153 Townsend Street, Suite 800
San Francisco, California 94107

SVASE Event: 'StartUp-U SFO: Hiring The Best - Building The A Team For Your Start-up. With John Hamm, General Partner, Venture Strategy Partners And Jonathan Abrams, Founder & CEO, Socializr'

Event: 'StartUp-U SFO: Hiring The Best - Building The A Team For Your Start-up. With John Hamm, General Partner, Venture Strategy Partners And Jonathan Abrams, Founder & CEO, Socializr'

Date: Thursday, April 12, 2007 At 12:00
Duration: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Contact Info:
Location: DLA Piper 153 Townsend Street, Suite 800 San Francisco, CA 94107 Contact Name: Anne Donker Contact No: 415.378.3966 Email: [email protected]
URL: svase.org/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=149&extmode=view&extid=586

A requested & critical topic - hiring top executives and staff into an early stage venture. Here is what we will cover:

* What to look for. Identifyers around competency, compatibility and compensation.
* Ideal interview questions.
* How to structure feedback sessions / evaluation of candidates.
* Best practices around sourcing techniques to find passive seeking candidates.
* Differentiating your Company to attract top talent.
* Associations / Networking Events / Headhunters.

John Hamm, General Partner, Venture Strategy Partners
As a General Partner, John Hamm brings a powerful combination of skills, knowledge and expertise to the VSP team. John's diverse background as an operating executive, a start up CEO, a venture investor, a leadership coach and an advisor/board member to dozens of technology companies gives him a unique and informed perspective on early stage investing.

John currently serves on the board of Centive, SiliconStor, IconoCulture, Encentuate, Truveo and IronPort Systems, and has served on the boards of Brocade, Documentum (acquired by EMC), and Sylantro Systems.

Most recently, John was a managing director at TCG Advisors, a division of The Chasm Group, where he advised CEOs and executive teams in the areas of leadership coaching and management systems. At TCG Advisors, John developed custom seminars for early stage tech companies and Global 2000 firms, as well as a quarterly CEO Boot Camp program for Deloitte & Touche that reached over 600 entrepreneurs nationwide.

Prior to TCG, John was a venture partner at Redpoint Ventures and a managing director at Internet Capital Group (ICG), where he evaluated investment opportunities and provided management and leadership coaching to portfolio companies. As a private investor, John has a strong track record of successful technology start-ups, including Brocade and IronPort Systems.

John has taken on leadership roles at several high-growth companies, including Whistle Communications, where he served four years as president and CEO. Backed by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and Mayfield, Whistle became the leader in small office Internet appliance products and was acquired by IBM in June 1999. Prior roles included EVP and general manager of advanced storage products, a $520M business division at Adaptec and executive positions at Western Digital both in the U.S. and Europe. John started his professional career at Hewlett-Packard.

John has been published in Fast Company, Business 2.0, Business Week, Fortune, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. His latest published work, Why Entrepreneurs Don't Scale, appeared in The Harvard Business Review, December 2002.

John holds B.S. degrees in Engineering Physics and Engineering Management from Purdue University, and completed the UC-Irvine Executive MBA program.

Jonathan Abrams, Founder & CEO, Socializr and SVASE Advisor
Jonathan Abrams is the founder and CEO of Socializr, an online service for sharing event and party information with your friends.

Jonathan is an award-winning serial entrepreneur who created the pioneering social networking service Friendster in 2002, inspiring and influencing a generation of new Internet companies, large corporations, non-profits, and political campaigns. Previously, Jonathan was the founder & CEO of bookmarking community HotLinks, and worked as a software engineer at companies such as Netscape and Nortel.

Jonathan holds an Honors B.Sc. in Computer Science from McMaster University, which he received after flunking out of engineering school. Jonathan was named a "Breakout star of 2003" by Entertainment Weekly, and as one of Advertising Age Magazine’s "Entertainment Marketers of the year." Jonathan has also been honored as one of the world’s top young innovators by the MIT Technology Review, and nominated in the software designer category for the 2004 Wired Rave Awards.

Jonathan is a member of the Advisory Board of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs, and was the former Co-Chair of the SDForum Venture Finance SIG.

Jonathan holds an Honors B.Sc. in Computer Science from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

Moderator:

Dan Grosh, Partner, Nosal Partners LLC
Dan Grosh is a partner at Nosal Partners LLC, where he leads the Emerging Growth Companies Practice and also focuses on senior-level assignments in the advanced technology, clean technology, consumer, professional services, as well as financial services industries.

Mr. Grosh has built numerous senior management teams, placing executives in functions spanning engineering, sales, marketing, finance, operations, and quality. Mr. Grosh remains a trusted advisor to past clients and placements, often contributing to decisions around strategy, as well as ongoing Board and executive leadership selection and development.

Prior to joining Nosal Partners, Mr. Grosh served as President of Grosh Associates - a highly-successful boutique executive placement firm that he founded in 1997. He was previously a management consultant with Truelson Unger Associates - a niche firm specializing in strategy and organizational improvement consulting services for leading financial and technology services conglomerates. Mr. Grosh began his career with Northwestern Mutual Life, where he quickly became a top producing agent.

Mr. Grosh holds an MBA from Golden Gate University and a BA in Communications from the University of Minnesota. He resides in Piedmont with his fiancée, and enjoys golf, tennis, skiing, travel, and music. Mr. Grosh also holds leadership roles within a number of local charity and community groups, as well as professional associations.

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/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=4&id=100&Itemid=109&Itemid=59. You can also join at the event itself.

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

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

Official Website: http://svase.org/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=149&extmode=view&extid=586

Added by svaseinfo on March 27, 2007