We’re less than 2 weeks away from the big event and I am super excited to announce that Montecito Bank & Trust, and Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP have come on board to sponsor us.
If you’re at all familiar with either of these groups, you know how lucky we are to have them on our team. They’re both local, both very entrepreneur friendly, and they’re both obviously forward thinking. 😛
They’ll both have representatives at the event, but if you need a direct intro to either of them, let me know.
Hi Friends!
I’m super excited to announce the panelists that will be speaking at our September 3rd event. I posted the honorees last night, and am starting to realize just how insanely great this event will be be. An event like this has never happened in Ventura County, and you can tell how excited the community is by how many folks are planning on attending. I feel honored myself that all these folks, the honorees and panelists are all getting involved and donating their time.
Tweet: Investor Panelists at next @805startups
Panelists:
Richard Wolpert – Amplify, HelloTech and Accel Partners
A pioneer in the fields of technology, consumer digital media and entertainment for more than 25 years. Extensive experience as an executive, entrepreneur and as an investor.
Responsible for many “firsts” throughout his career including: conceiving of and teaching the first Macintosh Programming Class at Stanford University (CS 193C), the first multi-user address book for the Macintosh (TouchBase), the first kids internet subscription service (Disney’s Daily Blast), the first Tivo-like product for the Internet Radio (BitBop Tuner), the first legitimate music subscription service for the Internet (MusicNet), and the first legitimate online movie subscription service (Starz! On Demand). Successfully negotiated ground breaking deals with several of the major media companies whose content became the basis for many of these products
As an investor, managed personal investment fund, Chance Technologies (1995 to Present), served as an advisor to Accel Partners (2006 to Present), served as a partner at the Yucaipa Companies (1998 to 2000), and served as the Managing Director or the Mail Room Fund (2008 to 2010). Invested in more than 30 companies, a large percentage of which have had successful exits or continue on as successful companies, including: AdECN, AMG, AndroMedia, AudioMill, Data Sage, GameFly, GameSpy, Kongregate, Mob.ly, People Support, Smilebox, Sometrics, Three Rings, Scopely, PlayDek, and Universal Audio.
Jim Andelman – Rincon Venture Partners
Jim is co-founder and Managing Partner of Rincon Venture Partners. Jim is in his 15th year as a VC.
Previously, Jim led software investing at Broadview Capital Partners, a $250 million Bay Area expansion-stage VC firm. Before BCP, Jim was a member of the Technology Investment Banking Group at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. There, he concentrated on equity private placements and IPOs for software companies. Jim began his career with Symmetrix, a boutique strategy consulting firm founded by a Bain & Co. co-founder. Jim received his MBA with highest distinction (first in his class) from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College, and his BS in Economics (magna cum laude) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jim serves on the Boards of Directors of Campus Explorer, Conversion Logic, Keen IO, Mobcrush, Rainforest QA, Rentlytics, Steelhouse, TaxJar and Tradesy. He previously led investments in Burstly (acquired by Apple), DataPop (acquired by Criteo), Gradient X (acquired by Singtel), Cadforce (acquired by Neilsoft) and Packet Island (acquired by BroadSoft). In addition, he serves on the Boards of Directors of Friends of Yosemite Search and Rescue and the Los Angeles Venture Association, on the Advisory Board of the Douglas Family Preserve.
Dave Gross
In his own words: I am a serial entrepreneur, engineer, technologist, and investor in Internet Services (SaaS), Digital Marketing, Healthcare & Wellness, M2M/IoT/IoE, Additive Manufacturing, Spacecraft Hardware Systems, Hybrid Electric Vehicles & Energy Harvesting Technologies. I co-founded Motodyne, Fastclick, Persistence Partners and Connexity with multiple successful exits including an IPO. I am on sabbatical from an operating role, researching my next adventure…
Mike Panesis – CLU Center For Entrepreneurship and Tech Coast Angels
Mr. Mike Panesis is the Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at California Lutheran University (CLU) in the USA. He comes to CLU from the Technology Management Program (TMP) at the University of California (UC), Santa Barbara’s College of Engineering, where he ran the University of California Santa Barbara’s (UCSB) highly successful New Venture Competition (NVC). While at UCSB, he also developed a mentor network for advising students, represented the TMP at community events, and innovated with the NVC to reflect best practices in the Santa Barbara start-up community. Additionally, Mike played a key role in creating the new start-up incubator for the Goleta Entrepreneurial Magnet.
Mike is Chairman of the Board of Governors of Tech Coast Angels (TCA), the largest accredited angel investor group in the country and is head of the TCA’s Central Coast Investor Network.
Mike’s career spans a diverse range of industries and roles, including executive management, tech start-ups, information technology management and management consulting for companies like Semtech, Whitestone Research, DealerTrack, Church & Dwight, Deloitte & Touche and AT&T.
Mike holds a MBA degree in Marketing from Rutgers University in New Jersey and received his BS in Computer Science for Business from the DeVry Institute of Technology. He is on the Board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Enterprise Forum of the Central Coast Chapter and Steering Committee of the Ventura County Greek Festival.
Hi, Friends!
I’m excited to announce the amazing community leaders we’re honoring at the next event. See their info below and please support everything they do! They are an impressive group of folks on all accounts, but also please remember that they are being honored because of their amazing work in OUR community. For that reason, I included a link to each of their local groups they run. Please join and support their groups!
Tweet: Community Leaders Being Honored at next @805startups
Honoree Bios:
Kyle Ashby – StartupSB
Kyle Ashby is an entrepreneur, community builder, startup advisor and avid explorer who never sits still. The founder of Kaldera, an advisory firm that focuses on strategy, innovation, growth and community building, Kyle works with other entrepreneurs, startups, companies and organizations. He is also the Co Founder of the Impact Hub Santa Barbara, a creative workspace for entrepreneurs making change (opening at the end of 2015), and the fire-starter behind StartupSB, a 1500+ member entrepreneurial network that connects central coast entrepreneurs, startups, investors and resources. He also founded Travel in Central America, a company providing unique travel experiences (like baseball team tours) in Central America. He was part of the founding team of BrandLive (an interactive video platform) and Mobile Corporation. He’s also worked in executive, marketing and project management roles with a number of multinational companies and technology startups. As a Startup America Champion and Startup Weekend Global facilitator, Kyle has visited and interacted with 100’s of startup communities in the US and the World and has coordinated events from Australia to Aspen as well as all of the Startup Weekend Santa Barbara events. Kyle has also taught classes in marketing, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the Technology Management Program at the University of California and at Antioch University Santa Barbara. He has an MBA from Babson College and undergraduate degrees in Film Studies and Geography from UC Santa Barbara.
Daniel Ball – Westlake Village Lean Startup Meetup
Daniel Ball is an expert in early-stage product development and strategic marketing, and teaches a variety of programs in the startup community including entrepreneurship at UCLA Extension and 3 years of running intensive programs for entrepreneurs in Santa Monica through the Startup Next organization. Startup Next is a global, pre-accelerator program affiliated with Startup Weekend, Google for Entrepreneurs, and is now part of the Techstars global brand. As the Los Angeles City Coordinator for Startup Next, he has personally worked with over 50 startups to develop their product or business ideas and help prepare them for pitching to investors or accelerator programs, bringing in mentors from the startup community. He has an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and a Bachelors of Science in Business from UC Berkeley.
Vanessa Ting is a former corporate executive and now an entrepreneur and leader in women’s venture development.
As a former Retail Buyer for Target Corporation and marketer for Neutrogena, Vanessa Ting now helps consumer brands strengthen their appeal to major retail buyers nationwide through two businesses, Buyerly.com and Retail Path. Over her career, she has brought dozens of products to market for brands such as Neutrogena, Listerine, Church & Dwight, as well as items sold at Target, Walmart, CVS, Kroger, and more.
Her companies are guided by her passion for cultivating women-led businesses. Her work in venture development advances women entrepreneurship by supplying resources and education to foster long-term growth, as well as to inspire the next generation of female entrepreneurs. She leads women in STEM initiatives in Ventura County and is an advocate of the Conejo Valley startup ecosystem.
Vanessa holds a BA from University of Southern California and an MBA from Georgetown University. She has 16+ years of marketing and retail experience and now operates two companies – Retail Path, a retail consulting firm, and award-winningBuyerly, a B2B website that connects retail buyers and emerging consumer brands for product feedback and wholesale orders.
Sean Bhardwaj is the Founder and CEO of Aspire 3 where he creates programs and partnerships between education, business, government, and community organizations to develop the next generation of entrepreneurs. He is also the Executive Director at the Ventura Ventures Technology Center, a business incubator dedicated to growing technology based companies and jobs in Ventura. Sean’s background is in Product Management and Market Development and is the Chair of the Social Justice Fund for Ventura County, and involved with the Ventura County Civic Alliance and the Youth Council of the Workforce Investment Board of Ventura County. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on Global Marketing and Consumer Behavior from the University of Southern California.As you probably know, we’re relaunching 805 Startups in a big way, and the first part of that relaunch is a big event we’re putting together for September 3rd.
If you haven’t yet, RSVP on our Meetup page for it.
It’s going to be a great event where we honor local community organizers and have a panel of seasoned investors discussing topics related to doing business in the 805 and what they want to see in our startups.
More info and updates right to your inbox when you join our Meetup group, so join now!