SPEAKER SERIES BY U FIRST CAPITAL
NEXT EVENT COMING SOON
PAST EVENTS
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U FIRST CAPITAL’S KEYNOTE + FIRESIDE CHAT EVENT
Keynote + Fireside Chat Event:
August 27, 2024, 11 am to 12 pm PDT
Online event over Zoom
Keynote Speaker: Shellye Archambeau Board Director (Verizon and Okta), Founder (Ignite Ambition)
Moderator: Ekta Dang, CEO and Founder, U First Capital
Agenda:
- Welcome: 11 am-11.05 am PDT
- Fireside Chat: 11.05 am - 11.40 am PDT
-Open Discussion and QnA - 11.40 am - 12 pm PDT
VC Keynote and Q&A
VC Keynote and Q&A: Joint Event by Access Silicon Valley and U First Capital
April 25, 2024, 6pm to 9pm PDT
Location: Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, 5 Palo Alto Square, Palo Alto, CA 94306
Keynote Speaker: Vijay Reddy, Partner at Mayfield Fund
Agenda:
6:00pm - 6:50pm: Light dinner/refreshments, Networking, Demos/Sponsors
6:50pm - 7:00pm: Sponsor Introductions
7:00pm - 7:40pm: Keynote by Vijay
7:40 -8:00: Discussion and Audience Q&A
8:00pm - 9:00pm: Networking
Please Tweet your questions before and during the event to @AccessSV and @ufirstcapital.
VC Keynote and Q&A
VC Keynote and Q&A: Joint Event by Access Silicon Valley and U First Capital
March 6, 2024, 6pm to 9pm PDT
Location: Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, 5 Palo Alto Square, Palo Alto, CA 94306
Keynote Speaker: Barry Eggers, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Lightspeed Ventures
Agenda:
6:00pm - 6:50pm: Light dinner/refreshments, Networking, Demos/Sponsors
6:50pm - 7:00pm: Sponsor Introductions
7:00pm - 7:40pm: Keynote by Barry
7:40 -8:00: Discussion and Audience Q&A
8:00pm - 9:00pm: Networking
Please Tweet your questions before and during the event to @AccessSV and @ufirstcapital.
VC Keynote and Q&A
VC Keynote and Q&A: Joint Event by Access Silicon Valley and U First Capital
August 24, 2023, 6pm to 9pm PDT
Location: Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP 1st Floor, 5 Palo Alto Square, Palo Alto, CA 94306
Keynote Speaker: Rajesh Swaminathan, Partner at Khosla Ventures
Agenda:
6:00pm - 6:50pm: Light dinner/refreshments, Networking, Demos/Sponsors
6:50pm - 7:00pm: Sponsor Introductions
7:00pm - 7:40pm: Keynote by Rajesh
7:40 -8:00: Discussion and Audience Q&A
8:00pm - 9:00pm: Networking
Please Tweet your questions before and during the event to @AccessSV and @ufirst capital.
Digital Transformation in Universities via Networking as a Service
Joint Event by Nile and U First Capital
April 25, 2023, 12.30pm to 1.30pm PDT
Online event over Zoom
Keynote Speaker:
Pankaj Patel, CEO of Nile and former Chief Development Officer of Cisco
Panelists:
Opinder Bawa, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, University of San Francisco.
Mary Papazian, former President, San José State University
Raisha Cobb, Associate Provost for Information Resources, Winston-Salem State University
Panel moderated by Michel Davidoff, Chief Strategist of Education at Nile and former Chief Infrastructure Officer at California State University
Agenda:
-Introduction - Ekta Dang (2 mins)
-Opening Keynote: Pankaj Patel (10 mins)
-Panel session: Michel Davidoff and Panelists (30 mins)
-Open Q&A - Managed by Sanjit Dang (15 mins)
-Closing Comments - Ekta Dang (3 mins)
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Panel and Happy Hour by DevRev and U First Capital
Efficient Growth and Fundraising for Startups: Joint Event by DevRev and U First Capital
March 24, 2023, 4pm to 6.30pm PDT
In-person event at DevRev HQ, 616 Ramona Street, Suite 3, Palo Alto, CA 94301
Pre-registration required
Speakers
Dheeraj Pandey: CEO & Co-founder of DevRev, Co-founder of Nutanix, Board Member of Adobe Systems
Vibhor Rastogi: Global Director of Venture investing at Citi Ventures
Amit Zavery: VP/GM and Head of Platform at Google Cloud
Joe Jasin: Managing Director at DNA Partners
Panel moderated by Sanjit Singh Dang: Co-Founder and Chairman at U First Capital
Agenda
Registration and networking: 4-4.30pm
Panel session and Open Q&A: 4.30-5.15pm
Happy Hour: 5.15-6.30pm
U FIRST CAPITAL’S PRIVATE EVENT WITH CATHIE WOOD
Nov 11, 2022, 4pm to 6pm PDT
In-person event in Silicon Valley
Learn about Economy Trends from Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest
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VC Keynote + Startup Presentation Session
VC Keynote + Startup Presentation Session
January 19, 2023, 11.30am to 1pm PDT
Online event over Zoom
Keynote Speaker: Matt Carbonara, Managing Director, Citi Ventures
Agenda:
- Welcome: 11.30am -11.35am PDT
-Keynote on Enterprise Trends by Matt: 11.35am - 12.05pm PDT
- QnA: 12.05pm - 12.15pm PDT
- Startup Presentations: 12.15pm - 12.55pm PDT
- Concluding Remarks by Matt: 12.55pm - 1pm PDT
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CISO Keynote + Startup Presentation Session By U First Capital
CISO Keynote + Startup Presentation Session By U First Capital
December 7, 2022, 9.30am to 11am PDT
Online event over Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5843239403?pwd=aHM3YjA3SEZOaUw1Tm5BMFdzbUhodz09
Learn about Enterprise and Fintech Trends from David Tsao, Chief Information and Security Officer, Instacart, and Ex-Chief Information and Security Officer, Marqeta
Agenda:
- Welcome: 9.30am - 9.35am PDT
- CISO Keynote by David Tsao: 9.35am - 10.05am PDT
- QnA: 10.05am - 10.15am PDT
- Startup Presentations: 10.15am - 10.55am PDT
- Concluding Remarks by David Tsao - 10.55am - 11am PDT
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U FIRST CAPITAL’S ENTERPRISE FIRESIDE CHAT + STARTUP PITCH SESSION
Enterprise Fireside Chat + Startup Pitch Event:
October 17, 2022, 4pm to 5.30pm PDT
Online event over Zoom
Learn about Enterprise Trends from Avon Puri, Global Chief Digital Officer, Sequoia Capital.
Moderator: Ekta Dang, CEO and Founder, U First Capital
Agenda:
- Welcome: 4pm-4.05pm PDT
- Fireside Chat on Enterprise Trends by Avon Puri: 4.05pm - 4.40pm PDT
-Startup Presentations: 4.40pm-5.15pm PDT
-Open Discussion and QnA - 5.15pm-5.30pm PDT
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U FIRST CAPITAL’S FINTECH KEYNOTE + STARTUP PRESENTATION SESSION
Keynote + Startup Presentation Event:
August 25, 2022, 6pm to 7.30pm PDT
Online event over Zoom
REGISTER HERE
Learn about Fintech Trends from Simran J. Singh, Vice President, Green Dot Bank
Keynote Speaker and Judge:
Simran J. Singh, Vice President, Green Dot Bank
Agenda:
- Welcome: 6pm-6.05pm PDT
- Keynote on Fintech Trends by Simran J. Singh: 6.05pm-6.20pm PDT
-Startup Presentations: 6.20pm-7.15pm PDT
-Open Discussion and QnA - 7.15pm-7.30pm PDT
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U FIRST CAPITAL’S FINTECH KEYNOTE + STARTUP PRESENTATION SESSION
Keynote + Startup Presentation Event:
July 27, 2022, 8.45am to 10.30am PDT
Online event over Zoom
REGISTER HERE
Learn about Fintech Trends from Vibhor Rastogi, Global Director, Citi Ventures
Keynote Speaker and Judge:
Vibhor Rastogi, Global Director, Citi Ventures
Agenda:
- Welcome: 8.45-9am PDT
- Keynote on Fintech Trends by Vibhor Rastogi: 9-9.15am PDT
-Startup Presentations: 9.15-10.10am PDT
-Open Discussion and QnA - 10.10-10.30am PDT
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U FIRST CAPITAL’S FINTECH KEYNOTE + STARTUP PRESENTATION SESSION
Keynote + Startup Presentation Event:
June 2, 2022, 9am to 10.30am PDT
Online event over Zoom
REGISTER HERE
Learn about Fintech Trends from Salmaan Jaffery, Chief Business Development Officer, Dubai International Financial Centre
Keynote Speaker and Judge:
Salmaan Jaffery,
Chief Business Development Officer, Dubai International Financial Centre
Agenda:
- Welcome: 8.45am - 9am PDT
- Keynote by Salmaan Jaffery: 9am -9.20am PDT
- Startup Presentations - 9.20-10.15am PDT
- Open QnA 10.15-10.30am PDT
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U FIRST CAPITAL’S KEYNOTE EVENT ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP LESSONS
Keynote + Q&A Event:
April 29, 2022, 12pm to 1pm PDT
Online event over Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5843239403?pwd=aHM3YjA3SEZOaUw1Tm5BMFdzbUhodz09
Meeting ID: 584 323 9403
Passcode: 767056
REGISTER HERE
Learn how Dheeraj took Nutanix from scratch to IPO in 7 years
Keynote Speaker:
Dheeraj Pandey
CEO and Co-founder of Nutanix (2009-2020)
CEO and Co-founder of DevRev (2021-Present)
Board member of Adobe Systems (2019-Present)
VC PANEL AND STARTUP PITCH SESSION FOR FINNISH AI STARTUPS
Event by Business Finland and U First Capital
VC Panel + Startup Pitch Session by Business Finland and U First Capital (Zoom only)
June 16, 2021, 9am to 11am PDT
Online event over Zoom
Panel Topic: Investment Trends in Silicon Valley and Finland
Speakers and Judges:
David Lam (General Partner, Atlantic Bridge Capital)
Carolin Funk, PhD (Investment Director, Blue Bear Capital)
Ronjon Nag, PhD (Managing Director and Founder, R42 Group)
Ariam Mogos (K12 Futurist Fellow, Stanford d.school)
Agenda (PDT time):
9am - 9.10am: Registration and Networking (over Zoom)
9.10am to 9.30am: VC Panel
9.30am to 11am: Startup Pitch Session
Event in partnership with Business Finland and Helsinki Business Hub
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INVESTMENT KEYNOTE PANEL AND PITCH SESSION
Dec 18 2020
3pm to 5pm PDT
Investment Keynote Panel + Startup Pitch Session by U First Capital (Zoom only)
Dec 18, 2020, 3pm to 5pm PDT
Online-only event over Zoom
Panel Topic: Investment Trends in Post-COVID World
Speakers and Judges: Arvind Sodhani (Managing Partner, Silver Trail Ventures and Ex-President, Intel Capital) and Nick Sturiale (Managing Partner, Ignition Partners)
Agenda (California PST time):
3pm-3.15pm: Registration and Networking (over Zoom)
3.15pm to 4pm: Keynote Panel
4pm to 5pm: Startup Pitch Session - 5min per Startup
Location: The event will be held online only over Zoom
Sponsorship Info: https://www.ufirstcapital.com/sponsor
Event in partnership with Business Finland and Helsinki Business Hub
November 16, 2020 at 8.45am to 11am PST
Agenda (PST):
8.45am to 9am: Registration and Networking
9am to 9.03am: Introduction by Ekta and Sanjit Dang (U First Capital)
9.03am: Welcome by Helsinki Business Hub and Business Finland
9.05am: Keynote by Dr Parimal Kopardekar, Director (NASA)
9.15am to 9.30am: Panel discussion on bridging US-Finland Startup/VC Ecosystems
9.30am to 10.20am: Pitching by Finnish Startups
10.20am to 11am: Networking and Open Discussion
Event in partnership with Business Finland and Helsinki Business Hub
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INVESTMENT PANEL AND PITCH SESSION
Oct 13 2020
11.45am to 2pm PDT
Investment Panel + Startup Pitch Session by U First Capital
Online-only event (over Zoom): Zoom link will be sent to registered participants
Speakers and Judges:
Sarah Fay (Managing Director, Glasswing Ventures)
Kellan Carter (Founding Partner, Fuse Venture Partners)
Austin Guyette (Investor, Voyager Capital)
Date: Oct 13 2020 11.45am-2pm PDT
Agenda (California PDT time):
11.45am-12pm PDT: Registration and Check-in (over Zoom)
12pm-12.30pm PDT: Investor Panel and Q&A, Speakers are Sarah Fay (Managing Director, Glasswing Ventures), Kellan Carter (Founding Partner, Fuse Venture Partners), and Austin Guette (Investor, Voyager Capital). Topic is 'Effect of COVID-19 on Startup Fundraising from Venture Capitalists.'
12.30pm-2pm PDT: Startup Pitch Session (5min per Startup), Judges are Sarah Fay (Managing Director, Glasswing Ventures), Kellan Carter (Founding Partner, Fuse Venture Partners), and Austin Guette (Investor, Voyager Capital).
Sponsorship Info: https://www.ufirstcapital.com/sponsor
Event in partnership with Business Finland and Helsinki Business Hub
INVESTMENT OPEN FORUM AND PITCH SESSION
Judges:
Ajay Ramachandran Managing Partner Happiness Ventures
Mosh Suzuki (Senior Director, Presidio Ventures)
April 30, 2020, 12.30pm to 3pm PDT
Online-only event over Zoom
Open Discussion Topic:
Founders sharing tips for fundraising during COVID-19 times
Agenda (California PDT time):
12.30pm-1pm: Registration and Networking (over Zoom)
1pm to 1.30pm: Open discussion
1.30pm to 3pm: Startup Pitch Session - 5min per Startup
Location: The event will be held online only over Zoom
SEED INVESTMENT PANEL AND PITCH SESSION
Speakers and Judges: Sunny Dhillon (Managing Director, Signia Venture Ventures) and Amit Garg (Managing Partner, Tau Ventures)
REGISTER HERE
April 17, 2020, 1pm to 3pm PDT
Online-only event over Zoom
Panel Topic: Best Way to Pitch a Seed Startup during a Tough Market
Agenda (California PDT time):
12.30pm-1pm: Registration and Networking (over Zoom)
1pm to 1.30pm: Panel discussion
1.30pm to 3pm: Startup Pitch Session - 5min per Startup
Location: The event will be held online only over Zoom
LEARN ABOUT STIMULUS PACKAGE FOR STARTUPS - WEBINAR WITH CONGRESSMAN RO KHANNA
April 8, 2020 at 11am-12pm PDT
Online-only event (over Zoom)
Zoom link will be sent out to registered participants a few hours before the event.
Thanks to Congressman Ro Khanna's efforts, Startups are now included under the Stimulus Package. Learn about Startup Benefits in this free Webinar with Congressman Ro Khanna.
Keynote Speaker:
Congressman Ro Khanna
Moderator:
Sanjit Singh Dang, PhD (Chairman and Co-Founder of U First Capital)
Agenda (PDT time):
11am-11.20am Benefits for Startups in Stimulus Package - Congressman Ro Khanna
11.20am-12pm: Q&A with Congressman Ro Khanna
Keynote Speaker Bio:
Congressman Ro Khanna is proud to serve as the representative for California’s 17th District. Ro was elected to his first term in Congress in 2016.
As First Vice Chair of the House Progressive Caucus, Ro has stood at the vanguard of national progressive politics, serving as co-chair of the Sanders presidential campaign, while remaining committed to bipartisan problem-solving in Washington, passing two bills into law during his first term. During his time in Congress, Ro passed the historic War Powers Act to end U.S. involvement in Yemen, has founded the NO PAC Caucus, advocated for greater college affordability, and has acted as one of the most vocal champions for “Medicare for All” in the House. A member of the House Oversight Committee, Ro has worked for greater government transparency. As a part of the House Armed Services Committee, Ro has fought back against special interests and their monopolistic behavior, tackling private companies that gauge from our defense budget and jack up the cost of our national security, and has championed greater government investment in technology and R&D on the House Budget Committee. Ro has worked to spread Silicon Valley jobs nationally to areas of the country left behind during the digital revolution, and has introduced multiple articles of legislation to bring jobs to economically disadvantaged communities across the country.
CORPORATE VC PANEL AND PITCH SESSION
Speakers and Judges: Albert Kim (Head of Ericsson Ventures) and Dong-Su Kim (CEO of LG Technology Ventures)
REGISTER HERE
Feb 7, 2020, 9.30am to 12pm
Panel Topic: Best Approach for Pitching to Corporate VC's
Speakers and Judges: Albert Kim (Head of Ericsson Ventures) and Dong-Su Kim (CEO of LG Technology Ventures)
Agenda (California PDT time):
9.30am-10am: Registration and Networking
10am to 10.30am: Panel discussion with Ericsson Ventures and LG Technology Ventures + Q&A
10.30am to 12pm: Startup Pitch Session - 4min Pitch to Albert Kim (Head of Ericsson Ventures) and Dong-Su Kim (CEO of LG Technology Ventures)
Location: The event will be streamed live over Zoom and also held in person at 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95054. You can attend the event in person or online. Speakers will join in person at our office.
PROMOD HAQUE
Senior Managing Partner, Norwest Venture Partners
Jan 28, 2020
Topic: Learn about Norwest's Investment Strategy and pitch to Promod Haque
Agenda (California PDT time):
9.30am-10am Registration and Networking
10am to 10.45am: Norwest Venture Partners' Investment Strategy overview + Q&A (Promod Haque)
10.45am to 11.30am: Pitch to Promod Haque (3min Pitch per startup + 1min QnA)
11.30am-12pm Networking
Location: The event will be streamed live over video conferencing and also held in person at 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95054. You can attend the event in person or online. Speaker will join in person at our office. These events are intended to be interactive.
Speaker Bio:
Promod has 28 years of experience in the venture capital industry and currently serves as senior managing partner at Norwest Venture Partners. Promod joined Norwest in 1990, and has invested in more than 70 companies since he began his venture career. His investments have been worth more than $40B in aggregate exit value to date, as 25 of his portfolio companies have gone public and 37 have been acquired (or have gone public and been acquired). In 2014 and 2016, Forbes recognized Promod as a “Hall of Fame” investor. 2017 marked Promod’s thirteenth appearance on the annual Forbes Midas List, including 2004, when he was ranked the #1 venture capitalist based on performance over the previous decade. In 2006, Promod was presented with a Global Leadership award from NASSCOM, and he was honored with the 2011 SV Forum Visionary Award based on his outstanding achievements and contributions to the technology industry.
Recent liquidity events in Promod’s portfolio include API management leader Apigee (acquired by Google; Nasdaq: APIC); cyber security leader FireEye (Nasdaq: FEYE); Skybox Imaging, a commercial high-resolution satellite imagery, high-definition video and analytics services company that was acquired by Google for $500 million; and cloud security leader Palerra, which was acquired by Oracle. In addition, NTT Communications acquired Virtela for a total transaction price of $525 million. Promod was the founding investor and Chairman of the Board of Virtela, which is a company that Norwest incubated.
Promod focuses on investments across a wide variety of sectors including systems and IT infrastructure, healthcare IT, software and services. His current investments include Appnomic Systems, Brite Semiconductor, CareCloud, CognitiveScale, Copper, Dtex Systems, Health Catalyst, PCH International, Prevedere, Shape Security, Simpplr, SlashNext, and Sulekha.
He was an early investor and a board member of FireEye (Nasdaq: FEYE), Cerent (acquired by Cisco), Cast Iron Systems (acquired by IBM), Cyan (NYSE:CYNI), Siara Systems (acquired by Redback Networks), OnDisplay (acquired by Vignette), Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola) and Extreme Networks (Nasdaq: EXTR). Other notable investments and previous board seats include Skybox Imaging (acquired by Google), Tivoli Systems (acquired by IBM), Forte Software (acquired by Sun Microsystems), Kiva Software (acquired by Netscape), InsightsOne (acquired by Apigee), Information Advantage (acquired by Sterling Software), Arbortext (acquired by PTC), Open-Silicon (acquired by Unicorn Investment Bank), Resonext Communications (acquired by RF Micro Devices), Showcase (acquired by SPSS), Yipes (acquired by Reliance/Flag Telecom), AmberPoint (acquired by Oracle), Veveo (acquired by Rovi) and ZettaCom (acquired by IDT).
Prior to Norwest Venture Partners, Promod spent 18 years in various operational roles ranging from product development, marketing, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer at various public and private companies including Siemens International, Thorn EMI, Emergent Technologies and Dimensional Medicine, Inc.
He received a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Delhi, India. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where he serves on the advisory board.
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DUNCAN DAVIDSON
Co-Founder and General Partner, Bullpen Capital
Nov 13, 2019
Topic: The Mother of All Shifts: From Growth to Margins
REGISTER HERE
Agenda (California PDT time):
9.30am-10am Registration and Networking
10am-11am VC Speaking and Q&A
11am-12pm Startup Pitch Session (5min per startup)
Location: The event will be streamed live over video conferencing and also held in person at 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95054. You can attend the event in person or online. Speaker will join in person at our office. These events are intended to be interactive.
Speaker Bio:
Duncan is a serial entrepreneur who most notably founded Covad Communications (the leading independent DSL provider, went public and reached a market value of $9B) and Sky Pilot Networks (developer of outdoor wireless mesh systems, acquired by Trillium in 2009 for connectivity to smart meters). He served as the SVP of Business Development at InterTrust and led the IPO in 1999 and the secondary in 2000 (InterTrust reached a $9B market value in 2000). He spent four years as a managing director at VantagePoint Venture Partners where he focused on digital media and telecom investments including Widevine (acquired by Google) and Livescribe.
Prior to Bullpen, he co-founded one of the first mobile social app companies, Xumii, later sold to Myriad Group and now powering over 200M users in the developing world. At Bullpen he focuses on SaaS, blockchain and IoT investments, and is an advisor to or sits on the boards of Modal, Filament, Hologram, Illumeo, SpaceIQ, Verbling and Wag Labs. He received a Sc.B. in physics/math from Brown University, with Honors, and a J.D. magna cum laude from Michigan Law School, where he was Order of the Coif and a member of the Law Review.
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TIM DRAPER
Founder and Managing Partner, Draper Associates and DFJ Fund
Oct 23, 2019
Topic: Learn about Tim Draper's Investment Strategy
Agenda (California PDT time):
9-10am Continential Breakfast and Networking
10-11am Tim Draper's Investment Strategy overview + Q&A
11am-12pm Networking
Location: The event will be streamed live over video conferencing and also held in person at BNY Mellon, 755 Page Mill Rd Suite C-100, Palo Alto, CA 94304. You can attend the event in person or online. These events are intended to be interactive.
Speaker Bio:
Tim Draper is a top global venture capitalist, having founded Draper Associates, DFJ and the Draper
Venture Network, a global network of venture capital funds. The firms’ investments include Coinbase,
Robinhood, TwitchTV, Skype, Tesla, Baidu, Focus Media, YeePay, Hotmail, SolarCity, Athenahealth, Box,
SpaceX, Cruise Automation, Carta, Planet, PTC, Ledger and many others.
He is a leading spokesperson for Bitcoin, Blockchain, ICOs and cryptocurrencies, having won the Bitcoin
US Marshall’s auction in 2014, and led investments in the companies that would issue two of the largest
ICO’s: Tezos and Bancor.
He created viral marketing, a marketing method for exponentially spreading an electronic service from
customer to customer, instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and Skype and other applications,
particularly effective for mail and communications applications. Arguably, social media, crowdsourcing
and growth hacking are all outgrowths of Tim’s invention of viral marketing.
He is regularly featured on all major networks as a proponent for entrepreneurship, innovative
governance, free markets and Bitcoin, and has received various awards and honors including the World
Entrepreneurship Forum’s “Entrepreneur of the World,” and is listed as one of the top 100 most
powerful people in finance by Worth Magazine, the top 20 most influential people in Crypto by
CryptoWeekly, #1 most networked VC by AlwaysOn, #7 on the Forbes Midas List, and #48 most
influential Harvard Alum.
In promoting entrepreneurship, he created Draper University of Heroes, a residential and online school
based in San Mateo, Ca to help extraordinary people accomplish their life missions. The school launched
entrepreneurs from 76 countries who built 350 companies including NVision (sold for $275 million) and
crypto leaders QTUM, Spacecash, DataWallet and Credo. He authored a popular entrepreneur’s text
book called, “How to be The Startup Hero” and created a crowdsourced TV series with Sony Network
called “Meet The Drapers,” where viewers can invest in participants. ABC Family created another show,
“StartupU,” around the activity and students of Draper University. He has more than 100,000 Twitter
followers.
He started Innovate Your State, a non-profit dedicated to crowdsource innovation in government, and
BizWorld, a non-profit that teaches young children how business and entrepreneurship work.
He served on the California State Board of Education, and led a movement for Local Choice in schools
culminating in becoming proponent for a statewide initiative for School Vouchers. He also led an
initiative to create competitive governance with Six Californias, followed by Three Californias, which was
approved for the ballot, but was rejected by the California Supreme Court before the vote. He received
the “Toqueville” Award for freedom from the Independent Institute.
Tim Draper received a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University with a major in electrical
engineering and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. He has two
honorary doctorates from The International University and Trinity College of Dublin. He gave the
commencement speech at USC’s Marshall School of Business in 2017.
NY EVENT BY U FIRST CAPITAL
Join for an Informal Discussion and Mixer (Refreshments will be served)
Date: Oct 9, 2019, 2.30pm to 5pm ET (NY time)
Topic: How can NY invest in Silicon Valley?
Discussion led by Sanjit Singh Dang (Chairman and Co-Founder of U First Capital)
Hosted by BNY Mellon:
BNY Mellon Wealth Management
200 Park Avenue, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10166
More about U First Capital:
JAI DAS
President, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Sapphire Ventures
Sept 19, 2019
Topic: Learn about Sapphire Ventures' Investment Strategy
Agenda (California PDT time):
9.30am-10am Networking and Refreshments
10am-11am Investment Strategy overview + Q&A (Jai Das)
11am-12pm Networking
About Sapphire Ventures:
Originally started in 1996 as the venture capital arm of SAP, it was known as SAP Ventures. It split from its parent SAP in 2011 and was rebranded to Sapphire Ventures in 2014. Sapphire Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on helping innovative technology companies become global category leaders. Leveraging nearly two decades of experience and an extensive global enterprise network, Sapphire Ventures invests capital, resources and expertise to enable its portfolio companies to scale rapidly. Whether entrepreneurs sell to businesses, consumers or both, Sapphire Ventures offers a powerful platform for business development and operational excellence to help them accelerate growth. With $2.5 billion under management via direct growth investments and early-stage fund investments, Sapphire Ventures is positioned to elevate companies to the global stage.
Speaker Bio:
Jai is a managing director, president and co-founder at Sapphire Ventures. He invests in startups which he believes are developing ground-breaking products and services, and have embarked on their journey to become a company of consequence. He has more than 15 years of experience helping companies innovate their product and marketing strategies in order to scale and become market leaders. Eleven of Jai’s investments have become publicly traded companies and 9 have been acquired.
Jai is currently a member of the board (director or observer) at Catchpoint, DataRobot, JFrog, Narrative Science, OpsRamp, Portworx, PubNub, Punchh, Splashtop, Sumo Logic and ThoughtSpot.
Jai’s previous investments at Sapphire include: Alteryx (NYSE: AYX), Apigee (acquired by Google), Box (NYSE: BOX), Connectiva Systems (acquired by Mara Ison), Cloudhealth Technologies (acquired by VMware), Control4 (NASDAQ: CTRL), Cyphort (acquired by Juniper Networks), ExactTarget(acquired by Salesforce), Five9 (NASDAQ: FIVN), GroundWork (acquired by Parallax), Ignite Technologies (acquired by Versata), Iron.IO (acquired by Xenon Technologies), Jaspersoft (acquired by TIBCO Software), JustDial (JUSTDIAL), MuleSoft (acquired by Salesforce), Newgen Software (NSE: NEWGEN), Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), Paytm, Socrata (acquired by Tyler Technologies), Square(NYSE: SQ), and Tealeaf (acquired by IBM).
Prior to joining Sapphire Ventures in 2006, Jai worked at Oracle, Intel Capital, Agilent Ventures, and MVC Capital (a DFJ affiliated fund). He has a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Brown University and an MBA from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
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DHARMESH THAKKER
General Partner, Battery Ventures
Sept 13, 2019
Topic: Learn about Battery Ventures' Investment Strategy
About Battery Ventures:
Battery Ventures is a global, technology-focused investment firm. Founded in 1983, the firm makes venture-capital and private-equity investments from offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Israel and London. Since inception, the firm has raised over $6.9 billion and is now investing its twelfth funds, Battery Ventures XII and Battery Ventures XII Side Fund, with a combined capitalization of $1.25 billion.
Speaker Bio:
Dharmesh Thakker is a general partner at Battery Ventures. He focuses on early-venture and growth-equity investments in areas including cloud infrastructure, big data, security and next-generation enterprise applications.
Prior to Battery, Dharmesh was a managing director at Intel Capital, where he led the firm’s global cloud and big-data practice and made early- and later-stage investments in companies globally. He also assisted in long-range strategic planning for Intel’s $14 billion datacenter group. Before joining Intel Capital, Dharmesh spent almost a decade in product management and go-to-market roles with enterprise-software companies like Keynote Systems (Nasdaq: KEYN), Manhattan Associates (Nasdaq: MANH) and two other startups leading to their acquisition.
In 2016, Dharmesh was named to the Forbes Midas Brink list of up-and-coming venture capitalists, and in 2018 he was included on Business Insider’s 23 Top Venture Capitalists in Enterprise Tech list. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he received a BS in electrical engineering, Dharmesh also holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
He is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch, and has a regular column in Forbes.
JISHNU BHATTACHARJEE
Managing Partner, Nexus Venture Partners
Aug 21, 2019
Topic: Learn about Nexus Venture Partners' Investment Strategy with Managing Partner Jishnu Bhattacharjee
Speaker Bio:
Jishnu Bhattacharjee is Managing Director at Nexus Venture Partners, a leading US - India venture capital firm, investing in innovative early to early-growth stage companies. Jishnu brings several years of operating and investing expertise in hi-technology start-ups. He has invested in technology infrastructure, data, AI, devOps and is interested in a wide range of start-ups. Jishnu’s current board involvements include Postman, Druva, H20.ai, Headspin, Helpshift, Rancher Labs, Minio, Blueshift, and variety of other companies. His investments also include Mezi (acquired by American Express), Cloud.com (acquired by Citrix), Gluster (acquired by Red Hat), Arkin (acquired by VMware) and Elastic Box (acquired by Century Link).
Jishnu is an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and holds MS from Georgia Tech and BTech from IIT Kharagpur in electronics engineering and is an inventor on more than twenty US patents.
NAVIN CHADDHA
Managing Partner, Mayfield Fund
July 30, 2019
Topic: Learn about Mayfield's Investment Strategy
Agenda:
9.30-10am Networking and Refreshments
10-11am Mayfield's Investment Strategy overview + Q&A
11am-12pm Networking
Speaker Bio:
Navin leads Mayfield. Under his leadership, Mayfield has raised $1.5 billion in new capital through six funds – (four US and two dedicated India funds); partnered with over 100 entrepreneurs; been involved in the successful financial outcome of 39 portfolio companies; expanded the investing team with world-class professionals; and assembled a comprehensive team of portfolio services executives. He invests in the enterprise and consumer sectors.
Navin has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, has ranked on the Forbes Midas List of Global Tech Investors eleven times, and appeared on the New York Times/CB Insights list of top investors every year since its first appearance 4 years ago.
During his venture capital career, Navin has invested in over 50 companies, of which 17 have gone public and 18 have been acquired. Some of his current investments include Fungible, HashiCorp, InfluxData, Lyft, and Poshmark.
As an entrepreneur, Navin has co-founded or led three startups including VXtreme, a streaming media platform, acquired by Microsoft to become Windows Media.
Navin holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi, where he was honored with the distinguished IIT Alumni Award.
GURU CHAHAL
Partner, LightSpeed Venture Partners
July 16, 2019
Topic: Learn about Lightspeed's Investment Strategy
Agenda:
10-10.30am Networking and Refreshments
10.30-11.30am Lightspeed Investment Strategy overview + Q&A
11.30am-12pm Networking
Speaker Bio:
Guru Chahal is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners focusing on early stage enterprise startups in cloud, security, DevOps, observability and enterprise IT. He first joined the Lightspeed team in 2012 and then joined the founding team at Avi Networks (one of his investments) to help build out the early stages of the business. Back at Lightspeed after his time at Avi Networks, Guru leverages his founding experience, product expertise and extensive customer network in helping entrepreneurs through funding and beyond. During his operational career, he has been part of three product lines as they’ve gone from inception to over a billion dollar run rate. His previous roles include product leadership roles at Avi Networks (next generation application services), Nuova Systems (acquired by Cisco), and Tropos Networks (acquired by ABB). Guru started his career as a software engineer at Cisco Systems, working on distributed systems within networking and holds several patents in the space.
PRAVEEN AKKIRAJU
Managing Partner, Softbank Vision Fund
May 15, 2019
Topic: Learn about Softbank Vision Fund's Investment Strategy with Managing Partner Praveen Akkiraju
Agenda:
9.30-10am Networking and Refreshments
10-11am Softbank Investment Strategy overview + Q&A (Praveen Akkiraju)
11am-12pm Networking
The event will be streamed live over video conferencing and also held in person at U First Capital office (3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, California, Event Room 2130). You can attend the event in person or online. Speaker will join in person from U First Capital office. These events are intended to be interactive, so attendees will get a chance to ask questions.
Speaker Bio:
Praveen is a Managing Partner at the Softbank Vision Fund and brings extensive engineering & operational experience from his role as CEO of companies at different stages of their lifecycle from startups to turnarounds to hyper growth. He is passionate about partnering with entrepreneurs who are leveraging technology & business model disruption to build important value creating Enterprise and Consumer companies.
Prior to joining SBIA, Praveen served as the CEO at Viptela, Inc. a Cloud Software (SDN) platform that redefined Enterprise infrastructure and its economics. He successfully grew the startup to $100m in run rate revenues leading up to an acquisition by Cisco Systems, Inc. Earlier Praveen served as the CEO at VCE, LLC, a pioneering company that created a new market category disrupting the Data Center/Private Cloud infrastructure market. During his tenure, VCE grew to becoming one of the fastest companies to achieve US$1bn in revenues. Praveen started his career at Cisco leading engineering teams that developed some of the key multi-billion dollar routing platforms, as General Manager he was responsible for Cisco's Enterprise and Telecom Infrastructure Technology Groups. Praveen holds BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.
BARRY EGGERS
Founder and Managing Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners
April 18, 2019
Topic: Q&A with Lightspeed Venture Partners' Founding Partner Barry Eggers
Speaker Bio:
A founding partner at Lightspeed, Barry is something of a Silicon Valley pioneer.
After all, as a native of Sunnyvale, he remembers when the area was filled not with startups but with cherry and apricot orchards. And although he attended undergrad at UCLA, he soon returned to the valley to earn an MBA at Stanford.
He’s been here ever since. After grad school, Barry worked in M&A at Cisco Systems, in San Jose, and later, by the recommendation of his old friend and classmate Chris Schaepe, became a partner at Weiss, Peck & Greer.
It was here, in late 1999, that he and Chris, along with Ravi Mhatre and Peter Nieh, set out to found Lightspeed. In addition to building out the firm, Barry specializes in information technology infrastructure with a focus on analytic platforms, cloud, IoT, networking, and emerging infrastructure.
And yet, he insists technology isn’t his strong suit.
“I’m an economics undergrad, so I don’t lead with technology IQ,” he says. “I like to rely on EQ.”
It’s this emotional intelligence that has enabled him to foster strong relationships throughout the valley, which he says are just as important as big ideas when it comes to building great companies. That’s why he focuses his efforts on providing leverage to entrepreneurs rather than creating overhead.
“There’s a fine line between the two,” he says. “Whether it’s a set of customer intros, helping them hire the people they want to hire, partner introductions, or introductions to investors during a financing—whatever I’m doing, it’s giving founders leverage.”
ASHMEET SIDANA
Founder and Managing Partner, Engineering Capital
Topic: Market Size: A Venture Capitalist's perspective
February 28, 2019
Veteran Venture Capitalist Ashmeet Sidana will explore how an entrepreneur should consider market size for a startup. Using previously confidential emails of investment decisions in companies such as YouTube, he will highlight the key pitfalls and simple techniques every entrepreneur should consider. His seminar will answer these questions:
Why the market size matters
Advantages/disadvantages of Top-down and Bottoms-Up market sizing
Impact of winning products on the market size
Speaker Bio:
Ashmeet is the Founder and Chief Engineer of Engineering Capital. His experience includes managing venture capital funds, serving on multiple Boards of Directors, and helping build the industry leading products VMware ESX Server and Silicon Graphics WebFORCE.
Before his last decade as a venture capitalist, Ashmeet was an operating executive with hands-on operating experience as a CEO and entrepreneur. Ashmeet came to venture from VMware, where he ran product management for their flagship product—ESX Server. Before VMware, Ashmeet was the Founder and CEO of Sidana Systems, Inc. He started his career at Hewlett Packard and Silicon Graphics as an engineer.
Ashmeet’s previous investments include Azure (NYSE: AZRE), Palerra (acquired by Oracle), Freewheel (acquired by Comcast), InQuira (acquired by Oracle), Altor (acquired by Juniper), Appurify (acquired by Google), PrivateCore (acquired by Facebook) and StackStorm (acquired by Brocade). He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Baffle, RuperBot, Sail Internet, vFunction and Xockets. His current investments include Baffle, Binaris, Rubrik, Diamanti, Gyroscope, Kentik, Menlo Security, Netsil, Nexla, Prismo Systems, RuperBot, Sail Internet, SignalFx, vFunction, Xockets and YotaScale.
Ashmeet received an MBA from Wharton, MS in Computer Science from Stanford University and a BS in Computer Science summa cum laude from USC. In his spare-time he can be found planning his second trip to Mt. Everest.
NITIN CHOPRA
Partner, Shasta Ventures
March 26, 2019
Topic: Learn about Shasta Ventures' Investment Strategy
https://shastaventures.com/team/nitin-chopra/
Speaker Bio:
Nitin Chopra is a Partner at Shasta Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm. Nitin is passionate about enterprise software and invests in infrastructure software, particularly in security and data technologies. He serves as a board director of Cequence Security, ISARA, SlamData, FogLogic and Kubit AI, and is actively involved with Shasta Ventures’ investments in LucidWorks, Data.World, ValiMail, Lightbend, Aquera and Macrometa.
Nitin routinely interacts with Fortune 500 IT Executives and holds executive roundtables with enterprise IT executives and venture-backed start-up CEOs. Prior to joining Shasta Ventures, Nitin spent a number of years in Product Management, and worked across Canada, Germany and the USA. Nitin earned an MBA degree from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from McMaster University, where Nitin is a member of McMaster University Faculty of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Board.