Startup2Startup

It has been an amazing 2011 and we hope you’re excited for an even better 2012! Please join us on January 18, 2012 for our annual holiday party in January, as we celebrate another great year of Startup2Startup.

Interested in joining us? Fill out this form.

Earlier this year, we had a few friends from the tech giants of Silicon Valley share what it is like from their point of view to buy startups. But what is it like to sell a startup? How do you make that decision? What mistakes are made even before companies are started? How do you get over the negotiations hump? And what happens after you get acquired?

This month, we’re lucky to have a few friends help answer those questions. Jack Abraham, Leonard Speiser and Bryan Mason will lead a panel on the secrets of selling startups.

eBay bought Jack’s company, Milo.com, last year and Fast Company called him one of the 100 most creative people in business today. Leonard is the founder of clover.com and Startup2Startup. Yahoo snapped up his company, Bix, about a year after it was started. And Bryan Mason’s company, Typekit, was acquired by Adobe last month.

Typically the lessons that these guys have learned are spread quietly over coffee meetings and emails. We’re lucky to have them and look forward to the lively discussion to follow.

As always, space is limited so please sign up soon. Invitations aren’t transferable so please contact James, Josh or one of the organizers if you’d like us to invite someone to this event.

The landscape has shifted dramatically since our dinner on corporate development and M&A last year. With a series of newly minted public companies (and a few more companies to come), how should entrepreneurs think about things? We’re bringing together new friends and old from big players like Twitter and Facebook for a lively panel discussion about this new world.

This month, we’re building on April’s discussion on Interaction Design by inviting BJ Fogg, head of Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab, to share how Behavior Design should change the way that you think about users, design and the way you launch (and relaunch) your product.

His approach will change the way you think about why products like Zynga, Instagram, Groupon and Facebook are effective. It is no accident; students of his are working at all of those companies.

BJ taught the first Facebook App class at Stanford in 2007 and he’s spent the last decade understanding how software can create new habits. He makes a persuasive case that most startups spend too much of their time working on the wrong approaches to getting traction. Instead, he suggests a behavior-centric way of thinking that asks exactly what startups want users to do and focuses on the triggers to get them there.

Fortune magazine says that he’s “one of the most sought-after thinkers in Silicon Valley” and named him one of their “10 Gurus You Should Know.” Students from his Stanford Facebook App class convinced 16 million people to install apps that they built during his 10 week course. He spends most of his time split between teaching at Stanford and consulting with companies like Nike and eBay. You can read more about him at his website or twitter feed.

We’re in the middle of a series on core issues for startups. This time we’ll cover interaction design. We’ve invited the lead designers responsible for Facebook, Mint and Posterous to give us their point of view on designing great products, hiring great designers (and figuring out if they are any good), the value of A/B testing and what drives great designers crazy. Plus they’ll answer your burning questions.

Kate Aronowitz is Director of Design and User Experience at Facebook, where she leads a team of designers, researchers, engineers and content strategists. Prior to Facebook, Kate was the first Director of Design at LinkedIn, where she helped build and establish their design and user research group. Previously, she managed design teams at eBay. Kate holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from The Savannah College of Art and Design.

Jason Putorti was lead designer at Mint.com from early 2007 through launch and acquisition in November 2009. After Mint.com, he was Designer-in-Residence at Bessemer Venture Partners. He’s now co-founder of Votizen and on the side runs elegant.ly, a resource for startups to pitch great designers.

Garry Tan is designer-in-residence at Y Combinator. Previously, he cofounded Posterous and helped build it to a world-class website used by millions. He also cofounded the engineering team for Palantir Technology’s quant analysis platform. He was named among BusinessWeek’s Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs of 2010, Inc Magazine’s 2010 list of 30 under 30, Advertising Age Magazine’s 2010 Creativity 50, and Business Insider’s 2011 30 Under 30 Who Are Shaking Up Industries.

We’re starting the year off with a return to the core issues that face startups. First up: engineering.

We’re pleased that Yishan Wong has agreed to be interviewed on starting, building and nurturing startup engineering organizations. He’s got some insight into these issues as he was Director of Engineering at Facebook. From 2005 to 2010, he worked on many of Facebook’s key challenges: mobile, ads, payments, platform, applications, hiring and internationalization. He’s currently spending time at Sunfire Offices, a co-working space in Mountain View that he co-founded. He started his professional career as a Senior Engineering Manager at PayPal.

You can get a sense of Yishan’s perspectives on startups and engineering at Quora or about his background at TechCrunch.
Dave McClure will lead a lively interview with Yishan on topics such as recruiting and hiring, Yishan’s pre-Facebook social dating site, mentoring engineering managers and the engineer’s way to scale a business.

Who needs the public markets? IPOs are so last century. The secondary market for stock in private companies has created an opportunity for shareholders to get liquidity once again, and investors are jumping in head first. But how can companies benefit from the secondary market? How do you sell your shares on a secondary market? How are shares valued, and what are the mechanics behind the secondary market? Or perhaps you’d just like to know how you can buy some of these elusive shares? For good measure we’ll be selling shares of the top five start-ups in Silicon Valley to all attendees! I bet that got your attention, didn’t it? Well, we might not be selling start-ups shares at the event, but Barry Silbert, founder of SecondMarket, will be educating all of us on how we can buy and sell start-up shares of some of the hottest companies by talking about a world he invented six years ago.

Barry Silbert is the Founder and CEO of SecondMarket, the world’s largest marketplace for buying and selling illiquid financial assets, including private company stock. Founded in 2004, SecondMarket has conducted billions of dollars in transactions across nine different asset classes. Since 2009, more than $350 million in private company stock traded over SecondMarket in numerous venture-backed companies, including Facebook, Zynga, Twitter and LinkedIn. SecondMarket’s customized liquidity programs provide private companies with an effective way to organize and control secondary activity in their shares.

Please join us for a special evening event at the estate of Woodside Capital partner Kelly Porter. Our newest sponsor, Michael Marquez from CODE Advisors, has assembled six giants of corporate development on one stage: Cisco, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo!

Our discussion will center on the new world of acquisitions. Our esteemed panel will share what each of their companies are looking for, what has and hasn’t worked in the past, and where they see the acquisition landscape going in the future.

Now more than ever we are seeing acquisitions for talent, where teams are purchased and products end of life’d. We are also seeing far more acquisitions where products are rebuilt from scratch inside the new company. As new industries form around mobile and social, companies are transforming themselves by acquiring the focus and momentum of those brave enough to risk tackling new markets. You will likely never see a line up like this again, so RSVP early to reserve your spot in the grand ballroom.

Derek Idemoto, Cisco
Derek Idemoto is the Director of Corporate Development at Cisco Systems, and is responsible for driving Cisco’s strategy, acquisitions and investments across the consumer and digital media markets. Prior to joining Cisco, Derek was Managing Director of Venture Investment for ITOCHU Technology, the Silicon Valley-based technology venture capital investment and business development arm of ITOCHU Corporation. Prior to joining ITOCHU Technology, Derek was Vice President of Corporate Development at Overture Services, the pioneer of commercial search services on the Internet. Derek received a B.S. in finance and marketing from U.C. Berkeley an M.B.A. from The Anderson School at UCLA where he was a Venture Fellow.

Michael Brown, Facebook
Michael Brown is Manager of Corporate Development at Facebook. Mike’s primary responsibilities at Facebook include acquisitions and corporate strategy. Prior to joining Facebook, Mike was a Principal at Foundation Capital, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley where he led numerous investments in the consumer Internet sector. Mike started his career at McKinsey & Company in the Firm’s San Francisco office. Mike is an investor in and/or active advisor to a number of Silicon Valley companies including Counsyl, RockYou, Structural Wealth Management, Satisfaction Inc., Tapulous, and Brilliant Earth. Mike attended Yale University and Stanford Business School.

Amin Zoufonoun, Google
Amin Zoufonoun joined Google in 2003, and is a senior member of its Corporate Development team, which is responsible for evaluating, negotiating and executing Google’s mergers, acquisitions and investments. He has led several of Google’s key strategic acquisitions and investments both in the U.S. and internationally, including Google’s first acquisition of a publicly traded company (On2). Previous to Google, Amin was a practicing attorney, both in-house and at a number of Silicon Valley law firms. Amin holds bachelors degree in electrical engineering as well as a Juris Doctor (law) degree.

Fritz Lanman, Microsoft
Fritz Lanman is Senior Director in Corporate Strategy and Acquisitions at Microsoft, where his responsibility spans strategy development across Microsoft divisions, advisory to the CFO, CEO and Board of Directors as well as Corporate Development for Board level deals. He especially focuses on Microsoft’s emerging businesses in Search, Advertising, Mobile and Entertainment and he has worked on several large deals for Microsoft including Facebook and Yahoo.

Jessica Verrilli, Twitter
Jessica works on Corporate Development, New Business Development, and Special Projects at Twitter. She has played an influential role in the company’s search partnerships, Series E financing, and acquisitions. She is currently working on new commercial programs and ongoing M&A. Jessica joined Twitter from Venrock, a venture capital firm, where she focused on technology and healthcare investment opportunities. Jessica is a graduate of Stanford University where she was a Division I lacrosse player and a Mayfield Fellow.

Taylor Barada, Yahoo!
In his current role, Taylor works with the Americas and Global Product orgs at Yahoo! leading strategic analysis/execution of acquisitions, divestitures, investments and other strategic relationships. Recent transactions include the sale of Zimbra to VMware and the acquisition of Citizen Sports. Prior to Yahoo! he worked as an investor, consultant, and operator at Rosewood Capital, Bain & Company, and Peregrine Systems. Taylor started his career as a professional soccer player and was a three time National Champion at the University of Virginia while completing his B.A. in History and Foreign Affairs.

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