How to Find Great Market Opportunities

Listen to the Podcast 

Why is it that some entrepreneurs seem to almost magically find million dollar (or billion dollar) opportunities again and again?   Does it happen by chance?  Or is there a systematized approach?  Is it a result of listening, seeing, or sensing customer, or market needs?  How do they select the best idea out of hundreds?

Identifying and seizing market opportunities is a vital skill for any leader. It has value whether you are an entrepreneur eager to find the next breakthrough idea, or a corporate director searching for the next multi-billion dollar market your can company enter through innovation or acquisition. Learn how the experts do it.    

Join the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest NEXT Wednesday, April 25 as we explore what strategies you can use to strike gold in the marketplace. Our dinner program panel brings together four executives and a moderator with varied backgrounds in entrepreneurship, mergers and acquisitions and business planning and development. Together their collective insights and experiences in capturing market needs will arm you with proven paths you can use as you look to jump on the next big thing.

Moderator

David Amdal, International Director of ShapingTomorrow.com
     David Amdal functions as a social psychologist, studying why people and cultures make the consumer decisions they do. He has headed market research firms for 35 years, conducting extensive consumer and market feasibility studies in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and North America for many of the world's leading multinationals. David has headed teams on 'productizing' capabilities of major law firms, tech firms in computing and telecoms, insurance companies, financial institutions, resorts and hospitals.  As a Principal of Unisys Australia, he led the startup of the 'Customerize' practice for the Australian region, based on a $1 million study of customer best practices around the world.Today he leads the international practice of ShapingTomorrow.com, the only Internet-based futures portal and largest structured futures intelligence database.  The firm monitors trends in 140+ industries for clients ranging from BP, British Telecom, Nokia and governments, as well as thousands of global organizations and individuals. He is a US and Australian citizen and full member of the Association of Professional Futurists.

Panelists

Marc Brown, Managing Director of Corporate Development Group, Microsoft Corp.
     Marc Brown is a managing director in the Corporate Development Group at Microsoft Corp., where he has been employed since January 2000. From May 1998 to December 1999, he was an associate in the Private Equity and Emerging Companies Group of the law firm Goodwin, Procter & Hoar LLP. Before that, he was an associate in the Mergers and Acquisition and Merchant Banking groups at the Union Bank of Switzerland, from 1987 to 1991.  Brown holds a doctor of jurisprudence degree from Georgetown University Law Center, an MBA in finance from New York University and a bachelor of arts in economics from Colgate University. 

Jeff Davis, Founder and CEO of Gogomo
     Jeff brings 16 years of extensive strategy, new product and business development experience at venture funded and publicly traded companies and domain knowledge of the Internet, commerce and media.  Jeff Davis is founder and CEO of Gogomo, an enabling infrastructure services company offering digital content interoperability and business intelligence solutions.  Gogomo has been named by IDC as one of "Ten Emerging Mobile Players to Watch in 2007" and was chosen as a finalist in the WINBC Wireless Innovation Contest (WIC'07). Prior to Gogomo, Jeff was VP of global business development at Mobilitec (acquired by Alcatel / Lucent).   Prior to Mobilitec, Jeff was part of the senior management team at InfoSpace from 1999 to 2001.  Jeff held executive positions in the wireless group, in the innovations group, in financial services and as VP of strategic initiatives and played instrumental role in building several new products and businesses.  Prior to InfoSpace, Jeff held business development and consulting roles at Impulse Buy (acquired by Inktomi), SBC Interactive, Disney Online, and Marketing Technology Interface (acquired by Mercer Management Consulting). Jeff holds a B.S. from the University of California at Los Angeles and a MBA from Boston University.

Rick Hennessey, CEO of Cequint, Chairman and Founder of Sustainable Group
     Rick Hennessey is a serial entrepreneur having built many companies in the technology sector.  He is a pioneer in the mobile marketplace, founding and successfully selling several wireless related software businesses in North America. Rick is currently President and CEO of Cequint, Inc., Founder & Chairman of Eversio Technologies and Founder & Chairman of Sustainable Group.   Cequint provides enhanced Caller Identification systems to wireless carriers.  Eversio Technologies provides Automated Data Collection systems and services.  Sustainable Group is the leader in environmentally friendly office supply products.  Prior to Cequint, Rick was the CEO of Dwango Wireless. Rick has taken Dwango's quarterly sales from under $25,000 to over $1,000,000 in less than a year.  Rick has received many awards including one of Washington's top 40 under 40 entrepreneurs. Rick speaks globally at wireless and entertainment industry-related conferences and sits on several advisory committees.

Dr. Marilyn Quadrel, Director of Strategic Planning, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
     As Director of Strategic Planning at Battelle, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Marilyn Quadrel is responsible for directing the formulation and execution of strategy that ensures the Laboratory's research capabilities are effectively addressing and solving some of the nation's most important and complex challenges, today and in the future.  Marilyn has 15 years of technical and management experience in risk assessment, risk management, and decision analysis aimed at prioritizing and managing research and development activities and investments.  She received a PhD in Decision and Social Sciences and a MPh in Public Administration from Carnegie Mellon University, and has a BA in Sociology from the University of Washington.  Marilyn joined Battelle at PNNL in 1992.