GSV: In Front of the Crowd

The investing landscape for angels and institutional VCs is changing with the introduction of equity crowdfunding and the rapid growth of startup accelerators and incubators.

To help investors get out “In Front of the Crowd”, GSV Capital and nestGSV are hosting an event highlighting the impacts from the dynamic changes in the equity crowdfunding industry and the dramatic rise of accelerators, incubators and ecobators.

Agenda: 

2:30pm - 3:00pm   Registration and Tour of nestGSV

3:00pm - 3:15pm   Opening Remarks: Michael Moe

3:15pm - 3:30pm   State of Crowdfunding: Jason Best

3:30pm - 4:15pm   To Be or Not To Be - Equity Crowdfunding: Jenny Kassan, Jason Best, Jim Connor, Steve Cinelli, Stephen Temes. Moderated by Ari Levy.

4:15pm - 4:25pm   Introduction to nestGSV: Kayvan Baroumand

4:25pm - 5:15pm   The Rise of Accelerators, Incubators and Ecobators: Kayvan Baroumand, Matt Holleran, Dan Dascalescu, Paul Spinrad, David Koehn. Moderated by Ari Levy.

5:00pm - 6:30pm   Wine Tasting and Networking

Our Stellar Speakers:

Michael Moe, CFA

Chairman & CEO, GSV Capital

Michael is well known and regarded as one of the world’s preeminent authorities on growth investing. His insights are routinely solicited by everyone from CNBC to Barron’s to Congress. Recognized as one of the best and brightest investors on Wall Street, his honors include Institutional Investor's “All American” research team, The Wall Street Journal's “Best on the Street” award, and being named by Business Week as “one of the best stock pickers in the country.” Full Bio 

Kayvan Baroumand

Founder & CEO, nestGSV

Having long evangelized the concept of “Global Entrepreneurship,” Kayvan has now founded nestGSV, the physical manifestation of his creed. Before starting this enterprise, Kayvan was the founding COO of Plug and Play Tech Center and most recently the President of Always On. He has over 15 years of management and international business experience in the technology manufacturing and distribution sectors, and a strong network in the venture capital and angel investment community. Full Bio 

Jenny Kassan

CEO, Cutting Edge Capital

Jenny has over seventeen years of experience as an attorney for and creator of social enterprises. She has raised funds for and launched a public space cleaning and maintenance business, a landscapers’ cooperative, and a public market. She has extensive experience with direct public offerings, nonprofit-for-profit joint ventures, cooperatives, and creative financing tools. She has a law degree from Yale and a masters in city planning from U.C. Berkeley. Full Bio

Matt Holleran

Venture Partner, Emergence Capital Partners

Matt Holleran is a Venture Partner at Emergence. He defines new investment strategies, leads investments and takes board seats. He started and leads the firm's Business Freemium Strategy. He sourced and was a board member of ServiceMax and sourced and is a board observer of Box. He also led the investment in Insightly and is a board member. Full Bio

Jason Best

Principal, Crowdfund Capital Advisors

As a successful investor and entrepreneur, Jason brings over 10 years of executive leadership experience founding and leading companies, one of which earned an INC 500 award two years in a row as one of 500 fastest growing private companies in the U.S. He has served as a member of the leadership team in two companies that raised over $40 million in private capital. Jason understands the challenges facing entrepreneurs and the important role that capital, execution and mentorship play in the development of successful high-growth businesses. Full Bio

Dan Dascalescu

CTO, Blueseed

Dan is an ex-Yahoo! software developer, technical writer and knowledge manager, with a broad vision of the tech arena. He is a seasteading ambassador, connected with the open source and emergent tech circles, and is excited about making big ideas happen. Prior to Blueseed, he founded the Quantified Self Forum, worked in satellite communications in Belgium and co-authored and translated a number of IT books in Romanian.

Jim Connor

Board, Sand Hill Angels

Jim Connor has been involved in software applications addressing the capital markets for the past 20 years in multiple roles. He has been a founder/CEO, CFO, Treasurer and angel investor. Jim serves as a Board Director and Treasurer of the Sand Hill Angels, is a Board Director of Liftopia, First Focus Learning Systems and the Angel Capital Association (ACA). He serves on the Advisory Board of the New Schools Venture Fund, Tabtor and Noca. Jim was the founder and CEO of SymPro, Inc., managed the acquisition with JP Morgan Chase and served as the Division President until 2007. Jim has a personal investment interest in the Educational Technology sector, perceiving that the time right for affordable technology to broaden access and the quality of educational content delivery available to all types of students.

Stephen Temes

Co-founder and Chairman, EarlyShares

Stephen is a highly successful trader with over 25 years of experience in the equity and option markets. He brings his strong investment acumen to bear in scrutinizing small business applicants and investor feasibility. Stephen is the Founder and Managing Director of Lincoln Capital LLC, a hedge fund, and Lincoln Partners Group LLC, a venture capital fund.

 

Paul Spinrad

MAKE Magazine, Wired

Paul Spinrad is starting a publication that does for the crowdfunding revolution what Wired did for the digital revolution in the 1990s and MAKE has been doing for the maker movement: invite people in, empower them to do exciting new things, cover the changing landscape, wax philosophical, be critical, and generally offer a trustworthy, independent voice for this new movement of grassroots empowerment. Paul was the first person to propose and pursue a crowdfunding exemption to U.S. securities laws, which was passed as part of the JOBS Act of 2012. Some have called this the most significant change to securities laws since the 1930s. Full Bio.

 

Steve Cinelli

The Soho Loft

Steve has been engaged in corporate finance and strategy for a couple of decades, and has been a proponent of the use of technology in capital formation. After lengthy stints at Bank of America and Security Pacific, largely in highly leveraged finance, he joined Knightsbridge Partners, a private equity firm. As a predecessor to the crowd funding movement, he co-founded OffRoad Capital in 1999, which was the first online market for unregistered securities, aggregating 12,000 global investors, and facilitated private financings up to $20 million in days not months. Addressing the needs of the housing industry, he founded PRIMARQ, another private market system intending to change the over-leveraged world of housing finance. Its formal launch is scheduled for April 2013. Steve sits on the boards of CFIRA and CFPA, and has been an active contributor to Congressional discussions on mortgage and GSE reform.

David Koehn

Member, Sand Hill Angels

David has over 15 years experience focused on entrepreneurship and innovation. David has founded several start-ups including one focused on ecotourism and another focused on enterprise mobility. David has also assisted many start-ups in their growth and invests in about 6 deals a year. David has helped start-ups in many ways from assuming the CEO role and closing a series C, to transforming their business models and market approaches, to acting as a senior advisor, board observer, and board advisor. Full Bio

Our Fabulous Moderator:

Ari Levy

Reporter, Bloomberg News

As a technology reporter at Bloomberg, Ari Levy has covered networking, Internet and mobility while following deals and dealmakers in private equity and venture capital. He joined Bloomberg in 2003 as a stock market reporter in New York and moved to San Francisco in 2006 to write about Silicon Valley, focusing on startups over the past three years. He is also a regular contributor to Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Ari has a master’s degree in business journalism from Baruch College in New York.

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