SVASE MAIN EVENT: Angel Investors – Alive, Kicking & Investing! April 5, 2007

Angel Investors – Alive, Kicking & Investing!

Date: Thursday, April 05, 2007 At 06:00
Duration: 2 Hours 30 Minutes
Contact Info:
Laura Weigant Email: info@svase.org
URL: svase.org/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=149&extmode=view&extid=816

Angel investing has been down substantially following the dot.com bust, but is now showing signs of recovery. How have the dynamics and metrics of Angel investing changed during this time? Is becoming an Angel still an attractive investing option? What are the metrics Angels look for in their investments today? What technologies & deals are most attractive to Angel investors right now? And what types of people are becoming Angels Investors, and why?

Seeking Angel Funding, want to become an Angel?

This lively panel discussion will explore current trends and panelist opinions on topics including:
• How have the dynamics of Angel investing changed in recent years?
• What are the current trends in Angel investing?
• Is Angel Investing still interesting for High Net Worth Individuals?
• What type of people are becoming Angel Investors, and why?
• What are the metrics Angels look for in their investments today?
• How are Angels working with Venture Capitalists?
• What technologies and deals are most attractive to Angel investors right now?

The Panel:
• Allan May, Chairman and Founder, Life Science Angles
• Carol Sands, Managing Member and Founder, The Angel’s Forum
• Dr. Ian Sobieski, Founder and Managing Director, Band of Angels
• Steve Stephansen, President and Founding Member, Sand Hill Angels

Moderator: Rich Brenner, CEO, The Brenner Group, Inc.

WHEN: Thursday, April 5
6:00 – 7:00 pm: Business showcase, networking and hors d’oeuvres
7:00 - 8:15 pm: Panel discussion and Q/A
8:15 - 8:30 pm: Additional networking

LOCATION:
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR Campus), 950 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, 94304

To reserve an Exhibit Table:
Contact Info@svase.org, $500 Members, $1,000 Non-members.

PRE-REGISTERED RATES (All Rates Include Hors D’oeuvres):
Members - $20; Affiliates who advertise this event - $29; General Public - $49

WALK-IN RATES: Add $10.00 to the listed price

Seating is limited, so early registration is recommended to avoid disappointment on the day.

Speakers Bios

Richard Brenner, CEO, The Brenner Group, Inc.
Rich has more than thirty years of experience in general and financial management and has assisted many high-growth companies in the roles of President, General Manager, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Rich's contributions have centered on helping companies establish the infrastructure to manage growth, raise capital, and grow through acquisition. His accomplishments include: establishing the operational controls to support annual revenue growth from zero to more than $60 million in less than two years; negotiating mergers and acquisitions worth more than $75 million; managing international marketing and distribution subsidiaries; and driving successful public and private debt and equity placements.

Prior to founding The Brenner Group, Rich held executive level positions at Formaster Corporation (now TRACE Products), Corvus Systems Inc., US Leasing International Inc., ITEL Corporation, National BankAmericard (now VISA) and Autographic Business Forms Inc. He also served as venture capital consultant to Hillman Ventures. Rich holds a B.S. degree in Accounting with a minor in Management Information Systems from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Allan May, Chairman and Founder, Life Science Angles
Allan has been a founder, board member and/or CEO of a number of early stage companies in medical device and biotechnology including Athenagen (an LSA company), MAST Immunosystems, Intella Interventional Systems, Quanam Medical, ImmuneTech, NuGEN Technologies, AngstroVision, IntegriGen, Imetrx, and Vascular Architects. Previously, Mr. May was Senior Vice President of Diasonics, Inc., a NYSE-listed medical imaging company manufacturing and distributing MRI, ultrasound, fluoroscopic and therapeutic devices, and President and COO of Fortune Systems Corporation, a NASDAQ-traded developer of microprocessor based file servers utilizing the Unix operating system. He also has extensive experience in negotiating and consummating mergers and acquisitions, having been involved in over 100 transactions.

Mr. May was named Biotech Angel Of The Year for 2001 by the International Association of Angels, and was a director for the Cardiac BioInterventions course held in San Francisco in 2002. He lectures frequently on trends and developments affecting biotech and life science investing, including the Windhover Magazine Start-Up Symposium, the Paine Webber Health Conference, the American Health Consultants Conference for Medical Device Executives, the Health Internet Congress, the Wilson Sonsini Medical Device Update Conference, the BioMEMS Nanotechnology Conference, Emerging Technologies in Cardiovascular Disease, and the First Annual Biotechnology Industry Organization BioVentureForum.

Carol Sands - Managing Member and Founder, Angel’s Forum
As the founder and the Managing Member of The Halo Funds and The Angels’ Forum, Carol Sands has spent the last 35 years with investing, entrepreneurial, and/or large corporate institutions.

Carol’s career started in the Midwest where she held marketing or sales positions at First Bank Systems, Motorola, and Xerox Computer Services. Later when she moved to San Francisco, she was hired into executive positions at Arthur Young (now Ernst & Young) and Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers). In 1986, Carol founded MarketingPlus, a sales management and marketing consulting firm. She later started a related advertising agency and a public relations group.

In 1997, she incorporated The Angels’ Forum Management Company, a revolutionary company that organizes individual investors of start-up companies to invest as a single entity using a venture capital model for due diligence, mentoring, and board management. Members of The Angels’ Forum are professional private equity investors who have significant previous entrepreneurial experience.

In 2000, Carol founded The Halo Fund Management Company. The Halo Fund, a $25 million venture fund invested in early stage, Silicon Valley based start-ups. Halo Fund II, with Carol continuing as the Managing Member, closed in 2005. The Halo Opportunity Fund closed in January 2006.

In addition to her investment based responsibilities, Carol is the Chair of the Global Women’s Leadership Network, and a board advisor to Facing History and Ourselves. She is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), an Advisory Board Member for Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE) and the ANZA Technology Network, as well as a member of The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & Executives (FEW&E) and the Women’s Forum West. Carol received her B.A. in Business Administration from The University of Iowa.

Dr. Ian Sobieski, Founder and Managing Director, Band of Angels
Dr. Ian Sobieski, Ph.D., is a founder and managing director of the Band of Angels Fund, L.P., a $50M venture fund raised in 1999 exclusively from major institutions, and has helped lead the Band of Angels since 1997. Immediately prior to joining the Band, Ian served as an executive and director at internet start-up Evite.com and in engineering positions at medical device company Enact Health Management and Kaman Aerospace. Ian has managed more than 40 direct investments totaling $30M, has served on fourteen boards of directors, and currently serves on three.

He has a Ph.D. and M.S. in Aeronautics from Stanford University, a B.A. degree in Philosophy and a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech. Ian is a founding board member of the Angel Capital Association and is a member of the Young Venture Capitalists Association, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the National Ski Patrol. He is the author of a dozen technical publications and is an appointed Lecturer in the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the University of California at Berkeley, where he teaches a course in Entrepreneurial Finance.

Steve Stephansen, President and Founding Member, Sand Hill Angels
Steve Stephansen is a founding member and serves as President of Sand Hill Angels, Inc. Steve has over twenty-five years of experience in a variety of product markets; including mobile software, enterprise software and a variety of semiconductor products areas.
Steve was the CEO of WebV2, Inc., a Siemens AG spinout that introduced a distributed business process software solution for mobile devices. The solution enabled a mobile worker to orchestrate a workflow or business process on notebooks or smartphones with enterprise systems and co-workers.

Steve was the VP of Marketing, Sales, and Business Development at venture-backed, Information Storage Devices (ISD). ISD introduced a single-chip voice recording and playback product that enabled the creation of a variety of consumer products and new features in cellular phones. He grew sales from $0 to $55M/annum within four years that led to successful IPO and secondary public offerings.

Steve also led marketing and sales at several venture-backed startups that provided semiconductor products directed at high performance computing markets and hardware/software for video streaming. In addition, he has provided management consulting to a variety of companies in EDA, networking components, electronic system packaging and cooling, and enterprise software.

He began his career at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) where he served in a variety of engineering, marketing, and sales management roles. He later rejoined AMD as VP of Strategic Marketing of the Flash Memory Division.

Steve holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University, an MS in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an MBA from Santa Clara University, and an MS in Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he attended the Sloan Program.

Official Website: http://svase.org/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=149&extmode=view&extid=816