The Founder Showcase is a quarterly seed-stage startup pitch and networking event that gathers Silicon Valley leaders to hear talks from top CEOs and investors, and help launch a promising startup to greatness.
The 10th Founder Showcase is scheduled for Tuesday, April 24th at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, and will be our largest event yet. Guests will be treated to an entertaining Pitch Competition featuring 8 promising seed-stage companies, as well as talks by Kevin Hartz, Co-Founder & CEO of Eventbrite., and Dan Shapiro, Founder & CEO of Sparkbuy (acquired by Google) and Ontela (merged with Photobucket). In addition, the international winners of the Founder Institute's Startup Mentor awards will host a special panel on global entrepreneurship, to dicuss how the recent wave of innovation is not limited to the United States. Appetizers and drinks will also be served in a networking hall full of other hot startups demoing their wares in the Demo Table Competition.
We are expecting over 500 startup founders, investors, and press in attendance, including representatives from Charles River Ventures, Blumberg Capital, Javelin Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures, Venrock, AVP Ventures, Azure Capital Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, First Round Capital, K9 Ventures, Leapfrog Ventures, Matrix Partners, Menlo Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Opus Capital, SoftTech VC, TriplePoint Ventures, and many more.
For more information, visit the full website at www.FounderShowcase.com.
Keynote Speakers
Kevin Hartz, Co-Founder & CEO of Eventbrite
Kevin is the Co-Founder & CEO of Eventbrite. Previously, he co-founded Xoom Corporation, an international money transfer company, and ConnectGroup, a hotel industry Internet access company that was acquired in 1998. Kevin has been an investor/advisor to numerous startups, including PayPal, Pinterest, Friendster, Airbnb, Milo, Skybox Imaging, Palantir, Indinero, TripIt, Flixster, Yammer, TokBox, Trulia, and more.
Dan Shapiro, Founder & CEO of Sparkbuy, Ontela
Dan works at Google following the acquisition of his most recent company, Sparkbuy. Dan was Founder & CEO of Sparkbuy, a comparison shopping website, and sold it to Google within 6 months of inception. Previously, he was Founder and CEO of Ontela, a pioneering mobile imaging company that merged with Photobucket, where he was named CEO of the Year by MobileBeat.
Judges
George Zachary, Partner, Charles River Ventures
George Zachary joined Charles River Ventures in 2004, bringing more than 17 years of operating and investing experience in computing and consumer technology. Zachary focuses on building services and software technology companies, and he's led CRV's investments in Twitter, Yammer, Millennial Media, Cloudshare, Geni, SocialMedia, Metaplace, and Scribd (co-led with Bill Tai).
Noah J. Doyle, Managing Director, Javelin VP
Noah has founded, launched and grown dozens of tech companies in 20 years of entrepreneurship and management of innovation. He previously directed the enterprise product line for Google Earth and Google Maps, Marketing Strategy and Corporate Development at Keyhole, Inc., and was a co-founder of MyPoints.com, which underwent an IPO and acquisition by United Airlines.
David Blumberg, Managing Partner, Blumberg Capital
David Blumberg is the Managing Partner of Blumberg Capital. David has been investing in early stage technology companies for more than 24 years. His current investment focus includes Digital Media, Social Media, Mobility, SaaS/Technology Enabled Services and Internet.
Rob Coneybeer, Managing Director, Shasta Ventures
Rob is a Co-founder and Managing Director of Shasta Ventures. Rob is particularly interested in Mobile & Wireless, Technology Applications, and Infrastructure. Prior to Shasta, he was a partner at New Enterprise Associates, where he led 15 investments. He also helped build the first EchoStar spacecraft at Martin Marietta.
Brian Ascher, Partner, Venrock
Brian focuses on a broad range of Internet (both consumer and B2B) and Healthcare IT investments, and currently serves on the Boards of several private companies, including Vocera, Awarepoint, Retail Solutions, Inrix, and Billfloat. Past investments include ADiFY, DATAllegro, Redbeacon, RelayHealth and Unicru - all of which were acquired. Prior to Venrock he was a Senior Product Manager at Intuit.
Interviewers
Dylan Tweney, Executive Editor at VentureBeat
Dylan Tweney is an award-winning writer and editor specializing in technology, science and business. He is currently the executive editor at VentureBeat, a news site devoted to covering the technology revolution and its impact on business and daily life. Previously, he was senior editor at Wired.com. Follow him on Twitter at@dylan20.
Michael Copeland, Senior Editor at WIRED
Michael Copeland is a Senior Editor at WIRED focused on entrepreneurship, venture capital, and emerging products and technologies. Before WIRED, he was a Senior Writer at Fortune, Business 2.0, and Red Herring. Follow him on Twitter at @MVC.
Hamish McKenzie, Writer at PandoDaily
Hamish McKenzie is an experienced international journalist who writes for the tech blog PandoDaily. His work has appeared across the globe, including in the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star. He has interviewed many leading figures, including Sting, John Cleese, Robert Smith, Bret McKenzie, Billy Corgan, Wayne Coyne, and more. Follow him on Twitter at@HamishMcKenzie.
Special Speaker
Mark Frohnmayer, CEO of Arcimoto, on Sustainable Transportation
Mark is a lifelong transportation nerd with a background in software. After 11 years in the computer games industry and the sale of his first startup company, GarageGames, to IAC, Mark turned his entrepreneurial energy to clean transportation. His current endeavor, Arcimoto, is building the SRK, an ultra efficient, ultra fun vehicle for everyday driving trips.
Panelists
Founder Institute Mentors provide the passion, feedback and support that helped our founders launch over 500 businesses since 2009. Among the over 800 mentors there are those that stand out, and the 10th Founder Showcase will feature a special panel with 5 international winners of the Startup Mentor Awards to discuss trends in global entrepreneurship. Finalists include Anke Corbin (MapQuest), Bill Hunt (OptTown), Brent Halliburton (Verve Wireless), Brian Reale (Colosa), Camilo Gomez (SnappyGo), Dan Shapiro (Sparkbuy, Ontela), Gioia Messinger (LinkedObjects, Avaak), Heiko Rauch (UFOstart, GLOBUMBUS), Izak Jenie (PT MMS), Jeff Bonforte (Xobni), Jim Franklin (SendGrid), Joe Bezdek (DivX), Jonathon Perelli (Fortify.vc), Jon Carder (MOGL.com, MojoPages.com), Jon Nordmark (UsingMiles.com, eBags.com), Joerg Rheinboldt (Betterplace.org), Mark Pickett (Nail Your Mortgage), Michael Clark (SafetyWeb.com), Naval Ravikant (AngelList), Philippe Spruch (LaCie SA), Rajesh Setty (Foresight Plus), Remco Lupker (Tokobagus.com), Robin Chase (Buzzcar, Zipcar), Rodrigo Sepulveda Schulz (Sepulveda Capital), Stu West (Andreessen Horowitz, Wikipedia), Tim Delhaes (mon.ki), Tuan Pham (TOPICA), and Ziv Gillat (Eye-Fi).