Online registration has now closed but tickets will be available on the door.
Global growth forecasts are being cut, the Eurozone continues to cause huge concern, and another battle over the US debt limit is looming... All in all, it looks like 2013 is set to be another year of uncertainty - yet VCs continue to raise funds and invest in start-ups around the world. What can they see that we can’t? Or are they just following the tried and tested approach of spreading their investments in the hope of hitting a few home runs?
We have pulled together some of the leading venture capitalists from Silicon Valley to seek their views and predictions for the rest of the year at the Quadrus Conference Center in Menlo Park.
Here's a flavor of some of the questions we'll be asking...
- Is the Valley a bubble and will VC investment continue irrespective of the rest of the country/world?
- Big Data is a hot topic right now- what other industries are the VC community putting their money on this year?
- Which industries will lose popularity this year and which will flourish?
- On the back of a few notable flops in 2012, what will the IPO market look like for Silicon Valley companies in 2013?
We will also look back to last year's event to see how accurate their 2012 forecasts were - and will try to pin them down to some predictions for 2013 too.
There will be plenty of time for drinks and networking. Tickets include wine (kindly sponsored by Hill Road Vineyards) and both hot and cold hors d'oeuvres.
Our exciting panel includes:
BILL REICHERT
Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures
Bill Reichert has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and operating executive. Since joining Garage in 1998, Bill has focused on early-stage information technology and materials science companies. He has been a board director or board observer at CaseStack, WhiteHat Security, ClearFuels Technology, Simply Hired, MiaSole, D.light Design, ThermoCeramix, and VisaNow, among others.
Prior to Garage, Bill was a co-founder or senior executive in several venture-backed technology startups, including Trademark Software, The Learning Company, and Academic Systems. Earlier in his career, he worked at McKinsey & Company, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., and the World Bank. Bill earned a B.A. at Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. He was a founding board member and a Chairman of the Churchill Club, and a Board Member of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs. Currently he is the Chairman of the Small Fund Roundtable of the VC Taskforce and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
STEPHEN EICHENLAUB
Managing Director Platform Technologies, Cleantech & Digital Health Sectors, Intel Capital
Steve is a voting member of Intel Capital's investment committee, and aligns efforts with Intel Labs, the central labs of Intel Corporation. Steve joined Intel Capital in 1998. Prior to Intel Capital, Steve held executive-level positions with Adobe Systems and Mentor Graphics, and at venture-funded start-ups Silicon Compiler Systems and GammaMetrics, across a variety of roles including venture investing, mergers & acquisitions, business development, strategic marketing, product management, sales management, and investor relations.
Steve is board member at Tethys, and board observer at Lumidigm and Expression Diagnostics. Steve's sector has invested in and managed favorable exits for companies such as Cloakware (acquired by Irdeto), CPower (acquired by Constellation Energy), E-Ink (acquired by Prime View), Intellon (IPO), IP Infusion (acquired by Access), Trony Solar (IPO), Trymedia (acquired by Macrovision), Zone Labs (acquired by Check Point Software), and Crossbow (acquired by Moog). Steve holds a BS EE/NE degree from UC Berkeley, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
MITCHELL KERTZMAN
Managing Director, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Mitchell Kertzman is a Managing Director at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. He has over 30 years of experience as a CEO of public and private software companies. Most recently, Mitchell was Chairman and CEO of Liberate Technologies, a provider of platform software for the delivery of digital services by cable television companies. Before joining Liberate, he was chairman of the board and CEO of Sybase, Inc. Mitchell was founder and CEO of Powersoft, which merged with Sybase in February 1995.
A former programmer, Mitchell founded Powersoft in 1974 as Computer Solutions. He renamed the company and became a member of the Hummer Winblad family in 1991 when Hummer Winblad invested in the company, which became the leading provider of client-server development tools with its flagship product, PowerBuilder. The merger with Sybase in 1995 was, at the time, the most valuable in the history of the software industry.
Mitchell served as President of the Massachusetts Software Council from 1994 to 1996 and was 1990 chairman of the American Electronics Association. He is founder and former chairman of the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC), a think tank focused on issues related to the standard of living and quality of life of America’s middle class. He served on the New York State Commission on Industrial Competitiveness and chaired its task force on industrial policy.
Mitchell was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He currently sits on the Boards of Five9, Flite, HubPages, NuoDB, and Palamida.
RICHARD WATERS
West Coast Editor, Financial Times (Moderator)
Richard Waters is the West Coast Editor for the Financial Times. His beat covers the technology industry. Before moving to the West Coast, Mr Waters was based in the FT's New York office for nine years. His roles there included Wall Street reporter, New York bureau chief, and the FT's first information industries editor, overseeing global coverage of technology, telecommunications and media. He previously worked at the FT in London where he held a number of positions, including editor of international capital markets, securities industry correspondent and accountancy and taxation correspondent.
Before working for the FT, Mr Waters worked as a reporter and editor for several financial magazines. He also worked for two years at Lloyd's Bank International and lived in Chile, also working as a teacher. In 2004, he was awarded Corporate Finance Reporter of the Year for his coverage of Google's IPO. He was shortlisted for the Business & Finance Reporter of the Year award at the British Press Awards in 2003 and won the award in 1992 as part of a team covering the BCCI scandal. In 1988, he was named Accountancy Journalist of the Year. He appears regularly on the BBC, CNBC, MSNBC, CNNfn and NPR.
Mr Waters received his Bachelor's degree from St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University.
