On Thursday, January 14, 2010, StartOut will present a special panel discussion titled "Investors and Entrepreneurs: A Match Made in Heaven...or Hell?" Join us for an engaging, animated discussion on one of the most important - and unpredictable - relationships in any new business venture: that between founders and funders. Whether you are looking for funding for your startup or you have already been funded and you're managing relationships with investors, you will not want to miss this very special StartOut University event!

Two venture capitalists, one angel investor, and two funded entrepreneurs will discuss the relationship between startups and investors, both before and after receiving funding.  Learn from the very people for whom building and managing these relationships is business as usual. We promise to leave no stone unturned, and discuss all phases of any respectable relationship: encounter, courtship, dating, marriage, and - oh yes - breakups. This will be a terrific event!

The panel discussion will be held at the San Francisco offices of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LP from 5:30 to 8:30 pm.  This includes:

- Networking reception from 5:30 to 6:15pm

- Panel discussion from 6:15 to 7:45pm

- Post-panel networking reception from 7:45 to 8:30pm

Tax-deductible donation $25. Drinks and light refreshments will be offered.

In addition to the main event, following the panel discussion, starting at 8:30 pm, a VERY LIMITED number of spaces are available for an intimate dinner with the panelists, which will be held at a nearby restaurant.  This is a great opportunity to meet informally with potential funders for your new business and with successful serial entrepreneurs.  The partially tax-deductible donation to StartOut required in order to attend the after-event dinner is $200 (for the dinner only).


We are honored to have the following prominent individuals participating on this panel:

David Blumberg
David Blumberg is the Managing Partner of Blumberg Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in innovative and disruptive Digital and Social Media, SaaS/Technology Enabled Services, Mobile Technology and Internet companies. David has been investing in early stage technology companies for more than 24 years.  David serves as a member or observer on the Board of Directors of CaseStack, DoubleVerify, Siperian, isocket and Correlix.

Patrick Chung
Patrick is a Partner at New Enterprise Associates, where he focuses on consumer, Internet and mobile investments across stage. He is a director of 23andMe, Loopt, GoodGuide and Realtime Worlds, and is actively involved with Nurien, Xoom and the firm’s venture growth activities. Prior to joining NEA, Patrick helped to grow ZEFER, an Internet services firm (acquired by NEC) to more than $100 million in annual revenues and more than 700 people across six global offices. Prior to ZEFER, Patrick was with McKinsey & Company, where he specialized in hardware, software, and services companies.

James Williamson
James Williamson, an angel investor, serves as the CFO of the private equity firm JH Partners, LLC. He is an experienced CFO, having served as CFO for three organizations and as interim CFO for several partner companies.  Prior to serving as CFO of JH Partners, Mr. Williamson worked in the public accounting field and held financial officer positions with three organizations. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in London, England, he worked in both the New York and San Francisco offices of Deloitte & Touche, LLP, providing audit and consulting services to the firm's retail clients.

John Barnhill
John Barnhill is a serial entrepreneur.  He is currently Founder and CEO of Pie Digital Inc., a revolutionary tech support service that makes home networking as easy as pie.  Prior to founding Pie Digital, John founded Silicon Reef, a web communications and technology integrations company servicing the Fortune 500 in North America, Australia and the United Kingdom, which was sold in 1999. Prior to that, John led the development of DHL's TCP/IP network into 213 countries. John began his 28-year career as an IBM Mainframe JCL programmer and later worked for Wang Labs, Quantel, Xerox, and consulted with IBM, DEC and EPRI.

Lana Holmes
Lana is CEO of FarmsReach, an online farm food marketplace that connects farmers to business buyers and promotes sustainable and healthy food supplies. Lana Holmes’ career has included roles as Founder and/or CEO of three start-ups in the areas of business consulting services, manufacturing and outdoor adventure. She has also held COO and VP assignments in the areas of organizational development, operations, sales and business development in corporate and private businesses, consulting firms, and non-profit sectors.

The panel will be moderated by StartOut co-founder Lorenzo Thione (Founder, Powerset / Bing).

Lorenzo Thione 
Lorenzo Thione is the founder of Powerset, Inc., an innovative search startup  acquired by Microsoft Corp. in 2008. Currently, he is a Principal PM at Bing. In Silicon Valley, he is an investor and advisor to several startups. In addition to his Internet-tech endeavors, Lorenzo is a theater producer currently busy in bringing several new works to the Broadway stage. His current project, Jay Kuo’s original musical Allegiance, starring George Takei and Lea Salonga, follows the story of a Japanese American family during the years of the WWII Japanese American internment, and is currently aiming for a 2012 Broadway debut. Lorenzo holds a M.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and has co-authored several publications in Computational Linguistics. He is a named inventor on 7 issued and over 24 pending patents in the US and world-wide. He lives in San Francisco with his husband, David Palmer.


Feel free to contact Lorenzo Thione at Lorenzo.Thione@startout.org for more information about the event or the dinner following the panel.

StartOut is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering and developing entrepreneurship in the LGBT community.  More information can be found on our website at www.startout.org.

This event is also supported by Stanford Pride.

StartOut would also like to thank Shae Rocco Photography, for covering the event. For more information visit www.shaerocco.com