MIT Venture Lab Vision Series -- Building a Scalable Business -- November 1st

"Building a Scalable Business"
(Part three of the Business Vision Series)
One Union Square Boardroom
600 University St., First Level
(Lower lobby, 6th Avenue level, behind the escalator)Seattle, WA 98101

So what’s it really like after you get your financing?
The game has changed – you have some great new opportunities, responsibilities and partners.

The goal is to take the capital and turn your vision into a scalable business that accomplishes the planned milestones and more importantly realizes and hopefully exceeds the planned value creation. But it’s not always that easy.

In the third event of the fall Venture Lab series on business vision, Tim Porter of the Madrona Venture Group and Mark Mader, of Smartsheet will discuss issues faced by newly financed companies as they build their business. Please join them as they share their knowledge, experience and perspective surrounding this exciting topic.

Topics covered will include:
· Pre-funding expectations versus post-funding reality
· Working effectively with your new VC board member(s)
· Common mistakes made by companies at this stage and how to avoid making them
· Trade-offs between scaling quickly and managing burn rate
· Nailing your distribution strategy
· Prioritizing product releases -- which features are in and which are out?

Speakers:
Tim Porter – Madrona Venture Group
Tim joined Madrona in 2006 and works on evaluating and executing investments across Madrona’s focus areas of software, wireless and Internet. In addition to serving as a Board Observer for Smartsheet, he is also actively working with Madrona portfolio companies illumita, Intrepid Learning Systems, Mercent, Schemalogic, Sourcelabs, and Triphub. Prior to joining Madrona, Tim was a key member of Corporate Development at Microsoft where he shared responsibilities for sourcing, structuring, and negotiating Microsoft’s acquisitions, strategic investments and joint ventures. While at Microsoft, Tim focused on enterprise software, security and wireless and completed 14 transactions for over $850 million. Earlier in his career, Tim worked for broadband satellite start-up Teledesic, spending part of his time there working for Craig McCaw’s Eagle River Investments. Tim received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Mark Mader – CEO – Smartsheet
Mark Mader is the CEO of Smartsheet.com. Before joining Smartsheet, Mark was at Onyx Software Corporation, where he served as senior Vice President of Global Services, leading the professional services and software maintenance groups. Mark joined Onyx in 1995 as one of the early members of the team. In addition to overseeing service operations in the Americas, Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Australia, Mark was a Director of Onyx KK, Onyx’s joint venture in Japan. Prior to Onyx, he worked at Greenwich Associates as an Associate focusing on European financial markets. Mark graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography (AB) in 1992.

Workshop Location: One Union Square Boardroom, 600 University Street, Seattle, WA 98101 (Lower lobby, Street level, behind the escalator)
5:30 - 6:00 PM - Registration and Networking 6:00 - 8:00 PM - Presentation
Parking: Covered parking is available in the Union Square building garage, accessible from 7th Avenue. Tip: arrive after 5:00pm for their $6 evening rate.
Registration: Seminar cost will be $25.00 per attendee. In addition, the cost of parking for the evening is $6.00 after 5:00pm. Reservations may be arranged as follows: - Register online at www.mitwa.org until 5:00 pm, October 31st, 2007.- Phone registrations at (425) 771-4790 accepted until noon October 31st - Onsite registration begins at 5:30 pm November 1st, space permitting - VISA, MasterCard and American Express are welcome