Complete Program Directory

Entrepreneurial Best Practices Series

Financing

Tuesday, April 20, 2010
6:30-8:30 PM
Andersen Auditorium
Haas School of Business

No registration is required for this event.

Please join us for the capstone session of the Entrepreneurial Best Practices Series. Our panel will discuss the latest investment trends with a focus on maximizing your investment potential. Learn what investors look for in funding opportunities and how to prepare your company to close funding once you have generated interest. Optimize your team, your pitch and your business plan. The panel offers diverse perspectives ranging from angel investing to traditional venture capital. The panelists' experiences span a number of industries and backgrounds. The workshop will include Q&A, so come with the questions you've been waiting to ask an investor.

MODERATOR

Matt Kirmayer
Member, Corporate Practice
Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC

Matt Kirmayer is a Member in the Corporate Practice at Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC. His practice is focused on the representation of emerging technology companies, venture capital and private equity funds, and institutional investors. Matt represents clients in many industries, such as multimedia, wireless technologies, networking, Internet infrastructure and security, nanotechnology, life sciences, and medical devices. He also represents NY Money Center Banks and institutional investors in capital market transactions. Before joining Mintz Levin, Matt was a partner at a San Francisco area law firm. He began his career in New York City, handling securities offerings and merger and acquisition transactions. Matt is admitted to practice law in California and New York. He was awarded his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany and his J.D. from Rutgers University. Matt obtained his LL.M. from New York University School of Law.

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Prashant Shah
Managing Director, Hummer Winblad

Prashant Shah 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.

Amy Belt
Vice President
Advanced Technology Ventures

Amy joined ATV's healthcare practice in 2006 where she focuses on investments in the medical device sector in the firm's Palo Alto, CA office.

Prior to joining ATV, Amy was at Guidant Corporation (later Abbott Vascular) leading the international launch of the Xience drug eluting stent. The launch marked the company’s entrance into the $5 billion worldwide DES market. Amy has launched and managed product in the US, Europe and Asia working closely with clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, R&D, and sales. In addition, Amy spent time in Bristol-Myers Squibb's international group working on several cardiovascular and neuroscience projects. She began her career as a Management Consultant for APM/CSC Healthcare where she worked on projects with almost 40 hospitals across the US and Canada.

Amy holds an M.B.A from the Walter Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. from Yale University. She is also a Kauffman Fellow.

Jeff Karras
General Partner
Levensohn Venture Partners

Jeff Karras joined Levensohn Venture Partners in January 2001 and specializes in digital media and cleantech technologies. Before joining LVP, Jeff was a Group Product Marketing Manager at Sun Microsystems, where he was a key strategic driver behind their Portal Server product line. Prior to Sun Microsystems, Jeff was a Principal Consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers' Strategic Change Group, where he provided strategic guidance across a variety of industries including telecommunications, software, energy and financial services.

In the past, Jeff has held a board seat or worked closely with a number of LVP portfolio companies including Atheros, Veraz Networks, Covigo, Rapt, and Reconnex, ShotSpotter, Plum and Wildpockets. In addition, Jeff is an active member of the Board of Trustees for Astia and the Earthshot Foundation. Jeff received a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Eghosa Omoigui, Esq.
Director, Strategic Investments, Consumer Internet & Semantic Technologies
Intel Capital

Eghosa Omoigui has been with Intel Capital for over 9 years and is currently Director, Strategic Investments, Consumer Internet & Semantic Technologies. In this Santa Clara, CA-based role, he acts as a senior investment professional in the world's largest stage-agnostic technology venture capital organization, focused on platform-agnostic web services and digital media-based investment opportunities in the consumer internet. Due to a 10+ year passion for all things semweb/semtech/data, Eghosa also drives Intel Capital's investment focus on next generation semantic technologies and the real-time web. Current representative investments include Betaworks, Sense Networks, Voxify, Yatra, BuzzInTown, Cerebra and TextDigger.

Prior to joining Intel, Omoigui worked in several start-ups in senior management positions and has variegated experience as a corporate and securities law firm lawyer, in-house counsel and turnarounds/restructuring advisor. Eghosa attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College and has been admitted to the Bar in Nigeria, New York and Oregon . Eghosa lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his 3 kids, a miniature poodle and a supersized german shepherd.

[top of page]