Calendar
Earliest Stage Funding
What precedes Pre-Seed when your company is 3 PhDs and a dog?
Click to Download Funding Slide
Click to Download Julie Schoenfeld Slides
Click to Download Andrea Belz Slides
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.
What I Learned From My Startup Getting Screwed
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.