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Young Entrepreneurs: The Next Wave of Innovation
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Hors D’oeuvres
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A
Location
Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School
(click for direction & parking information)
Event Description:
Each iteration of the Silicon Valley cycle begets a new generation of ideas and challenges. How are today’s youngest entrepreneurs thinking about the current environment and where are they focusing their talents? Join us for a discussion with some of the youngest and most promising minds to reveal their perspectives on the latest technology trends, building startups in the economic downturn, and the challenges and opportunities associated with being a young entrepreneur. Other questions we’ll explore include:
- What are the next big opportunities and where are they?
- How has growing up through the last boom affected their attitude on entrepreneurship?
- How can youth and “inexperience” be turned from a liability into an asset?
Moderator
Christine Comaford, CEO, Mighty Ventures
Panelists
Aaron Patzer – CEO, Mint.com
Drew Houston – Founder, Dropbox
Matt Brezina – Co-founder, Xobni
John Bicket – CTO and Co-founder, Meraki
Register Now!
Please sign in before registering if you are already a member of VLAB.
Bios
Christine Comaford, CEO, Mighty Ventures
Bill Gates calls her “super high bandwidth.” Bill Clinton has thanked her for “fostering American entrepreneurship.” Newsweek says “by reputation, Christine is the person you want to partner with.”
New York Times bestselling author Christine Comaford is CEO of Mighty Ventures, an innovation accelerator which helps businesses to massively increase sales, product offerings, and company value. She has built and sold 5 of her own businesses with an average 700% return on investment, served as a board director or in-the-trenches advisor to 36 startups, and has invested in over 200 startups (including Google) as a venture capitalist or angel investor. Christine has consulted to the White House (Clinton and Bush), 700 of the Fortune 1000, and over 300 small businesses. She has repeatedly identified and championed key trends and technologies years before market acceptance.
Christine has led many lives: Buddhist monk, Microsoft engineer, geisha trainee, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. Her triumphs and disasters are revealed in her New York Times (and USA Today, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Amazon.com ) bestselling business book: Rules for Renegades: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career, and Revel in Your Individuality. The book is available at all major retailers or via www.RulesForRenegades.com.
Christine has appeared on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX Business Network, PBS, CNET and is frequently quoted in the business, technology and general press at large. Stanford Graduate School of Business has done two case studies on her and PBS has featured her in three specials (Triumph of the Nerds, Nerds 2.0.1, and Nerd TV ). CNET has broadcast two specials covering her unconventional rise to success as a woman with neither a high school diploma nor college degree. Christine believes we can do well and do good, using business as a path for personal development, wealth creation, and philanthropy.
Aaron Patzer – CEO, Mint.com
Aaron is both the visionary and technical mind behind Mint.com, now the leading free, online money management in the US. He designed Mint.com to meet the needs of people who value the immediacy of the web, simplicity and their free time. Prior to founding Mint, Aaron was an architect and technical lead for the San Jose division of Nascentric. Before Nascentric, Aaron worked for IBM and founded two web development and online marketing companies: PWeb and International. Aaron holds an MSEE from Princeton University and a BS in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering from Duke University. He has 10 patents filed or pending. Aaron’s innovation leadership has been recognized by national and international organizations. CNNMoney identified him as one of six Money Heroes in the US in 2008, and Inc. magazine included him in a list of the Top 30 US Entrepreneurs under 30. He was named one of just 34 worldwide Tech Pioneers by the World Economic Forum of Davos, Switzerland in 2008.
Drew Houston – CEO & Co-founder, Dropbox
Drew is the cofounder and CEO of Dropbox, the easiest way to store and share files online. Dropbox lets you get to your important files from any of your computers or the web. The company launched at the TechCrunch50 conference in 2008 and is backed by Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator.
Drew was named one of the top “Twentysomething Entrepreneurs” by BusinessWeek in April 2008. Before founding Dropbox, he was a lead software engineer at Bit9, a venture-backed network security company, cofounded a profitable online SAT prep company called Accolade, and held engineering roles in various startups since the age of 14. He received his S.B. in computer science from MIT.
Matt Brezina – Co-founder, Xobni
Matt Brezina co-founded Xobni, a San Francisco, CA based email software company, in 2006. Xobni raised over $11 million in capital from venture investors including Khosla Ventures, Cisco Systems, First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, Atomico Investments, and Y Combinator.
Matt received his B.S. EE with honors from Pennsylvania State University. Matt did his M.S. work in electrical engineering at the University of Maryland where he was an Institute for Systems Research fellow. Matt published his M.S. thesis research, which was a result of his work in space construction robotics at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Matt has worked as consultant to the Naval Research Lab.
Matt was the 2007 Bishoff Entrepreneur in Residence at Penn State University. Matt also sits on the advisory board of Genesis Interactive. His daily responsibilities at Xobni are focused on product and marketing.
John Bicket – CTO and Co-founder, Meraki
John Bicket is responsible for the technical direction and development of Meraki, an awarding-winning provider of Wi-Fi network solutions. He was most recently a Ph.D. student in the Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems group at MIT, where he co-led the research project that won several academic awards and later became Meraki. John holds a
B.S. in Computer Science from Cornell University, and an S.M. degree in Computer Science from MIT.
Meraki’s networking systems and cloud-based management services are fundamentally improving the quality, speed of deployment, and economics of providing high-speed wireless Internet access. Today there are thousands of Meraki-based networks in more than 125 countries throughout the world. Meraki is located in San Francisco, California, and is funded in part by Sequoia Capital and Google.
Register Now!
Please sign in before registering if you are already a member of VLAB.
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