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programs.
Click here or the link above for the location and directions to the
Meeting Site.
Strategic
Alliances and Partnerships: to build, finance and
develop early stage companies
NOTE: Special Meeting at the Forefront Center, Waltham, MA
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 November 7, our panel will consist
of (1) a major venture capitalist, speaking to the issues of using
alliances to fund and bootstrap early stage companies and to gain
credibility to attract finance, (2) a CEO and Founder of four
different start-up companies, each company rising to growth fueled
by alliances, (3) a prominent consultant in the medical device and
biotechnology fields, who has worked on numerous alliances and
partnerships to develop early stage companies in those fields and
(4) a panel moderator, who is a Boston attorney, who will add
contract and legal insights to the issues raised by strategic
alliances and partnerships.
At the same time, the panel will also look into
such important issues as: (a) the process of identifying possible
partners, drilling down to the best one and securing the
relationship; (b) sharing experiences on what made partnerships
successful, and what went wrong and why (c) discussing how these
relationships can increase (or decrease) the company�s valuation,
and (d) risks involved and things to look for at each stage of the
partnership relationship.
Moderator:
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Robert A. Adelson, Attorney and Partner, Engel & Schultz, LLP,
www.engelschultz.com
Meeting Site and Cost:
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5:15 PM Pre-meeting Dinner
Bertucci's Restaurant
475 Winter St., (exit 27B off Route 128), Waltham, MA
("pay-as-you-go")
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7:00 - 10:00PM Meeting Presentation
Forefront Center for Meetings & Conferences, 404 Wyman
Street, Waltham, MA
There is a $20.00 fee, non ENET members.
No reservations are necessary for either the
meeting or dinner
Click here for directions and a map to the dinner and
meeting
Panel:
Charles Lax -
Managing General Partner, GrandBanks Capital
Charley Lax (
[email protected] ) is the founder and Managing General
Partner of GrandBanks Capital (GBC)(
www.grandbankscapital.com )and focuses on early-stage investment
activities in the areas of Internet infrastructure, software and
software services, security and storage applications, media technologies
and services, financial technologies and services, and wireless
technologies and services. Mr. Lax�s investment career includes
investments in 42 portfolio companies, which have resulted in 26 exits
thus far. His track record includes 15 public companies, of which 10
achieved market caps in excess of $1 billion. With over 16 years of
venture capital experience, Mr. Lax currently serves on the boards of
GBC companies including Colubris Networks, Coradiant, CXO Systems, Ember
Corporation, Incipient, and manages GBC�s investment in OutStart.
Additionally, Mr. Lax is a founding General Partner of both SOFTBANK
Venture Capital (Mobius Venture Capital) and SOFTBANK Capital Partners,
and co-created Flatiron Partners of New York City. Prior to his career
in venture capital, Charley worked for a series of software companies in
marketing, product management and sales roles, including Phoenix
Technologies Ltd., the BIOS developer. Mr. Lax was awarded a B.S
degree, magna cum laude, from Boston University in 1982. A graduate of
Boston University with a BS degree, magna cum laude, in 1982, Charley
was elected secretary of Boston University's Alumni Council in 2005 and
is a member of its Executive Committee. He is also an Advisory Board
member to Boston University's Office of Technology Development (OTD)
Ignition Award Program. In 2001, Charley received the Alumni Award for
Distinguished Service and gave the Class of 2001 Graduate School of
Management commencement address titled, "Lessons Learned from the
Internet Bubble." In 2003, the Boston University Entrepreneurial
Management Institute awarded him the Henry Morgan Award for outstanding
contribution to the Institute. Charley is also a founding judge of the
university-wide Boston University Entrepreneurial Management Institute�s
yearly business plan competition.
Gwen Acton � President, Vivo Group
Gwen Acton, PhD ([email protected])
is president of Vivo Group (http://www.vivogroup.com),
a strategic consulting firm specializing in improving scientific
productivity in research and alliances. Prior to this, she was Director
of Scientific Development at the Whitehead Institute, where she ran the
operations for the Functional Genomics Program, a $40M multi-party
research collaboration between Bristol-Myers Squibb, Millennium
Pharmaceuticals, and Affymetrix. Dr. Acton is the author of two
industry reports published by the Cambridge Healthtech Institute, and
the book (italics)The Bluffers Guide to Genetics(end italics) to be
published in 2007. Dr. Acton received a doctorate in molecular biology
and genetics from M.I.T. in 1991, and served as a faculty member at
Harvard University in the department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.
Dr. Acton is currently a member of the Board of Trustees at Forsyth
Institute in Boston, Massachusetts.
Steven Rogers - CEO and Founder, Rivulet
Communications, Inc.
Steven Rogers ([email protected])
has over 20 years of experience in the communications industry. He has
been the founder and CEO of four network product companies: beginning in
1980s with Cryptek, Inc., where he built the company from scratch to
over 50 employees and $12 million in revenues and profitability, and the
company remains profitable today; then, in 1990s with Objective
Communications, Inc, where he build the company to over 100 employees
and led it through its 1997 IPO (Upside Magazine named it as the
best performing IPO of the year); then Cetacean Networks, Inc.: where
Mr. Rogers raised over $50 million and the company rose to over 100
employees before he moved on to his most recent venture. Since 2003, Mr.
Rogers has been CEO of Rivulet Communications (www.rivulet.com),
where he has raised of 50$ million of financing, and the company now
employs over 50 employees. Rivulet Communications, Inc. has strategic
partnerships with a major equipment manufacturer and carrier. He has
negotiated numerous alliances in the past as well, with major carriers
and equipment companies. Mr. Rogers� extensive background also includes
management and development work at Unisys, American Satellite, and COMSAT Mobile
Telesystems. Mr. Rogers has a BSEE from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
He has also authored over 10 patents, 3 classified papers presented at
government symposia, several articles and papers in trade journals to
his credit. Mr. Rogers has also been a general session speaker at
Telecom.
Moderator:
Robert A. Adelson -
Attorney and Partner, Engel & Schultz, LLP
Rob Adelson ([email protected])
has been a corporate and tax attorney since 1977. He began his law
career as an associate at the New York City mega firm Dewey Ballantine
and later Weil Gotshal & Manges before returning home to Boston in
1985. He has been a partner in medium and smaller Boston firm and is
today a partner in a 6-attorney general practice Boston firm Engel &
Schultz, LLP (www.engelschultz.com).
Mr. Adelson�s clients are early stage technology-based companies,
consultants, senior executives and key employees, and family businesses.
His main practice areas are: (1) Business formation, finance and
capitalization; (2) Commercial contracts, licensing and strategic
alliance agreements; (3) Executive employment, stock and options and
severance; (4) Trademarks and intellectual property protection; (5)
Joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions; (6) Phantom stock and
succession in family businesses. Mr. Adelson 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. Mr. Adelson 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 (serving the software industry). Mr.
Adelson is a member of the Massachusetts and New York Bars, and Vice
Chairman of Boston Entrepreneurs� Network and a member of the Advisory
Board of the 128 Innovation Capital Group. Mr. Adelson�s work as an
attorney has been recognized in articles in the Boston Globe, Boston
Herald and Business Week Online and in a chapter of the book,
The End of Shareholder Value, published in 2000.
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