Girls In Tech

We’re excited to showcase some of the new speakers that have confirmed participation as a presenter, moderator or a panelist at the upcoming Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference on January 26th at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. We will be announcing our first keynote in the coming weeks. To register, please click on the following link: http://gitcc.eventbrite.com/

Katherine Barr; Partner, MDV

Katherine Barr is a member of the investment team at MDV focused on Internet-enabled companies. Prior to joining MDV, she was a Negotiator at Vantage Partners (spin-off of the Harvard Negotiation Project), helping high tech clients such as IBM, Cisco and HP to negotiate with customers, service providers, suppliers, and partners. Before Vantage, she led a development team as a Senior Product Manager at HSA, an education technology startup in Boston. Katherine teaches a yearly Professional Education Negotiation program for the School of Engineering at Stanford. During her graduate studies at Stanford, she was involved in running the E-Challenge business plan competition for BASES (Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students). Katherine received her B.A. from McGill University, and completed an M.A. and the M.S. core curriculum in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University.

Cathy Brooks; Founder, Other Than That

Cathy Brooks has spent most of her life saturated in media – ranging from print to broadcast and, of course, myriad on-line platforms. Today, in addition to blogging for BitchBuzz and The Huffington Post, Cathy operates Other Than That, a strategic firm helping companies navigate the murky waters of strategic relationships and social media. Most recently Cathy ran business development for Seesmic, a technology company enabling threaded conversations online using video as the conduit. Prior to Seesmic, Cathy worked with Guidewire Group – a global analyst firm focused wholly on emerging markets and technologies. Cathy produced and hosted two podcasts “I of Innovation” and “Six Minutes With…” and also produced two of the firm’s conferences – Innovate!Europe and Leadership Forum. Cathy also headed the talent and booking departments at TechTV, curated content at LeWeb for several years and has held several executive positions with PR agencies.

Joyce Chung; Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures

Joyce Chung has over 10 years of operating experience in technology companies and 10 years of venture capital investing experience. She is a Managing Director at Garage Technology Ventures, a seed and early stage fund focused on emerging technologies. Prior to Garage, she was a founding partner of Cardinal Venture Capital, a $125 million early stage venture fund. At Cardinal, Joyce was responsible for investments in Chipcon (acquired by Texas Instruments), Mobilygen, Valista, and Zilliant. She continues to co-manage the current Cardinal portfolio. Prior to forming Cardinal Venture Capital, Joyce managed venture investments for Adobe Ventures. Her portfolio companies included Vignette (Nasdaq: VIGN), DigitalThink, Digimarc (Nasdaq: DMRC), and Virage. Joyce also held operating roles at Adobe Systems, Sony Corporation, and Cambridge Technology Group. She received an S.B. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Joyce is active at the Stanford Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and is on the board of the Association of MIT Alumnae (AMITA), Chair of the Northern California chapter of AMITA and Member of the Executive Council of Astia.

Leah Culver; Product Manager, Six Apart

Leah Culver was a co-founder and the lead developer of the social network and micro-blogging website Pownce, which was acquired by blog juggernaut Six Apart in November 2008. Now a software engineer at Six Apart, Leah uses her experience with Pownce to develop large scale social applications for future Six Apart projects. While creating the Pownce API she co-authored both the OAuth and OEmbed open API specifications and now maintains the popular Python OAuth library. Leah promotes open source, APIs, and the Django web framework on her blog at leahculver.com. In her free time she likes to play around with new technology and try new restaurants near her home in San Francisco.

Tags: Cathy Brooks, Garage Technology Ventures, Joyce Chung, Katherine Barr, Leah Culver, MDV, Other Than That, Six Apart
Posted in Girls In Tech | 3 Comments »

The sleek,  spacious offices of Mohr Davidow Ventures in leafy Menlo Park was the site of this week’s Girls in Tech event, “Meet the Thought Leaders of the Venture Capital Community”.   The ladies of MDV, Rowan Chapman (Life Sciences),  Katherine Barr (IT) and Marianne Wu (CleanTech) shared their personal experiences and insights as they gave us a peak into the world of venture capital.  I’ve captured their advice for entrepreneurs below.

The panelists analyze four main categories when looking at new companies to add to their portfolio:
1.  Market Risk (Is it a big market? Is the right timing?)
2.  Financial Risk (How much money is required to get the company to the next stage? How much total capital is required?)
3.  Technology Risk (How difficult is it to develop?)
4.  People Risk (Why this entrepreneur? What makes them special?)

The panelists advised entrepreneurs against making these common mistakes:
1.  Don’t come across as arrogant (arrogance works for some but not for most)
2.  Don’t duck questions or come ill-prepared to answer questions.
3.  Don’t assume the VC knows your space as well as you do. Raise the level of understanding so that your value prop is easily understood by non-subject matter experts.
4.  Don’t include an exit slide. Concentrate on how you are going to build a great company, not on how you plan to cash out.
5.  Don’t exaggerate.  VCs normally spend 1-3 months doing due diligence before investing. They’ll know if you exaggerate, and you’ll lose credibility.

Our panelists emphasized following these tips for success:
1. Think big or go home. VCs are looking for visionary entrepreneurs who will change the market landscape.
2. Get a warm introduction to the VC  — It’s all about relationships!
3. A 20-page slide deck is much preferred to a 50-page business plan.
4. Capture interest in the first 5-10 minutes. You may have an hour to present, but the first 5-10 minutes are the most important.

A big thank you to the phenomenal ladies of MDV for generously sharing their time, experiences, and advice with us!

If there’s anything I’ve left out of this post that you think is important to add, I welcome your comments.

Tags: entrepreneur, Katherine Barr, Marianne Wu, MDV, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Rowan Chapman, thought leaders, Tina Tran, VC, venture capital
Posted in All Chapters, San Francisco | No Comments »

Last week’s blog on Recession Sports received a ton of positive feedback!  Thanks to all those who signed up for the Recession Sports Group.    We have nearly twenty people who are fired up to meet weekly for a bit of sport and networking.   If you haven’t signed up, it’s not too late.  And if you’ve already signed up on the Meetup page, make sure to also add yourself to the Recession Sports Group on Facebook.   This will make it easier for you to invite others and share the group with your friends.  I’m looking forward to seeing everyone out at Moscone Recreation Center next Tuesday, April 28!

For those of you who are looking ahead to the same old ho-hum week of job searching, why not inject your week with a shot in the arm by attending Ad:Tech SF?!  The digital marketing event is at the Moscone Center from April 21-23, and the Expo Hall pass is only $35 if you register by EOD Monday, April 20th.  The pass gives you full access to the expo hall, keynotes and ad:tech after-parties.  This is a great opportunity to get the latest scoop on today’s digital marketing trends.  Plus $35 is an amazing deal for 3 days of networking, learning, and partying!  Girls in Tech is sponsoring an ad:tech party Tuesday night… All you need is an ad:tech badge to get in.  RSVP here for the party.

It’s a busy week!  Girls in Tech is also co-hosting an event for you to “Meet the Thought Leaders of the Venture Capital Community” on Wednesday, April 22nd at 6:30pm in the Menlo Park offices of Mohr Davidow Ventures.  It promises to be an interactive and valuable event.  You can RSVP here.

Tags: Ad:Tech, MDV, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Recession Sports Group, Tina Tran, venture capital
Posted in All Chapters, San Francisco | No Comments »

During a down economy, it’s difficult to grasp how venture capital firms are continuing to thrive and prosper by making strategic investments in IT, Life Sciences, GreenTech and every other sector that is destined to obtain major revenues, become profitable, achieve an attractive exit or even IPO. MDV has upheld not only a strong track record of investing in promising portfolios but also, has proven time and time again that they hire and cultivate relationships with the right people at the right time. During this Girls in Tech session we will highlight three of these women with powerfully impressive backgrounds in their academic, professional, and personal careers alike.

As thought leaders in their respective fields, Girls in Tech is honored to showcase these female role models that represent some of its major guiding principles: engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent and influential women in technology. Through this panel discussion we hope to provide skills, share experiences and provide answers to questions on what it takes to become a successful venture capitalist and how to make strategic investments in some very influential industries. The panelists will touch upon collaborating on winning products and marketing strategies, developing smooth operations, establishing effective distribution strategies, and fine-tuning business models.

Tags: girls in tech, Katherine Barr, Marianne Wu, MDV, Menlo Park, Rowan Chapman, San Francisco, venture capital
Posted in Events, San Francisco | No Comments »