SVASE VC Breakfast Club with Ben Choi of Storm Ventures, focus on Information Technology and Networking, Software and Services August 14, 2008

SVASE VC Breakfast Club with Ben Choi of Storm Ventures, focus on Information Technology and Networking, Software and Services

Start: 08/14/2008 - 8:00am
End: 08/14/2008 - 9:30am

WHAT:VC Breakfast Club with Ben Choi of Storm Ventures, focus on Information Technology and Networking, Software and Services

WHEN:Thu Aug 14th from 8:00am – 9:30am

WHERE:Nixon Peabody
200 Page Mill Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94306
www.nixonpeabody.com

URL:-www.svase.org/?q=node/1577

CONTACT:Jai Kumar, Program Chair, [email protected] Cell: 408-406-4693

COST: $25 SVASE Members; $39 Affiliates; $49 Non-members. This event is for ENTREPRENEURS ONLY, BY PREREGISTRATION ONLY.

This event is co-sponsored by Nixon Peabody, www.nixonpeabody.com.

VC Breakfast Club with Ben Choi of Storm Ventures, focus on Information Technology and Networking, Software and Services

Storm Ventures
Storm Ventures was founded by a seasoned group of industry veterans with the common vision of sharing our collective experience, passion and energy to help talented and driven entrepreneurs build great companies of enduring value. With over $500 million under management, Storm Ventures focuses on seed and early stage information technology companies which best leverages our operational experience and global network. Our limited partners include many prominent financial institutions, as well as over a hundred senior executives who have had successful careers in technology companies.

Storm Ventures originated in 1997 by a group of entrepreneurs and executives that had worked together for almost a decade at a company called Stratacom, which was founded in 1986. During this decade, Stratacom achieved a revenue run-rate of about $500 million before it was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1996, for almost $5 billion. The NASDAQ trading symbol for Stratacom was “STRM”, pronounced “storm”, hence Storm Ventures.

The original fund was $6 million, and the Limited Partners were in fact the General Partners. In late 2000, we raised a second fund totaling over $300 million, which became the full time focus of the current General Partners. Storm Ventures Fund II was comprised mostly by individuals that we had known and worked within our industry for the last couple of decades. The founding partner team also committed over $50 million to this fund. In March 2005, we raised a third fund totaling $220 million, which is being managed by the same team – with the support of many industry executives and a handful of institutions. We believe a long history of working together and a strong network of limited partners are key ingredients to success. As we enter 2007, we enter the third decade of working together.

Ben Choi
Ben is a Senior Associate and Kauffman Fellow at Storm Ventures. He focuses on investments in the mobile, Internet, and software sectors.

Prior to Storm, Ben served as VP Strategy at Greystripe, the first mobile in-game ad network, where he remains a Strategic Advisor. Ben began his career in venture capital at RRE Ventures, where he helped source and lead their investment in Massive Incorporated (purchased by Microsoft in 2006), an in-game ad network for PCs and consoles. He later joined the strategic venture capital arm of the CIA, In-Q-Tel, as a Sr Associate.

Prior to venture capital, Ben held operating roles in several technology startups. As a product manager at Yahoo, he directed the Southeast Asia mobile strategy and launched several groundbreaking mobile services. Ben was also an Engagement Manager and early employee at ZEFER, an Internet consulting firm (acquired by NEC), which raised over $150M in venture capital financing and grew to over $100M in annual revenue. Prior to ZEFER, Ben was a product manager at DESoFT, an online brokerage ASP (acquired by Merrill Lynch).

Ben received his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, with Dean's List and Beta Gamma Sigma distinctions, and his B.A. in Computer Science with honors from Harvard University.

When not geeking out on the latest technology, Ben is an avid traveler and a published amateur digital photographer.

Official Website: http://www.svase.org/?q=node/1577