Silicon Valley Lessons Revealed At Startup Scaleup
As Northeast Ohio continues to solidify its reputation as a major player in the startup game, organizations across the country are beginning to sit up and take notice. As a result, this years’ Startup Scaleup has attracted interest from a wide variety of Silicon Valley leaders who want to see our region’s entrepreneurial spirit up close.
“One of the things we’re very excited about this year is that we’ll be hosting current and former Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, investors and executives who will be taking part in sessions throughout the day and networking with local entrepreneurs and investors,” said JumpStart CEO Ray Leach. “Increasingly, other hubs of entrepreneurship are starting to take notice of what’s going on in Northeast Ohio and want to get involved.”
Here are a few of this year’s speakers who will be sharing some of the valuable lessons they’ve learned from doing business in the Bay Area:
Alex Bard, Partner & Early Stage Investor, Redpoint Ventures
Alex is a serial entrepreneur who has played key roles in starting four technology companies in the enterprise software space, including Goowy media, which was acquired by AOL, and Assistly, which was acquired by Salesforce and rebranded as desk.com. Prior to becoming an investor at Redpoint Ventures, Alex served as CEO of Campaign Monitor.
Hear Alex speak at “Customers > Revenue” where he will make the case for keeping your customers happy at all costs while letting the profit take care of itself, and “Startup Stories: Life After Exit” where he will join two Ohio entrepreneurs to discuss how different life can be when you no longer own your own company.
Rob is a senior-level finance executive with more than 25 years of experience, including CFO positions at both public and private companies. Most recently, Rob served as Yelp Inc.’s Chief Financial Officer for five years, growing revenue from $50 million to over $700 million as the company’s worldwide workforce grew to more than 4,000 employees.
Hear Rob speak at “Art Of The Exit.” In this session, Rob will talk about how he knew Yelp was ready for IPO, give his read on the market for IPO and acquisitions today, and share his insights into what startup companies looking to exit can do to get their operations, data and finances ready to go.
Cortney Marchetti, HR Strategy Consultant, Leadership Coach, Ampersand Consulting
Cortney led People Operations at Lyft, where she helped scale People Programs and Culture for an organization that grew from 500 employees to 2000 in just over a year. She also led People teams at Shutterfly, working through Programs, Communication and HR Business Partner teams to drive employee engagement.
Hear Cortney speak at “The New Benefits Package,” where she will join a panel discussing how today’s successful businesses are attracting top talent with a combination of traditional benefits and new perks like unlimited PTO and flex time.
Jim Benton, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, ClearSlide
Jim has built his career around generating revenue by translating customer needs into innovative new products. Prior to founding ClearSlide, he served as VP of Sales at AdBrite, where he was a founding executive and the company’s fifth employee. In his first three years at AdBrite, Jim helped grow revenue from $1 million to $30 million.
Hear John speak at “Secrets To Creating An Amazing Sales Experience,” where he will share tips for building, training and motivating a sales team that wows your prospects and customers.
John Locke joined Accel in 2009 and helps lead the firm’s growth fund. He focuses on mobile, software, payments and marketplace companies. He is the lead investor and board member in SeatGeek, GoFundMe, Lightspeed, Wyzant, Invoice2Go, Pond5 and QMC Telecom.
Hear John speak at “Silicon Valley Money, Midwest Zip Code.” He will be joining two Ohio entrepreneurs for a discussion on how entrepreneurs can attract coastal capital without giving up their midwestern address, the opportunities and challenges of scaling a startup outside of the Valley and what top VCs really look for when making their next big bet.
Click here to view the complete list of nearly 40 sessions and 80+ speakers.
Click here to register for Startup Scaleup, 2017.