Entrepreneurs Learn the Secrets of How to Pitch" to Angel and Venture Capital Investors at an Afternoon Session in Silicon Valley

FundingPost hosts 30 start-up companies and Venture Capital and Angel Investors for an afternoon Pitching Workshop session in Silicon Valley

Menlo Park, California (PRWEB) March 11, 2005 -- On March 15, 2005, leading Venture Capital and Angel investors are set to speak and coach entrepreneurs at the FundingPost Silicon Valley Pitching Workshop" events sponsored by the City of Menlo Park, Orrick and TriNet. While most events only allow start-ups to network with investors, this event allows entrepreneurs to pitch their companies to early-stage investors and received helpful feedback from Angels and Venture Capitalists. The FundingPost Event Calendar and registration information are online at: http://www.fundingpost.com/events.asp

After completing four successful events in the same format in New York City and Philadelphia, FundingPost is bringing the Pitching Workshops" model to Silicon Valley to help local start-ups get the kind of constructive critiques they need to be successful in achieving funding. Menlo Park Council Member Nicholas Jellins is scheduled to give the afternoon keynote speech.

After the keynote talk by Menlo Park Council Member Nicholas Jellins, the panelists will discuss what they look for in a successful entrepreneurial company pitch. Then the thirty companies in attendance at the session will have the opportunity to give their own two minute elevator pitch." After the session, FundingPost will provide each start-up company with feedback from the investors.

The speakers on the afternoon panel include:

•   Laura Brege, Partner, Red Rock Ventures
•   Praveen Gupta, Executive Director, CDIB Ventures
•   John Hall, Managing Director, Horizon Ventures
•   Ho Nam, General Partner & co-founder, Altos Ventures
•   Brendan Richardson, Partner, Vision Capital
•   Ray Rothrock, Managing General Partner, Venrock Associates
•   Bret Wilbur, Regional Sales Consultant, Trinet

The seven panelists speaking at the morning and afternoon panels have extensive experience in the angel and venture capital investing arena.

Ho Nam is a General Partner and co-founder of Altos Ventures, focusing on investments in the areas of networking, storage and semiconductors. He currently serves as a director of Yosemite Technolgies and works closely with Enwisen. Before joining Altos Ventures in 1996, Mr. Nam worked at Silicon Graphics (SGI) and Octel Communications (acquired by Lucent). Mr. Nam began his VC career at Trinity Ventures in 1990 and began his professional career at Bain & Company.

In addition to 15 years of venture capital experience, John Hall has broad experience in financial and general management over a 20-year period in the pharmaceutical, semiconductor and software industries. As a General Partner of Newtek Ventures, Mr. Hall led investments in enterprise software, networking, Internet software and medical companies. He alsohelped found Cadnetix, where he was Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Administration.

Ray Rothrock joined Venrock in 1988. His focus is primarily Internet companies and information technology in general. Mr. Rothrock serves on the board of Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ: CHKP) of Tel Aviv, Israel and a number of private boards including: Imaginova Corp., Imperva, Inc., Pedestal Software, Inc., Qpass, Inc., PGP Inc., Red Seal Systems, Vontu and Whole Security, Inc. He previously served on the boards of Spyglass, DIGEX, Inc. (acquired by Intermedia Communications) and Haystack Labs (acquired by Trusted Information Systems/Network Associates). He also led Venrock's investment in DoubleClick (NASDAQ: DCLK).

Praveen Gupta has been with CDIB Ventures since July 1998 focused on investments in early to late stage IT companies. Prior to his VC career, he had over 16 years of diversified operating experience in technology and service companies such as Lucent, Ericsson, Fujitsu-ICL, Halliburton, and Tata Consultancy Services. Mr. Gupta has served as a Board Member/Observer at various venture-backed companies.

Laura Brege is currently a Partner at Red Rock Ventures. Ms. Brege was formerly Chief Financial Officer at COR Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly held biopharmaceutical company. Prior to COR, she held senior financial positions at Flextronics and The Cooper Companies.

Before joining Vision Capital in 1997, Brendan Richardson spent four years with Dominion Ventures, a venture capital firm in San Francisco with more than 150 portfolio companies. He worked in Dominion's venture-leasing program both in San Francisco and Boston. Prior to his career in venture capital, Brendan worked as the Director of Sponsorship for the Whitewater World Championships; as an Analyst in the Asset Management division of Wells Fargo Private Banking and as a strategic consultant with Strategic Planning Associates in Washington D.C.

Bret Wilbur has been in the HR Outsourcing business since 1998 in sales, sales management, and marketing roles. At TriNet he is a Regional Sales Consultant focused on providing his expertise to technology and professional services companies in the greater Bay Area. Prior to TriNet, Bret was with Administaff and Adecco. He is also a licensed benefits broker.

We are delighted to be returning to Silicon Valley. The Pitching Workshops have been successful because both the entrepreneurs and the investors see the value of the exchange," said Joe Rubin, Director, FundingPost. The economy for early-stage investing is improving. Our investor panels are excited to see the new dealflow in these early companies, and the entrepreneurs are finding the investors tips and responses helpful for improving and refining their pitches."

For more information about the Silicon Valley Pitching Workshops and other FundingPost events, contact Keith Henry at 203-659-6649 or visit the FundingPost website at http://www.fundingpost.com/events.asp

About Fundingpost:
FundingPost is an entrepreneur and investor network reaching more than 60,000 executives and 6,000 Venture Capital and Angel Investors across the nation each month.

For over four years FundingPost has worked with thousands of Angel and Venture Capital Investors and Entrepreneurs. FundingPost has hosted over 4,000 CEOs and 500 Venture Funds at events in 15 cities nationwide, as well as providing a quarterly Dealflow magazine and a deal-exchange Website that has, on average, seen an introduction of an Investor to an Entrepreneur every business day since its inception. FundingPosts mission to reach investors and entrepreneurs in every medium possible -- both online and offline, and it is experiencing strong growth as the venture capital markets continue to improve worldwide.

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