SVB Financial Group - Kellogg Auditorium
3005 Tasman Drive
Santa Clara, CA
Thursday, October 1, 2009

Tom Vertin  |  COO of Silicon Valley Bank (Host)
Lyndon Rive  |  Co-Founder & CEO of SolarCity
Mike Cassidy  |  Co-Founder & CEO of Ruba

Research has shown that eight out of ten new businesses fail in the first two years.  The first challenge facing an entrepreneur is:  "How can I validate my business idea before betting my time, talent, reputation, and other people's money?"

This workshop will provide you with tools for opportunity assessment that have been adopted by entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, Singapore, China, Vietnam, and other countries around the world.   You can use these tools to determine whether or not your own "big idea" is a viable business opportunity.   You will work in small teams with fellow participants to "reality test" ideas that you have for new businesses.   You will also learn how to map out a one-page business model and identify potential partners to deliver value to your customers, as well as learn how to identify the major risks in pursuing your business opportunity and how to manage them.

Tom Kosnik  |  Consulting Professor, Stanford Technology Ventures Program at Stanford University -
                           Dept. of Management Science & Engineering

Once you have done your opportunity assessment, the next challenge is how to build your first product and take it to market.  Most new products fail because entrepreneurs fail to develop customers while developing their products.  As a result, even though a few customers buy the new product once, very few customers buy again, and most potential customers just say, "No!"

This workshop will provide you with tools from Four Steps to the Epiphany and Crossing the Chasm that thousands of entrepreneurs and venture investors have used to increase the odds of success in the marketplace.   You will work in small teams to identify target market segments, design your "whole product," specify what partners will give and get from working with you, and identify key assumptions to test in your go-to-market plan.  You will also sketch out a marketing communications campaign using new social media that can be executed on a shoestring budget.

Tom Kosnik  |  Consulting Professor, Stanford Technology Ventures Program at Stanford University -
                           Dept. of Management Science & Engineering

As your new product begins to gain momentum in your initial target market, your next challenge is how to grow the business.  Three tasks must be executed to address this challenge:  1) raising funds from the right sources, 2) attracting the right talent at the approprate time, and 3) entering new country markets in the right sequence.

This workshop will provide you with tools adapted from entrepreneurship courses at leading universities, tested in business plan competitions around the world, and refined based on the feedback of entrepreneurs and venture investors who have created thousands of new ventures in the last twenty years.

The environment facing entrepreneurs has been especially turbulent in the last ten years, with two major market crashes and crisis conditions in the financial services industry that is a critical source of capital as companies grow.  The tools in this workshop are useful in both boom and bust, so you can think more systematically about raising money, recruiting talent, and going global.

Tom Kosnik  |  Consulting Professor, Stanford Technology Ventures Program at Stanford University -
                           Dept. of Management Science & Engineering

This panel will allow participants to learn from successful entrepreneurs in information technology, clean tech, and life sciences about how they are coping with the current volatile economy. The challenges facing entrepreneurs are different depending upon the industry and country/markets they serve.

By comparing and contrasting the approaches of the panel and our sponsors, you will get tips that will help you to be successful in your own industry, product category, and target markets.

Tom Kosnik  |  Consulting Professor, Stanford Technology Ventures Program at Stanford University -
                           Dept. of Management Science & Engineering
Glenda Anderson  |  Co-Founder and President of ClinicalPro Solutions
Elliott Ng  |  Co-Founder of UpTake.com
Rajan Raghavan  |  Co-Founder, President & CEO of Nokeena Networks
Dr. Damoder Reddy  |  Founder, President & CEO of Solexant
Anthony Wood  |  Founder & CEO of Roku