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Tuesday, May 2, 2006 |
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Please pass along this e-mail notice to others who may benefit from our
programs. Financing and Leveraging Growth In Your Early Stage Company Through Strategic Alliances and Partnerships NOTE: Special Meeting at The Forefront Center in Waltham. Meeting Overview: For today�s entrepreneur - who faces high hurdles to funding, ever increasing competition, thin barriers to entry, and shortened cycles from invention - strategic alliances and partnerships have become a key survival technique. For the startup company, your strategic partner can be your first source of outside funding, the beta tester of your product or service, and source of credibility for your first angel or venture capital investment round. For the early stage company, alliance partners can help you to gain competitive advantages, increase sales, scale up production, penetrate new markets and deliver new products and services. Sounds good. Well, how do you do it? On May 2, our panel will include present and past CEOs, investors and marketing professionals, moderated by a contracts attorney, all with deep experience developing and building these alliances to deliver value. They will tell what to look for and what to avoid as they : (1) address the process of identifying possible partners, drilling down to the best one and securing the relationship; (2) share experiences regarding what has made their partnerships successful, and, more importantly, what went wrong and why; (3) discuss how these relationships increase (or decrease) shareholder value, (4) the risks to their companies, and the learning process that they went through.
Moderator:
Panel: Jack Derby, President of Derby Management, (www.derbymanagement.com) which coaches senior management coaches providing both emerging and established businesses with both strategic and tactical business planning skills. Prior to forming Derby Management in 1990, Jack served as CEO of Mayer Electronics Corporation, President of CB Sports, President of Litton Industries Medical Systems, CEO of Datamedix Corporation and President of Becton Dickinson Medical Systems. Jack has been named to Mass High Tech�s All Star Team. He is often quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald and has published articles and editorials in The Boston Business Journal and Mass High Tech. He is frequent speaker at numerous business organizations including the MIT Enterprise Forum, the Small Business Association of New England, the Harvard Business School, and the WPI Venture Forum. He is also a guest lecturer at MIT where he teaches classes in writing business planning for undergraduate students and for the MIT-Singapore University Program. Jack is extremely active in the New England entrepreneurial community. He is currently and has been an active board member in a number of emerging companies. He was instrumental in restructuring the Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum (www.mitforum-cambridge.org) where he has held the position of Chairman of the Forum. Additionally, he has been the Vice Chair of the Smaller Business Association of New England (www.sbane.org). During 2004, Jack was the recipient of SBANE�s Pro Bono Publico Award for his significant contributions to the entrepreneurial community. Jack has also been a Director of MIT�s Technology Capital Network , and the President of the University Club of Boston (www.uclub.org). Currently, Currently, he is Chairman of the Association for Corporate Growth (www.acgboston.org), a Director of The Associated Industries of Massachusetts (www.aimnet.org) and a number of private corporations including Beacon Hospice, Brainshark and Hybricon. Greg Flynn, Vice President of Product Management, Brainshark, Inc. (www.brainshark.com), is responsible for leading the company�s product direction and planning, continuing Brainshark�s rapid pace of innovation in launching solutions that set the standard for on-demand communications. In working closely with our customers and our Engineering and IT organizations, Greg is instrumental in solidifying Brainshark�s reputation as a best-in-class solution. Greg first joined Brainshark as VP of Business Development, forging key partnerships with companies such as Microsoft, and continues to work closely with our integration partners. Greg brings an accomplished record of building sales and service organizations and developing channel revenue streams. As Director of Professional Services at Progress Software Corporation, Greg grew the services unit from $5 million in annual consulting revenues to $23 million in 2 years; and grew the team from 25 employees to 175 employees and subcontractors in the same period. Previously, Greg served as Regional Consulting Director at Progress, in which capacity he distinguished himself as a top performer, consistently overachieving quota and leading the North American regions in profitability. Prior to Progress, Greg was an Account Executive for Software AG of North America. Greg has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, holding roles in sales, consulting, and sales and services management. Greg holds a BS from the University of New Hampshire. Lawrence A. Kaufman ([email protected]), Pinnacle Associates, is a successful business leader with CEO, COO and director experience in a wide variety of technology-based firms. He has founded three companies, has been a director of twelve and has conducted turnarounds. He is currently a Partner in the GulfStream Group and a director of Sionex Corporation, The MicroOptical Corporation and Optical Tape Systems, Inc. He was a founder of Sionex Corporation, OutOfOffice Technology LTD and Digital Graphics, Inc. Born in Pittsburgh, he holds a B.S. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Ph.D. degree in Physics from Tufts University and an Executive Development Certification from Yale University.
Ameeta Soni, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, VFA, Inc., (www.vfa.com) has more than 20 years of marketing and business development experience, and has been instrumental in the success of many new technology ventures. Prior to VFA, she was founder and CEO of Aanza AutoID Group, a technology services firm focusing on the RFID market and Aanza, a provider of product lifecycle management software and consulting services. Previously, in her roles as VP of Product Marketing and VP of Marketing at ChannelWave Software, a provider of Partner Relationship Management software, Ameeta helped grow annual revenues from $400K to $10M in two years and attract $30M in venture capital. Earlier in her career, she was founder and President of Altek Consulting, a management consulting firm providing business strategy and marketing expertise to technology companies. She has held senior marketing positions at Computer Identics, The BOC Group, Genus and Varian Associates. Ameeta is past chair and current Board Member of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, a charter member of TiE-Boston and an overseer at the Museum of Science, Boston. She has served on the boards of the Technology Capital Network, Massachusetts Association for the Blind and the Society of Professional Consultants. Ameeta is a frequent speaker/panelist on marketing, product development and entrepreneurial issues. She has been published and quoted in several business and trade publications. Ameeta earned her MBA from the University of Chicago, her MS from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and her BS (Honors) from St. Stephen�s College, University of Delhi, India.
Robert Adelson, Partner, Engel & Schultz, LLP (www.engelschultz.com), has been a corporate and tax attorney since 1977, and is a partner in a 7-attorney Boston firm. Rob�s clients are early stage technology-based companies, consultants, senior executives and key employees, and family businesses. His main practice areas are: Business formation, finance and capitalization; Commercial contracts, licensing and strategic alliance agreements; Executive employment, stock and options and severance; Trademarks and intellectual property protection; Partnership, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions. Rob is a frequent lecturer for entrepreneur and professional groups, and has written numerous published articles, including articles in the Boston Business Journal, Mass High Tech, Family Business Magazine, Darwin Magazine, Genetic Engineering News and The Culpepper Letter (using the software industry). Mr. Adelson is a member of the Massachusetts and New York Bars, and Vice-Chair Alliances and Special Projects of ENET and a member of the Advisory Board of the 128 Innovation Capital Group, where he has moderated four meetings in the last 12 months. Rob�s work as an attorney has been recognized in articles in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald and in a chapter of the book End of Shareholder Value, published in 2000. Rob is a graduate of Boston University with a B.A. degree, summa cum laude, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Alpha Theta. He received his J.D. degree from Northwestern University in Chicago, where he was a member of the Law Review and his LL.M. degree in Taxation from New York University. |
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