Being the CEO of an early-stage technology company, whether it is a software company, a financial services company, or a medical product company, the challenges are daunting.  With early stage companies the singular focus of the CEO has to be on revenue generation.  Whether the revenue is product sales, license revenue or raising funds, the CEO must be there to get the money flowing and keep it flowing. This program will focus on how three successful CEO have raised funds from angel investors and venture capitalists.

First, the CEO has to convince investors to provide your company with the initial capital that allows you to get out of the box.  Then you have to make sure that the product your company has developed is going to be accepted in the marketplace, and generate the revenue that was projected in your business plan.  Then you have to recruit a sales team that allows you to capitalize on the market opportunity.   Although you may hire extremely capable sales people, at the end of the day, you are the company�s chief salesperson.

As your company grows, you will probably need to find more capital to finance that growth, and if you �have under promised and over delivered,� you will find it relatively easy to raise that additional capital.  However, if you have stumbled in the revenue area, chances are that the next round of funding is going to be dilutive.

How, as the CEO of a growing company, do you meet all of these challenges, particularly the challenge of raising the initial capital, and securing that much needed follow-on capital.   To address these questions, we have assembled a panel of CEOs who have experienced all the pluses and minuses of taking an early-stage technology company to the next level.  Many times we hear presentations about how one should approach venture capitalists and angel investors.  This session is designed to give entrepreneurs some idea as to how you should approach fundraising from the entrepreneurial side of the deal table.  The panel will be moderated by a seasoned venture capitalist that specializes in early stage investing.

Panelists:

Rudy Nadilo , CEO of geoVue , a location analysis software company located in Woburn .  A nationally recognized market research and consumer behavior expert, Rudy Nadilo joined geoVue as the company's CEO in March, 2006.  Mr. Nadilo is helping  ensure that geoVue will maintain its cutting edge leadership in the location intelligence industry, expanding geoVue's customer service offerings, and developing strategic partnerships.  Hired by the founder to be CEO of Greenfield Online, Inc., Mr. Nadilo�s vision to use proprietary software systems and the Internet to bring greater efficiency to marketing research resulted in a new paradigm with in the industry.  To describe it he coined the term Research Revolution� to describe the migration of traditional marketing research methodologies to the online environment.  During his tenure at Greenfield , Mr. Nadilo built an effective management team while doubling revenues each year for four consecutive years, creating a globally recognized brand, and developing state-of-the-art software and IT systems. He holds a BFA from Emerson College and a Master's degree in Advertising and Marketing from Northwestern University.

Dan Dykens , CEO of Norbury Systems, Inc. of Boston , a software financial services company that allows money managers to better monetize performance. Dan is the co-founder and CEO of Norbury Financial, the future of research software for managing the internal operations of investment professionals - including Portfolio Managers, Analysts, Directors of Research and Chief Operating Officers. Norbury�s flagship product, Norbury Links, saves investment professionals time by centralizing and indexing internal and external research for easy retrieval and cross referencing - making collaboration among colleagues, and across geographical locations, seamless and simple.   Prior to founding Norbury Dan was a co-founder and Portfolio Manager of Clipper Capital Management LLC, a long/short US equity hedge fund. Over a five year period while managing funds at Clipper Dan lent his research expertise toward the growth of internal systems developed by Clipper. These systems developed internally by Clipper were ultimately spun off into Norbury. Prior to founding Clipper Dan was an analyst at Maple Row Management, a top performing long/short equity hedge fund, where he helped invest $400 million in emerging growth stocks and helped the firm focus on its investment strategy in small cap growth stocks. Prior to Maple Row Dan was both a research analyst and a trader at C. Blair Asset Management, a $700 million long/short US hedge fund, and prior to that was a research analyst at Renaissance Capital, a long/short equity investment firm.   Dan graduated from the University of Notre Dame where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a concentration in Finance

Mike Corey is President of Ntirety, a provider of remote database administration services for Oracle and Microsoft SQL server databases.  Using a subscription model Ntirety delivers database administration services remotely through a white box loaded with a combination of proprietary software and best of breed software.  The company was started in 2001.  Mike was previously a principal in Database Technologies, which was sold to Level 3 Communications in 1998.

MODERATOR:
Robert J. Crowley , President, Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation. Mr. Crowley has been associated with MTDC since its inception in 1978, and was elected President of MTDC in November, 2002. Prior to that, he was its Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer. Mr. Crowley is one of the most experienced venture capital investors in early-stage technology companies in the region. He is a key member of the team that built the success of MTDC.  Mr. Crowley is a former Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum, which is the leading university/business partnership designed to nurture entrepreneurship among technologists. He is also a former Chairman of the Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE). He currently serves as Chairman of SBANE's Educational Center . He is also a Director of National Small Business United (NSBU), a Washington , D.C. small business advocacy group. He is a past director of a number of former MTDC portfolio companies including Optical Micro Systems, Inc. Aspen Technology, Inc., MultiLink, Inc., Pacer Infotech, Inc., and Endogen, Inc.  Mr. Crowley has spent most of his professional life in finance, initially as a commercial lender with Shawmut Bank and then as President of the Neponset Valley Bank & Trust Company, and, for the last 25 years, as a venture capital investor with MTDC. He earned a BA from Fairfield University and an MBA from Boston College.