Review & Selection Process

A committee of Southern California venture capitalists, angel investors and conference sponsors select the 12 companies that will be invited to present at VentureNet®. They will consider ventures from start-ups to later-stage operating companies on the basis of each company's:

• target customers,
• the target customers' pain and how well the company's products and services cure the pain,
• competitive advantage,
• management team,
• potential growth rate and size,
• financial model including the company's stage and the amount of capital being raised, and
• opportunity to create superior shareholder value
  

Screening Committee:

• Jim Andelman, Rincon Venture Partners
• Uri Blackman, GIDEON Informatics
• Jeff Cohn, MHS Capital (committee chair)
• Daniel Docter, Intel Capital
• Erik Ekstrom, Deloitte & Touche
• Shivbir S. Grewal, Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth
• Don Kasle, Tech Coast Angels
• Kris Kaufmann, Deloitte & Touche
  
• Beau Laskey, Steamboat Ventures
• Peter Lee, Baroda Ventures
• Al Schneider, Tech Coast Angels
• Mark Skaist, Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth
• Steve Slater, Pasadena Angels
• Rick Smith, Crosscut Ventures
• Mark Suster, GRP Partners
• Samit Varma, Anthem Venture Partners
• Andy Wilson, Momentum Venture Management, LLC
  
  

About the Committee Members

Jim Andelman, Rincon Venture Partners
Jim Andelman is a co-founder and General Partner of Rincon Venture Partners, an early stage venture capital firm focused on IT investments in Southern California. Jim has more than fifteen years of experience in venture capital investing, technology investment banking and advisory services and strategic business consulting. Before founding Rincon, he led software and services investing for Broadview Capital Partners, a $250 million expansion-stage venture capital firm and also was a member of the Technology Investment Banking Group at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. Jim serves on the Boards of Directors of Cadforce, Campus Explorer, Digital Performance, Iconix Video and Packet Island. He received an MBA (1st in his class) from the Tuck School at Dartmouth and a BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (magna cum laude). www.rinconvp.com

Uri Blackman, GIDEON Informatics
Uri serves as founder and CEO of GIDEON Informatics, which produces GIDEON, a web-based medical decision support and information product deployed at hundreds of institutions. Previously, Uri served as Vice President of Corporate Development at Speedbit, creators of Download Accelerator. Uri also founded Oloop, a VC backed online insurance brokerage firm. Prior to Oloop, Uri was a Product Manager at Netscape for two generations of the Netscape browser and closed computing channel deals in AOL's Business Development. Uri served on the advisory board of a number of technology companies in the Silicon Valley and Israel. Uri was a commander in the Israel Defense Forces Intelligence Corp. He received his BA in Computer Science and Philosophy from Tel Aviv University and his MBA from Stanford. www.gideononline.com

Jeff Cohn, MHS Capital
Jeff Cohn is a venture consultant to MHS Capital, a boutique venture fund focused on bootstrapped technology companies in Southern California. Jeff has deep network of investors and has played an active role shaping Southern California's entrepreneur ecosystem since 1999. Jeff previously held positions as a venture consultant for Hunt Ventures and spent 8 years as the investment screening director for the Tech Coast Angels. Jeff is particularly focused on finding investment opportunities in the following three areas: online marketing services, mobile and software infrastructure.

Jeff is also an entrepreneur and the founder of two nationally recognized crowd sourcing web sites DeadCellZones.com and PhotoEnforced.com. His technology career includes corporate development consulting for the largest direct navigation and domain services company Oversee.net, web services firm iXL and the enterprise software company Computer Associates International, Inc.. Jeff has a B.S. in Business Administration, Finance from the University of Colorado.

Daniel Docter, Intel Capital
Daniel Docter is a Director with Intel Capital where he has worked since 2001. Daniel focuses on investments in infrastructure for data centers, enterprises, and communications networks. He invests in equipment, software, and semiconductor companies covering areas such as data center networking, power and thermal solutions, wireless and telecommunications infrastructure, embedded processor applications, broadband access and networking solutions, and alternative energy solutions. He also covers the southern California region for Intel Capital (San Diego to Santa Barbara). Daniel is responsible for Intel Capital investments in Passave (acq. by PMCS), E2O Communications (acq by JDSU), Apogee Photonics (acq by Cyoptics), Kasenna (acq by Espial), Stratalight Communications (acq by Opnext), Vativ Technologies (acq by Entropic), Cortina Systems, Expand Networks, Ceterus Networks (acq by Overture Networks), and Bridgewave Communications. Daniel received his PhD. from the University of Bradford, England in 1993 in solid state physics, and spent more than 11 years working on optical and RF communications applications at AT&T Bell Labs (6 yrs) and Hughes Research Labs (5 ½ yrs). He has more than 50 journal publications and more than 10 patents to his credit in areas of material science, optoelectronic integration, and microwave device and circuit applications. Prior to joining Intel Capital, Daniel worked for Merrill Lynch in the Private Wealth Management Group where he advised clients involved in initial public offerings and M&A transactions. Daniel lives in Los Angeles and is active in supporting the southern California entrepreneur and venture capital communities. www.intel.com

Erik Ekstrom, Deloitte & Touche
Deloitte & Touche LLP is a trusted business advisor to some of Southern California's most vibrant and emerging companies in the information technology industry. Venture-backed and growth-oriented companies are among this next generation of market leaders and face unique business challenges that can be addressed with Deloitte & Touche Venture Capital Services. Based on years of experience with fast growing companies, our Venture Capital Services Group offers end-to-end solutions that combine our tax, accounting, human capital, financial advisory and information technology expertise to help growth companies optimize performance, manage and strategize on key early-stage company issues and prepare for liquidity events. www.deloitte.com

Shivbir S. Grewal, Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth
Shivbir Grewal is a partner in the corporate and securities practice group at Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth.
He represents emerging growth, technology, life science, manufacturing and health care entities in matters relating to corporate and securities law, including general corporate representation, venture capital financings, initial public offerings, corporate reorganizations, joint ventures, private placements and public company representation. He also advises corporate entities on governance and structure issues, and sits on the boards of various companies. He has chaired or participated in various panels and seminars on corporate finance issues and mergers and acquisitions. Shiv is also a member of the Global Board of Trustees of TiE, one of the largest organizations in the world focused on fostering entrepreneurship. www.sycr.com

Kris Kaufmann, Deloitte & Touche LLP
Deloitte & Touche LLP is a trusted business advisor to some of Southern California's most vibrant and emerging companies in the information technology industry. Venture-backed and growth-oriented companies are among this next generation of market leaders and face unique business challenges that can be addressed with Deloitte & Touche Venture Capital Services. Based on years of experience with fast growing companies, our Venture Capital Services Group offers end-to-end solutions that combine our tax, accounting, human capital, financial advisory and information technology expertise to help growth companies optimize performance, manage and strategize on key early-stage company issues and prepare for liquidity events. www.deloitte.com

Beau Laskey, Steamboat Ventures
Beau Laskey is a Managing Director of Steamboat Ventures. He has spent the last 15 years in technology, finance and operational leadership roles where he focused on media, entertainment and consumer infrastructure technologies. Beau currently serves on the boards of Kapow Technologies and Ontela, and his prior investments include Zyray Wireless, acquired by Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM), Clarity Technologies, acquired by Cambridge Silicon Radio (LSE: CSR), Sircon, acquired by Vertafore, Arbor Networks, Alfalight, Arxan Technologies, IntelePeer, RockeTalk, Greenplum, and Xtera Communications.

Early in his career, Beau was a Managing Director of EDF Ventures in San Diego, an early stage venture capital fund. Beau started his career as an officer in the SEAL Teams and completed deployments with SEAL Team One and Eight to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. He received a BS in Economics and General Engineering with Merit as a graduate of the US Naval Academy, and received an MBA with Distinction in Entrepreneurship and Corporate Strategy from The University of Michigan Business School. www.steamboatvc.com

Peter Lee, Baroda Ventures
Peter Lee is a Partner at Baroda Ventures and was previously an investor at Clearstone Ventures and Prism Ventures. Prior to entering venture capital, he was the Vice President of Operations and Product Management at Goldpocket (acquired by TandbergTV), a startup developing a platform for creating, distributing and managing interactive TV digital media systems.

Earlier, Peter was a manager with McKinsey, where he focused on the digital media, consumer electronics, and internet industries. He also worked as a product manager at Microsoft in their wireless device group as well as at Virtual Ink (acquired by Newell Rubbermaid), a venture-backed startup in the consumer electronics and internet space. Peter earned his BS and MS in engineering from MIT where he was elected into the Tau Beta Pi Honor Society and was awarded a full-tuition graduate fellowship. He also holds an MBA, with Honors, from Harvard Business School. www.barodaventures.com

Al Schneider, Tech Coast Angels
Al Schneider is President of Tech Coast Angels/Los Angeles and a co-founder and Vice Chairman of Pasadena Angels. Tech Coast Angels has funded over $104 million into 160 companies over the last 12 years, and Pasadena Angels has funded approximately $20 million into over 55 companies since 2001. Al is also past Chairman of Entretech, a non-profit focused on empowering entrepreneurs to build their businesses through capital, education, people and strategic partners.

As an active angel investor in the Los Angeles area for over 9 years, Al has been a start-up board member and mentor to many early stage companies. Al served on the board of Pictage, a complete digital proofing, marketing and production solution for professional photographers acquired by an affiliate of Apax Partners; is currently Chairman of H2Scan, a leader in hydrogen sensing products for area monitoring and process control; and was earlier Chairman of Unified Dispatch, a software company serving the ground transportation industry.

Most of Al Schneider's career was spent in the real estate and healthcare property investment, finance and development industries. He was Vice President of the B.F. Saul Company, a diversified real estate organization which then advised the public REIT now known as Saul Centers (NYSE-BFS). Later, he was the COO of The Canterbury Group, a private real estate company which developed rental apartments, condominiums, and other residential and healthcare properties. His earliest private equity investments outside the real estate field, in the mid 1990's, included Clifton Mining (NASDAQ-CFTN). Al has a B.A. and M.B.A. www.techcoastangels.com

Mark Skaist, Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth
Mark Skaist is a partner in the Corporate and Securities Practice Group at Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth.
His practice focuses on public and private securities offerings, venture capital transactions, mergers and acquisitions and technology licensing, development and distribution transactions, primarily in the high technology/information technology industries. He also advises clients on matters involving corporate governance and employee compensation. His clients, who range from early stage start-ups to large publicly traded companies, include those involved in network infrastructure technology, enterprise software, telecommunications and new media, as well as a number of venture capital and private equity firms. www.sycr.com

Rick Smith, Crosscut Ventures
Rick is the co-founder of Crosscut Ventures, an early-stage venture fund located in Los Angeles. He has been an active participant in all areas of private equity for over two decades, including venture capital since 1997. He help grow Palomar Ventures from $80 million to over $500 million. He co-founded the $750 million venture group at SunAmerica, where he led several investments that went public or were acquired. Rick was part of a small firm that bought Steinway Piano Company and Selmer Instruments. He graduated from the University of Illinois and Harvard Law School.

Mark Suster, GRP Partners
Mark joined as a General Partner of GRP Partners in 2007 after having worked with GRP for 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. Most recently Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com following its acquisition of Koral, where Mark was Founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline, the largest independent global content collaboration company focused on the engineering and construction sectors, which was acquired by The Sword Group. Earlier in his career, Mark spent nearly ten years working for Accenture in Europe, Japan and the U.S. Mark received a BA in Economics from the University of California, San Diego, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a dual citizen of the US and the UK. www.grpvc.com. Mark keeps a blog on entrepreneurship & venture capital at www.BothSidesoftheTable.com.

Samit Varma, Anthem Venture Partners
Samit is a partner with Anthem Venture Partners. He currently serves on the board of Viewdle and AdventureLink and is a board observer at Siperian. Samit also works closely with Wavestream, ThisNext, and Zag. Samit earned his MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He concentrated on Finance, Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization while at USC. www.anthemvp.com

Andy Wilson, Momentum Venture Management, LLC
Andy is founder and Managing Director of Momentum Venture Management (MVM). MVM helps entrepreneurs transform innovative technologies into sustainable, successful businesses. Prior to founding MVM, he served in senior executive positions at Yahoo!/Overture Services, RiverOne and Bowne & Co. While with MVM, Andy spearheaded the raising of Momentum’s two bridge funds and has led various portfolio companies through early commercialization and next rounds of venture funding. Andy currently services as the CEO of Digital Performance Inc (DPI) and Vantage ILM. He is on the boards of nQueue, Blue Lava, DPI and Thermark. He also serves on the Executive Committee of CalTech Enterprise. www.mvmpartners.com

 

 

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