by Victor Karamalis
The rattling of ambitious entrepreneurs was on hand at Fenwick & West on Thursday for the Startup Epicenter event.
Scott Lane of SF Bay Ventures has once again brought entrepreneurs up against feisty angel investors and renowned venture capitalists. Some of them even got personal onsite coaching with experts that cater to the startup community. This is yet just another example why these events make Silicon Valley the place for serious entrepreneurs to plant themselves in this fertile soil.
The businesses on hand were the following:
Giftbanc
The founders that presented were able to articulate on their products and they were criticized by different panelists and the audience. In a first for the Epicenter, there was a separate room in addition to the main room filled with 60-70 people. This room brought a handful of entrepreneurs to experts such as Sramana Mitra and Anne Donker. These experts further delved into each entrepreneur’s business and provided yet further instruction for them.
This is the third installment in a series of rounds for these startups to show that they have the criteria to ask for funding. The quality of amazing feedback from different panels not only saves time for these budding businesspeople, they are actually battle hardened for the real deal when pitching their revenue generating visions to potential investors. For example, there was a panel with the likes of John Steuart from Claremont Creek Ventures that gave his advice to a few of the founders that pitched their presentations. You also had Lili Balfour of Atelier Partners, a firm that organizes entrepreneurs in depth on a case by case basis.
The insight normally behind the closed doors of Sand Hill firms are concentrated under one roof for the benefit of entrepreneurs that are serious about their budding businesses. Although there are other venues from the likes of SVASE and Lunch 2.0, Startup Epicenter is at the fore-front of actually helping pre-launch startups. The way they do this is by implementing a loosely structured agenda coupled with audience feedback. The audience is composed of other entrepreneurs, consultants, informed bloggers, and investors.
Finally, Scott said to look out for the next installment sometime in October of this year. These are just some of the reasons why this secondary era of web entrepreneurship is better conditioned to withstand the initial market conditions that small startups face. This and other events are needed and must be supported to nourish the anxious yet inexperienced visionaries to withstand the future blows that they will face before investors and ultimately, the marketplace.
