September 27, 2007
Purdue's Company Fund Raising Boot Camp explores company formation, venture capital opportunities
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue faculty, staff, students and collaborators can learn about what's needed to launch a company at the second annual Company Fund Raising Boot Camp on Oct. 8-9 in Discovery Park.The workshop will include panel discussions and presentations by nationally recognized experts in company formation and funding, including venture capital. Finalists also will be selected from the program to work with coaches to refine their presentations for a formal investment pitch to venture capitals in Silicon Valley next spring.
The boot camp, which will be in Room 121 of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship in Discovery Park, is open to the public and collaborators outside Purdue. Seating is limited, and preference will be given to Purdue faculty and staff.
Purdue President France A. Córdova will make opening remarks at 9 a.m. Oct. 8. William Oesterle, a Purdue trustee and co-founder and chief executive of Indianapolis-based Angie's List, will deliver the keynote address, "Real World Advice for Starting a Company," at 1:15 p.m. that day.
 |
"This boot camp will provide important information about company formation and, in particular, the venture capital world from the Silicon Valley perspective," said Julie Goonewardene, associate director of technology commercialization at Discovery Park and associate director of the Purdue Research Foundation's Office of Technology Commercialization. "This event gives our Purdue faculty, staff and students access to entrepreneurial leaders."
Program sponsors are Lonergan Partners, the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and Purdue Research Foundation.
 |
"The Company Fund Raising Boot Camp is an invaluable opportunity for faculty, staff and students to find out how to move a discovery from the laboratory to the market," said Mark Reiff, Midwest managing partner for the Indiana office of Lonergan Partners in Zionsville. "All the companies involved in this project will learn how to make a business pitch to possible investors, and the three winners will be able to actually make a formal pitch to venture capitalists in Silicon Valley."
A networking lunch will feature the discussion "Selling your Idea" by renowned Indiana character artist Hank Fincken. Oesterle's talk will follow from 1:15-2 p.m.
 |
Angie Hicks and Oesterle, a venture capitalist, co-founded Indianapolis-based Angie's List in 1995. Oesterle had just moved to Columbus, Ohio, and he came upon the idea for the company when he ran into trouble with sub-par services while renovating his 1920's house. Oesterle recruited Hicks, who has an MBA from Harvard University, to launch the idea in Columbus.
Today, Angie's List has grown into an online network of 500,000 members across 124 cities that provides a large community bulletin board where neighbors can exchange references and anecdotes about carpenters, roofers, landscapers and appliance stores.
Jeff Warren, a lawyer, investor and Purdue alumnus, from 2-3 p.m. will outline how to develop sources of funding and grants to start and grow a business. Mike Pellegrino, president of the Indianapolis-based technology appraisal firm Pellegrino and Associates LLC, then will discuss how to assess a company's value.
Reiff will moderate a panel of Purdue faculty and staff members discussing lessons learned from the 2006 boot camp from 4-5 p.m. Panelists include professors Rashid Bashir and Dan Raftery, postdoctoral student James Mann, and Harvey Scull, a coach for last year's workshop and former CEO of KeyEye Communications and chief technical officer at Tellabs Inc.
Steve Brown, who is president of Innovate4Growth, will open day two at 9 a.m. with a talk on what it takes to make a successful presentation to investment professionals. Before Innovate 4 Growth, Brown was with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was responsible for one-third of the startups generated at MIT.
The rest of the second day's program is only for those who registered to participate in the company coaching sessions. To qualify, participants should have either formed or be in the process of forming a company and must be Purdue faculty, staff or students looking to form a company.
Those participants will work with coaches to refine a 15-minute presentation that will be reviewed by an outside panel next spring. Selected companies then will participate in a trip, financed by Lonergan Partners, to make formal pitches to Silicon Valley investors the week of May 12.
The Burton D. Morgan Center is a platform to launch technology-based enterprises based on Purdue research and helps faculty, students and Indiana entrepreneurs better understand how to bring research and technology to market. The Discovery Park center also is leading Purdue's Kauffman Campus Initiative to foster entrepreneurship across non-business disciplines at the university's statewide campuses through a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the Kauffman Foundation.
Writers: Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu
Cynthia Sequin, (765) 494 4192, casequin@prf.org
Sources: Julie Goonewardene, (765) 494-8645, jkgoonewardene@prf.org
Mark Reiff, (317) 733-8785, mar@lonerganpartners.com
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
Note to Journalists: Journalists interested in talking to presenters before or during the two-day Fund Raising Boot Camp can contact Phillip Fiorini, Purdue News Service, at (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu
To the News Service home page