Ever wonder exactly what a seasoned investor is thinking while you are presenting your pitch? This program will not only answer that question, but will also allow our audience to act like an investor and put their (mock) money where their mouth is!
 
Format:
Once again, the Entrepreneurs’ Forum has designed a fun, educational, and participatory event that is sure to benefit any company looking to raise capital. We have selected three companies that will present four segments of their business plan to our panel of experienced angel and venture investors. The panelists will evaluate each segment as you, the audience, will vote by investing mock capital in your favorite company.

AN INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP AND PANEL DISCUSSION FOCUSING ON PRACTICAL GUIES TO BUSINESS, LEGAL AND FUND RAISING CHOICES, ISSUES, AND FUNDING STRATEGIES FOR ENTREPRENEURS IN START-UP AND EMERGING GROWTH COMPANIES



WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Registration is open to C-level individuals presently involved with (or contemplating) a startup or emerging growth company only.  Please register early as seating is limited and this event usually sells out quickly.

For entrepreneurs, deciding to form a company, or become involved with a start-up, presents enormous challenges. Navigating around legal, fund raising and other issues can often seem overwhelming, and the traps for the unwary or uninformed are numerous. However, successfully avoiding the most common pitfalls made by entrepreneurs can make a significant difference as to whether or not a company is fundable, the sources and types of capital that will be attracted, who controls the company, the economic impact on founders upon exit, and a company’s likelihood of success. In this interactive half day workshop, Roger Rappoport and a panel of entrepreneurs will discuss these and other issues in three, interactive sessions:

1.       Start-up Issues Generally—including, choices in entity selection; an appropriate capitalization table, including how much stock to set aside for employees, consultants, board and advisory board members and the perils of Section 409A; Founders’ issues, including amount and allocation of founders’ stock, vesting, assignment of intellectual property, employment/consulting agreements and more. 
2.       Developing and Executing the Right Funding Strategy—including a discussion related to seed, angel and venture capital funding, and the appropriate funding instruments for each round, including the pros and cons of selling equity, convertible debt, and venture debt; selecting, and gaining access to, the right funding partner; and valuation, and things to do to increase the pre-money value of the company.
3.       The Art of the Term Sheet—a brief discussion on the anatomy of the term sheet, including, understanding the structure of, and the provisions that will most likely be included in, a venture financing term sheet; how to arrive at a realistic pre-money valuation; the economic impact of certain terms on existing shareholders; the provisions that affect the degree to which current founders and management will have to relinquish control of major and/or day-to-day decision making; and the most recent trends relating to liquidation preferences, participation rights, anti-dilution provisions, pay-to-play provisions, redemption rights, registration rights, rights of first refusal and co-sale rights, and more.

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:  George Hampton, Founder and CEO of Global Village Concerns, Inc., Scot Chisholm, Founder and CEO of StayClassy, Inc., Mike Flanagan, Founder and CEO of Less Software, Inc. and Peter Shaw, serial entrepreneur, will share their start-up experiences (strategy, fund raising, triumphs, disappointments, and other war stories) with the audience, in what is sure to be a lively, interactive discussion.

SPEAKER:   Roger Rappoport is a partner with the law firm of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves and Savitch in San Diego, and leader of the Emerging Growth & Technology practice group within the firm.  Mr. Rappoport has extensive experience counseling start-up and emerging growth companies in the information technology, telecommunications, life sciences and cleantech industries. He also represents high net worth individuals, angel and venture capital investors who focus on investing in companies in these industries. His practice includes corporate formation and entity selection, corporate governance, assisting clients with the development of a funding strategy and the alternatives available to entrepreneurs; venture capital and other private equity financings, convertible note and other debt financing arrangements, mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations and restructurings, the implementation of equity incentive plans, licensing, OEM and VAR and distribution arrangements. Mr. Rappoport is a frequent speaker and panelist on topics and issues related to the development and implementation of a company's funding strategy, positioning a company to maximize its pre-money valuation, the art and benefits of selecting and partnering with the right investors, and effectively negotiating the terms of a debt or financing transaction. 

PANELIST: Scot Chisholm: Scot founded StayClassy in 2006 and is responsible for growing the organization into a nationally recognized Internet company servicing any non-profit or charity event organizer in the United States. Among many other things, Scot leads the design and development of StayClassy's technology strategy and infrastructure.  Scot was recently chosen as one of the top 40 young leaders under 40 years old by San Diego Metropolitan Magazine.  Prior to StayClassy.org, Scot worked as a Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton specializing in process improvement on the Economic Business Analysis team. Scot is certified as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from the American Society of Quality, and holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, with a Mechanical Engineering concentration, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

PANELIST: Mike Flanagan: Mike is a first time entrepreneur founding Less Software in 2008 and is responsible for providing company vision and resourcing for Less Software. Less Software’s core focus is providing sophisticated Supply Chain Management solutions for businesses delivered in the Software as a Service subscription model. Less Software’s products can be accessed from anywhere via a browser and internet connection.  Mike is an experienced executive with more than two decades of successful senior management experience at small and large companies engaged in Supply Chain Management and technology disciplines. At these firms, he held Supply Chain operations positions at Honeywell and Teleflex before moving to pre-sales, sales & Product engineering roles for top software providers Western Data Systems, Manugistics and Oracle.  Mike has worked as Domain Expert – Product Evangelist – Technologist with companies in Asia Pacific, Europe, North and South America.

PANELIST: George Hampton: George is an experienced executive with over 17 years of national and international sales and marketing experience commercializing biopharmaceutical products. His levels of experience range from sales representative to executive director of sales and marketing where he led a national sales team of 600 people to product sales of 800 million per year. During his career he has launched nine products, relaunched one and has sold or marketed over 17 different molecules across six different therapeutic areas. Blockbuster launches include HUMIRA, Celebrex and Ambien. His international experience includes an overseas assignment in Germany to launch Celebrex and a South/Latin American assignment to launch both Bextra and Dynastat.  George’s intentional career progression through various sales and marketing roles gives him the rare advantage of having a deep understanding of both sales and marketing.  Over his career, this has allowed him to build or interpret strategic marketing plans and then operationalize a sales force to effectively execute those plans. This combination of strategy and execution has helped George to be recognized as a top sales leader and executive across multiple companies. In 2009 George founded Global Village Concerns, a branding company focused on improving revenue generation for schools and other non-profit organizations. Additionally, George has a number of entrepreneurial endeavors including a medical device in development and a small consulting practice focused almost exclusively on sales, sales training and sales leadership. George has a BS from Miami University, Oxford, OH and has completed substantial coursework toward an MBA at St. Joe’s, Philadelphia, PA .

PANELIST:  Peter Shaw: Peter is the managing director of Procopio Business Advisors. He has extensive worldwide experience in technology-based companies as a CEO/President, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and board director. Peter has founded or co-founded five companies that led to successful acquisitions. He has served on the boards of more than 15 companies, both public and private, representing investors, assisting the CEO, or as an outside director. His experience includes working with companies that specialize in enterprise hardware, software, the Internet and Software as a Service. Peter sits on the board of the San Diego Venture Group, a non-profit networking organization created as a forum for new ventures, and served as president of the SDVG in 2009. Prior to becoming the managing director of Procopio Business Advisors  he was managing director of his own advisory firm, Shaw Management Advisors and prior to that, was CEO of Akonix, a software company that delivered security and compliance for real-time messaging.. He previously served as a venture partner at San Diego-based Windward Ventures and as a senior advisor for Venture Catalyst.  Peter is also a director of Open Oceans Global, a non-profit dedicated to resolving ocean-related policy issues and conflicts and works with entrepreneurs and students at CONNECT, SDSU’S EMC, and  UCSD/RADY. Mr. Shaw holds a bachelor of engineering degree in electrical engineering from City College of New York and a master of business administration degree from the University of Connecticut.