Jumpstart your startup with a new series from Women 2.0 to help bring your business idea to reality. Jumper cables in the trunk? Check. Gas? Check. Brakes? All good.
“Jumpstart Your Startup” consists of 5 two-hour Thursday classes in Palo Alto and 2 full-day Saturday classes in San Francisco. Workshops utilize discussion forums and working sessions.
- Discussion sessions will be run by Naeem Zafar, faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, startup veteran, and advisor to entrepreneurs.
- Hands-on working sessions will be guided by successful women executives, VCs, and entrepreneurs providing “from the trenches” feedback and insight.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
Women with an idea for a startup and/or a startup in the making. If a part of a founding team, attendees may invite one or more team members (male or female). Each participant registers with the same application, but pays individually.
TAKEAWAY FROM COURSE
You will work with your team, or on your own, to research potential, perform analysis to identify resources, and write a simple business plan (or at least a good executive summary). By course completion, participants will have evaluated the strength and potential of their business idea and prepared the following tangibles: a market size-up, a deck of slides, and a business plan including financial projections.
WHY SHOULD I ATTEND?
You have an idea that you are passionate about. Maybe you already have a beta, maybe you don’t. This is your opportunity to test out the idea – Is it sustainable? Will it be profitable? Is it differentiated enough to win? You want to network with other entrepreneurs. We are inviting as special guests and speakers the entrepreneurs who are living the dream, and the investors who contribute to the growth of their ventures. Gain valuable advice from these industry experts.
HOW TO APPLY FOR YOUR SPOT IN THIS WORKSHOP SERIES
Women 2.0 will be selecting up to 25 attendees based on an application with the following five questions:
- Please explain your desire to be an entrepreneur and any past experiences that have helped you in the shaping of this goal: (e.g.: professors, clubs, associations, conferences, books, speakers, etc).
- Please tell us in a few sentences what your strengths/abilities are and how your contribution is going to positively impact the success of the startup.
- Do have a business or an idea? If yes, describe why your idea is unique and why has it not been addressed yet in today’s market?
- Do you have a team? If yes, is your whole team planning to attend this event?
To apply for a spot in the Women 2.0 Jumpstart Your Startup workshop series, email your answers to the above questions to Baat Enosh at baat@women2.org — We will be enrolling selected participants on a first-come, first-serve basis so you should apply ASAP because space is limited!
CALENDAR
Saturday, January 17th: The Nuts and Bolts of Starting a Business
What does it take to start a business? Idea evaluation. How do you set up the company? How to find a team? How do you assign an equity structure? Who gets what and why?
Guest Speaker: Marleen McDaniel (CEO, Lightworks)
Homework: Think through your business ideas and apply the 5 filters we discussed, and submit your findings in the next class.
Thursday, January 22nd: Tuning Your Idea (Working Session)
2-3 teams present their findings, Q&A, working session to identify and fine tune ideas.
Guest Speaker: Betty Kayton (Founder and CEO, InnovativeCFO)
Thursday, January 29th: Make the Drive Last: An Idea with Strong Wheels Makes a Great Business
How to do market research? Where to look? What is a business model? How do you build simple financial models? What does it take to raise capital?
Homework: Develop a market research plan for your business, and present your business model and results of market research at the next class.
Thursday, February 5th: Check the Oil, Lube, and Filter: Running Your Business (Working Session)
2-3 teams present their findings, Q&A, working session to identify and fine tune ideas
Guest Speaker: Kirsten Spoljaric (Co-Founder and Director of Human Resources, Mashery)
Thursday, February 12th: Start Your Engine: Ways To Execute The Drive
What is a business plan? How to prepare a good one? Learn about preparing and presenting great business plans.
Homework: Think through what you will launch your company, and present your findings at the next class.
Saturday, February 21st: Getting Ready for the Big Race! (Working Session)
Come prepared with a 10-slide pitch – we will work with all teams and a few teams may present and seek peer feedback and coaching. Guest speakers will share their tricks and stories. Financial models sharing from 3 teams and peer feedback
Guest Speaker: Patricia Handschiegel (Founder, StyleDiary), Megan Casey (Founding Member & Editor In Chief, Squidoo)
Thursday, February 26th: Race Day – Final presentations!
All teams will present their final pitch & get peer feedback. Keynote speaker.
Keynote Speaker: Cynthia Ringo (Managing Partner, DBL Investors)
SCHEDULE AND LOCATION
Thursday Sessions
6:30pm – 7:00pm: Appetizers and other brain food
7:00pm – 8:30pm: Session
*Thursday workshops will be held at Pillsbury Law in Palo Alto, CA (map)
Saturday Working Sessions
10:00am – 4:00pm Working Session (Lunch included)
*Saturday workshops will held at Cooley Godward Kronish LLP in San Francisco, CA (map)
MISSION STATEMENT
Women 2.0 is committed to increasing the number of women entrepreneurs starting high growth ventures by providing the resources, network, and knowledge for the launch and growth of their companies.
Our vision is to be a catalyst for change, mobilizing a global community of ambitious women entrepreneurs seeking to advance the world through technology.
This event is the first in a series of events to connect young women entrepreneurs with angels, investors, and venture capitalists.
CONTACT
Baat Enosh
baat@women2.org
* * *
Naeem Zafar (Lecturer, Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley)
Naeem is a part of the faculty of Haas business school at the University of California at Berkeley where he teaches Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the MBA program. Naeem founded Concordia Ventures, and focuses on educating and advising entrepreneurs with all aspects of starting and running a company. Naeem has been with six startups in Silicon Valley California (three of them as the president and CEO) and has extensive experience in mentoring and coaching entrepreneurs. He is now starting his next venture under the name of Institute for Service Organization Excellence (ISOE). Naeem holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Brown University (magna cum laude), Rhode Island, and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota. Naeem serves on advisory board of six companies and is a charter member of TiE (world’s largest nonprofit focused on fostering entrepreneurship) and a charter member of OPEN.
About the Guest Speakers:
Betty Kayton (Founder and CEO, InnovativeCFO)
Betty has over 25 years of experience in the technology industry, as a key member of the executive team at high-growth, venture-funded start-ups. Her contribution ranges from strategic planning and fund raising to tactical challengers such as building appropriate infrastructure without stifling growth. Betty concurrently serves as CFO of several high tech companies, and previously was CFO at Leapfrog, Nominum, MGA Entertainment, and senior financial management positions at Fortune 500 companies. She was certified as a CPA while working for Ernst & Young. Betty holds an MBA from the University of Southern California and a BA from Pomona College.
Cynthia Ringo (Managing Partner, DBL Investors)
Cynthia is a Managing Partner of DBL Investors, which she joined in April of 2008. She was formerly a Managing Director of VantagePoint Venture Partners from 2002 to 2008 where she was Group Leader of the Communications, Systems, Internet and Media Practice. Prior to VantagePoint, Cynthia served as the CEO of Coppercom, a next-generation network switching company. Cynthia served on the board of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs from 2000 to 2004, and as Chair of the Board for 2001 through 2003. Cynthia received a B.S. in Legal Systems from Georgia State University and a JD from Emory University School of Law.
Kirsten Spoljaric (Co-Founder and Director of Human Resources, Mashery)
As co-founder and director of human resources for Mashery, Kirsten brings strong operational experience and a proven track record of success in staffing organizations. Before joining Mashery, Kirsten was director of human resources for Feedster where she created a human resources department and implemented an aggressive hiring plan that tripled the staff size within the first quarter. Previously, Spoljaric was a human resources manager for Spear Technologies where she managed staffing plans for both the U.S. and the U.K. Kirsten holds a Bachelor of Science in psychology with a minor in business administration from the University of Oregon.
Marleen McDaniel (CEO, Lightworks)
Marleen’s career spans over 30 years in high technology. A serial entrepreneur, she has been a part of many startup companies. Some of them are 3Com, Sun Microsystems, Crescendo (now Cisco), and Women.com (now part of NBC). Over the course of this career, Marleen was able to rise sequentially into positions of greater authority until she became CEO and Chairman of Women.com, growing the company to more than $50 million in revenue and raising $175 million in capital in 5 private equity rounds. She took the company public in 2000 and then successfully sold it in 2001. Marleen holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley.
Megan Casey (Founding Member & Editor in Chief, Squidoo)
Megan is a founding member and the Editor in Chief of Squidoo. Before starting Squidoo, Megan spent 6 years in book publishing, most recently at the Portfolio business books imprint of Penguin Group, USA. There she developed pioneering marketing and technology books from the likes of John Battelle, Seth Godin, Bo Burlingham, Rod Beckstrom and Ori Braufman, and Dave Balter - among countless others. Megan is now widely regarded as one of the most inspiring community leaders online (and, irrelevantly, the youngest). She is also a user experience and marketing consultant for several author websites, and once upon a time ran her own author website development company. Megan holds a B.A. in English and Art History from Vassar College.
Patricia Handschiegel (Founder, StyleDiary)
Patricia is the founder of StyleDiary (sold November 2007) and 9 Group, a digital consulting and production company founded in 2008. She was an advisor to Kaboodle (sold to Hearst), an active speaker at conferences, and writes about media/TV business for TV Week and Huffington Post. Always an entrepreneur, she had a highly profitable babysitting monopoly at 11, lent her writing skill to students at 17 and landed her first published national article at 23. Patricia’s worked as a ghost writer for a national TV correspondent and has been quoted in more than two hundred media outlets. An aspiring serial entrepreneur, she plans to continue to build media projects with the goal to benefit social change and charity. Patricia is currently involved in the use of technology to help missing and abused children, and has contributed financially to TheJoyfulChild.org and other organizations.
