SAN FRANCISCO MAIN EVENT: Lean Startups – Do They Really Work? (SOLD OUT!)

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Thu, 01/28/2010 - 5:07 - webmaster@halosys.com

Start: 10/29/2009 - 6:00 pm
End: 10/29/2009 - 8:30 pm

Contact Info: Laura Weigant Email: info@svase.org

Location: Cooley Godward Kronish LLP

101 California Street, 5th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94111

Lean Startups – Do They Really Work?

Click Here to Register Now!

Venture backed high-tech startups are notoriously difficult to manage. Product development comes in over budget and behind schedule, draining cash reserves and squandering revenue opportunities. Many fail outright. Often times, when customers finally get their hands on the first release, it is difficult to use and full of bugs. Worst of all, the product may work as specified, but there are simply no customers willing to pay to use it.

So, as a startup founder, what can you do to avoid these pitfalls? Well, the theory goes that lean startups can attain significantly lower development costs, quicker time to market, better quality products in a shorter time, AND deliver solutions customers want, far more effectively than their heavily financed competitors. That’s not to say that they don’t need some venture capital, but whether in fact they deliver on the promise, including providing dramatically higher returns for investors, is not a clear cut case.

So come and hear this lively debate, to understand if the Lean Startup route is for you!

· What are the characteristics of a lean startup?

· Will a lean startup business model lead to significantly greater returns for the investor?

· What is minimum viable product?

· How do you define your market?

The Panel:

· Steve Blank, Founder, E.piphany

· Rob Hayes, Partner, First Round Capital

· Craig Jacoby, Partner, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP

· Sean K. Murphy, CEO, SKMurphy, Inc.

· Rashmi Sinha, Cofounder & CEO, SlideShare, Inc.

Moderator: Jonathan Abrams, Founder & CEO, Socializr

WHEN: Thursday, October 29

6:00 – 7:00 pm: Networking and hors d’oeuvres

7:00 – 8:15 pm: Panel Discussion and Q&A

8:15 – 8:30 pm: Additional Networking

LOCATION: Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, 101 California Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111

PRE-REGISTERED RATES (All Rates Include Hors D’oeuvres):

Members - $20 Affiliates who advertise this event - $29; General Public - $49

WALK-IN RATES: Add $10.00 to listed price

This event is co-sponsored by Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, http://www.cooley.com

Seating is limited, so early registration is recommended to avoid disappointment on the day.

Speakers’ Bios

Steve Blank, Founder, E.piphany

Put to a vote I might have been chosen “least likely to succeed” in my New York City high school class. My path has taken me from repairing fighter planes during the Vietnam War in Thailand, to spook stuff in undisclosed location(s), and I was lucky enough to arrive at the beginning of the boom times of Silicon Valley in 1978.

After 21 years in 8 high technology companies, I retired in 1999. My last company, E.piphany, started in my living room in 1996. My other startups include two semiconductor companies (Zilog and MIPS Computers), a workstation company (Convergent Technologies), a supercomputer firm (Ardent), a computer peripheral supplier (SuperMac), a military intelligence systems supplier (ESL) and a video game company (Rocket Science Games).

Total score: two large craters (Rocket Science and Ardent), one dot.com bubble home run (E.piphany) and several base hits.

After I retired, I took some time to reflect on my experience and wrote a book (actually my class text) about building early stage companies: Four Steps to the Epiphany. I moved from being an entrepreneur to teaching entrepreneurship to both undergraduate and graduate students at U.C. Berkeley, Stanford University and the Columbia University/Berkeley Joint Executive MBA program. The “Customer Development” model that I developed in my book is one of the core themes for these classes. In 2009 I was awarded the Stanford University Undergraduate Teaching Award in the department of Management Science and Engineering.

In 2007 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed me to serve on the California Coastal Commission, the public body which regulates land use and public access on the California coast.

I currently Chair the board of Audubon California, and spent several years on the Audubon National Board. I’m also a board member of Peninsula Open Space land Trust (POST) and in 2009 became a trustee of U.C. Santa Cruz.

Rob Hayes, Partner, First Round Capital

Rob joined First Round Capital in 2006. Rob came to First Round Capital from Omidyar Network where he was their first venture investor. He led most of Omidyar Network's initial venture capital deals and later built and ran the technology investing group.

Prior to joining Omidyar Network in 2004, Rob was at Palm where he started up their corporate venture fund. While in that role, he also managed the strategy effort around Palm OS that led to the spinout of PalmSource. Rob started at Palm as product manager for the initial device-independent releases of Palm OS. During this time, Rob was responsible for the versions of Palm OS on dozens of devices including the initial Treo products.

Rob previously spearheaded complex, system-level product development efforts at companies such as Geoworks and Go Corp where he focused on building products for the Japanese market. He began his career with the Japan External Trade Organization, studying international trade issues and building relationships between US and Japanese businesses, at a time when trade friction between the two countries was at its peak.

Rob has an MBA from Columbia University and a B.A. in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Craig Jacoby, Partner, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP

Craig Jacoby is a partner in the Cooley Godward Kronish Business department. Mr. Jacoby joined the Firm in 1997, and is resident in the San Francisco office. He has a general business and corporate practice with a particular focus on the formation and financing of emerging growth companies. Mr. Jacoby regularly assists clients with their mergers and acquisitions, public and private financings, strategic alliances, corporate governance and employee equity incentives.

Mr. Jacoby received a J.D., with distinction, in 1996 from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to Order of the Coif. He is the co-author, with Dr. Charles Weiss, of "Recognizing Property Rights in Traditional Biocultural Contribution," 16 Stan.Env.L.J. 74 (1996).

Following law school, Mr. Jacoby was a judicial clerk with the Honorable Charles A. Legge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Concurrently with a J.D., Mr. Jacoby received a M.A. in International Studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. While at SAIS, he completed an externship with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr. Jacoby received a B.A. in English and Economics, magna cum laude, in 1990 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Prior to attending law school, he was a Fulbright scholar in Rome, Italy.

Mr. Jacoby is a member of the California Bar Association and is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He co-founded the non-profit organization VolunteerMatch and serves as the Chairman of the Board.

He is also a member of the firm's Pro Bono Committee.

Sean Murphy, CEO, SKMurphy, Inc.

Sean Murphy has taken an entrepreneurial approach to life since he could drive. He has served as an advisor to dozens of startups, helping them explore new options and bring their businesses to new levels. His firm, SKMurphy, Inc. (www.skmurphy.com), focuses on early customers and early revenue for software startups, helping engineers to understand customer development. He has helped clients with offerings in electronic design automation, artificial intelligence, web-enabled collaboration, proteomics, text analytics, legal services automation, and medical services workflow. He founded Bootstrappers Breakfast (www.bootstrappersbreakfast.com) a growing entrepreneur community committed to serious conversations about growing a business based on internal cash flow and organic profit. Sean authors an EETimes featured blog (www.skmurphy.com/blog).

Sean has a BS in Mathematical Sciences and an MS in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford.

Rashmi Sinha, Cofounder & CEO, SlideShare

Rashmi Sinha is cofounder and CEO for SlideShare, the world's largest community for sharing presentations and documents. SlideShare is growing rapidly (more than 18 million monthly uniques) letting everyone from marketers, conference speakers and academicians share presentations and connect with others.

Rashmi has a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Brown University and did research on search engines and recommender systems at UC Berkeley. She is a frequent speaker at conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo and Future of Web Apps. She writes a blog at rashmisinha.com about running a startup.

Jonathan Abrams, Founder & CEO, Socializr

Jonathan Abrams is the founder and CEO of Socializr, a new web service offering free online event invitations, and innovative ways to share event and party information with your friends. Jonathan is an award-winning serial entrepreneur who was hailed as "The Social Pioneer" by Vanity Fair in June 2008 for creating the pioneering social networking service Friendster.
Jonathan is the inventor of a United States Patent for a "System, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks."

Previously, Jonathan was the founder & CEO of the social bookmarking startup HotLinks, and worked as a software engineer at companies such as Netscape and Nortel. Jonathan holds an Honors B.Sc. in Computer Science from McMaster University, which he received after flunking out of engineering school.

Jonathan was named a "Breakout star of 2003" by Entertainment Weekly, and as one of Advertising Age Magazine’s "Entertainment Marketers of the year." Jonathan has also been honored as one of the world’s top young innovators by the MIT Technology Review, and nominated in the software designer category for the 2004 Wired Rave Awards. Jonathan was named as one of the ten sexiest Canadian Jewish Internet entrepreneurs in San Francisco by his friend Lenny.

Jonathan is the co-owner of San Francisco nightclub Slide, an investor in the restaurant Mamacita, and has been a frequent co-host at various San Francisco and Silicon Valley events and parties in the technology, business, nightlife, fashion, and non-profit sectors.

Jonathan is a member of the advisory board of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs, and has been extensively involved in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial community, including past roles such as co-chair of the SDForum Venture Finance SIG, moderator of the SVASE CTO Forum, and a judge for the Stanford Entrepreneur's Challenge business plan contest, the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition, and the Stanford-Berkeley Innovators' Challenge. Jonathan has also been a mentor for the Global Social Venture Competition, the Haas School of Business/Columbia Business School National Social Venture Competition, and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs.

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