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Business Plans of the Future
July 21, 2009
3:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Blank Rome
One Logan Square
130 North 18th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103-6998
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"Some of the best ideas, opportunities, deals and situations develop from these peer conversations"
Richard Levin, Chairman of the Private Investors Forum
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When investing in a company do you really read the business plan? Really?
If not how are you deciding to invest? Are you using your area of expertise? Are you relying on the opinions of others?
A recent article in the NY Times has posed these questions and completed an in-depth survey. At PIF we try to focus on topics of importance and that's why we have dedicated a program to this topic. We will be presenting a round table discussion with dynamic personalities discussing the topic of business plans.To read the article please visit NY Times Article
We are also setting aside time for 20 companies to do 3 minute pitches. Be sure to come early and check out a great batch of companies.
Please join us for this valuable experience.
Conference Agenda
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm Registration
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Quick Pitches*
5:00 pm - 5:30 pm Break with Refreshments
5:30 pm- 6:00 pm University of Maryland Study Results
6:00 - 7:00 pm Round Table Discussion
Featuring: Dr. David Kirsch, Associate Professor, University Of Maryland
Valerie Gaydos, Executive Director, Private Investors Forum
Letita Green, Managing Director,Virginia Active Angel Network
David S. Rose, AngelSoft, New York Angels
Scott Shelle, Special Partner, Bovaro Partners
Vince Schiavone, Private Investor
*Quick Pitch - Each company wishing to participate in the quick pitch session are asked to submit a 1 page summary through PIF via AngelSoft (free of charge) http://angelsoft.net/angel-group/private-investors-forum To submit your application please follow the link above and fill out the "apply to Private Investors Forum" section. If your company is selected to present there will be no charge. If your company is not selected and would still like to attend the event there is a $25 attendance fee. If you do not apply and would like to attend the cost is $50. Companies that are selected will be asked to do a 3-minute verbal pitch in front of the audience. The 3-minute time limit will be strictly enforced.
Investor Fee: RSVP required. PIF members attend for free. A fee of $50 for non-PIF members is required and can be paid by check or credit card prior to the event.
Please RSVP to Ashley at aparsells@51st.com or 717-238-1222. Space is limited so be sure to RSVP by no later than July 17,2009
Biographies
Dr. David Kirsch, Associate Professor, University Of Maryland
Dr. David Kirsch is Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship in the M&O Department at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. From 1996 to 2001, Kirsch held various adjunct and visiting appointments at the Anderson Graduate School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles. He received his PhD in history from Stanford University in 1996. His research interests include industry emergence, technological choice, technological failure and the role of entrepreneurship in the emergence of new industries. In 2000 Rutgers University Press published his revised dissertation, The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History. His work on the early history of the automobile industry has also been published in Business History Review and Technology and Culture. In 2003, his co-authored article on the Electric Vehicle Company received the IEEE Life Members Prize from the Society for the History of Technology. Kirsch is also interested in methodological problems associated with historical scholarship in the digital age. With the support of grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Library of Congress, he is currently building a digital archive of the Dot Com Era that will preserve at-risk, born-digital content about business and culture during the late 1990s.
Valerie Gaydos, Executive Director, Private Investors Forum
Valerie Gaydos has been involved with many start-up companies in the areas of operational development and strategic planning. She has been an investor and advisory board member gathering vital business information and locating experts, financing and key resources, which allow entrepreneurs to implement their ideas and grow their business.
Valerie’s company, Fifty-First Associates, LLC specializes in business & organizational development and association management. Valerie serves as Executive Director of the Private Investors Forum (Philadelphia), a non-profit organization of accredited private investors in the Mid-Atlantic region, which produces the Annual Angel Venture Fair. From 2004-2008 she served as President of the Pennsylvania Angel Network, a statewide angel investor network designed to assist in the creation and support of Pennsylvania angel investor groups.
Prior to Fifty-First Associates, LLC, and launching Capital Growth, Inc., a venture capital publishing and business development company, Valerie was Assistant Director of the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) Technology Council. In that capacity she was instrumental in connecting emerging technology companies with sources of financing. She drafted, garnered support for, and successfully lobbied passage of key technology business legislation in the state of Maryland and established the Tech Council’s first newsletter and quarterly journal called “tech@work.”
Letita Green, Managing Director,Virginia Active Angel Network (VAAN)
Letitia Green is CEO of ECorp Management Associates, Inc., a retail representation and commercial real estate development company and is also co-founder and Managing Partner of the Virginia Active Angel Network, LLC (VAAN), a Virginia-based angel investing group with chapters in Blacksburg/Roanoke, Charlottesville and Richmond, VA. Her institutional experience includes Oppenheimer & Co, the Blackstone Group, Mocatta & Goldsmid and Roxbury Capital Management. Her entrepreneurial experience includes founding Ruth, Green & Associates and merging it with ECorp Management Associates, Inc. Ms. Green has a B.A. from the University of Virginia, an MBA in Finance from Pepperdine University, obtained her Series 7 license in New York, earned her Certificate in Negotiation from the Harvard/MIT Program on Negotiation for Senior Executives in Cambridge, and holds real estate licenses in California and Virginia. Ms. Green was previously a member of the Los Angeles Women's Foundation, an ambassador for the Kauffman Foundation's Entrepreneurship Week 2007 and 2008 on the board of Junior Achievement of Charlottesville. In addition to her VAAN, ECorp and family responsibilities, she is currently on the board of the UVaClub of Charlottesville, holds a board or board observer positions for ESP Systems LLC and Talkshoe LLC, as well as on CVG's 11th Annual Business Forum committee.
David S. Rose, AngelSoft, New York Angels
David S. Rose is an Inc. 500 CEO, serial entrepreneur and early stage venture investor described by BusinessWeek as a "world conquering entrepreneur", by Crain's New York Business as "the father of angel investing in New York", and by Red Herring magazine as "patriarch of Silicon Alley". He is the founder and Chairman of New York Angels, the largest and most active business angel investment consortium on the East Coast; Chairman of Egret Capital Partners, a middle market private equity firm; and runs New York's SparkPlace business technology incubator. He has founded or funded over 75 companies, and as an entrepreneur he is the founder and CEO of Angelsoft, which operates the international standard collaboration platform for startup financing. Angelsoft is used by over 17,000 accredited early stage investors and venture capitalists in 45 countries to review over 3,500 business plans each month, and is the primary source for original data on angel funding activity in the United States. Named to the 2008 'Silicon Alley 100' by Silicon Alley Insider, and listed by Crain's as a 'Top Dog in Tech', he is well known in the business startup community for discovering and mentoring high-potential entrepreneurs, and has been profiled by BusinessWeek as "The Pitch Coach" for his ability to help CEOs perfect their fundraising skills. He is the Chair of the Finance and Entrepreneurship Track at Singularity University; as well as a regular speaker at business schools including Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Pace, Stevens, Penn State and NYU, which named him 2009 Mentor of the Year. From his initial involvement with the first online communities in the 1970s, through founding one of the first personal computer training companies in the 1980s, one of the first wireless data information networks in the 1990s, and the first global business angel investing platform in the 2000s, David has been an innovator in both business and technology. A native New Yorker, David has a BA in Urban Affairs from Yale University and an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School.
Scott Schelle, Special Partner, Bovaro Partners
Scott Schelle joined BOVARO Partners as a Special Partner in 2003 and leads the firm's Telecom, Media and Technology practice. Mr. Schelle is a recognized leader in the wireless communications industry and has over 15 years experience in telecommunications, information technology, corporate finance and early stage management and investing. Through his consulting firm, Tasman Technologies, Mr. Schelle currently provides high-level strategic consulting, direction and assistance in business and strategy development, corporate financing and structure, and technology feasibility analysis to companies specializing in cellular, PCS, wireless data and related industries. Prior to establishing his consulting practice, Mr. Schelle served as Principal with Sterling Venture Partners, a Baltimore, MD based early stage venture capital fund. At Sterling, Scott focused on investing in early stage companies in the Wireless, Telecom, and Information Technology industry sectors. Previously, Mr. Schelle was a founder and CEO of American Personal Communications (APC), which developed and operated the nation's first, highly successful PCS digital wireless system, branded as Sprint Spectrum. At APC, Mr. Schelle grew the company from a two-person research team to a 750 person multi-state PCS provider. The company was successfully sold to Sprint in 1998. Mr. Schelle is a board member of Schelle Cellular Group, Inc and former member of the Board of Directors of the Cellular Telephone Industry Association. He also served on the executive committee of the Young Atlantic Venture Association.
Vince Schiavone, Private Investor
Private Investor & Serial Entrepenuer. Vince is a software and technology industry veteran with 20 years of professional experience. Most recently, Vince was the Co-Founder and Chairman of Turntide Inc., an anti-spam technology company which was acquired by Symantec Corp in 2004. Prior to that, Vince was the founder and CEO of 4anything.com, a 6000 vertical site network. Prior to that Vince was the Co-Founder and Principal of InfoSec Labs, a boutique security consulting and training company serving global 2000 clients. Member L.O.R.E., - Philadelphia's oldest Angel Invest group, MAG Fund II - Angel Investment Fund, Robin Hood Ventures - Seed and Early Stage Angel Investment Group, Ben Franklin Technology Partners SEP, Information Technology Investment Advisory Committee LLR Fund III - limited partner. Founding, initial investor or large positions in several private companies. Industry Activities: Book - CyberThreats - Children and Teens at Risk - Co-author (up coming 2009 ) IAPP - The International Association of Privacy Professionals - Founding Board Member (past) Trusted Email Open Standard (TEOS) - co-author - presented US Federal Trade Commission Spam Conference. ISPCON - ISP industry conference - Advisory Board Member (past) InBox conference - email industry conference - Advisory Board Member (past) | | |
Investors invest in leaders, more than they invest in business plans
Nothing replaces personal communications - Thus, please make the time to attend entrepreneur and investor events to meet investors and other entrepreneurs and to show your leadership skills firsthand
The Private Investors Forum (PIF) is a non-profit organization of accredited private investors dedicated to providing education and stimulating investment in the Greater Philadelphia Region, including New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
PIF accomplishes this mission by hosting the Annual Angel Venture Fair (April 5 & 6 2010) , quarterly educational meetings and monthly breakfast meetings for accredited private investors for the exchange of due diligence knowledge on specific investments. To further enhance the group�s mission, PIF established the PIF Due Diligence Fund to assist and encourage investor members.
Prior to emerging as the Private Investors Forum, the organization was known as the Pennsylvania Private Investors Group (PPIG), an angel network of accredited private investors which gathered to review business plans and to make investments in young companies. Today, the Private Investors Forum enjoys a close relationship with LORE (an angel investment network), Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and Innovation Philadelphia.
The Private Investors Forum's peer network of angel investors facilitates the introduction of entrepreneurs and investors through circulation of materials and presentations; it does not function as a securities broker-dealer, investment advisor, securities exchange or clearinghouse, and is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or any state securities commissions.
Private Investors Forum Process
Our submission process provides a forum which enables our investors to provide better feedback to companies should they decide to do so. Since PIF is an Ad Hoc group of accredited investors who review submissions on their own time, there is no guarantee that your information will be reviewed in any specific time period. However, PIF does have monthly breakfast meetings at which companies are invited to present their proposal in person and in greater detail. The best way to to ensure your company receives the attention it deserves is to network in person with people in the community - your lawyers, accountants, business organizations - and find advocates for your company - people who know our members and who will help you connect with them.
Feel free to periodically call us for a schedule of local business events at which you might connect with investors in person.
SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL TO THE ANGEL VENTURE FAIR
As of November 1, 2008 all submissions to PIF must go through the Annual Angel Venture Fair Process. Please submit your proposal through the AVF website and use of Angelsoft, an online application program which enables our members to collectively review your proposal. Through AVF you will be submitting your business proposal to an annual consortium of angel investors in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
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