SDForum Venture SIG: "The Other Side of the Table: From VC to Entrepreneur" April 19, 2006

http://www.sdforum.org/sigs/venturefinance

Join us on April 19 for an exciting panel discussion with venture capitalists who have taken seats on the other side of the table--as entrepreneurs seeking to raise financing and grow their businesses.

We will explore how an insider's knowledge of venture capital and experience as an investor and advisor to startups helped these entrepreneurs:
- navigate the fundraising process and termsheet negotiations
- develop a strong working relationship with their Board and advisors
- build their team
- secure partnerships and customers
- position their company for a potential exit

Audience participation is encouraged, so there will be ample time to pose questions to the panel.

Panelists:

Tony Conrad, CEO and co-Founder, Sphere

Brent Dusing, CEO and Founder, Moonstorm

Venky Ganesan, Managing Director, Globespan Capital

Moderator: David Sachs, Senior Associate, Trident Capital

About the Panel

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Tony Conrad, Sphere - http://www.sphere.com Tony co-founded Sphere because he believes there is a good opportunity to build a blog search engine that works better than current offerings. Prior to Sphere, Tony was a General Partner at Venture Strategy Partners where he led consumer tech and marketing software & services investments. At VSP, Tony served on the Board of Directors of Oddpost (acquired by Yahoo!), Iconoculture, MusicNow (acquired by Circuit City) and Centive. He also played an active role managing VSP's investments in Post Communications (NASDAQ:
NTVS) and Stoneyfield Farms (acquired by Groupe Danone). Tony's roots are in consumer marketing, having worked with early-stage growth and public branded companies. Prior to VSP, he was a Director of Mergers and Acquisitions for Groupe Danone, a leading $30+ billion global consumer packaged goods firm, where he focused on brand extension opportunities through mergers and acquisitions in Southeast Asia. Tony also held several senior marketing management positions with Groupe Danone, with his last position as head of New Product Development for Gervais-Danone France. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two sons.

Brent Dusing, Moonstorm - http://www.cellfire.com Brent is the co-founder and CEO of Moonstorm. Brent loves to save money but was always forgetting his coupons. That thought sparked Cellfire-the first ever mobile application that allows people to use coupons and discounts from their favorite stores and restaurants.
Prior to founding Moonstorm, Brent was at Menlo Ventures where he was responsible for generating many new investments including KeyEye, Invidi, Centrality, MailFrontier, newScale, and Entone.
Brent worked with senior management at many of these companies and assisted with product strategy, sales efforts, fundraising, and financial planning. Before Menlo Ventures, he was at Neoforma in the finance department and North Systems in the marketing department.
Brent also spent a year working for Paballo Ya Batho at the Central Methodist Mission in Johannesburg, South Africa. Brent has a BA from Harvard University. Brent is married and grew up in Springfield, Missouri.

Venky Ganesan, Globalspan Capital - http://www.globespancapital.com Venky is a Managing Director in the Palo Alto office of Globespan Capital Partners, where he focuses on investments in software, internet and infrastructure start-ups. Venky serves on the boards of Agitar, Exeros, Nominum, oDesk, Plaxo, Sendia, Steelwedge and Strongmail. Prior to Globespan, Venky served as Vice President of JAFCO Ventures. While at JAFCO, Venky co-founded Trigo Technologies, Inc. where he later served as Chief Operating Officer. He envisioned the idea behind Trigo's middleware as an Associate in the Boston office of JAFCO Ventures. He and the founding team then incubated the software company in JAFCO's Palo Alto office. Venky helped to build Trigo into the market leader in the product information management arena. The company was acquired by IBM resulting in a substantial return for all investors. Venky also previously worked at McKinsey & Co., in the firm's Los Angeles and Johannesburg offices. He started his career as a Program Manager at Microsoft's Encarta Group. Venky earned degrees in Math, Economics and Computer Science from Reed College and the California Institute of Technology. He was a Rhodes Scholar Finalist from India and played squash for his college. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two girls.

David Sachs, Trident Capital - http://www.tridentcap.com David joined Trident Capital as a Senior Associate in 2005. Prior to Trident, David was an Analyst at Redpoint Ventures and Brentwood Venture Capital, where he worked on investments in early-stage software, internet, and communications infrastructure companies. Before that, he was a Product Manager at online golf retailer Chipshot.com, and an Analyst in the Software and Internet group at NationsBanc Montgomery Securities. David has also consulted for private equity clients at Bain & Company, worked on IPO and merger transactions at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and researched counter- drug strategies at the U.S. Department of State's Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau. He is a co-founder of Valuative Software, a provider of capital structure modeling and analysis software. David earned an AB in Government from Harvard University and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Palmer Scholar.

Agenda:

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6:30pm-7:00pm Registration/Networking/Refreshments

7:00pm-8:30pm Presentation and Q&A



Venture Finance Co-Chairs:



Tom Cervantez - Davis Wright Tremaine

Philip Korn - Silicon Valley Bank

David Sachs - Trident Capital



Registration:



Pre-registration is recommended. Seating is limited!



Cost

$20 SDForum members

$30 Non-SDForum members

Please call 408.494.8378 for student memberships



To register online, please visit the link below.



http://www.sdforum.org/SDForum/Templates/CalendarEvent.aspx?CID=1903&mo=4&yr=2006

Event submitted by Eventful on behalf of dsach1w.