The Founder Showcase is a quarterly seed-stage startup pitch and networking event that gathers global entrepreneurial leaders to hear talks from top CEOs and investors, and help launch a promising startup to greatness.
The 12th Founder Showcase is scheduled for Wednesday, November 7th at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. Guests will be treated to an entertaining Pitch Competition featuring 8 promising seed-stage companies, as well as talks by David Sacks (Founder & CEO of Yammer), and Justin Moore (Founder & CEO of Axcient). Appetizers and drinks will also be served in a networking hall full of other hot startups demoing their wares in theDemo Table Competition.
We are expecting over 600 startup founders, investors, and press in attendance, with over 200 investors. Confirmed investors include representatives from August Capital, Javelin Venture Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Trinity Ventures, Altos Ventures, Bay Partners, BV Capital, Claremont Creek Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, General Catalyst Partners, Google Ventures, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Jafco Ventures, K9 Ventures, Maven Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, North Bay Angels, Opus Capital, Sierra Ventures, SV Capital, TriplePoint Ventures, US Venture Partners, and many more.
For more information, visit the full website at www.FounderShowcase.com.
Keynote Speakers
David Sacks, Founder & CEO of Yammer
David has been involved in the Internet space for 10 years as an entrepreneur, executive and investor, starting with PayPal in 1999. He was PayPal's chief operating officer and product leader, taking the company from startup to IPO and eventual sale to eBay for $1.5 billion. Subsequently, he founded Geni.com, a genealogy website that enables millions of family members to collaboratively build an online family tree. He also produced and financed the movie "Thank You For Smoking." David recently sold Yammer to Microsoft for $1.2 billion.
Justin Moore, Founder & CEO of Axcient
Justin Moore is a multi-time entrepreneur and recognized authority on cloud computing, SMB market strategy and entrepreneurship. As the CEO and Founder of Axcient, Justin leads the transformation of the data backup and business continuity industry to end data loss and IT downtime for businesses. Under Justin’s leadership, Axcient has been growing at a three-year rate of 2,462% – enough to earn the company Inc Magazine’s recognition as Silicon Valley’s #7 fastest-growing company.
Judges
David Hornik, General Partner, August Capital
David is a General Partner with August Capital and the creator and Executive Producer of The Lobby Conference. He invests broadly in information technology companies, with a focus on consumer facing software and services, enterprise applications and infrastructure software. He is also the author of the first Venture Capital blog,VentureBlog, and teaches business and law at Harvard Law School, Stanford GSB and Stanford Law.
Katherine Barr, General Partner, Mohr Davidow
Katherine is a Partner with Mohr Davidow Ventures where she focuses on digital media, consumer internet, and mobile sectors. She has also worked as a Negotiation at Vantage Partner for IBM, Cisco, HP, and more. Katherine also teaches a yearly Professional Education Negotiation seminar for the School of Engineering at Stanford University.
Noah Doyle, Managing Director at Javelin Venture Partners
Noah is a Managing Director at Javelin Venture Partners and over the past 20 years has fouded, launched, and grown dozens of high tech products and companies. He most recently directed the enterprise product line for Google's geospatial products, Google Earth and Google Maps. Prior to Google, Noah managed the Marketing Strategy and Corporate Development functions at Keyhole, Inc.
James Cham, Principal at Trinity Ventures
James is a Principal at Trinity Ventures where he focuses on consumer services, social media, and digital media. Prior to joining Trinity in 2010, James was Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners where he played active roles in numerous investments in consumer internet services and digital media sectors, along with a number of seed investments.
Jon Soberg, Managing Director at Blumberg Capital
Jon is a Managing Director at Blumberg Capital and has over 17 years of experience as an early-stage investor, entrepreneur, and operational executive specializing in transactional business. Prior to joining Blumberg, Jon held CEO, COO, and CFO positions at a number of startups. Jon has also consulted for top companies including Toyota, HSBC, and Accenture.
Interviewing Journalists
Leena Rao, Executive Editor, TechCrunch
Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney's community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and Graduated from Columbia University in 2003. She has also contributed technology content for Oprah.com.
Kym McNicholas, Executive Producer & Reporter, PandoDaily
Kym is an Emmy Award Winning Anchor/ Reporter/ Producer, who is building her fifth video department from scratch at PandoDaily. Previously she spent four years at Forbes, where she built the West Coast video team, contributed to the magazine, and appeared weekly on Fox News. She's also a regular contributor on NBC 11's PressHere and TechNow, as well as KRON 4's weekend broadcast.