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Second Venture Press Releases-
Angel and Venture Capital Investors Offer Entrepreneurs Pitching Tips in Washington DC
Venture Capital and Angel Investors hear 60 start-up companies pitch at FundingPost’s “Pitching Workshop” in Washington DC
For Immediate Release:
Washington, DC (April 11, 2005) – On April 21, 2005, leading Venture Capital and Angel investors will coach entrepreneurs at the FundingPost (http://www.FundingPost.com) “Washington DC Pitching Workshops” events sponsored by Grant Thornton and Kelley Drye. While most events only allow start-ups to network with investors, entrepreneurs will learn how to pitch their companies to early-stage investors and will receive helpful feedback from Angels and Venture Capitalists. The FundingPost Event Calendar and registration information are online at: http://www.FundingPost.com/event
After completing successful events in the same format in New York City, Philadelphia, Silicon Valley, Seattle, Tampa and Miami, FundingPost is bringing the “Pitching Workshops” model to Vienna, VA to help local start-ups get the kind of constructive critiques they need to be successful in achieving funding. There will be two pitching workshops, a morning session and an afternoon session.
At the morning and afternoon sessions, Venture Capital and Angel investor panelists will discuss what they look for in a successful entrepreneurial company pitch. Then the thirty companies in attendance at each session will have the opportunity to give their own two minute “elevator pitch.” After the session, FundingPost will provide each start-up company with feedback from the investors. The speakers on the morning and afternoon panels include:
Kim Cooke, Founder & Managing Director, Blue Water Capital
Randy Domolky, Managing Director, Liquid Capital Group
Brian J. Giblin, Business Development Manager, Edison Venture Fund
Rusty Griffith, Principal, Walker Ventures (and Maryland Angels)
Eric Janszen, Entrepreneur in Residence, Trident Capital
John Kim, Principal, HIG Ventures
Laura L. Lukaczyk, Founder & Managing General Partner, Avansis Ventures
Robert Rosenbaum, Partner, Nobska Ventures
Sandy Roskes, Investment Manager, Portview Communications Partners
Jonathan Silver, Managing Director, Core Capital Partners
Ed Spiva, General Partner, Anthem Capital Management
Will Thierbach, Senior Associate, The Grosvenor Funds
The morning panelists are Ed Spiva, Randy Domolky, Brian Giblin, Johathan Silver, Laura Lukaczyk and John Kim.
Ed Spiva has over 30 years of business experience with an emphasis on finance, strategic planning and early-stage investing. After nearly 10 years, Mr. Spiva left the Baltimore office in 2003 to open Anthem’s Morgantown/Pittsburgh office. Before he joined Anthem, Mr. Spiva spent 22 years in banking where he served as CFO, acquired three banks, directed six mergers, and led the development the country's largest electronic banking network. Mr. Spiva also served on the Board of Directors for the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) where he managed the City's venture capital fund.
Randy Domolky is a seasoned technology executive with over 15 years of experience in senior management, business development, sales, marketing and financial roles. In addition to his role at Liquid Capital, Mr. Domolky is a Principal at NextStep Partners, LLC. NextStep Partners is a business development and financial advisory firm assisting emerging Information Technology & Communications companies. Prior to joining NextStep Partners, Mr. Domolky served as the Vice President for Business Development and the Vice President of the Mid Atlantic Division for NEON Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOPT).
Brian J. Giblin is a Business Development Manager at the Edison Venture Fund. He focuses on identifying investment opportunities in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC. He serves as a primary point of contact for technology focused service providers and emerging companies. Brian has nearly 20 years of experience with early stage and major technology companies within telecom, Internet, VoIP, WiFi and security sectors. Most recently, Brian was with COMSAT Laboratories, a provider of satellite communications equipment, where he developed the competitive, market, and financial analyses. Brian serves as a Director to the MIT Enterprise Forum of Washington-Baltimore – a non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to the growth, education, and success of the entrepreneur and business community of the greater Washington & Baltimore area.
Prior to founding Core Capital Partners in 1999, Jonathan Silver was the Managing Director of Commonwealth Holdings, Inc., a private investment vehicle with interests in financial and professional services, communications, and the health and fitness industries. Mr. Silver has held senior positions in both the public and private sector. During the first Clinton Administration, Mr. Silver served as senior policy advisor to two U.S. Cabinet Secretaries. First, as Counselor to the Secretary of the Interior and second, as the Assistant Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Mr. Silver also served as a personal advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury in developing a lending facility for Mexico. Separately, he chaired the President’s Non-Profit Liaison Network, a national government-wide mechanism for managing the Clinton Administration’s relationship with the non-profit community. Before serving in government, Mr. Silver was a Managing Director, and the Chief Operating Officer, of Tiger Management, Inc., one of the nation’s largest and most successful hedge funds.
Laura Lukaczyk is the Founder and Managing General Partner of Avansis Ventures, LLC. Avansis has invested in Cognio, Covega, Exent, iPhotonics (NYSE: SLR), Trust Digital, and Tucana Technologies Inc. Laura has over fifteen years of entrepreneurial and venture capital experience. She has participated in the startup of successful companies, and in all aspects of their growth and financing – both from the investing and operating sides of the business. Laura currently serves on the board of Tucana Technologies Inc. and Exent Technologies Ltd. Prior to Avansis, Laura was a consultant for New Enterprise Associates ("NEA") in its Reston, Virginia office. At NEA she participated in investing nearly $85 million in companies such as DataCore, Exent, TeleGea and WNP (acquired by Nextlink).
John Kim is a Principal at HIG Ventures where he specializes primarily in the semiconductor sector. Mr. Kim has over 10 years of entrepreneurial, general management and operational experience in semiconductor component, equipment and software companies. Previously, he was the General Manager at Barry Controls' semiconductor division where he marketed hardware, software and services to Texas Instruments, Nikon, KLA-Tencor, Ultratech Stepper, Hyundai and Fujitsu. Mr. Kim also was the COO of a 100+ person eCommerce business and the Business Development Director at a product development software company. He began his business career at Booz, Allen & Hamilton where he consulted on operations strategy to Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Kim received a B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School.
The participants in the afternoon panel are Rusty Griffith, Will Thierbach, Kim Cooke, Robert Rosenbaum, Sandy Roskes and Eric Janzsen.
In his role of Principal at Walker Ventures, Rusty Griffith plays a key role in the search for, and evaluation of, suitable portfolio investments. Rusty brings more than 15 years of business management, finance, and accounting experience in the high tech industry. His four years as an IT consultant have provided him with invaluable insight into some of the unique operational, accounting, and financial challenges that may be experienced by our client companies. Rusty has held senior level finance and accounting positions with technology companies including Siemens-Nixdorf, Trusted Information Systems, Network Associates and Lockheed Martin IMS.
Will Thierbach is a Senior Associate at The Grosvenor Funds. Prior to completing his M.B.A. and joining Grosvenor, Will was a senior information technology consultant for KPMG. Will’s interest and background in technology comes from the military where he served as a US Navy Lieutenant flying the F-14 Tomcat. During his last tour, he served as Project Manager for a Joint Service Test and Evaluation Team, which examined cutting-edge technologies for radar and acoustic sensors, data exchange and forwarding systems, and combat mission hardware and software. Will sits on the Board of Deltronic Crystal Industries. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the McDonough School of Business teaching entrepreneurship in the MBA program.
Prior to the founding of Blue Water Capital, Kim Cooke was an attorney with over 14 years of commercial and legal experience in domestic and international transactions and private equity financings. He was an original investor in and serves on the Board of Directors of Skyway Communications, Inc., of San Jose, California, a growing “bricks and clicks” retailer of wireless data communication products under the registered trade name “ephones.” Mr. Cooke serves on the boards of Tech Enterprises, Inc. and ICC.
Robert Rosenbaum recently joined Nobska Group as a partner. Prior to joining Nobska, Rob’s roles have included Chief Operating Officer of Versient, Vice President of Operations of Agora Publishing, Director, Information Technology of The Stride Rite Corporation, and Practice Manager, Technical Consulting and Integration Services of Eventra, an electronic commerce/EDI software company. Rob began his career in the apparel industry and has served as Vice President, Manufacturing of one company and as President of another prior to engineering its sale to a larger company.
Sandy Roskes, Investment Manager at Portview Communications Partners has 10 years of experience in engineering, consulting, and venture capital. He is based in Washington, DC, where he provides US support for Portview and its portfolio companies. Since joining the group in 1998, he has evaluated investment opportunities, analyzed rapidly changing industries such as communications software, optical networking, and wireless data, and assisted senior executives with strategy and business development issues. Previously, Mr. Roskes co-founded a consulting firm that provided marketing and financial advisory services to Israeli high-tech companies. He also served as business development representative in Israel for three American engineering and consulting firms.
Eric Janszen, Entrepreneur in Residence at Trident Capital, has more than twenty years experience in executive management roles in product marketing, product management, sales and venture capital in the high tech industry. Most recently as President & CEO of Bluesocket, Inc., a WLAN Security and Management appliance company (www.bluesocket.com) from 2001 to 2004, he delivered on overall corporate direction, strategic marketing and sales planning. Before Bluesocket, he was Managing Director of Osborn Capital LLC where he managed a portfolio of 20 technology startups. The fund participated in seven profitable liquidity events between 1998 and 2003, including two company sales to Cisco, Microsoft, EMC and Nortel. Two portfolio companies, Arrowpoint and Interliant, conducted IPOs. Prior to his role at Osborn Capital, Janszen held management positions at Massachusetts technology companies including Cayman Systems, CenterLine Software, Media 100 and Stratus Computer. Eric is a Massachusetts Telecommunications Council board member, and writes for several online publications, including the AlwaysOn Network and Bankrate.com.
“We are delighted to have such accomplished panelists to return to the Washington DC area. The Pitching Workshops have been successful because both the entrepreneurs and the investors see the value of the exchange,” said Joe Rubin, Director, FundingPost. “Early-stage investing is improving. Our investor panelist are excited to see new dealflow in these early companies, and the entrepreneurs are finding the investors’ tips and responses helpful for improving and refining their pitches.”
For more information about the Vienna, VA Pitching Workshops and other FundingPost events, contact Keith Henry at 203-659-6649 or visit the FundingPost website at http://www.FundingPost.com/event
ABOUT FUNDINGPOST:
FundingPost is an entrepreneur and investor network reaching more than 60,000 executives and 6,000 Venture Capital and Angel Investors across the nation each month.
For over four years FundingPost has worked with thousands of Angel and Venture Capital Investors and Entrepreneurs. FundingPost has hosted over 4,000 CEOs and 500 Venture Funds at events in 15 cities nationwide, as well as providing a quarterly Dealflow magazine and a deal-exchange Website that has, on average, seen an introduction of an Investor to an Entrepreneur every business day since its inception. FundingPost’s mission to reach investors and entrepreneurs in every medium possible – both online and offline, and it is experiencing strong growth as the venture capital markets continue to improve worldwide. For more information: http://www.FundingPost.com
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Note to editors: Please contact us for additional information or to schedule interviews with FundingPost.
Media Contacts for FundingPost:
Aren Cohen
FundingPost.com
800-461-5509
press@fundingpost.com
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