Event Details
Join Chicago Booth alumni for a panel discussion on entrepreneurship in 2014 with prominent local investors and entrepreneurs. See your fellow Booth and U. Chicago alumni, both pre-, current, and post- company formation and on the investor and founder side. Maybe even meet your co-founder.
What's Good, Bad, and Ugly about Entrepreneurship in 2014? How has it changed in recent years (sometimes months) for key topics for entrepreneurs, including:
- finding technical, sales, and design talent
- raising the right funding at the right valuation
- scaling at every level
- finding your first customers
Our participants include:
Soujanya Bhumkar, MBA '99, Co-founder of Cooliris
Jason Brown, MBA '09, Co-Founder and President of Gen110
Kathryn Gould, '78, Co-Founder of Foundation Capital
Mehul Nariyawala, MBA '05, Google via acquisition...twice.
Prashant Shah, MBA '93, Managing Director of TIE LaunchPad
Capacity is limited. Light appetizers and refreshments will be served.
- finding technical, sales and design talent
- raising the right funding at the right valuation
- scaling at every level
- finding your first customers
UChicago and Booth Alumni: $25 before June 1
UChicago and Booth Alumni: $30 after June 1
On-site registration is available at $40
General Public: $40
Alumni are encouraged to register a colleague for a discount of $20. Registrants will see the option upon signing-up.
Speaker Profiles
Soujanya Bhumkar (Panelist) '99
Co-founder, Cooliris
http://www.cooliris.com/
Soujanya Bhumkar is CEO and co-founder of Cooliris, which is creating the world's best experience for the navigation and discovery of content. Cooliris is Soujanya's third start-up. Soujanya is passionate about building great teams to create products that contribute awesomeness to the world.
Prior to Cooliris, Soujanya co-founded Vazu, which was in the business of messaging
from desktops to mobile phones. Soujanya also co-founded Tamarind, a
profitable company in the business of human performance evaluation. Tamarinds'
key premise is that "your opinion about someone else's performance is proportional
to your own performance". Before Tamarind, Soujanya led business at
Panopticon, solving the challenge of online, real-time, intelligent merchandizing.
Soujanya and the team grew the business and led the company's integration into
Kana post $108M acquisition.
Soujanya completed his MBA from the University of Chicago after working in the
consumer food industry with Pioneer Foods and Nestle. Soujanya has a masters
degree in Chemical Engineering and takes special effort to stay extremely close
to family and friends.
Jason Brown (Panelist) '09
President, Gen110
http://gen110.com/
Jason Brown serves as President of Gen110, which he co-founded in 2009 at Chicago Booth. Gen110 competes with traditional electric utility companies by selling cheaper residential electricity that is produced onsite via rooftop solar. Gen110 was funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers in 2011 and acquired by Solar Universe in 2013. Prior to Gen110, Jason co-founded iTOK, a technology-enabled services company that helped broadband providers like Comcast increase subscriber retention. He graduated Summa Cum Laude in Business from Boston University and earned an MBA from Chicago Booth.
Mehul Nariyawala (Panelist) '05
Co-Founder, Flutter
Mehul Nariyawala co-founded Flutter, a start-up focused on enabling natural human interactions by detecting gestures with laptops, TVs, tablets via built-in webcams. Flutter was recently acquired by Google where Mehul is a PM for gesture-based interfaces.
Prior to Flutter, Mehul spent 4 years at Like.com, a company focused on applying computer vision to fashion shopping. He was instrumental in growing Like.com revenue from $2/day to $100K/day prior to its acquisition by Google in 2010. Mehul also spent a year at Google as Product Search Manager in Google's Shopping group prior to joining Flutter as co-founder. Prior to Like.com, Mehul was a Marketing Manager at Salesforce.com where he got his opportunity by writing a direct email to Marc Benioff.
Mehul has an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, and BS in Interdisciplinary Studies in Biochemistry and Information Systems from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Mehul has excelled at every step of his career receiving multiple awards & recognitions, including Like.com CEO Award, Kauffman & Gould Entrepreneurial Fellowship at the University of Chicago Booth, and the Maryland Governor's Academic Achievement Award at the University of Maryland.
Mehul is a die-hard fan of the Washington Redskins, loves reading historical biographies, but his favorite activity in the world is playing with his two sons Aahan & Rishaan.
Prashant Shah (Panelist) '93
Managing Director, TIE LaunchPad
http://www.tielaunchpad.com/
Prashant Shah is Managing Director of TiE LaunchPad, an accelerator for enterprise startups. He is also an active Charter Member of TiE Silicon Valley, a member of its Board of Directors, and Head of TiE Angels. Prashant Shah has been an early stage venture investor since 2001. Previously, for 10 years he was with Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, an early stage VC focused on enterprise and infrastructure software.
Prior to Hummer Winblad, Prashant spent many years defining and launching high tech products. His background spans all seven layers of the OSI stack with product management roles at enCommerce (acquired by Entrust), Cypress Semiconductor and AT&T. Prashant received a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Kathryn Gould (Moderator)
Co-Founder, Foundation Capital
Kathryn Gould, MBA '78, a physicist turned venture capitalist, switched from engineering to marketing early in her career. After working in large companies in Chicago, Gould moved to Silicon Valley becoming the original vice president of marketing at Oracle Corporation when it was a small company. Her venture capital career started in 1989 as general partner with Merrill, Pickard, Anderson & Eyre. In 1995, she cofounded Foundation Capital, which focuses on investing in early stage companies in networking, communications, software and consumer internet businesses. Gould was featured on the Forbes Midas List as a result of her investments in Documentum, Grand Junction Networks, Interwoven, Rapid City Communications, Shoretel and numerous others. Ms. Gould retired from Foundation Capital in 2006. She has served on many corporate boards and is a Trustee of the University of Chicago and a member of the Council on Chicago Booth. In 2005, she received the Chicago Booth Distinguished Entrepreneurial Alumni Award.
She now devotes her time to the vineyard she bought with her husband in 2009, as well as flying, painting, and continues her lifelong dedication to playing the violin. Occasionally she makes an angel investment or helps people start venture capital firms.