SVASE Event: ''Startup-U San Francisco: Enterprise Customers & The Startup' December 15, 2006

SVASE Event: ''Startup-U San Francisco: Enterprise Customers & The Startup'

Date: Friday, December 15, 2006 At 08:00
Duration: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Contact Info:
Offices of DLA Piper 153 Townsend Street, Suite 800 San Francisco, CA 94107 Please contact the Host for this event: Anne Donker, at [email protected] Email: [email protected]
URL: www.svase.org/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=149&extmode=view&extid=655

Large corporations often look to (software) startups to fill some of the gaps larger vendors can't or don't address.

So how can you leverage this situation for your startup?

Our stellar VC/Entrepreneur/Enterprise panel including Stewart Alsop, former General Partner with NEA and Julie Farris, CEO of Scalix, will explore this question, including:
* What enterprises are looking for
* How to tap in to and access large enterprise buyers for your fledgling product
* possible challenges that go with the turf of pursuing the enterprise-as-a-customer
* How to navigate these challenges
* Myths and facts re. large enterprise customers:

Is it true that enterprise customers often have large customization requirements before a product can be useful to them?

Do they tend to have long committee-based purchasing cycles?

How do you navigate this? Especially if you are bootstrapped and lack the resources to deal with this

How do you even begin the big client sales process in the first place?

And more!

Join us on the 15th for an insightful discussion!

The Panel:
Julie Farris, Former Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Scalix Corporation
Julie Hanna Farris is an electronic messaging veteran with a successful track record of industry leadership and innovation. In June 2002 she founded Scalix Corporation with the vision of bringing advanced enterprise email and calendaring solutions to Linux. She served as Scalix's founding CEO, raising $20 million in venture capital and managing the company from inception to initial revenue stage. Farris continues to be deeply involved with Scalix heading up its open source initiatives and guiding product and market strategy and strategic alliances. A recognized thought leader in messaging and open source, Farris has over seventeen years of experience in building successful businesses in electronic messaging and collaboration. Prior to Scalix, Farris was a founding executive of several companies, including onebox.com (acquired by Openwave), the industry's first unified messaging service, 2Bridge, the pioneer in Enterprise Portal software, and Portola Systems (acquired by Netscape, now Sun JavaMail). Earlier in her career, Farris was a marketing executive at IBM/Lotus where she helped drive product direction and strategic marketing for the next generation cc:Mail and Lotus Notes product lines. She began her career at BellSouth, where she pioneered the design and deployment of one of the world's largest distributed messaging and groupware environments.

Stewart Alop – Venture Capitalist. Louie-Alsop Partners
Most recently, Stewart was with New Enterprise Associates since 1996 as a venture partner focusing in the information technology area and was named a general partner in 1998. Alsop invests in companies developing technologies and services for broadband networks and rich media. He is also a columnist for Fortune magazine. Prior to NEA, Alsop was Editor in Chief of InfoWorld, a weekly newspaper for information-technology professionals. He also published PC Letter, a fortnightly newsletter for computer industry insiders, and produced the Agenda and Demo conferences for executives of companies in the computer industry. Before 1985, he served in several executive editorial positions at business and trade magazines, including Inc. Alsop graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Popular FAQs regarding Startup-U:
What is the cost of this event?
A $5 (member) or $15 (affiliate/non-member) registration fee, plus a $1.50 credit card processing fee, includes event and lunch, available through advanced online registration. A $10 or $20 fee is collected at the door.

What is the format of a Startup-U event typically?
Generally speaking, each event begins with an introduction by the host followed by a brief talk about SVASE and self-introductions by each of the attendees. After the introductions, the host introduces a speaker (usually 20 minute presentation, followed by group discussion) or the discussion topic; the exact format varies based on the host and that variety is what makes this event so exciting!

Who should attend?
Startup entrepreneurs, anyone thinking about forming a startup, service providers, angels and VCs active in the Silicon Valley information tech and biotech entrepreneur communities. Past participants include:
* Current and aspiring entrepreneurs
* Venture Capitalists, Angels and other members of the funding community
* Service Providers (e.g. human resources, contract programming, etc.)
* Independent Consultants (e.g. sales, marketing, engineering, etc.)

Do I need to be a member of SVASE to attend this event?
Non-members and guests of members are welcome to attend any 2 SVASE Startup-U events. Afterwards, we recommend that non-members become members of SVASE. For more information on the benefits of joining SVASE, please visit our website at www.svase.org/site/Membership/index_html.You can also join at the event itself.

What if I have more questions?
Please contact the Host for this event: Anne Donker, at [email protected]

This event is co-sponsored by DLA Piper, www.dlapiper.com/Home.aspx.

Official Website: http://www.svase.org/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=149&extmode=view&extid=655