CINA Entrepreneur Thought Leader Mentor: Starting up in the Economic Downturn

Date / Time: February 23 2010 - 06:30pm to 08:30pm

Fee: Free for lifetime member; $5.00 for regular members and $25.00 for non-members

RSVP: send email to rsvp@cina.org with subject "CINA 2/23 name="

Venue: Fenwick & West, LLP, 801 Californiar Street, Mountain View CA

Program
6:30pm - 7:00pm Registration and Networking
7:00pm - 8:30pm Presentation and Q & A
8:30pm - 9:00pm Social Networking

Speakers:
Jun Loayza, Co-Founder and CMO, Viralogy
Jim Connor, Board of Directors, Sand Hill Angels
Alfred Chu, Partner, TDRH Capital

Highlight

Only the strongests survive economic downturns like the one we’re in now. And sometimes, seemingly exceptional individuals – entrepreneurial, inventive and resourceful – demonstrate vision and know-how by starting up enterprises that succeed during difficult times.

While many companies file for bankruptcy or vanish altogether during recessions, others can trace their beginnings back to depressed economic periods. According to Gary Beach, publisher emeritus of CIO magazine, several exceptional companies set roots during recessions. His analysis revealed that 35 percent of the Fortune 500 incorporated during recession. But as he narrowed his list by focusing on larger companies, his findings were all the more impressive. 46 percent of the Fortune 100 incorporated during an economic downturn.

Perhaps right now, there are clairvoyant individuals inventing the next big thing, or a savvy, risk-taking entrepreneur capitalizing on the cheaper cost of doing business.

Come to this special event and hear from two active investors and one startup founder about what it  takes to thrive during the economic downturn.

About Speakers

Jun Loayza, Co-Founder and CMO, Viralogy(viralogy.com) . He is also the President of SocailMediaMarketing.com. He has developed and spearheaded social media campaign for Levi's, Activision, LG, and the Dial Brands. Jun has written for Mashable, Personal Branding Blog, and has spoken at conferences such as Web 2.0, Social Media Strategies, and YPulse.

Jim Connor serves on the Board of Sand Hill Angels. He has been active in financial software applications for the past twenty years and was most recently the President of JPMorgan SymPro, a subsidiary of JP Morgan Chase & Company from August 2003 to May 2007. JPMorgan SymPro is the leading provider of Treasury Management software to the public sector, specifically focusing on investment management, bond issuance/debt management and the integration of treasury and liquidity operations. Jim was the founder and CEO of SymPro, Inc., grew the company to become the unqualified leader in its market space and managed the acquisition with JP Morgan Chase & Company.

Alfred Chu, Partner, Tiandi Growth Capital, a venture fund based in Shanghai investing in early stage technology companies. Alfred has over a decade of private equity, global business development, investment banking, and operating experience. From 2000 to 2006, Alfred was a Venture Partner at Panasonic Venture Capital, the corporate venture capital and global business development group for the consumer products company Matsushita. During his tenure, he championed venture capital investments and developed numerous revenue generating partnerships with leading communications infrastructure, consumer device, and software / Internet companies, including Bay Microsystems, Ikanos (NASDAQ: IKAN), Gracenote (acquired by Sony), Montavista Software, P-Cube (acquired by Cisco), and Techwell (NASDAQ: TWLL). Prior to this, Alfred was an investment banker with Citigroup (Salomon Smith Barney),where he advised on corporate finance and M&A transactions for leading technology companies, and a financial analyst at Hewlett-Packard.

Alfred holds an MBA in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BS from the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude.