a former advisor to the Office of the President of Estonia and began his career in the non-profit sector. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Los Angeles and completed the Management Development for Entrepreneurs (MDE) program of the Anderson School of Business. He resides in his hometown of Palo Alto with his wife and two children.
Jonathan Bryce, Co-founder, Mosso
Jonathan Bryce started his career working as a web developer for the managed hosting giant, Rackspace. During his tenure at Rackspace, Bryce and co-worker Todd Morey had a vision to build a sophisticated web hosting environment where users and businesses alike could turn to design, develop and deploy their ideal web site – all without being responsible for procuring the technology, installing it or making sure it is built to be always available. This vision, along with help from Rackspace, was turned into Mosso. Currently, Bryce oversees all operations and customer service for over 45,000 managed websites served by Mosso.
Paul McNamara, CEO, Coghead
McNamara first encountered the business concept that was to become Coghead while he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at El Dorado Ventures. So enamored was he with the potential that he not only invested in the company but joined it as CEO.
Under McNamara’s direction, Coghead set the industry abuzz with its innovative application platform and its disruptive business model. Business 2.0 Magazine declared: “Coghead’s DIY approach could trample the software giants.” PC World noted that Coghead could bring about “the end of installed software.” And the Wall Street Journal declared Coghead’s DIY approach a “turning point in corporate computing.”
No stranger to disruptive business models, McNamara was the first executive hired at Red Hat and a key figure in its meteoric rise to prominence. He structured the company’s industry-shaping relationships with Intel, IBM, Dell, Compaq, Oracle and others; developed Red Hat’s unique business model; and helped guide the company through its successful IPO.
McNamara’s 20+ years of experience have also included management and executive roles at SGI and IBM. Paul received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University.
Ping Li, Partner, Accel Partners
Ping joined Accel in 2004 and focuses primarily on information technology infrastructure (compute, networking, security and storage), as well as digital media solutions. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at BitTorrent, Mochi Media, Mu Security, and YuMe, and he is actively involved in Consentry, Imperva, and Oak Pacific Interactive. Ping was also responsible for Accel’s investment in Reactivity (acquired by Cisco).
Prior to Accel, Ping was a Senior Product Line Manager and Director of Corporate Development at Juniper Networks. He managed Juniper’s M-series router product portfolio that generated revenues over $50 mm/quarter. In addition, Ping worked on Juniper’s acquisition of Netscreen Technologies ($3.5 billion transaction) and led all subsequent security and routing product and R&D integration activities. He also worked as a strategy consultant for Mckinsey & Company, advising technology clients in their growth strategies.
Ping has extensive international experience as well. At Singapore Telecom, he served directly for the executive management team in assessing and investing in Asian growth opportunities. Prior to SingTel, Ping worked at Goldman Sachs Asia, transacting large PTT privatizations and advising telecom clients on complex restructuring and asset divestitures. Ping continues to be active in China investing by working with IDG-Accel China Fund.
Ping holds an A.B. from Harvard University, with honors, and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Michael Crandell, CEO and Founder, RightScale
Michael has worked as CEO or EVP for 10 years in Internet-based, software-as-a-service companies, including eFax (Internet fax) and Celebros (e-commerce search). Earlier, he founded and ran two software companies in document creation and communications. Michael is equally comfortable with the business and technology sides of a company, and has experience taking a company from early stage to IPO.
Michael received his B.A. from Stanford University with graduate studies at Harvard University.
Lydia Leong, Research Director, Gartner
Lydia Leong is a research director in Enterprise Network Services at Gartner, where she covers Internet infrastructure services, including Internet access, data centers and colocation, Web hosting, cloud computing, content networking, and other emerging Internet-based services. Prior to joining Gartner, she held various technical and management positions in the Internet industry, including director of server engineering at Excite@Home, and director of product engineering and operations at DIGEX/Intermedia Communications. Her prior roles have included product management, systems architecture, operations, deployment and product development.
Lydia studied computer science engineering at the University of Pennsylvania , and computer systems management at the University of Maryland Graduate School of Management and Technology.

Clean Green Investment Trends: The Opportunities and the Challenges
2008-05-30 09:00 - 12:00 | Silicon Valley Bank, 3005 Tasman Drive, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
Emerging Business Track: Clean Green Investment Trends
The VLAB Emerging Business Track, Clean Green Team, is pleased to invite you to attend a panel discuss on Clean Green Investment Trends: The Opportunities and the Challenges.
9:00am – 12:00pm – Networking, Panel Discussion and Q/A
Note the Different Location!
Silicon Valley Bank’s Kellog Auditorium, 3005 Tasman Drive, Santa Clara, CA
Event Details:
In response to the requests of VLAB community members, the VLAB Emerging Business, Clean Green Track first convened an April invitation-only clean energy VC roundtable to:

Share thoughts between industry leaders on an emerging technology market
Build and strengthen connections between investors and
Plan for a larger community event to delve into clean energy investment trends

Based on the feedback and discussions from this clean energy VC audience, the VLAB Emerging Business Clean Green Track is pleased to feature two panels of investors:

Very Limited Seating:
Register Now!
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if you are already a member of VLAB
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Panel 1 – Clean Energy success stories, featuring stories on successful clean green investments in markets with high potential
Panel 2 – Breaking Into the Clean Green Markets, featuring established venture firms leveraging established connections, technologies and markets for new clean green investment opportunities.

Agenda
9:00am Registration and Networking
9:30am Welcome
9:45am Panel 1 – Successful Clean Green Investments
10:30am Break
10:45am Panel 2 – Breaking Into the Clean Green Markets
11:30am Meeting Adjourn and Additional Networking until noon
Panel 1 Details – Successful Clean Green Investments

Moderator: Dan Lankford, Wavepoint Ventures
Will Coleman, Mohr Davidow Ventures
Rob Koch, NGEN Partners
Ullas Naik, Globespan Venture Partners

Panel 2 Details – Breaking Into the Clean Green Markets

Moderator: Mike Goguen, Sequoia Capital Partners
Craig Lawrence, Accel Partners
Chris Sun, Storm Ventures
Andrew Chung, Lightspeed Venture Partners

For More Information
Please contact our team if you are interested in volunteering for our Emerging Business Clean Energy Track. We plan to have an annual community event, but are open to conducting quarterly SIGs if there is an interest in the area. Please contact us if you would like to promote this event to your network or association and would like to offer your members and contacts the partnership rate. We hope that you will join us as we investigate and explore clean energy opportunities ahead.

The Rise of Crowdsourcing: Creative Wisdom of the Crowd
2008-05-20 18:00 - 20:30 | Stanford Business School, Stanford, CA, United States
The Rise of Crowdsourcing: Creative Wisdom of the Crowd

6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Hors D’oeuvres

7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Location
Stanford Business School
Moderator
Jeff Howe, Contributing Editor, Wired Magazine
Panelists
Michael Sikorsky, CEO & Founder, Cambrian House
Mike Agnich, Co-Founder & CTO, Predictify
Bill Reichert, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures
Mitchell B. Fox, President & CEO, 8020publishing
Saar Gur, Venture Capitalist, Charles River Ventures
Event Description:
Peer production is about more than sitting down and having a nice conversation… It’s about “harnessing a new mode of production to take innovation and wealth creation to new levels.” — Eric Schmidt, CEO Google.
Wikipedia does it. So does Yelp, Amazon and Digg. Millions of customers have eagerly helped to build up reviews, ratings and other content for the most popular sites on the web. CEOs, founders and VCs talk up the growing number of opportunities in crowdsourcing and answer questions such as: How can you get your customers to work for you? What rewards do they need? How do you deal with the issue of accuracy and reliability of the information? What are the trials and tribulations of crowdsourcing? Who’s making money and what are the business models?
Come join us to find out about the next wave of customer driven companies and see how entrepreneurs are letting customers take charge in order to help change the world.
Predictify has created a custom market for our Crowdsourcing event. Share your predictions on what you think the future holds for hot topics in technology, business and politics and find out results at the May 20th event. Start predicting now for free and experience the wisdom of the crowd!
Bios:
Jeff Howe, Contributing Editor, Wired Magazine
Jeff Howe is a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, where he covers the media and entertainment industry, among other subjects. In June of 2006 he published “The Rise of Crowdsourcing” in Wired. He has continued to cover the phenomenon in his blog, crowdsourcing.com, and is currently writing a book on the subject for Crown Books to be published in July 2008. Before coming to Wired he was a senior editor at Inside.com and a writer at the Village Voice. In his fifteen years as a journalist he has traveled around the world working on stories ranging from the impending water crisis in Central Asia to the implications of gene patenting. He has written for U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, Mother Jones and numerous other publications. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Alysia Abbott, their daughter Annabel Rose and son Phineas and a miniature black lab named Clementine.
Michael Sikorsky, CEO & Founder, Cambrian House
Michael loves startups, software and people. Since the age of 14, he has been involved in community-based software development and entrepreneurship.
His fifth and most recent startup, Cambrian House, launched in 2006. Since then, it has become an internationally-recognized leader in crowdsourcing (leveraging the wisdom and participation of online crowds for commerce). As CEO, Michael has been invited to speak about Web 2.0, entrepreneurship and crowdsourcing at Cyberport Hong Kong, Harvard Business School, MIT, Community 2.0 Las Vegas, VidFest, and WebGuild’s Web 2.0 Expo.
In 2007 he was named “Canada’s Internet Revolutionary” by Profit magazine and a “CEO to Watch” by CNNmoney.com. Michael sold his last software company, Servidium, to ThoughtWorks, received a Computer Engineering degree from the University of Alberta, and holds a software patent related to innovative rendering techniques.
Mike Agnich, Co-Founder & CTO, Predictify
Mike Agnich is Co-Founder and CTO of Predictify.com. Predictify is an internet platform which allows users to predict and “go on record” with everything from pop culture to current events. Monetizing through a combination of market research and brand engagement, Predictify allows users to generate expert (or not so expert) reputations over time and to compete against friends. In early 2008, Predictify closed its series A financing lead by Sierra Ventures.
Mike has a 4 month old daughter and has been happily married for four years. He has a BS in computer science from Stanford University and is an MBA candidate ’08 at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to business school, Michael was one of the first employees at Zazzle.com where he spent over five years leaving as Vice President of Product Technology.
Bill Reichert, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures
Bill Reichert has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and an operating executive. Since joining Garage in 1998, Bill has focused on early-stage information technology and materials science companies. He sits on the Boards of CaseStack, WhiteHat, ClearFuels, cFares, and ThermoCeramix. Prior to Garage, Bill was a co-founder or senior executive in several venture-backed technology startups, including Trademark Software, The Learning Company, and Academic Systems. Earlier in his career, he worked at McKinsey & Company, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., and the World Bank. Bill earned a B.A. at Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. He was a founding board member and a Chairman of the Churchill Club, and a Charter Member of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs. Currently he is the Chairman of the Small Fund Roundtable of the VC Taskforce and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Mitchell B. Fox, President & CEO, 8020publishing
Mitch is CEO of 8020 Publishing. 8020 Publishing, backed by CNET founder Halsey Minor and publishers of award winning JPG Magazine and Everywhere Magazine, empowers its communities to participate in all aspects of its magazine’s content creation, thereby dramatically increasing reach, lowering costs, and engaging a knowledgeable, global community.
Mitch’s career spans 30 years and almost as many publications. He joins 8020 following nearly 20 years at Conde Nast, where he served as the Group President and Publishing Director of Conde Nast Publications, and managed many publications and websites including W, WWD, Golf Digest, Bon Appétit, and the entire Bridal Group including Brides.com. He has also been President and CEO of the Golf Digest Company, Vice President and Publisher of Vanity Fair (where he oversaw five straight years of record growth and the magazine’s best year ever in 1999), and publisher of Details. A native of New York, Mitch enjoys golf, film, and has more frequent flier miles than the rest of 8020 combined.
Saar Gur, Venture Capitalist, Charles River Ventures
Saar is a Partner at venture capital firm Charles River Ventures. Saar joined CRV in 2007 with more than 10 years of experience working with entrepreneurs as a founder, investor and advisor. Prior to joining CRV, Saar was a co-founder of Brightroll, a popular Internet video advertising network. Saar also acted as an angel investor and advisor to numerous companies including RockYou, Admob, Flixster, Xobni, Lotus Vodka, and Voicestar.
Prior to Brightroll, Saar was part of the senior management team of Adteractive. Adteractive is an online performance-based marketing company and one of the largest buyers of online media. Saar helped build Adteractive to over 175 employees and $120mm in revenues, with no outside capital. He was vice president of online customer acquisition and was responsible for the company P&L.
Saar started his career in investment banking and venture capital at Lehman Brothers. He graduated phi beta kappa with a biochemistry degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from Stanford University. He was also the co-founder of carebadges.com (acquired by Facebook Causes), an online community that enables individuals to generate market awareness for the organizations and causes that they care about.
