Tuesday, October 21st

10:45 AM - Noon

Track VI: Admiralty Room

Investment, Funding Strategies and Deal Flow - A Primer for Content and Technology Companies - Understanding Funding and Strategy

Sun Jen Yung, Managing Director, Headwaters MB

Alex Niehenke, Principal, Scale Venture Partners

Greg Akselrud, Partner, Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP

Michael Terpin, CEO, SocialRadius/Transform

Mark J. Landay, Managing Director, Dynamic Synergy

Aidan Foley, CEO,  Eclipse

Muizz Kheraj, Director, Technology, Media and Telecom, FocalPoint

Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S. Inc., Moderator

Greg Akselrud, Partner, Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP: He chair's the Firm's Internet, New Media and Entertainment practice group. Greg advises a wide range of public and private clients across a number of industries, including companies in the entertainment, Internet, technology, and apparel industries. Greg's practice involves providing advice in connection with general corporate matters (including company formation, stock incentive plans, executive employment agreements, and various commercial and business contracts), venture capital and angel financings, mergers and acquisitions (including public reverse mergers), private equity and debt securities offerings, public offerings, federal and state securities law reporting requirements, intellectual property strategic counseling, Internet and e-commerce matters, and entertainment, content and digital media transactional matters. Greg is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, teaching Business Planning I: Financing the Start-Up Business and Venture Capital Financing. Greg is the author of Hit Man: The Fourth Circuit's Mistake in Rice v. Paladin Enters., Inc., 19 Loy. L.A. Ent. L.J. 375 (1999).

Michael Terpin, Founder and CEO, SocialRadius: Michael Terpin began SocialRadius in 2007, the latest chapter in a 25-year career in public relations, Internet marketing and digital innovation. A serial entrepreneur, he has been frequently written about as a pioneer in online PR and marketing, newswire distribution and social media/Web 2.0 marketing. His most recent venture is SocialRadius, a full-service social media marketing firm. Michael has been a frequent speaker at leading technology and marketing conferences, including Ad:Tech, CES, E3, European Technology Roundtable (ETRE), Frost & Sullivan Sales & Marketing Conference, NAB, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Red Herring, Southern California Software Council and VNU Digital Media. He has been profiled in PRWeek and O'Dwyer's PR Report, and has been a guest columnist for O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Terpin is the only PR executive to be twice named to the Los Angeles Business Journal's list of the most influential technology leaders. He was a finalist in the 2000 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Terpin also founded Marketwire, one of the world's largest and most comprehensive international newswires. Originally known as Internet Wire, Marketwire was acquired in April 2006 by Toronto-based media company CCN Matthews, and is now owned by OMERS Capital Partners, the private equity arm of a $41 billion pension fund. Marketwire employs more than 200 people and has annual revenues of more than $70 million, with offices in 12 cities. Marketwire serves more than 6,000 clients, including Bayer, HP, IBM, Merck, Symantec and Wal-Mart. Terpin holds an MFA in Creative Writing from SUNY at Buffalo and a dual bachelor degree in Newspaper Journalism and English Literature from Syracuse University. He serves as an advisor to SU's Newhouse School of Public Communications, where he was inducted into its prestigious “Wall of Fame” in October 2000. Terpin is also a private investor and/or board member for several privately held technology start-up companies and trade associations. He has established several industry-related blogs, including Social Media World and CES Party List and he has published analysis, essays and reports on a variety of social media topics, including two case studies for Global PR Blog Week.

Mark J. Landay is Managing Director of Dynamic Synergy, a premier retained executive recruitment firm. In business for over two decade and Dun & Bradstreet rated, Dynamic Synergy provides start up and growth companies with retained executive recruitment.  Approximately 33% of the companies Mark has consulted to have had positive exits! Prior to executive search, Mr. Landay worked in private equity and has been recognized as an industry expert in both technology & executive search.  Mark is the President of LA CEOs, a founding mentor for the Founders Institute, Chairman of SoCal Tech Group, and the Chairman Emeritus of the Harvard Business School Angels of Southern California.

Aidan Foley, CEO,  Eclipse; Aidan Foley has over 20 years of executive level management experience in the technology and entertainment industries. In technology, Mr. Foley has managed organizations, at executive levels, of software, hardware and services businesses on a global basis with a focus towards digital imaging. Prior to his current role as CEO,  Eclipse , Mr. Foley was founder and CEO of AF Double Eagle, a corporate development and distribution company. Prior to that Mr. Foley was the Chief Marketing Officer and President of the Enterprise Solutions Group of Ascent Media, an 800 million dollar global organization of Liberty Media. Prior to Ascent Media, Mr. Foley was the CEO of Kodak s Digital Entertainment Division. Mr. Foley is a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) and the Producers Guild. His organizations have won awards for technical achievement including an Oscar and an Emmy.

Muizz Kheraj joined FocalPoint's Technology, Media and Telecom practice in 2012. He comes to the firm with sixteen years of experience in technology, both as an engineer and as an M&A advisor to middle market entrepreneurs. Mr. Kheraj has led, managed and closed numerous transactions representing, in aggregate, over $500 million in transaction value and liquidity for clients. Transactions have included M&A transactions, debt and equity capital raises and recapitalizations, business valuations, and strategic reviews. Prior to FocalPoint, Mr. Kheraj spent five years building out the technology/media/telecom and business services practice at McGladrey Capital Markets LLC. Prior to joining McGladrey Capital Markets, Mr. Kheraj served in the corporate finance and treasury group with International Rectifier, Inc., where he supported financial planning and analysis, managed risk associated with foreign currency exposures, and oversaw the annual capital expenditure process. Mr. Kheraj's passion in technology stems from his eight-year history as an engineer and technologist, particularly his final four years in a leadership role at the tech and media startup, NXSystems, Inc. At NXSystems, Mr. Kheraj helped to launch the first IP-based entertainment system for the hospitality environment, pioneering the Video-on-Demand solution that continues today to serve many of the most prestigious brands in the world including Four Seasons, Peninsula, W Hotels, St. Regis, Omni, and the JW Marriott. Mr. Kheraj has worked on a variety of operating systems, programming languages and hardware platforms, across a myriad of industries from aerospace to media to entertainment. Mr. Kheraj currently sits on a number of boards as an insightful coach helping entrepreneurs build spectacular tech-centric organizations. His advisory expertise extends across several emerging industries including eCommerce, social and mobile media, business process outsourcing, infrastructure technologies, business intelligence, robotics, big data and analytics. Mr. Kheraj holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Southern California, a Masters in Electrical Engineering from California State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a CFA charterholder, is certified as a Financial Risk Manager and holds FINRA Series 7, 63 and 79 securities licenses.

Alex Niehenke, Principal, Scale Venture Partners:  Alex focuses on investments across ScaleVP’s technology portfolio – including SaaS , Cloud, Consumer Internet and Mobile.  Prior to joining ScaleVP in 2012, Alex was at Crosslink Capital where he was involved in the investments in Bleacher Report (acquired by Turner Broadcasting), Marin Software, and Flurry, amongst others. Prior to joining Crosslink, Alex was an associate at investment bank Montgomery & Co. providing advisory services to Internet and software clients. His transaction experience includes the sale of Club Penguin to Disney, the sale of MySpace to Fox, and the recapitalization of LegalZoom.  Alex holds a B.S in Business Administration and a B.A in Legal Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S. Inc.: is a widely-acclaimed strategic consultant to technology and media CEOs, U.S. and worldwide. Her work helps create wealth for founders and investors of entrepreneurial ventures.  Her capital strategies drive up her clients’ valuations and profitability. She has a special expertise in working with emerging and disruptive technologies. She consults to Fortune 500 companies, capitalized start-ups, and investment funds, often serving as a “shadow CEO” to extend her clients’ bandwidth. She advises product and service companies and consultants. Her work optimizes her clients’ growth, deal flow and profitability. Successes include the 1st Internet B2B IPO with $30M to each of the three founders in year 5; the sale of a husband/wife software company for $50M in year 4; the raising of $2.2M in seed capital with no equity out, for a software venture she built in China; the sale of a start-up Internet company within 8 months of writing their first investment pitch piece. These have included J.P. Morgan Capital, Sony, IBM, Apple, Hearst, Blockbuster, Technicolor, Harper Collins, Discovery Channel, Time-Warner, Agfa and Scitex. Her many early stage ventures include Earthweb (IPO 1998) and iSuppli (sold to IHS 2010). Her clients say she is “a brilliant strategist and a practical, down-to-earth, get-it-done person,” “invaluable in understanding the competitive landscape and alternative strategies” and that she “cuts right through the noise, giving a clear vision of the future,” “protecting us from liability and cutting our costs.” Her clients have been in the business, enterprise and consumer sectors, with companies in technology, SaaS, hardware and software, mobile, media and entertainment, publishing and advertising, distribution, and investment and venture funding. She has worked in the U.S., Europe, China and Qatar. A strategist, policymaker, dealmaker, and negotiator, her work includes strategies on entry, exit, capitalization, return on investment, growth, positioning, pricing, distribution, social media outreach, risk-assessment, new market and international expansion, due diligence, and intellectual property. She speaks and publishes widely on entrepreneurship. Her published credits include 5 books, 60 published articles, and a weblog with hundreds of blog posts of advice to entrepreneurs. She can be reached through her website at www.joeytamer.com.

Day Two - SuperSession Day