Best of Times or Worst of Times? Venture Investments in Mobile/Wireless in 2009 April 29, 2009

Date: Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Time: 6:30 - 6:50pm Registration & Networking

6:50 - 8:30pm Panel Discussion

Venue: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw

2475 Hanover St, Palo Alto, CA 94304‎



With the total venture capital investment in wireless declined 29% from 2007 to 2008, many entrepreneurs are wondering if 2009 will be a good time to start their companies. How is the wireless industry impacted by the economic crisis? What are the market and technology trends driving the mobile innovations today? Where are the hot spots in wireless for venture capitals? What kind of reality should entrepreneurs expect when raising capital and building companies in today?s environment?



To explore these issues, we have assembled a panel of top tier VCs in wireless to share their insights and hopefully help reveal if 2009 is the best of times or the worst of times for mobile innovations ?



Moderator:

Albert Wang, Investment Manager, Qualcomm Ventures



Panel Speakers:

Gaurav Garg, Partner, Sequoia Capital

Nagraj Kashyap, Vice President, Head of Qualcomm Ventures

John Malloy, Partner, Co-founder, BlueRun Ventures

Harshul Sanghi, Managing Director, Motorola Ventures

Andreas Stavropoulos, Managing Director, DFJ

Richard Wong, Partner, Accel Partners



Registration: https://www.123signup.com/register?id=znhhz

Advanced Registration (By 12 pm, April 29, 2008):

Regular Member: Free

Associate/Non-Member: $10

Student: $5

On-Site Registration: Advanced Price + $10



Event Contacts:

Qiming Huang, [email protected]

Yuan Tian, [email protected]



Speaker Bio:



Gaurav Garg, Partner, Sequoia Capital



Gaurav Garg is a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital focusing on systems and services investments. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2001, Gaurav was a Founder and Senior Vice-President of Product Management at Redback Networks (RBAK). Earlier, Gaurav held various engineering positions at SynOptics and Bay Networks. Gaurav has a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering and a BS in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis.

Nagraj Kashyap, Vice President, Head of Qualcomm Ventures

Nagraj is Vice President, Qualcomm Ventures, and heads up worldwide activities for the group. Nagraj has over 12 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to his current role, he worked in various engineering and management capacities at Nortel, 3COM, Motorola, PRTM and Qualcomm.

Nagraj currently manages and actively serves as a board observer for Qualcomm Ventures investments in Airplay Networks, GoTV Networks, Novarra, Obopay, Triage Wireless and WaveMarket. Nagraj has an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and an MS in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin.

John Malloy, Partner, Co-founder, BlueRun Ventures

John Malloy, Partner, co-founded BlueRun Ventures and is based in Menlo Park. John?s passion and expertise is in building world class teams and companies. His investment focus is primarily on Mobile, Consumer Internet and Digital Media start-ups.

John currently serves on the Board of Directors of Arcadia, FusionOne, Topsy, Motally, Slide, Varolii and Top Fans. Previous board experience includes PayPal (EBAY), Bitfone (HPQ), eVoice (AOL) and MongoMusic (MSFT). In 2006, he was named to Forbes annual "Midas List" of top-performing venture capitalists.

Prior to venture capital, John spent more than 15 years in management and executive roles at Nokia, Go Communications, a mobile start-up he co-founded, and MCI. He holds a J.D. from George Mason School of Law and a B.A. from Boston College.

Harshul Sanghi, Managing Director, Motorola Ventures

Harshul Sanghi manages the Silicon Valley office of Motorola Ventures, based in Sunnyvale, California. Harshul?s role includes identifying, executing, and managing strategic investments in venture backed companies that will accelerate the realization of Motorola?s strategy. He is also responsible for managing the Venture group?s investment activities in India. Harshul has over 20 years of experience in digital media, wireless, consumer electronics, software, and semiconductor industries. Harshul, a serial intrapreneur and entrepreneur, enjoys working with entrepreneurs to drive the adoption of disruptive market technologies. Harshul serves on the boards of several portfolio companies. Harshul is a Charter Member of the TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Organization and a board member of the Strategic Venture Association in Silicon Valley.

Harshul holds an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Oregon. He also holds a Bachelor?s degree in Accountancy and Financial Management from the University of Mumbai, India.

Andreas Stavropoulos, Managing Director, DFJ

Andreas Stavropoulos is a Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, where he serves on the boards of a number of private companies. Andreas focuses primarily on software investments (consumer/internet and enterprise infrastructure), mobility, and technology-enabled services. Past investments include Mobile 365, 4info, ePocrates, Mimeo.com, Meetup, Technorati and Yodle.

Prior to joining DFJ, Mr. Stavropoulos held positions with McKinsey & Company and Cornerstone Research. He is a summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College in computer science, holder of an MS degree in computer science from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Albert Wang, Investment Manager, Qualcomm Ventures
Albert Wang is an Investment Manager at Qualcomm Ventures. His investment interests include emerging wireless technologies that enable new value chains and mobile platforms that exhibit strong self-reinforcing network effects.

Prior to Qualcomm Ventures, Albert worked in various engineering and management roles in both startups and public companies. Most recently, he worked in Lux Capital Management focusing on MEMS and nanotechnology startups in the wireless industry. He also spent 4 years at Skyworks Solutions and managed the full lifecycle of several wireless semiconductor products that went into some of the most popular 3G WCDMA handsets. Before Skyworks, he played a key technical role in Tavanza, an RFIC startup that was eventually acquired by Anadigics. Currently, Albert also serves as a Board Director for the non-profit Silicon Valley - China Wireless Technology Association.

Albert received his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, and his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Zhejiang University.

Richard Wong, Partner, Accel Partners



Richard joined Accel in 2006, with a focus on mobile infrastructure and services, and the enterprise software space. Rich currently serves on the board of AdMob, the largest mobile advertising player and Parature, a leader in SaaS based customer support. Rich also works closely with the management team of Getjar Networks, the largest mobile development community and free mobile apps download portal. Through pre-Accel associations, Rich also serves as a board advisor to Plaxo (acquired by Comcast) , Sana Security, and Simplicita (acquired by Sandvine).

Prior to Accel, Rich was SVP/GM of Products at Openwave and previously GM of Messaging Products, and Chief Marketing Officer at Openwave. While at Openwave, Rich founded and chaired the Messaging Anti Abuse Working Group, a consortium of ISPs and technology providers working together to combat internet abuse.

Previously Rich was the Chief Marketing Officer and EVP/GM of Value-Added Services at Covad Communications, the DSL provider. Preceding Covad, he was a management consultant for McKinsey & Company, focusing on software and consumer technology. Rich started his career as a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble

Mr. Wong holds a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Rich remains active as an EVP of the MIT Club of Northern California, Board Member of the MIT CNC - Entrepreneurship Program, and the CTIA Wireless Internet Caucus. At CTIA 2008, Rich was awarded a "Mobile Six" award as one of the 6 most influential individuals shaping the wireless industry by executives in the InMobile.org community.

Copies of Rich?s recent presentation on key trends in mobile from the Wharton Wireless event, Future of Digital Media & Advertising, or presentation on wireless from the MIT C3 Wireless event can be downloaded here. A video recording of the panel Rich moderated on future of mobility at the 2008 Monaco Media Forum can be found here.

Official Website: http://www.svcwireless.com