In one corner: Larry Bohn, General Catalyst Partners. Rich Levandov, Avalon Ventures. Jeff Fagnan, Atlas Venture.
In the other corner: Apperian’s David Patrick.
Tonight, starting at 6pm in downtown Boston, the VCs and startup CEO square off in Xconomy’s first event of the fall season, a venture chat called Consumers, the Cloud, and Beyond—New Rules for Innovation. The focus of this intimate conversation will be the changing climate for investors and entrepreneurs, new (and old) business models, and generally what it takes for startups to succeed today—and what it all means for consumers and society.
We have just six tickets left (as of the 13th inning of the Red Sox game late last night), so get yours right away (by going here). Online sales are open until 3 pm, and tickets cost $30 more at the door.
OK, we confess we got a bit carried away with the boxing metaphor—since the two sides won’t be fighting or even arguing (maybe arguing…), but rather engaging in insightful discussion. There is no animosity here, but there is curiosity. As Patrick says, “Since I am usually on the other side of the fence, I will try to ask a few questions from the entrepreneur’s perspective. Obvious areas include how companies are ramping up using SaaS models, cloud services, and other innovative tools. How much company progress are you looking for to consider funding a company? Are there certain check box items you need to check before moving forward and what are they?”
And that isn’t all—in addition to the chat, which will have lots of room for questions from you, the audience, we will have short “burst” presentations from four cool young Internet startups: Yottaa (Website performance optimization), OfficeDrop (digital filing and sharing), CustomMade (mass customization), and Hopper (travel search and discovery).
After the presentations, there will be food and beverages (we especially like those), and plenty of time for networking.
We hope to see you there—so get your tickets now, while you can.