There might not be anyone else in Seattle pursuing more tech startup ideas, through more different financial avenues, than Andy Sack. He’s one of the key players at three organizations that seek to invest and help foster more high-impact tech companies in Seattle—Founder’s Co-op, TechStars, and RevenueLoan. And now he’s agreed to share his latest insights (and get grilled) on how innovation gets financed at the next big Xconomy Seattle event on October 28: “VC Crossfire.“
Sack will join a star-studded lineup of speakers: Tom Alberg of Madrona Venture Group, Bob Nelsen of Arch Venture Partners, and Chris Henney, the co-founder of Immunex, Icos, and Dendreon. (Martin Tobias of Tippr had previously been part of the group, but because of an unexpected conflict, he will not be able to make it.)
We’re bringing these folks together at Amazon’s new headquarters in South Lake Union to talk about something that affects everybody in the innovation community—how innovative companies can get the money they need to grow when venture capital is increasingly hard to find.
Right after the panel, we have added a new feature called “The Soapbox.” This will be an opportunity for a few investors and entrepreneurs to describe one clear idea for financing innovative startups at a time when a lot of investors are still licking their wounds from the economic downturn.
Three great speakers have agreed to take on this challenge of stepping up to the mike. They are Bill Harding of Bonanza, an online marketplace for niche products, which raised what some might call a micro-VC round last spring; Tom Clement, the founder of Pathway Medical Technologies and co-founder of Wings, a medical device angel investing network; and Kabir Shahani, the co-founder and CEO of Appature, a health IT company that bootstrapped its way to profitability and then raised $3.5 million of venture capital from Madrona and Ignition Partners. Our hope is that these quick presentations give the audience a basic introduction to a potentially transformative idea, which serves as a great conversation starter for the networking portion of the evening.
There are still a few tickets left if you are looking to attend this event and haven’t registered. So go ahead and steer your browser to the registration page. See you there on October 28.
