The Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrpreneurs will hold a panel June 17 that will offer real business world examples of how startups ofund and used venture capital. To be held at the Crow Canyon Country Club, lcoated at 711 Silver Lake Drive, Danville, CA, registration and networking begin at 6:00 p.m. followed by the panel from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Cost (includes buffet dinner, coffee and tea; cash bar available): Members – $25
Affiliates who advertise this event – $25; General Public – $35; Walk-ins: Add $10 to rates above. Register on the website (http://www.svase.org) – click on Events, then go to June 17 and click on EBS. Online pre-registration closes at 9 am on the day of the event.
ABOUT THE PANEL
How does raising venture capital really work? Our distinguished panel of seasoned investors and entrepreneurs will share advice about how to go through the process with less pain and more gain. Learn what matters and what doesn’t on both sides of the table. From writing business plans to projecting revenue, from building the team to protecting intellectual property, find out what is required to persuade VCs to invest in your company.
Moderator
William W. Choe, Partner, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (www.sonnenschein.com)
William (Bill) Choe is a partner in the Silicon Valley office of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Mr. Choe is a transactional lawyer with extensive experience in corporate and securities matters, including domestic and foreign mergers and acquisitions, private placements and venture capital financings, public offerings and general corporate counseling. In the area of mergers and acquisitions, Mr. Choe has represented public and private buyers and sellers in mergers and acquisitions transactions with an aggregate deal value exceeding $6 billion. Additionally, Mr. Choe has represented various companies in venture capital and angel investor financings; participated in underwriter-side and company-side representations in public offerings; and acted as outside general counsel to a number of high-technology companies. Mr. Choe is conversant in Korean.
Panel
Nicolas El Baze, Partner, Partech International (www.partechvc.com)
Nicolas joined Partech International in 2000. Prior to Partech, Nicolas spent 15 years as an entrepreneur and was a co-founder of several venture-funded companies including Softway International (acq. by ITway), Softway Systems (acq. by Microsoft), and ISDnet (acq. by Cable & Wireless). Nicolas also lead the Softway Venture Development activity which resulted in the incubation of several successful start-ups in the U.S. and Europe including: RightPoint (acq. by E.piphany), MultiMania (IPO – acq. by Lycos Europe), and LibertySurf (IPO – acq. by Tiscali). At Partech, Nicolas’ investments include Meiosys (acq. by IBM), Akimbi (acq. by VMware), Pantero (acq. by Progress Software), ClearApp (acq. by Oracle), Q-Layer (acq. by Sun Microsystems), RockYou, and Replay Solutions. Nicolas received an MBA from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Paris, France and attended the International Management Program at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and Universität zu Köln, Germany.
Sven Strohband, Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures (www.mdv.com)
Sven Strohband brings engineering and operational experience to the MDV team and supports the partnership in sourcing and evaluating investments in the areas of software, systems and materials. Prior to MDV, Sven spent three years at the Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) in Palo Alto where he was responsible for discovering new materials and electronics technologies for automotive applications. He was also the Stanford Racing team’s lead engineer. The team developed a robot that successfully navigated132 miles of unknown terrain fully autonomously in the fastest time, winning the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.Sven has authored numerous papers on the simulation of materials systems and authored various patents for novel automotive electronics applications. 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.
Bill Byun, Managing Director, Samsung Ventures America (www.samsungventure.co.kr)
Bill Byun is a Managing Director of Samsung Venture Investment team, based in Silicon Valley office. Bill currently serves as a board director of GCT Semi, Phaselink, Silicon Systems, and SiGe. Bill is also an investor and a board observer of Accel Semi, Alereon, AMEC, Atrenta, Inphi, Quellan, Reactrix, Serus, Sonics and Zilker. Prior to Samsung Ventures, Bill was an operations executive with Philips Semiconductor, KLA-Tencor, and Applied Materials. Bill received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of California at Santa Barbara and an MBA from Oxford University.
Rob Hayes, Partner, First Round Capital (www.firstround.com)
Rob joined First Round Capital in 2006. Rob came to First Round Capital from Omidyar Network where he was their first venture investor. He led most of Omidyar Network’s initial venture capital deals and later built and ran the technology investing group. Prior to joining Omidyar Network in 2004, Rob was at Palm where he started up their corporate venture fund. While in that role he also managed the strategy effort around Palm OS that led to the spinout of PalmSource. Rob started at Palm as product manager for the initial device-independent releases of Palm OS. During this time, Rob was responsible for the versions of Palm OS on dozens of devices including the initial Treo products. Rob previously spearheaded complex, system-level product development efforts at companies such as Geoworks and Go Corp where he focused on building products for the Japanese market. He began his career with the Japan External Trade Organization, studying international trade issues and building relationships between US and Japanese businesses, at a time when trade friction between the two countries was at its peak. Rob has an MBA from Columbia University and a B.A. in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley.