MIT/Stanford VLAB presents "Tales of Young Entrepreneurs" February 17, 2009

The dream of many, the reality of few. Achieving success as a young entrepreneur is a road fraught with peril and a high chance of failure. Yet for those who navigate it, the end holds limitless rewards in the forms of power and wealth. Bill, Sergey, Mark - each pass of the cycle gives rise to figures which inspire a generation of entrepreneurs to think outside of their surroundings, defy business stereotypes, and act on their visions of great glory.
VLAB presents a night of stories from the youngest and most promising minds in Silicon Valley about how they achieved their initial success and what they plan to do with it. Topics will also include how a fresh perspective can power through these financially challenging times, as well takes on what are some of the more interesting problems to solve today.

Moderator

Christine Comaford, CEO, Mighty Ventures
Panelists

Aaron Patzer - CEO, Mint.com

Drew Houston - Founder, Dropbox

Matt Brezina - Co-founder, Xobni

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.

Register here: http://www.vlab.org/store.html?event_id=253

Official Website: http://www.vlab.org