What precedes Pre-Seed when your company is 3 PhDs and a dog?

The landscape for startup funding is changing rapidly with initial investments harder to find.  But more technology than ever is available for starting companies and many great companies were formed during economic downturns.  Can entrepreneurs launch a new venture in the current environment when they are still “3 PhDs and a Dog”?  Is there funding for them other than “Friends, Family and Fools”?  Can partnerships fill the void?  Can they mix equity funding with Federal Grant funding?

Join us to explore the options with expert speakers who are investors, successful entrepreneurs, technology transfer leaders and government funding officials.  After keynote presentation and panel discussion there will be audience Q&A along with plenty of networking.

Keynote Speakers

 

Julie Schoenfeld

Entrepreneur in Residence, Physical Sciences

California Institute of Technology

 

Andrea Belz, Ph.D.

Vice Dean of Transformative Initiatives

USC Viterbi School of Engineering

 

Speakers

 

Kevin Barrett

Managing Partner

Freeflow Ventures

 

Alex Ballatori 

Cofounder & CEO

StrokeDx

 

Producers

 

Lynn Foster

Founder and CEO

Z-Field Technologies

 

Andy Tomat

Managing Director

Four Pillars, Inc.

 

Coffee and Networking begin at 8:00 am.

Free Parking Underground: Right turn at signal on east side of Cahill (turn right at tennis courts); parking lot entrance 75 yards on right.

 

Education for entrepreneurs comes in many forms but learning from setbacks is often one of the keys to their success.  Why do many startups who have great success in fundraising end up in liquidation, for often intangible or external reasons?

In truth, failure is often a better mentor than initial success, especially in highlighting lessons critical to a new venture’s longterm success.   Join us for presentations from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists sharing their “war stories” about painful lessons they learned – not vetting investors, not knowing how to build the right team, ignoring interpersonal issues and conflicting motivations, or unknown unknowns.

After the presentations there will be audience Q&A along with plenty of networking.

 

Speakers

 

Jeff Stibel

Founding Partner, Bryant Stibel

Former CEO, Web.com

 

Wes Nichols

Partner, March Capital

Co-founder & CEO, MarketShare

 

Shahin Farshchi

General Partner, Lux Capital

 

Producers

 

Executive Committee 

Caltech Entrepreneurs Forum

 

Coffee and Networking begin at 8:00 am.

Free Parking Underground: Right turn at signal on east side of Cahill (turn right at tennis courts); parking lot entrance 75 yards on right.