Berkeley Entrepreneurs Forum
August 28, 2008 Program
The Changing Face of
Venture Investing
Program:
- Elevator Pitch Session
- Venture Capital Term Sheet Survey Results: Fenwick & West
- National Venture Capital Association Money Tree Report: PriceWaterhouse Coopers
- Venture Capital Panel Discussion, featuring Steve Bengston, Nat Goldhaber, Bill Reichert, and Prasant Shah.
Moderator:
Sam Angus is resident in the San Francisco office of Fenwick & West and his practice concentrates on the formation of start-up companies, venture capital and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property licensing, joint ventures and general corporate matters. Mr. Angus represents a broad range of companies from privately held start-up companies to publicly traded corporations. His practice also includes advising entrepreneurs and investors. He earned a J.D. from University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Mr. Angus served as counsel for In-System Design, Inc. in connection with its acquisition by Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. He also counseled Naxon Corporation (Wineshopper.com) on its acquisition of Wine.com, Inc., Micro Focus Group on its $500 million merger with Intersolv, Inc., Junglee Corp. on its $300 million acquisition by Amazon.com, Inc., and Blue Lava Wireless on its $140 million acquisition by JAMDAT Mobile.
Confirmed panelists:
Steve Bengston is Managing Director of Emerging Company Services (ECS) at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Before joining PwC, Steven had 20 years of experience in a variety of marketing business development and general management roles at several high tech companies in the Bay Area. Most recently, he was Pres/CEO of ynot.com, a leading international emarketing and greeting card company. Previously, he was VP Marketing & Business Development at Worldview Systems, an Internet travel pioneer. At Worldview, Steve helped launch and market Travelocity with Sabre Interactive. Steve has a BA in Economics and MBA from Stanford University. He works closely or sits on the Advisory Board at Time Domain Systems, SDForum, Financing Partners, and the Stanford/MIT Venture Lab, has taught classes on funding/running start ups at UC Berkeley and Stanford, and is active in a variety of other organizations in the Bay Area targeting entrepreneurs and investors.
Bill Reichert has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and an operating executive. Since joining Garage in 1998, Bill has focused on early-stage information technology and materials science companies. He sits on the Boards of CaseStack, WhiteHat, ClearFuels, cFares, and ThermoCeramix. Prior to Garage, Bill was a co-founder or senior executive in several venture-backed technology startups, including Trademark Software, The Learning Company, and Academic Systems. Earlier in his career, he worked at McKinsey & Company, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., and the World Bank. Bill earned a B.A. at Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. He was a founding board member and a Chairman of the Churchill Club, and a Charter Member of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs. Currently he is the Chairman of the Small Fund Roundtable of the VC Taskforce and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Prashant Shah, Managing Director, joined Hummer Winblad in December 2000. He has been instrumental in many investments including Baynote, Bridgestream, Cenzic, InMage, Jareva Technologies, Krillion, Scalent, SyncVoice, Tizor and Voltage Security. He also observes a number of these boards. In addition, Prashant is an active Charter Member of TiE Silicon Valley (www.tiesv.org), where he is Chair of the Software SIG; and a member of the Board of Trustees for Astia (www.astia.org). Prior to Hummer Winblad, Prashant spent many years defining and launching high tech products. His background spans all seven layers of the OSI stack with product management roles at enCommerce (acquired by Entrust), Cypress Semiconductor and AT&T. Prashant received a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
All programs begin with a networking hour from 6:30 to 7:30 with complimentary drinks and hors d'oeuvres in the Bank of America Forum at the Haas School of Business. A presentation by a variety of speakers of interest to the Bay Area entrepreneurial community follows in the Andersen Auditorium at 7:30 PM.
