— Paul Leboffe of White & Lee LLP
Paul will present a hypothetical Company and situations that illustrate certain principles of law and business as it is normally conducted in the Valley. Situations presented will include: (a) starting a Company while employed, (b) selecting the corporate entity, (c) creating and protecting intellectual property, (d) capital structure and incentive compensation issues, (e) early stage financings and valuation issues, and, (f) how and when to identify and successfully retain legal counsel.
— Ted James, T.E. James, Inc.
Ted will address how young companies can prepare a Business Plan that will interest early-stage investors. Topics include: (a) whether to create the plan in-house, or outsource development of the plan to a professional, (b) use of executive summaries vs. full-blown business plans, (c) ideal length and critical topics to be covered, (d) how to make a convincing business case, (e) confidentiality concerns, and whether to tell the whole story, (f) use of illustrations, charts, and client testimonials, (g) level of outside research on market and competitors, (h) how to overcome concerns about a weak management team, (i) use of projections, assumptions, and level of detail, (j) what to avoid in the plan (i.e., returns on investment, hyperbole, etc.) and (k) how to distribute the plan, to whom, and how to attract attention.
Speakers #1 and #2: - "Identifying and Building Your Team" – Panel with Tom Miller of Sapiential Partners and Susan Jochheim of Execustaff
Tom and Susan will generally address how startups can identify, attract and pay for management talent as well as technical, marketing and administrative staff. Tom will focus on issues in hiring and retaining key management (i.e., CEO, CFO, COO, CTO, etc.), and Susan will focus on issues related to hiring and retaining staff level employees. Specifically, Tom will focus on the use of interim management, addressing such topics as: (a) the organizations offering interim management solutions, (b) the type of opportunities sought by such interim management, (c) typical compensation and benefit structures of interim management, and (d) the advantages and disadvantages of using interim management – from the perspective of founders, venture capital firms (and other investors) and employees.
Susan will focus on: (a) how to identify and hire quality staff without going through headhunters, (b) normal pay scales for staff pre and post funding, and by category of employee, (c) the benefits, pitfalls and expenses of employee leasing, and (d) critical employee policies, practices and programs needed to attract and retain staff in young companies.
Speaker #3: "Equity Compensation – Issues and Answers" — Dee DiPietro of Advanced-HR
Dee's presentation will cover: (a) the mix between cash and stock used by most companies, and how this changes pre- and post-financing, (b) general trends in the Silicon Valley among employees in reducing salary for stock - and by what amounts, (c) how to categorize employees, do a spread sheet of staffing needs, and allocate stock out of a stock option plan, (d) the general guidelines on stock or option issuances to officers, directors, senior and junior staff - and the difference in allocations based on function (i.e., technical, marketing/sales or administrative),, (e) how to negotiate with employees on allocations, and when and whether to grant extraordinary awards, and (f) how to continue to incentivize employees after the initial sign-on stock or option grants.
— Jay Whitehead, EmployeeService.com
Jay will speak about how technology companies can create a brand presence and the market interest necessary for successful product launch. Specifically, he will address: (a) identifying and executing the right branding strategy, (b) how to identify and work with trade publications and industry analysts that will review and write articles about new products and services, (c) building a brand presence in dynamic and highly competitive markets/ what does it take to rise above the “noise” of dotcom advertising to get your product recognized (d) how to select and use a PR firm, and (e) case examples of product branding strategies that work and don't work - and why.
— Speaker to be announced
This presentation will cover a case study of how to create an e-commerce internet retail service and will cover: (a) how the team is built, business mode identification, and seed investment attracted, (b) how the early members of the founding team were identified and recruited, and what compensation arrangements were considered, (c) writing and receiving input on the Business Plan, how it has been used, what seems to be critical in the presentation on the company, (d) bootstrapping versus immediately seeking venture capital - the tradeoffs and timing, (e) how the company closed its first round of financing, valuation issues and working capital requirements – how to set the amount o f funding sought and how to stage out financings to maximize company valuation, (f) the challenges of transitioning from a bootstrapped company to a venture-backed company, (g) the strategic decisions relating to location of the company, (h) how to distinguish its specific service and compete with similar services, (i) unanticipated problems and how they have been addressed, and (j) thoughts on which internet business revenue models and distribution strategies work best for e-commerce companies.
