Friends,
Join us for a seminar on the differences between a sweepstakes and illegal lotteries. Also, get advice during office hours with our visiting experts and learn about supporting organizations at their info tables in the Café Thursday.
Meanwhile:
Join us for a conversation with Antonio (“Tony”) Parham, the Commonwealth’s first Government Innovation Officer (GIO), at the next TEC@FoleyHoag event at District Hall starting at 5:30 p.m. on September 17. Learn more here.
Venture Café and Microsoft present our 3rd Civic Tech Conversation on October 1. This conversation will address the application of technology to enhance the Education systems. Register here.
Innovation and the City returns to District Hall on October 7 & 8. Attend to learn how cities globally are reshaping their economies around innovation and entrepreneurship. Connect with the practitioners, policymakers and scholars that are leading the way. Discover more here.
Hope to see you Thursday,
Thursday, September 18, 2014
3:00 – 8:00 | Venture Café In Session
Feature Event
4:00 – 6:00 | Playing a Game of Chance: Understanding the Differences Between Sweepstakes, Contests, and Illegal Lotteries
Sweepstakes and contests are a great way to promote your business. However, there is a fine line between conducting legal sweepstakes or contests and conducting an illegal lottery. In this seminar, we will discuss: * What constitutes an illegal lottery * Ways to structure contests / sweepstakes to comply with federal & state laws * State registration requirements * Penalties for conducting an illegal lottery Please RSVP here.
Office Hours
3:00 – 4:30 | Maia Heymann – CommonAngels
Maia Heymann is Senior Managing Director at CommonAngels. She’s worked with dozens of companies in both Palo Alto and Boston during her 20+ year career as an angel investor, venture capitalist, and tech banker. Her portfolio of personal investments includes over 24 companies. Currently she sits on the boards of Apperian (representing CommonAngels), Fiksu, and Wymsee.
Schedule 30 minutes with Maia here.
3:00 – 5:00 | Massachusetts Small Business Development Center
Mark Allio is Regional Director of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center’s (MSBDC) Boston office and its Minority Business Center. MSBDC is part of a national public business assistance program representing a three-way partnership between the Small Business Administration, Massachusetts Office of Business and Technology, and UMass Boston. The Center provides free one-on-one business advisory services to entrepreneurs and business owners, entrepreneurial training workshops, and special assistance in gaining access to capital. A former two-time entrepreneur, non-profit administrator, and strategy consultant, Mark regularly meets entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds, providing them with ongoing practical perspective to help them realize the American Dream. More than 2,500 entrepreneurs have attended his workshops on a variety of topics of entrepreneurial interest.
Reserve 15 minutes with Mark here.
3:00 – 6:00 | Joe Caruso – Bantam Group
For the last 20 years Joe Caruso has served has been an “Advocate for entrepreneurs” as a mentor, coach, and personal advisor to CEO’s and entrepreneurs. In recent years, he has served an investor, advisor and active director with dozens of companies, public and private. He also maintains an active consulting practice dealing with structuring and negotiation of acquisitions, strategic partnerships and financings, and issues related to dispute resolution.
Sign up for office hours with Joe here.
3:00 – 6:00 | Steve Davis – CXO Advisory Group
Meet with Stephen Davis, a business growth strategist who has been a mentor and advisor to entrepreneurs for over 20 years. He is Founder of CXO Advisory Group, a company that works with businesses, entrepreneurs and service providers to accelerate revenue growth. Steve helps you strategize to build a profitable, efficient business capable of growing to scale.
Reserve 30 minutes with Stephen here.
3:00 – 6:00 | Jared Cosulich – Pivotal Labs
Jared Cosulich is the Director of the Boston office for Pivotal Labs. He is an expert in user experience, agile software development, pair programming, and test-driven development. He can provide advice about developing software in a more agile fashion, growing an effective engineering team, and focusing a product roadmap to test assumptions more effectively and zero in on product-market fit.
Reserve 30 minutes with Jared here.
3:30 – 5:30 | Jerry Blakeley – SCORE Mentors
Jerry is a serial entrepreneur who sold his last company in 2007. Since then, he has worked as a Counselor for SCORE, providing free mentoring services to startups and in-business clients wanting to grow their businesses. He can help with validation of new business ideas, business roadmaps, and marketing plans. His experience includes sourcing test and measurement products in Asia and distribution in the USA and overseas and he has setup offices in Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong where he travelled widely and often.
Reserve 20 minutes with Jerry here.
3:30 – 5:30 | Brad Curley – Boston Harbor Angels
Brad Curley is an experienced angel investor (Boston Harbor Angels), board member (Sialix), and advisor (CPA, KPMG) to early stage companies. Get feedback while discussing fundraising alternatives and also strategies about raising seed stage, angel, and VC capital.
Sign up for his office hours here.
4:30 – 6:00 |Jennifer Jordan – MassVentures
Chat with Jennifer Jordan, Vice President of MassVentures, an early-stage venture capital fund dedicated to investing in Massachusetts high growth technology companies. MassVentures is currently focused on Series A investments in software, data, analytics, crowdsourcing, and the intersection of healthcare and IT. Please bring a high level pitch deck, covering at least:
a.) The problem you are addressing
b.) The size of the market
c.) The team
d.) The product offering
e.) The exit strategy
Schedule time with Jennifer here.
5:00 – 6:00 |LearnLaunch Accelerator
Chat with LearnLaunch Accelerator (formerly LearnLaunchX), Boston’s edtech accelerator program. Their next session starts February 2015. Participant companies will receive seed funding, workspace, and intensive mentoring and collaboration from experienced professionals in the learning and education space. Applications are open from September 15 – October 24.
Info Tables
5:30 – 7:30 | Entrepreneurship 4 All (formerly Merrimack Valley Sandbox)
Meet Lianna and Emil from Entrepreneurship 4 All (EforAll). Discover how to get involved with their upcoming Pitch Contests & Accelerator Program. Also, learn how they’re promoting their motto of “Entrepreneursh
ip For All” by helping launch a diverse range of ventures including a vegan ice cream business, a device that tracks the wear of running shoes, and a non-profit that provides basic necessities to homeless youth.
5:30 – 7:45 | StartOut
StartOut is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to creating great business leaders by fostering Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender entrepreneurs. Since it’s founding in 2009, StartOut has produced over 200 events with more than 15,000 participants nationwide to inspire, educate and support LGBT entrepreneurs. Stop by their table to learn more about their organization.