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Meeting Location:
Emerging Enterprise Center at
Foley Hoag the Bay Colony Corporate Center
1000 Winter Street, Suite 4000 (North Entrance)
Waltham, MAMeeting Time: 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Meeting Cost:
$25 public, $10 students
and active military; Promotional Registrations
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
6:30 - 9:30 PM
Location: Emerging Center at Foley Hoag the Bay Colony Corporate Center, Waltham, MARaising Money I: Angels or VCs: Who’s Driving the Regional Start-up Capital Market?
Of all the high-tech/high-growth start-ups that have been launched in New England in the last 5 years, which group has played a more pivotal role in eventually funding those start-ups – Angels or VCs? What will the answer be over the next 5 years? Some sources suggest that in recent years angel investors have caught up to VCs in total amounts of investment dollars deployed, but that angels have backed a much larger group of companies in aggregate. What’s going on? Are Angel investors supplanting VCs as the go-to source of early-stage capital in the region? Naturally, the answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no.
To explore this topic, the May 17th EntreTech Forum panel discussion will dig deep into the dynamics of angel and VC investing, paying particular attention to factors that entrepreneurs seeking funds need to be aware of as they chase funds in the local start-up capital market. The panel will be informal and instructive. The audience will leave with a real-world sense of how angels and VCs think, and how that translates into real-world fund-raising actions and applications.
Moderator:
Jim Sanger, General PartnerPanelists:
Brett Garrett – Associate – Bain Capital Ventures
Kent Bennet – VP – Bessemer Venture Partners
Rob Go – Partner & Co-Founder – NextView Capital
Hambleton Lord, Managing Director - Launchpad Venture GroupMeeting Organizer:
Andrew Fairbairn – Managing Principal – Fairbairn Ventures
Biographies:Moderator:
Jim Sanger, General Partner
http://www.absventures.com/Jim focuses on investments in software, network communications and business services companies. Before joining ABS Ventures, he served as a Managing Director of Deutsche Bank Venture Partners. He also served as Chief Technology Officer and Director of Technology Investment for Deutsche Bank’s London-based corporate venturing group. Prior to his work in venture, Jim held IT management positions at Deutsche Bank, Barclays Bank and Bell Atlantic (now Verizon Communications). Jim was Co-Chairman of the 2007, 2008 and 2009 New England Venture Summits, and has presented at leading venture capital and IT industry events, including the NVCA Annual Meeting, the US/Israeli Venture Summit, Internet World and M-Commerce World. He is the co-author of The Text Mining Handbook (Cambridge Univ. Press). Jim received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
Portfolio Relationships: Jim is a director on the boards of Everbridge and Persystent Software; he is also a board observer at Qualys. On behalf of ABS Ventures, he has managed investments in Gomez (acquired by Compuware), Inxight Software (acquired by Business Objects/SAP), Overtone (acquired by KANA), AlphaBlox (acquired by IBM) and Intralinks (acquired in a syndicated buyout led by Rho Capital).
Brett Garrett – Associate – Bain Capital Ventures
http://baincapitalventures.com/Mr. Garrett joined Bain Capital Ventures in 2007. Prior to joining Bain Capital Ventures, Mr. Garrett was at L.E.K. Consulting, where he worked on both strategic and operational engagements for private equity and industry clients.
Mr. Garrett received a BA in Economics and an MA from Stanford University.
Kent Bennett – VP – Bessemer Venture Partners
http://www.bvp.com/Kent Bennett, a vice president in Bessemer's Cambridge, Mass. office, joined the company in 2008. Kent focuses on investments in the data-infrastructure, data-analytics and communications sectors.
At Bessemer, Kent has been involved in investments including data-management companies Streambase, Vertica, Endeca, Netuitive, Cirtas and Portrait Software; mobile-communications companies BroadSoft, Millennial Media and Enforta; as well as in Goal.com, the world's largest soccer portal, and On-Q-ity, a cancer-diagnostics company.
Prior to joining Bessemer, Kent was a creative executive for an entertainment-production company, where he developed and sold original material including a network television pilot and a feature film. He began his career with Bain & Co., where he worked on projects in industries spanning IT, retail, consumer products, healthcare and biotech.
Kent holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and a B.S. degree, summa cum laude, in systems engineering from the University of Virginia, where he was a Jefferson Scholar.
Rob Go – Partner/Co-Founder – NextView Ventures
http://nextviewventures.com/Rob is a cofounder of NextView Ventures and has dedicated his career as an investor and operator to internet-enabled innovation. He tries to spend as much time as possible working with entrepreneurs and investing in startups that solve important problems for everyday people.
Previously, Rob was a venture capitalist at Spark Capital, a leading venture firm focused on the intersection of media, technology, and entertainment. In this role, he was deeply involved in launching and coordinating Start@Spark, a seed stage investment program targeted at early- stage companies in the New York and Boston areas.
Before joining Spark Capital, Rob held product roles at Ebay, and was the North America Business Unit owner for "Finding". In this role, he helped to launch over 20 products that significantly enhanced Ebay's search, browse, and merchandising capabilities.
Rob began his career at The Parthenon Group, a boutique strategy consulting firm. He was a member of the firm's Private Equity practice, and focused on the consumer and retail industries. Additionally, he has held product management roles at Fidelity Investments, BzzAgent, and helped to found Letslink.jp, one of the first social networking sites outside of the United States.
Rob holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Duke University. He is also a founding member of Highrock Church in Brookline, MA and serves on the organization’s board. He lives in Arlington, MA with his wife and daughter.
Hambleton Lord, Managing Director - Launchpad Venture Group
http://launchpadventuregroup.com/Hambleton (Ham) Lord has over 25 years experience in the software industry founding and building industry leading companies. Currently, Ham is the Managing Director of Launchpad Venture Group. Launchpad is a Boston-based angel group that focuses on seed stage technology companies. He manages the group's deal flow, due diligence and investing activities. Ham is an active angel investor and advisor to early stage companies. He is a board member for Building Engines and a board observer for EveryScape.
Ham's senior management experience was in the software industry, most recently as co-founder and Vice President of Marketing for Advanced Visual Systems (AVS). AVS develops software for scientists and engineers involved in applications such as Medical Imaging, Geographic Information Systems(GIS), Engineering Analysis and Oil&Gas Exploration. Muse Technologies acquired AVS in 2000. Prior to AVS, Ham helped launch two computational chemistry companies, MicroChem Technologies and Polygen. These two companies were pioneers in the development of software for drug discovery, and were part of an industry wide acquisition roll-up that resulted in Accelrys Inc. (NASDAQ: ACCL).
Ham graduated magna cum laude with a degree in computer science from Brown University.
Meeting Organizer:
Andrew Fairbairn – Fairbairn Ventures – Managing Principal
(http://fairbairnventures.com)Andrew is a Cambridge-based investor, entrepreneur and advisor who partners with driven entrepreneurs to rapidly prove out value propositions and to build solid businesses. He has worked with many executive teams over the course of his career to launch, build, expand, transition and/or retool their businesses.
Prior to establishing Fairbairn Ventures, Andrew was a founding partner of JVKellyGroup, Inc. (JVKG), a New York-based management consulting, performance management and software development firm recently sold to D&B. He has also served as Vice President of Deutsche Bank, focused on corporate venturing in financial technology companies and strategic planning roles in New York and London. Andrew began his career with UBS Securities in New York, where he worked on global networking and telecommunications industry financings, across a range of geographies and investment banking product disciplines.
Andrew earned his B.A. in Economics and M.A. in International Development Policy from Stanford University.
