A variety of forces from the struggling economy to the rise of super angels and new types of incubators to the lower cost of forming Internet startups are changing the venture landscape. But despite the turmoil come some areas of frenetic growth-in retail led by Groupon, Gilt Groupe, and a slew of wannabes, in gaming with startups like Zynga, and in social media behind, well, you know all the names.
Many of these high-flyers are based in the cloud and/or focused on consumers. So what is happening? Have the rules for founding and investing in startups changed fundamentally? What changes are lasting, and what simply mark the fad of the moment? Do the same approaches apply to consumer startups, B2B companies, and enterprises? And what should an entrepreneur look for to best gauge the landscape and find investors who can really help?
To shed light on such questions, Xconomy is convening three leading venture capitalists who have backed some of the hottest consumer, cloud, and Internet startups out there today for an intimate chat overlooking Boston Harbor. We hope you join us for this stellar evening.
The Participants:
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Larry Bohn, Managing Director, General Catalyst: An investor in Hubspot, Visible Measures, Black Duck Software, among many others, Larry previously served as chairman, president, and CEO of leading software and analytic solutions company NetGenesis, which he took public. |
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Jeff Fagnan, Partner, Atlas Venture: Jeff focuses on very early stage projects in enterprise and Internet infrastructure. He currently serves as a director of Abine, Bit9, DataXu, Grockit, Hopper, Keas, and Veracode, among others. Jeff is also a founder of TUGG (Technology Underwriting Greater Good), a non-profit foundation harnessing “crowd-sourced philanthropy” to catalyze social innovation in New England. |
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Rich Levandov, Managing Director, Avalon Ventures: An entrepreneur, operator, angel investor, and now VC, Rich co-founded Phoenix Technologies, a company that helped launch the PC revolution, and served as an early VP of American Online. He led Avalon’s early investment in Zynga, as well Ad Summos, Backupify, Cloudant, Cloudkick (acquired by Rackspace), Pictela (acquired by AOL), Simulmedia, and more. |
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David Patrick, CEO, Apperian (moderator): David has 25+ years of senior executive experience in the software industry and recently raised $9.5 million in financing led by North Bridge Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He previously served as CEO of xkoto, a database virtualization software company acquired by Teradata, and VP & General Manager at Novell, which he joined when it acquired Ximian, where he was also CEO. |
Schedule:
Doors open/registration: 5:00
Program: 6:00-7:00 pm, with reception to follow
Registration Information:
Pre-Labor Day Special (ends Sept. 5): $50
Startup Special: $45
For employees of startups less than 3 years old with 20 or fewer employees.
Regular Registration: $95
Walk-in Registration: $125
Student Registration: $25
Tickets are transferable but not refundable.
To inquire about press registration, e-mail [email protected].
