Talk to an Angel: Crucial Connections to Early Stage Capital
Talk to an Angel: Crucial Connections to Early Stage Capital<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>
There will always be entrepreneurs with new ideas and new ventures. And there will always be people - angel investors - ready to help finance these startup companies and play a major role in helping to fuel one of the engines driving the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /?>
US economy.
Join the MIT Enterprise Forum for an evening of real-world, tactical information geared to both the entrepreneur on how to "do the deal" and for the investor on how to determine if he or she is making a good investment. Produced in association with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Angel Capital Education Foundation, program attendees and viewers will learn:
- How to find angels
- What is and isn't a good fit
- When to work with a VC instead, or with both angels and VCs together
- How to pitch
- How to work together after funding
Through dialogue amongst the panelists, attendees will hear and learn about the principles and best steps to follow, real-world case studies, and how different sectors necessitate different approaches.
The national panel presentation will be followed by a Seattle panel.
Featured national panelists include James Geshwiler GM '00 (moderator), Managing Director of CommonAngels; John May, Managing Partner of New Vantage Group, and Chair, Angel Capital Association; Cynthia Fisher, CEO, BioMed 20/20 Technologies; David Friend, CEO & President, Carbonite; and Bob Greene GM '88, Managing Partner, Contour Venture Partners.
Featured Seattle panelists include Emory Thomas Jr. (moderator), Publisher of the Puget Sound Business Journal; Todd Dean, Seattle/Northwest Chapter President, Keiretsu Forum; Dan Rosen, Chair, Alliance of Angels and CEO, Dan Rosen and Associates; Dan Shapiro, CEO, Ontela; Martin Tobias, CEO and Chairman, Imperium Renewables and Founder of Northwest Energy Angels.
* The June 22nd program starts at 5:30 pm at Fisher Plaza, 140 4th Avenue, Seattle
* Networking Session - 5:30 to 6:15, Broadcast - 6:15-7:15, Local Q&A 7:15 - 8:00 pm.
* Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door
* Street parking available or in the building for a fee
* Register online at www.mitwa.org. For more information call 206-283-9595.
National Speaker Biographies
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Moderator, James Geshwiler, GM '00
As chairman of the Angel Capital Education Foundation, James Geshwiler GM '00 [moderator] works with angel investors, venture capitalists, academic leaders and entrepreneurs around the country to foster better understanding of patterns and practices in angel investing. He is the former chairman of ACEF's sister organization, the Angel Capital Association, a trade group formed to promote angel groups and their best practices. He is a contributing author to "Cutting-Edge Practices in American Angel Investing," has written papers on angel investment processes published by the Kauffman Foundation, and regularly speaks on entrepreneurship and private investing.
James joined CommonAngels in 1999, and since that time has participated in funding 24 companies through over 60 rounds of financing totaling over $100 million, as well as five M&A events and two shutdowns. He has also raised two $10 million co-investment funds managed by CommonAngels. Within CommonAngels, James manages deal flow, due diligence and the investment process. He also guides the group's strategic direction and works closely with follow-on investors. He was Phi Beta Kappa and holds a bachelor's degree with highest honors from the Liberal Arts Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin , a master's degree in political science from UCLA, and an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management.
Cynthia Fisher was a co-founder and President of ViaCell, Inc., a cellular medicines company developing pharmaceutical grade cord blood stem cell products and human cellular therapies to treat diseases. Today, ViaCell is a publicly held biotechnology company with 250 employees. Cynthia also founded Viacord, Inc., now part of ViaCell, and served as President and CEO for eight years. Viacord, established in 1993, provides umbilical cord blood stem cell banking services for expectant families. In 2002, Cynthia founded and serves as CEO of BioMed 20/20 Technologies, Inc., a healthcare and medical information products company focused on enabling on-line, comprehensive patient profiling technologies and services to insurers and hospitals.
Previously, Cynthia was Marketing Manager for Haemonetics Corporation in charge of the Blood Bank Division and its blood cell separation products. She started her career with IBM Corporation and over seven years held various positions in sales and marketing.
Cynthia also served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council where she implemented an eight year strategic action plan and new leadership for the organization
She is a trustee of Ursinus College and a member of the National Advisory Council of Harvard Medical School for Systems and Cell Biology. Cynthia received her MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor's in Biophysics from Ursinus College.
David Friend has been a successful technology entrepreneur for over 25 years, and is currently CEO and President of Carbonite, an Internet-based data backup solution for mainstream PC users. He previously co-founded five companies: Sonexis, FaxNet, Pilot Software, Computer Pictures Corporation and ARP Instruments. He has been featured in numerous national magazines and newspapers, and Tom Peter's best-selling management book, "The Pursuit of Wow!"
David has been a lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management and is an active supporter of music and the arts in Boston . He is a trustee (emeritus) of the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
David holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from Yale University and attended the Princeton University Graduate School of Engineering where he was a David Sarnoff Fellow.
Bob Greene GM '88 is Managing Partner of Contour Venture Partners and has been a venture capitalist for the past 18 years. Some of Bob's notable investments over the past 17 years include 3Dfx Interactive, Acurian, Agamatrix, Cobalt Networks, EXIT41, FundQuest, Kinkos.com, Kozmo.com, Multex, Nextec, NuRide, Resonate, SeamlessWeb, Stamps.com, and Vindigo.
Prior to launching Contour Venture Partners, Greene was an active private investor, investing his own capital in emerging technology companies in the northeast United States . Since early 1999, he has also been one of the three Managing Partners of Flatiron Partners. Flatiron focused on the information technology sector and backed 59 companies with over $550 million of capital. Before joining Flatiron in 1999, Bob was a General Partner at Chase Capital Partners (now known as JPMorgan Partners). In his five years there, he started, built and led their Technology and Internet practice, which included launching Flatiron, backing Pitango Venture Capital in Israel , and launching TechFund Capital in Silicon Valley .
Bob serves as the President of the Venture Investors Association of New York (VIANY). He has been a guest lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management, and is on the Undergraduate Financial Aid Committee of the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. Bob received a bachelor's from the Wharton School and an MBA from MIT/Sloan.
John May is the managing partner of New Vantage Group, a Vienna, VA firm that innovatively mobilizes private equity into early-stage companies and provides advisory services to both funds and private investors. John's experience in private equity capital over the last 15 years ranges from VC fund management to angel investing.
John has been at the forefront of the angel investor movement. In 1991, he co-founded the Investors' Circle, a national non-profit group of 125 family and institutional investors working to grow the social venture capital industry. Additionally in 1996, he co-founded and became executive director of the Private Investors Network, an angel network sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association, which he led until 2002. John is now Chairman of the Angel Capital Association, is a lead instructor for their "Power of Angel Investing" seminars, and is co-author of two books, "Every Business Needs an Angel" and "State of the Art."
John co-founded The Dinner Club, an investment group of 60 regional angels who collectively invest in regional early stage ventures. A larger private investor pool, the eMedia Club with 75 members, followed it, and in 2000, the Washington Dinner Club with 75 members was started. In 2003, Active Angel Investors, a "pledge" fund was created. New Vantage Group administers all of these groups.
Seattle Speaker Biographies
Moderator, Emory Thomas Jr., Puget Sound Business Journal
Emory Thomas Jr. is publisher of the Puget Sound Business Journal, which was named by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers as one of the top business weeklies in the country. Thomas served as editor of the newspaper for two years before becoming publisher in April 2006.
Prior to joining the Business Journal, Thomas served as a business journalist in both the print and online arenas, and as a publishing entrepreneur, as well. His career includes tenures at The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC at its launch, and as an editor at MSN Money, Microsoft's leading financial Web site. While at MSNBC, Thomas did regular on-air segments with CNBC. He also co-founded two small publishing companies and served as vice president for Business.com.
Early in his career, Thomas joined the Atlanta Business Chronicle, where he twice won national recognition for a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism.
Daniel Rosen, PhD is CEO and President of Dan Rosen & Associates, an early-stage technology investment and advisory firm and chairs Clearsight Systems, Neah Power Systems (NASDAQ: NPWS.PK), and the Northwest Alliance of Angels.
In 2000, Dan was founding Managing Partner of Frazier Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund in Seattle, where he stayed until 2006. FTV specialized in category-defining technology companies in communications and software. From August 1997 through May 2000, he was General Manager of New Technology in Microsoft, where he was responsible for assessing Microsoft's new technology needs and finding innovative ways to meet those needs through increasing internal research efforts, licensing, investment, or acquisition. In this role, Dan was also responsible for technology transfer into Microsoft's product groups. Prior to that, Dan was General Manager for MSN with responsibility for transaction and services businesses, e-commerce, and alternate channels.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Dan was at AT&T for 15 years, where he served as Vice President and General Manager of AT&T Consumer Interactive Services, where he designed and implemented AT&T's first consumer-oriented Internet service offering, and Managing Director for Northern & Eastern Europe.
Dan sits on the boards of eCommerce Industries and the Technology Alliance. He was previously was on the board of SNAPin Software, UUNET (NASDAQ: UUNT, until its acquisition by MFS), Open Port Technologies, Individual, Inc. (NASDAQ: INDV), General Magic (NASDAQ: GMGC), Web3000, and the Washington Software Association.
Dan has a B.A. in Biology from Brandeis University and a Ph.D in Biophysics from University of California, San Diego. He holds several patents in communications and Internet technologies.
Dan Shapiro is CEO of Ontela, a company that offers a service to digital imaging companies that makes it easy to acquire photos off of camera phones. He previously was Group Manager for the RealArcade team, managing the delivery of the first new version of the software in three years. Prior to that he spent three years at Wildseed as a Senior Program Manager responsible for the software on the Identity mobile phone. Dan started his career at Microsoft, where he worked as a Lead Program Manager on Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and the product then known as Longhorn. Dan is an avid woodworker, and Ontela's flagship product came to him in a flash of inspiration while trying to get a good picture of the coffee table he just built. His woodworking weblog is online at www.nothingseveredyet.com.
Martin Tobias is the CEO and Chairman of Imperium Renewables, a Venture Partner at Ignition Partners and founder of Northwest Energy Angels. Martin joined Imperium Renewables to drive strategic direction in May 2005, after personally investing in the company in late 2004 following a multiyear search for the right alternative energy investment. Martin has been with Ignition Partners since 2002 working with the infrastructure software and networking team. He has invested in over two dozen start-ups and currently serves on the boards of Cloudmark. Prior to Ignition, Martin spent 15 years in operating roles in technology companies. Martin was the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman or Loudeye Technologies, Inc. (NASDQ: LOUD), a pioneer in digital media production, distribution, and applications. Under his leadership, the company raised over $175M (including an IPO) and grew to be one of the largest providers of digital media enabling solutions for the Internet. Prior to Loudeye, Martin spent six years with Microsoft in operational management roles and four years with Andersen Consulting (Accenture). Martin received his bachelor's degree in marketing and computer science from Oregon State University. He holds two technology patents. Martin and his wife, Alex, were profiled in the 1997 Harley movie "Biker Dreams" and are involved in a number of charities through the Martin and Alex Tobias Foundation.
Growing up in the big sky state of Montana, Todd Dean, Seattle/Northwest Chapter President, Keiretsu forum, learned first hand the value of relationships, hard work and community at a young age. After attending the Business School at Eastern Montana College, Todd has 18 years of experience in the business community building his acumen and relationship network. The majority of those years were spent working for Bernard Rapaport, the billionaire CEO of American Income Life Insurance, where Todd started in sales and successfully worked his way up to the top agent in the nation and a role as regional manager. Over the years, Todd has developed a wide and influential association of business relationships throughout the northwest.
Recently Todd has experience working as an investor relations advisor and assisted in the fundraising for several prominent local startup companies including NodeLogic Networks, BioPassword, PayScale and LINQware to name a few.
Todd donates considerable time and energy to several regional charities and non-profits including the City Team Men's Homeless Shelter, Hope Heart Institute, American Cancer Society, and the Washington State Wine Industry.
