SLP Delhi Kicks off

SLP Delhi 2011 kicked off at SPOT lounge and bar on 18^th September. 22 talented and enthusiastic fellows from tech, clean tech and social enterprises who are Founder, Co- Founder, CXOs and Innovators were selected for the program. Fellows started coming in at 6:30 pm and by 7:30 pm, it was a full house. A round of introduction was followed by networking session over drinks and snacks. The party lasted till 11 pm and everybody had a rocking time.

MassTLC Unconference on October 14

All SLP Fellows have an invitation from Bill Warner to participate in the Unconference on October 14. You will get a chance to meet many entrepreneurs, VCs and angels at the event. Click here.

This is the link to sign up as an entrepreneur

This event has room for 100 entrepreneurs who will get a chance to get advice, and several hundred people who will be in attendance for the other sessions. An unconference is interesting - it starts by deciding the sessions in the morning when you get there.

SLP Boston Kickoff With Bill Warner

The SLP Boston chapter kicked off their first class on September 21. After some great kickoff presentations from Program Leader Michael Mullins and Director Anupendra Sharma, we were lucky to be joined by Bill Warner, best known as the founder of Avid Technology.

Bill immediately made all of the new fellows feel comfortable. Instead of a lecture format, he sat at the head of the table with more of a fireside chat feel. After introductions, Bill shared some stories on the history on Avid, including how he launched it on $50k and spent about 40% of that money on unique office space in an old factory. "The one thing that friends always remember about the early days of Avid was the office...our visitors sat on the waiting room on my Minivan's back-seat", Bill recalled. Bill didn't make a lot of calculated moves in the early days of Avid that you'd expect for such a successful entrepreneur. He instead relied on instinct and gut feel. He advised the fellows to do the same: do things quickly and if it doesn't work, fix it just as quickly.

Bill contrasted his experience bootstrapping Avid with his launch of Wildfire Communications, which he did on $2MM of VC money. With $2MM, he didn't have financial constraints so he lost his ability to say no. Even with all of his experience growing Avid into the market leader, Bill eventually failed with Wildfire after 8+ years and a lot more VC money.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the session was when Bill spoke about his philosophies on developing new products. He said the #1 thing to focus on is your "intention flow" to "your people". When building a product, ask yourself the following: "I intend to help people _____". In Avid's case, the video editors were his people, and Bill's intention was to make it much easier for editors to do their job. He repeated several times that "your people are not your customers. They don't pay you anything." This was an interesting contrast to the cliche "listen to your customers" philosophy that is in most business literature.

So, if you're only focusing on your users, and they don't pay you, how do you make money? This is where Bill pairs "Co-Flow" with the intention flow. Co-Flow is another flow for the folks who pay money because of what you do in your intention flow. The classic example is Google. Their intention is and always was to have the best search so that "their people" can quickly and easily search the web. Ad Words is their "Co-Flow". Google is paid by advertisers who want access to the users who are simply searching on the web.

It was a great class and we couldn't have kicked SLP Boston off better. Lots of great stories and good advice from Bill. We are already looking forward to the next class on October 25!

SLP Bangalore Kicks off

And SLP Bangalore kicks off in fashion today at our Sponsor - Evoma. Fellows started coming in at 5pm and the last batch left at 8:00pm. 23 fellows from tech/ clean tech/ social enterprises were selected through a rigorous process over the last 1 month. Founders/ co-founders, CxO's, VC, mentors all gathered to make this a great success. Short intro about SLP, followed by intros by Santosh (FML) and Indus (Morpheus) followed by fun and networking.

Welcome again all 23 fellows.

SLP San Diego Kicks Off

And so it begins! The inaugural San Diego chapter of the Startup Leadership Program kicked last night with a Sunset Happy Hour downtown! 20 fantastic fellows from life sciences, high tech, and clean tech were selected for this class and are company founders, leaders at tech-based startups, work as venture capitalists, or in innovation-related areas at companies and research institutions. We even have an innovator from Orange County who joined the San Diego chapter...so I guess we are actually the SLP chapter of Southern California. Congrats to the 20 fellows!

Startup Leadership Program - Bangalore

It all started with a call late evening with Anupendra in May 2010. Couple of mail exchanges, a week of late evening calls later I was selected as the Program leader to start the SLP Bangalore Chapter.

4 months later with 3 rounds of applications review, 1 telephonic conversation with each applicant; 10 reviewers from US, India, Taiwan we have finally selected 23 fellows for the inaugural Bangalore Startup Leadership Program. With excellent candidates and amazing advisors helping us at the same time we all are gung-ho about the program.

Welcome class 2011 - SLP Bangalore.

We will have the mixer session at our Sponsor location, Evoma.

Venue: Evoma Facilities, Old Madras Road, KR Puram, Bangalore, Karnataka 560049

Date: 11th Sep 2011

Time: 5:30pm - 7pm

Tentative Schedule for the Bangalore SLP Class of 2011.

1. September 11 - Social Mixer (5:30pm - 7pm at Evoma)
2. September 25 - Class 1 (9am - 5pm at Evoma)
3. October 16 - Class 2 (9am - 5pm at TBD)
4. October 30 - Class 3 (9am - 5pm at TBD)
5. November 20 - Workshop 1 - Business Plan Workshop (9am - 12pm at TBD)
6. November 20 - Class 4 (1pm - 5pm at TBD)
7. December 4 - Class 5 (9am - 5pm at TBD)
8. December 18 - Class 6 - Human Capital (9am - 5pm at TBD)
9. January 15 - Class 7 (9am - 5pm at TBD)
10. January 15 - Workshop 2 - Getting Funded (1pm - 5pm at TBD)
11. February 5 - Class 8 (9am - 12pm at TBD)
12. February 5 - Workshop 3 - VC Competition (1pm - 5pm at TBD)
13. February 26 - Class 9 (9am - 12pm at TBD)
14. February 26 - Workshop 4 - Investor Day 9 (1pm - 5pm at TBD)
15. March 3 - Graduation Dinner and Party

Evoma and FoxMandalLittle are our location and food sponsors for the Class of 2011.

Do you want an SLP in your city next year ?

If you would like a Startup Leadership Program in your city next year, please email us at anupendra AT yahoo.com. We're currently targeting major cities around the world where there is a mix of successful entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial activity. There may or may not be a preponderance of investors in your city, but there has to be a critical mass of activity. Certain cities that come to our mind are India (Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai), China (Shanghai), USA (DC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, Boulder) and Europe (London, Munich, Paris) but we're open to other ideas.

Thanks.

Anupendra

SLP Boston Team gets together

At Cambridge Brewing Company: Jeff McAuley, Tamara Nazzal, Sidd Goyal, Upma Sharma, Mike Mullins and Anupendra Sharma. Missing - Scott Yaphe, Vikas Goyal, Praveen Yajman and Mangesh Wadegaonkar.

Startup Leadership Admissions Update

SLP is pleased to report that admissions are moving forward smoothly. Today, Boston, New York, and San Diego are reviewing applications. Initial decisions will be announced on Sunday, August 15 for those chapters.

Silicon Valley, Delhi, Bangalore, and Beijing are still accepting applications at this time. The application deadlines for those chapters are as follows:

Silicon Valley - Sunday, August 15

Bangalore - Sunday, August 15

Delhi - Sunday, August 15

Beijing - Wednesday, September 1

SLP Boston Application Deadline is Tomorrow, July 31!

There is still time to apply! The deadline for applications for the 2011 Boston class of Startup Leadership is tomorrow, Saturday, July 31. Applications can be submitted here.

The application consists of and online form with several short answer questions and can be completed in less than an hour. You are also required to submit a resume at the bottom of the form, so make sure you have one ready.

After the applications are in the selection process will take two weeks. Acceptance notices will be sent via email on or around August 15. The first meeting of the new class will take place in early September.

For questions, contact:

Michael Mullins

mullins01[at]gmail.com

http://www.twitter.com/mullins01

SLP Boston FINAL Info Session is Tomorrow, July 21

The deadline for Startup Leadership's 2011 Boston class is coming up. The last day to apply is July 31!

Tomorrow we are holding our last and final information session here in Boston. The event will be at Dillon's, 955 Boylston Street (near Boylston and Mass Ave) from 6:30 to 7:30. This is the best way to learn more about the program, by talking to past Fellows and meeting other prospective applicants.

The plan is to meet in the upper bar area. Grab a drink and come find us in the corner. We'll say a few brief words about the program, the let everyone network. If you haven't been to an event yet, please join us. We've had very lively discussions, with people staying late after both previous events just to talk about startups.

Hope to see you there!

Michael Mullins

SLP Boston 2010

Boston Info Session on Wednesday, June 21, 6:30pm at Dillon's

Reminder, we have an information session coming up for anyone interested in learning more about SLP, or just hanging out with some great people. We'll be at Dillon's on Boylston Street from 6:30-7:30 on July 21. Grab a drink at the bar and meet us in the lower area. Hope to see you there!

955 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02115-3106
(617) 421-1818

Michael Mullins

SLP Boston 2010

Upcoming Startup Leadership Boston Info Sessions

The Startup Leadership Program is pleased to announce we are now accepting applications for our 2011 Boston class. The deadline to apply to the program is July 31, 2010. We have two information sessions scheduled for this month where prospective applicants can meet Fellows and learn more about SLP. The application consists of about one page of short answer questions and a resume. The program costs just $300 and consists of 14 classes over a 9 month period.

Upcoming Information Sessions:
Monday, July 12, 6:30-7:30pm at Dillon's, 955 Boylston Street, Boston
Wednesday, July 21, 6:30-7:30pm at Dillon's, 955 Boylston Street, Boston

We will select 18-20 Fellows to enter the program this September in Boston. Admissions is highly competitive. We would love for anyone interested to take a good look at the program and apply if they are looking to be part of a cohort of outstanding leaders and entrepreneurs as they think through their startups and innovations.

Our Fellows have started 40 companies, raised over $3.5 million in angel and $26 million in venture capital funding, and won numerous awards and media attention. Our Fellows are business or technical Founders, work in leadership roles at venture-backed startups, in companies and institutions in innovation-related positions, and in venture capital firms. Here are a few of our recent Fellows in Boston

Founders
Mike Sheeley, Co-Founder, Runkeeper
Jay Meattle, Founder & CEO, Shareaholic.com
Hooman Hodjat, Founder & CEO, PickupZone
Parker Treacy, Founder, First Help Financial and TrickleUp Effect

Innovators & Designers
Angela Chen, President, Harvard Biotech Club and PhD Candidate, Harvard Medical School
Emily Rothschild, Award-winning designer of medical products
Love Sarin, Founder, Banyan Environmental and PhD candidate at Brown University
Ryan Bardsley, Inventor, Robots for Healthcare, and Award-Winning Designer
Vineet Sinha, Founder, Architexa and PhD candidate at MIT

Leaders at venture-backed companies
Amar Kendale, Vice President, Arsenal Medical
Christina Kaldeny, Associate Director, Business Development, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Venture Capitalists
Jordan Bettman, Associate, Bain Capital Ventures
Gautam Gupta, Associate, General Catalyst Ventures
Steve Meyer, Associate, Globespan Capital Partners

See all their bios here

Over the past year, we have nearly 50 speakers, mentors and judges come and advise our Fellows. There are more than 100 people in our network in Boston alone, who are helpful to our Fellows and Program. Here are a few mentors, speakers and judges from last year alone.

Dharmesh Shah, Founder, Hubspot and Author: The Inbound Marketing book
Jonathan Lim, Polaris Venture Partners
Dr. Pravin Chaturvedi, Serial Lifescience Entrepreneur
Todd Hixon, Partner, New Atlantic Ventures
Serial Lifescience Entrepreneur
Shikhar Ghosh, Harvard Professor, Serial Entrepreneur
Jim Matheson, Flagship Venture Partners

See the full list here

Michael Mullins, Program Leader for the Startup Leadershp Class of 2011 in Boston says "I can say from experience that being a Fellow at Startup Leadership is a tremendous experience. It's about learning, growth, and networking. When you look at people who get funded or are successful in startups, they don't just have a great idea. They're people who are active in the entrepreneurial community. The Startup Leadership Program is simply the best way to get fully engaged in the entrepreneurial community here in Boston."

About SLP: The Startup Leadership Program (SLP) @ TiE Boston is a not for profit 9-month fellowship. We train and mentor young professionals in their early 20's to mid-30's to be leaders and entrepreneurs in the life science, tech, clean tech, and social enterprise sectors. Our fellows master soft & hard skills, network with venture capitalists, angels, and entrepreneurial thought leaders, and build life-long relationships with SLP alumni around the world in Boston, Silicon Valley, and our newest chapters in New York, San Diego, Beijing, and Bangalore. SLP was founded in Boston in 2006.

For the Startup Leadership Program contact:

Michael Mullins
Boston Program Leader
Startup Leadership Program
M: 781-964-4544
E: mullins01@gmail.com
T: http://www.twitter.com/mullins01

Great Event at Charlesmark Hotel

Thank you to everyone who came out and made our event a big success on Monday. We had a terrific group of experienced entrepreneurs, scientists, and technologists who were referred to us for our 2011 Boston Class. There were 24 attendees, including several current Kaufmann Fellows, a couple venture capitalists, and a few people from academia. Add to that 6 SLP Fellows and couple very skilled bartenders at Charlesmark, and you have a fun event.

If you feel like you're missing out, please join us at our next event on Monday, July 12 from 6:30 to 7:30pm at Dillon's, 955 Boylston Street in Boston's Back Bay. Grab a drink and join us as the lower bar, where we'll socialize then say a few words about next year's program.

Michael Mullins

SLP Boston 2010

http://twitter.com/mullins01

Entrepreneurs can change the world

An incredible program in Delhi for first and second ranked girls from poor backgrounds - who now want to be computer engineers

Lines @ the Apple Store

4G goes on sale today. What's cool is that the employees handed out umbrellas, sunblock and mint to those in line. Something to learn about being thankful and taking care of your customers.

Wonder if the Immigration and Naturalization Service would ever do that...

Google's 40 angels

This photo is an interesting map of ex-Google employees who have financed 200 new startups at last count. the most prolific

Aydin Ankut, 40, Founder Felicis Ventures
Chris Sacca, 34, Founder, Lowercase Capital
Paul Buccheit, 33, Entrepreneur
Andrea Zurek, 39, Co-Founder, XG Ventures
Joshua Schachter, 36, Google Engineer

These entrepreneurs have funded Mint.com, Facebook, Foursquare, Tapulous, Bit.ly, Posterous, VentureBeat...and a lot of other companies.

I've failed over and over again in my life...Michael Jordan

Thanks to Brad Feld for pointing out this commercial

In case you think VC is easy

http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/7ki

The tough life of a VC - watch more funny videos

15 Reasons to join the Startup Leadership Program

Photos from the Boston 2010 Graduating Class

Rishi Shukla get hitched !

The first dance. Congratulations.

The class of 2010 is graduating

After an activity and accomplishment-filled year, the Class of 2010 is graduating. Silicon Valley will graduate on June 9, and Boston, two days later on June 11. Congratulations to all.

Boulder, Colorado could be the next Silicon Valley?

Link to original article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/business/14boulder.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Sixty engineers, entrepreneurs and financiers were sipping yerba mate tea at a coffee shop down the street from a bong-and-lingerie store on a recent sunny Tuesday in Boulder, and discussing how Boulder — usually seen as an enclave of hippies, marijuana dispensaries and rock climbers — has become a hotbed of capitalism.

Experienced tech entrepreneurs and investors sat alongside people who had just moved to Boulder hoping to start a company in this small city, which is breeding tech start-ups at an attention-grabbing rate. In the first three months of the year, 11 Colorado tech start-ups raised $57 million in venture capital, solidifying Boulder’s place among the country’s up-and-coming tech centers.

“In Silicon Valley, you’re a small fish in a huge pond, and it didn’t seem as collaborative and a lot more corporate,” said Chad McGimpsey, who moved to Boulder a month ago and is now a regular at the twice-a-month coffee club. “Here, you’re a big fish in a small pond. Plus, there are the mountains.”

A long list of communities around the country have tried to become “the next Silicon Valley.” But very few have the mix of money, universities, a high-tech talent pool and appealing lifestyle needed to hatch tech start-ups. Boulder, however, has been luring tech industry veterans and young entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and Manhattan with promises of a tech community that allows for lunch-break hikes in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

The town’s big successes include Rally Software, a fast-growing company that makes project management software; Socialthing, a social media service acquired by AOL; and Kerpoof, which makes Web design tools for children and was acquired by the Walt Disney Company.

Venture capital dollars are following the entrepreneurs to Colorado. From 2007 to 2009, venture capitalists invested $1.9 billion in 275 Colorado start-ups, up from $1.6 billion in 247 companies from 2004 to 2006, according to the National Venture Capital Association. The money is coming from Colorado venture firms — including the Foundry Group, a prominent firm in Boulder — as well as from Silicon Valley and New York.

The recipes of other cities for creating the next Silicon Valley usually leave out a few main ingredients. Richard Florida, who wrote “The Rise of the Creative Class” and studies why certain cities foster creativity, cites three crucial factors: talented people and a high quality of life that keeps them around, technological expertise, and an open-mindedness about new ways of doing things, which often comes from a strong counterculture.

“Boulder has reached this beautiful sweet spot, where it has many advantages of a university town — tech and talent and openness — but without many of the costs and traffic and congestion that may disadvantage incumbent centers of innovation,” Mr. Florida said.

This balance did not come about accidentally. Natural foods companies like Wild Oats Markets and Celestial Seasonings started here, and several national labs and big-tech companies like I.B.M. opened outposts. Early on, the biotech, telecom and data storage industries took off in Boulder, bolstered by Sun Microsystems’s $4.1 billion acquisition of Storage Technology in 2005.

“That generation of entrepreneurs had their success, and importantly, they don’t leave,” said Brad Bernthal, director of the entrepreneurship initiative at the University of Colorado Silicon Flatirons Center. “Lots of places, you get your money and you go retire somewhere. This place is a destination for people.”

The center makes sure that those veterans cross paths with young entrepreneurs. It hosts meet-ups, a campuswide business plan competition and a law clinic, where entrepreneurs get free legal help on things like intellectual property protection.

TechStars, a three-month mentorship program that has taken place in an old gym in Boulder since 2007, has spurred the start-up community’s growth. Of the first 10 companies that went through the program, eight received venture funding, five were acquired by bigger companies and three are still active. But David Cohen, the founder of TechStars, is equally proud of one of its failures, because he said it showed how supportive Boulder’s tech community is. After EventVue, which built online communities for conferences, shut down, job offers from other tech companies came pouring in.

Almost half of the 30 companies that have gone through the TechStars program have decided to stay in town. Several of them share space — tiny offices and a big common room, kitchen and deck — above Aji, a Latin American restaurant downtown.

One is Everlater, for making travel journals on the Web. Its founders, Nate Abbott and Natty Zola, moved to Boulder to save money by living in their parents’ basements after quitting their jobs on Wall Street. But when they arrived, Mr. Zola said, “We realized it was an incredible place to start a company.”

The Foundry partners, even though they are not investors in the company, routinely give them an hour of their time or have them over for dinner. A relationship with a TechStars mentor led to a partnership with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

The Foundry partners also run the coffee club and hold office hours, where anyone can meet with them for free advice on their business idea.

Still, Boulder depends on Silicon Valley. There are not enough investors in Colorado to finance growing companies. Many entrepreneurs open California offices, including Matt Galligan, who started and sold Socialthing and is now the founder of SimpleGeo, which makes mapping and other location tools for software companies.

“The community here is terrific, but in terms of generating business, there’s no substitute for Silicon Valley,” he said.

Though the University of Colorado has opened to the tech community, it plays nowhere near the pivotal role that Stanford does. “Creating a culture somewhat like M.I.T. or Stanford, where it’s expected in the technical disciplines that you will do a start-up, or at least it’s not looked at askew, is not part of the faculty DNA in most departments yet,” Mr. Bernthal said.

And maintaining such an inviting culture, where top venture capitalists will freely give people an hour of their time, will be difficult if Boulder’s tech scene continues to grow.

Still, many tech types in Boulder move here precisely because they want to escape Silicon Valley and its institutionalized tech scene. “There is a feeling in Silicon Valley that if you win, someone else loses,” said Kimbal Musk, chief executive of OneRiot, a real-time search engine based in Boulder. “It has driven success, but it has also driven people to leave.”

Green Technology Entrepreneurship Academy - APPLY NOW

If you have a green idea, which you want to bring out from an academic lab and bounce it off some entrepreneurs, angles and VCs, then GTEA is the place to be. This is one of the best workshops where you meet many like minded individuals, learn the ropes of entrepreneurship from the very basics in an intense 1 week program and get to meet with several angles and VCs face to face and see it from their perspective. With the sponsorship and the excellent organization they provide, if you are an early stage entrepreneur you can not have a better week working on your idea. So read the information below and apply right away with the simple online application. Get the kick start you need. Good luck!


Green Technology Entrepreneurship Academy
June 28 - July 2, 2010 @ the Tahoe Center for Environmental Science
Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Moving Sustainable Technologies Out of the Lab and into the World

The one-week intensive academy is open to science and engineering senior undergraduates, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and faculty working on research in green technologies. The academy combines seminars and networking sessions in an innovative format to help you learn how to commercialize your technology.

Why You Should Attend:

* learn to communicate the broader potential impact of your research
* explore commercial opportunities surrounding your technology
* develop a network of professionals in clean tech who can help mentor and connect you as you move forward with your career or new venture.

Accepted applicants receive fellowships to cover room, board and tuition. Open to applicants from national and international universities.

It is taught by venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, faculty, industry executives and angel investors from across the country that serve as mentors as well as guest faculty, providing participants with the knowledge and networks needed for taking the next steps toward commercialization. Previous GTEA mentors and faculty included leaders from DFJ Frontier, Element, Mohr Davidow Ventures, DMC, Nth Power, Sierra Angels, Morrison and Foerster, Pillsbury, NIEHS, USDA, National Instruments, NIREC, Pacific Gas & Electric, Sempra Utilities, Edison International, CalCEF Angel Fund, and Chevron Energy Solutions.

Apply online by May 14, 2010 >> http://entrepreneurship.ucdavis.edu/green

Sponsored by Nevada Institute for Renewable Energy (NIREC), Chevron, PG&E and Superfund Research Program. Presented by the UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship.

Opps in China ! (Sage Partners)

R&D skyrocketing while FDA approvals drop

Team Terrific Wins 2010 TLP Venture Capital Competition in Boston

This past Saturday marked TLP’s annual Venture Capital Competition which was once again filled with the drama and excitement that has come to be expected of a TLP workshop. This competition is one of the program’s marquee events as it turns the table on its entrepreneurial fellows pitting them against each other as teams of venture investors in analyzing and negotiating investment deals with real startups.

The rules of the competition are simple – each team must successfully negotiate a single investment term sheet with one of the four attending companies who can only accept a single deal. As context, the TLP teams are instructed that they only have $10M remaining in their $100M initial venture fund and that their current fund investments have thus far proven unsatisfactory. Upon conclusion of the competition, each team must present and defend their deal to a panel of VC judges in a 7-minute power point presentation followed by 8 minutes of Q&A. The judges then decide which team will be crowned the TLP VCC Champion!

The 2010 competition officially began on Thursday evening when each team was emailed executive summaries for the four startups selected. These companies were then asked to present in person on Saturday morning. The following is a quick synopsis of each company:

eXtendMobility: provides software and services to transform the way retailers and brands engage with consumers by providing a holistic view of the consumer-base across various marketing channels (SMS, Email, Applications, Direct mail, Gift cards).

Nimbo: is an enterprise sustainability software company that offers an innovative software-as-a-service (SaaS) package called RAIN, which helps organizations prepare for a carbon constrained, water stricken, clean economic future.

RelayTech: is a web-based analytics company that identifies promising drug candidates from academic research institutions and early-stage biotechnology companies.

7Solar: is developing a turn-key system for buildings that integrates PV/Thermal collectors, solar air-conditioning/heating, and a software control architecture that proactively minimizes a building’s energy cost by converting sunlight into electricity, heating and cooling in a single system.

The competition swung into high gear following the presentations as each TLP team was given 15 minutes to ask additional clarifying questions as part of investment due diligence. The due diligence sessions were followed by Wild-West-like negotiations as each TLP investment team jockeyed for time with the companies that had caught their eye and tried to lock down a signed term sheet before another TLP team could do the same.

As the clock hit 2:30, each team was asked to submit their investment recommendations and the presentations to the VC panel began. The presentations were going as expected until the final one by Team Incredible which was comprised of 2010 TLP fellows Will Adams, Bennett Fisher, Sidd Goyal, and Nitasha Manchanda. Team Incredible was the only team NOT to successfully negotiate a signed deal as they had purposely chosen to focus on 7Solar but were not successful in courting them. Despite their unsuccessful negotiation, Team Incredible did a great job centering their presentation on why they had passed on the other companies and why their particular valuation for 7Solar was in fact the correct one.

In the end, Team Incredible’s controversial strategy was denied by Team Terrific in an outcome narrowly separated by 2 points. Ariel Assaf, Kwa Liou, Jeff McAulay, and Emily Rothschild of Team Terrific chose to invest in RelayTech and did a phenomenal job selecting, negotiating, and supporting their investment decision to the VC judges. This year’s rockstar judging panel consisted of Geoff Mamlet (Principal, New Atlantic Ventures), David Shapiro (Managing Partner, Great Point Capital), Arif Padaria (Managing Director of Investments, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center), Bilal Zuberi (Principal, General Catalyst Partners), and Scott Yaphe (General Partner, ABS Ventures).

All in all, the event was an incredible experience for both the TLP fellows and the participating entrepreneurs. We would like to thank Cohort Awesome for all of their hard work and planning that went into putting together such a great event and our entrepreneurs and VC judges for taking the time to participate.

Congratulations again to this year’s VCC Champion - Team Terrific - for job well done!

Steve Blank, SLP Speaker and Professor of Entrepreneurship

Why accountants don’t run startups sllc

View more presentations from steve blank.