MANAGEMENT SCIENCE & ENGINEERING 273
TECHNOLOGY VENTURE FORMATION

 
   
  Fenwick & West
   
 

Enrollment

 

FAQs

 
 

Business Plan

 
 

Course Policies

 
 

Resources

 
 

Mentor Biographies


 
 

Jim Anderson

Jim Anderson has over two decades in venture capital, including founding partnership positions in Merrill Pickard Anderson & Eyre; and in Foundation Capital, with collectively well over $1 billion in capital commitments. Jim has watched, coached, and participated in the nurture of hundreds of early-stage companies, helping develop them into industry leaders. He came to venture capital with a comprehensive engineering and marketing background, ranging from semiconductors to computer systems built at Beckman Instruments and Hewlett-Packard, Jim was one of the early few to leverage true operational experience. This background provided Jim with a venture platform for some unique value- added industry management approaches to the venture industry including early seed investing, development of the entrepreneur-in-residence concept, and the continuing need and value of a deep seated focus on industry markets.

After stepping back from the venture capital industry for a period, he created Legacy Partners, a $100 million+ philanthropic venture vehicle designed to encourage high-impact philanthropy through venture style collaboration and entrepreneurship.

Jim has continued activities in the valley as an early stage investor with a particular focus in the environmental arena especially regarding global warming.

Jim holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business as well as a BSEE and an MSEE from Purdue University.

 
   
 
 

David Bakker

David Bakker has a winning track record with over 20 years experience theSemiconductor Industry; Most recently Mr Bakker was the Executive Chairman of Inovys Corporation, acquired by Verigy in Dec 2007. Previously, he was Vice President and General Manager at KLA-Tencor, the leading semiconductor metrology company with revenues over  $2B. Mr Bakker is also on the board of Ribbecke Guitar Corp, and on the advisory boards of scanR Corp, Infinitesima, Finesse, Stratosphere,  Presto Engineering, Advanced Image Science, and Argos, and is an Affiliate Partner of Storm Ventures.

       
 
Joe
 

Joe Beninato

Joe Beninato loves startups. Since graduating from M.I.T. with a degree in aerospace engineering, he has worked with more than fifteen startups, serving as founder, employee, investor or advisor.

Joe most recently was the founder and CEO of Presto, a venture-backed startup in partnership with Hewlett-Packard that allows people who don't use computers to receive digital photos and emails from their family and friends.

Before founding Presto, he was Vice President of Product Marketing & Business Development at Roku, a privately-held digital media startup company. Prior to Roku, Joe founded and served as Vice President of Marketing for When.com, the leading Internet calendar and event service that was acquired by America Online. Joe has spearheaded marketing and product efforts for Books That Work (acquired by Sierra OnLine), Integrated Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: INTS, later merged with Wind River Systems) and S3 Inc. (NASDAQ: SIII, later known as SONICBlue).

Actively involved in the Silicon Valley startup community, Joe is a limited partner in several venture capital funds, and has served on the board of directors for Presto, When.com and eDaycare (acquired by Arrowsight). He has acted as an investor or advisor for Bigstep (acquired by Affinity Internet), Ofoto (acquired by Kodak), SuperSecret (private), and numerous other startup companies. Joe is currently a board member for the non-profit Churchill Club, Silicon Valley's premier business and technology forum, and serves as a mentor for the Stanford University Technology Venture Formation class and the fbFund REV incubator program. He is hard at work starting his next company.

       
 
 

Heinz Blennemann

Heinz is a diversified investor, with a passion for angel investing. He is an active member at the Band of Angels, the Keiretsu Angel Investing Forum, the Institute for Private Investors, and supports the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research. He successfully built and then managed Juniper's first signal-integrity/technology team for eight years. Concurrently, he taught in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University as consulting professor and lecturer for two years. Previously, he led technology teams in high-speed system design at Silicon Graphics and I.B.M. He received a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Highest Honors) from Princeton University, a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an M.B.A from the Wharton School of Business.

Heinz enjoys mentoring student Entrepreneurship teams. He can be reached at heinz@venture-creation.com .

 
   
 
 

Richard Bush

Richard Bush has an outstanding history of entrepreneurial achievement, assuming roles from engineer and worker-bee to top-executive, in a series of successful Silicon Valley companies which he began with venture or angel funding and transitioned into multi-million dollar publicly traded businesses.

In a career marked by entrepreneurial endeavors and by mentoring fledgling start-ups to success, Dick is recognized for his guidance and ability to build strategies and assemble teams that seize market opportunity and achieve business, financial and cultural goals.

He has over 30 years of combined high-tech experience in the computer, storage, security and communications. His roles have ranged from VP of Sales and Marketing and other top executive roles including CEO and Chairman. Companies he has been involved with include Bridge Communications, Auspex Systems, Blue Steel, ePeople and Caw Networks.

 
 
 

Jeff Depew

Jeff Depew is a serial entrepreneur and GE-trained leader with a keen eye for emerging markets and technology trends.  The first half of Jeff’s career was starting businesses and/or building market share for divisions of General Electric and General Motors.  The second half of Jeff’s career has been focused on building new businesses and market opportunities as an entrepreneur.

Jeff’s latest venture is Lion Cells, a venture-funded high power/high energy Li Ion battery company which he founded in 2006.  The company will enable better performance of battery powered or battery enhanced products such as power tools, lawn and garden equipment, and hybrid cars.

Prior to his current venture, Jeff founded Motion Sense, a MEMS semiconductor company providing integrated gesture control and location-aware solutions for handheld devices and game controllers.

During his career, Jeff has consulted with both early stage and F1000 companies on how to capitalize on emerging technologies such as interactive digital cable, fuel cells, water purification, and LED lighting.

Before focusing his energies on early stage companies, Jeff served as Executive Director of Marketing and Sales at General Motors’ OnStar division, where he led the vision, strategy, positioning, service development and market launch of OnStar.  The group integrated cellular, GPS, and data mining technologies into a service platform which delivers peace-of-mind to consumers across all GM’s automotive divisions.

Jeff developed his market-focused leadership, product development and marketing skills over twelve years in both consumer and commercial businesses at General Electric. His last position at GE was as President, Electrical Distribution and Control for the Asia/Pacific region, focusing on customer solutions in circuit protection and factory automation. Prior to ED&C, he spent seven years at GE Lighting serving both Consumer and Industrial markets, leading new products and business development for product lines such as IR coated Halogen and GE Rechargeable Batteries.

Jeff is a lover of the great outdoors, where he skis, hikes, bikes, boats, and tries at least one new sport each year.  Latest: Hang Gliding.  He is married, has 2 Finnish Lapphunds (4-legged "kids"), and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

       
   

Steve Eglash

Steve is a business executive and engineer focusing on energy/cleantech, optoelectronics, and materials.  He has a strong technical background and experience in venture capital, general management, marketing and sales, engineering management, and research.

Most recently Steve was President and CEO of Cyrium Technologies, a solar energy startup company developing high-efficiency solar cells for concentrator photovoltaic applications. Prior to joining Cyrium, Steve was a consultant and advisor to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy where he led a solar energy strategic planning project. Before that, Steve was a venture capitalist at Worldview Technology Partners where he emphasized investments in semiconductors, displays, lighting, and energy. Steve was also Vice President at SDL (JDSU) where he managed businesses in telecommunications, printing, optical amplifiers, and industrial lasers. He began his career as a research scientist at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Steve received a Ph.D. and M.S. from Stanford University and a B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley, all in Electrical Engineering.  He has more than 40 papers published in peer-reviewed journals and four patents (U.S., awarded).  Steve is a member of the IEEE, OSA, and SPIE.

Steve is a member of the City of Palo Alto Utilities Advisory Commission.  He was chairman of the SPIE Photonics Innovation Summit and is a frequent speaker at conferences such as the Photonics Market Opportunities Forum at SPIE’s Photonics West.  Steve was twice chairman of the OSA’s Executive Forum at the Optical Fiber Conference.  He was a speaker at the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources Science and Technology Caucus. Steve is involved in humanitarian projects such as the Tech Museum Awards for Technology Benefiting Humanity and the Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University.

 
   
 
 

Gordon Eubanks

From April 1999 to March 2005 Eubanks served as president and CEO of Oblix, Inc.  Oblix was a private company funded by leading venture firms such as Apax Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.  Gordon Eubanks managed the company’s rapid growth and established its position as the industry’s leading provider of enterprise identity management solutions.  In March 2005 Oblix was sold to Oracle Corporation.

From 1984 to 1999, Eubanks was president and chief executive officer of Symantec Corporation. Under his leadership, Symantec evolved into one of the world’s most prominent software companies. Previously, Eubanks founded C&E Software (which Symantec acquired in 1984) and served as a senior executive at software development and marketing.

Eubanks founded Compiler Systems, Inc. in 1975 and authored its products: CBASIC, one of the first successful languages on personal computers, and CB80, a compiled version of CBASIC. Compiler Systems was acquired by Digital Research in August 1981.

Eubanks received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma State University (1968) and his Master's degree in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School (1976) in Monterey, California. Eubanks was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, serving in the nuclear submarine force from 1970 to 1979.  He is an active member of industry trade associations, including a past tenure as chairman and president of the Software Publishers Association.  He is also on the board of the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation.  In 2005, Eubanks was elected to the Hall of Fame of the Oklahoma State University Engineering School.  Eubanks serves on the board of Concur Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNQR).  He served on the board and as Chairman of Preventsys, a private company,  until June 2006 when it was sold to McAfee.  Eubanks is on the board of GuardID and Oakley Networks, both private technology companies.

       
  http://www.mobiusvc.com/images/photos/ggalanos-tall.gif  

Greg Galanos

Greg is a Managing Director of Mobius Venture Capital in California. Since 2000, he has led and/or managed early stage investments in semiconductors, communications equipment, wireless infrastructure software, internet-centric mobile platforms, DFM software and SOFC technologies. He currently serves as a board member and director in a number of private companies notably Bloom Energy, Fujin, HVVi, Impinj, SkyPilot Networks and Reactrix. He previously led and/or managed investments in Infinera (NASDAQ: INFN), Danger (acquired by Microsoft), Phonespots (acquired by CellGenie), Dantz (acquired by EMC) and Transilica (acquired by Microtune).

Mr Galanos is a veteran of the software development industry as both a developer and an entrepreneur. In 1985, he founded and helped build Metrowerks, one of the world's leading software development tools providers, producers of the CodeWarrior line of programming tools (acquired by Freescale Semiconductor, formerly Motorola, in 1999). He also helped define Freescale's software strategy as part of the Office of the President in 1999.

Prior to 1985, he assisted in the development of geographic information systems for Hydro-Quebec and the James Bay Development Corporation in Montreal. He holds an M.S. in Computer Science from l'Universite du Quebec a Montreal.

       
   

Jon Gillespie-Brown

Jon has extensive leadership experience in the information technology, communications and new media arenas with executive roles spanning from VP Sales and Marketing to President and Chief Executive Officer. He has a great deal of expertise in the Software Development and Security markets and over 22 years in the IT business.

Prior to founding Nalpeiron has was the founder and CEO of three IT Companies in Software, Training and New Media. He successfully built and sold out of these Companies in 2000. Before his own ventures, Jon worked for Global players such as Ericcson, SmartLink and Pace as VP Sales/Marketing and General Manager. Jon is on the Board of Directors of Digital Ventures and TeachMe Interactive. He has been a Entrepreneur in residence/Mentor for the London Business School for 6 years and is the Author of a book on rookie entrepreneurs called "So you want to be an entrepreneur" published by Wiley & Co in 2008.

He is passionate about 'entrepreneurship' and believes in the individual's ability to shape their own destiny.

He is married with two children, lives in Portola Valley, CA.

 
   
   

Jessica Grossman M.D.

Dr. Jessica Grossman has over eight years of experience in silicon valley start-up medical device companies.  Most recently, Dr. Grossman was the founder and President of Gynesonics, an early stage medical device company focused on minimally invasive solutions for women’s health where she raised over $20 million in venture capital financing.  Before founding Gynesonics, Dr Grossman worked at Hansen Medical, Inc as the Director of Clinical Marketing.  During her time at Hansen, she oversaw all aspects of the company’s marketing, clinical planning and development activities.  Prior to Hansen Medical, she was a Product Manager at Accuray, Inc where she was responsible for the development, implementation and launch of their new profit sharing model.  Additionally, Dr. Grossman was a clinical marketing consultant in Gynecology at Intuitive Surgical.  Currently Dr. Grossman serves on the board of Advocates for the United Nations Population Fund and is planning a trip to Southeast Asia as well as a Bay Area fundraiser in the near future.

Dr. Grossman graduated with honors from Brandeis University with a dual degree in Biology and English and American Literature. She was the top third of her class at Thomas Jefferson University, jefferson Medical College, where she obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree.

       

Brian Hamel

Brian Hamel has 20 years experience in high technology. His experience includes both hardware and software in a variety of roles including sales, business development and venture capital.  Brian currently is the co-founder and CEO of Nanochronous Logic, an EDA software company.  Prior to his current role, he created and launched the Cadence Corporate Venture Capital practice.

Brian has analyzed and advised well over 100 startups on business formation, raising institutional as well as corporate capital and taking products to market.  He built a multinational investment portfolio of over 20 leading edge semiconductor, system and software startups and has held multiple board and board observer seats.  Today, Brian is also active with early stage startups in the social networking and Ecommerce space.

Brian holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Worchester Polytechnic Institute, and did his MBA studies at the University of San Francisco, specializing in International Business.

 
 

Bill Levin 

Bill has over three decades of experience building businesses, from startups to large corporations.   Most recently, Bill was a Vice President for Maxim Integrated Products (NASDAQ: MXIM), a worldwide leader in the design, development, and manufacture of analog, mixed signal, digital, and high-frequency circuits.  During his 9 years at Maxim, Bill initially had responsibility for Engineering ,then U.S. Sales,Marketing and Product Line Management as he helped grow the company from $50MM in annual revenue to  $600MM in annual revenue.  Before Maxim, Bill was an Vice President at Shugart Corporation—where he led a turnaround that took one of the companies businesses from an unprofitable $24MM in annual revenue to over $70MM in highly profitable annual revenue.  Bill has a B.S. in Engineering, an M.S. in Engineering, and an M.S.in Business, all from UCLA.

 
       
   

David Miller

David Miller received his BSE degree in Civil Engineering from Princeton University in 1997 and obtained an MS in Civil Engineering from Stanford in 1998 and an MS in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford in 2001. David was also on the design and engineering team for the tallest roller coaster in the world -- the Steel Dragon 2000 in Japan. After completing the Stanford Biodesign fellowship he consulted at several medical device start-ups before co-founding InnoSpine, Inc. which was acquired by Kyhpon in 2006. He has been named as an inventor on over 20 medical device patent applications.

       
 
 

Michael J. Salameh 

Michael J. Salameh co-founded PLX and has served as our Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors from PLX's inception in May 1986. Mr. Salameh retired from his position as CEO in November 2008 and continues to serve as a director. From 1980 through 1986, Mr. Salameh was employed in various marketing management positions with Hewlett-Packard Company. Mr. Salameh received a B.S. in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

       
   

Christopher Shen, MD

Dr. Chris Shen joins EWHV from New Enterprise Associates, a diversified venture capital fund, where he invested in biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Prior to joining EWHV, Dr. Shen held the position of Senior Design Engineer at Guidant Corporation's Neurovascular Venture, an internal start-up, where he invented and commercialized a minimally-invasive therapy for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. Dr. Shen also worked in Japan as a Design Engineer for Pfizer, Inc.’s Strategic Innovation Group, an internal medical technology incubator. 

Dr. Shen continues to hold a Lecturer position at the Stanford School of Medicine, teaching a course on medical technology innovation. He has nine patents issued and several pending in the fields of interventional neuroradiology and interventional cardiology. 

Dr. Shen received his MD from the Stanford School of Medicine, his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and an MSE in Biomechanical Engineering from the Stanford School of Engineering. He received his BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. Dr. Shen currently sits on the board of Denali Medical.

 
   
   

Alan Shluzas

Alan Shluzas is currently the Director of Research and Product Design for the spinal products division of Zimmer Orthopedics, and has over 11 years of medical product development experience.  Mr. Shluzas joined Zimmer when his previous company, Endius Incorporated, was acquired by Zimmer in February 2007.  Working at Endius since 1999, Mr. Shluzas was responsible for pioneering innovative minimally invasive spinal implant and instrumentation products.  Mr. Shluzas is the holder of fourteen US patents related to the fields of endoscopy, orthopedics, and spine with several patents pending.  Prior to joining Endius, Mr. Shluzas held engineering positions at Acufex Microsurgical, which was acquired by Smith & Nephew in 1995.  He was key contributor to Smith & Nephew’s line of bioresorbable sports medicine fixation devices.  Mr. Shluzas holds a B.S. and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University.

       
 
 

Mark Sochan

Mark Sochan is President of Nuvonix, a consulting firm that specializes in OEM partnering and technology licensing strategies.  Prior to Nuvonix, Mr. Sochan held the position of Vice President of Business Development at SAP, where he was responsible for the NetWeaver partner program, the launch and growth of the SAP Developer Network, as well as leading the negotiation teams for several software company acquisitions.  Prior to SAP, Mr. Sochan was Vice President of TopTier Software, a company that was acquired by SAP in 2001, and was responsible for successful strategic OEM partnerships with Microsoft, IBM, and SAP.  Earlier in his career, he  served as Director of Business Development for Crystal Decisions (now Business Objects), where he managed the OEM and channel sales teams responsible for successfully licensing Crystal Reports to more than 150 software companies. Mr. Sochan holds a B.A.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

 
   
 
Spencer Tall
 

Spencer C. Tall

  • Managing Director, Allegis Capital
  • General Partner & Co-Founder, APV Technology Partners
  • Co-Founder Asia Pacific Ventures
  • 10 Years Venture Capital Experience
  • Former Operating Executive (Asia and US)

Spencer C. Tall joined the Allegis team in 2004. Prior to Allegis Capital, Mr. Tall was a co-founder and General Partner with APV Technology Partners for three funds over 10 years. In addition, Mr. Tall was a co-founder of Asia Pacific Ventures LLC, a consulting and advisory service firm where, over a 13-year period, he assisted more than 50 technology companies in their Asia expansion plans. Mr. Tall currently serves on the boards of Allegiance, IMVU, Symplified and AvaLAN Wireless. Prior investments include E.piphany (EPNY), Web TV (acquired by MSFT), One Touch Systems (acquired by Hughes Satellite), Locality (acquired by e2Grow), and North Systems. Mr. Tall has a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and Japanese from BYU.

 
   
 
Soody Tronson
 

Soody Tronson

Soody Tronson, M.S., J.D has over twenty years of experience in law, science, engineering, and business management in start-ups and established environments. She practices intellectual property law, patent and technology/business transactions, for a range of industries, including medical devices, pharmaceuticals, chemical manufacturing, high technology, and Printing.

Prior to starting her firm, she practiced law as IP Counsel at Silicon Valley offices of prominent national law firms as well as IP Counsel at the Hewlett-Packard Company, and was Vice President of Intellectual Property and General Counsel at a successfully acquired medical device start up company. Before starting her legal career, she spent over ten years in the industry holding technical and management positions at companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Schering-Plough. Soody is licensed to practice before the State of California and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. She is on the board of children's charity organization and instructs courses in IP and licensing at the University of California.

 
   
 
 

Steve Weinstein

With a background that spans technology, intellectual property and entertainment, Steve Weinstein now leads the film industry’s united effort to explore and invest in emerging technologies to advance the consumer experience in the new media environment.  Prior to joining MovieLabs, Steve served as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at Macrovision Corporation, where he led the post-reorganization effort to define that company’s strategic and technological direction. Steve previously served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Macrovision’s Entertainment Technologies Group, where he guided the transition from physical security technologies to secure online distribution, commerce and subscription services. Previous to Macrovision, Steve held the role of Chief Technology Officer at Vicinity, a mapping company acquired by Microsoft in 2002. Steve was a founding executive and Chief Strategist and Technologist at Liberate Technologies, an interactive television software company. Over his career, Steve has held executive-level positions at Microprose/Spectrum HoloByte, Electronics for Imaging, and Media Cybernetics.

       
   

Phil Wickham

Phil Wickham is a twelve-year veteran of the venture capital industry, with a particular focus on globalization of young companies. He has worked with Flagship (Boston), JAFCO (Tokyo/Palo Alto) and Copan (Munich/Palo Alto). Prior to his years in venture capital, Phil co-founded Reference Media in Tokyo in 1989 and later sold the company to the Princeton Review.

He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arizona, an MBA from Rensselaer and is a Charter Class Member of The Kauffman Fellows Program and vice chairman of the Program's board. He is also a board member of S2 Technologies and SVASE.

 
   
 
 

Glenn Winokur

Glenn Winokur is a 20+ year veteran of the software industry.   He is Managing Director of Emerson Street Partners, an advisory services and seed stage investment firm that helps entrepreneurs and VCs incubate new technology companies, as well as accelerate growth of existing ones.  Prior to launching Emerson Street Partners, Glenn spent 3 years as CEO of Scalix, a leading linux email and collaboration software vendor, taking it from a handful of customers to 600+ customers upon it’s sale to Xandros Corp.  Prior to that, he was Chief Operating Officer of NetIQ, a leading supplier of security and system management and web analytics software, where he was responsible for all revenue, customer and partner related activities. As part of the co-founding team at NetIQ, he played an instrumental role in leading the company through an extended period of rapid growth from initial product launch in 1996 to IPO in 1999 (NTIQ) and ultimately $300 million in annual revenues in 2003.   Prior to NetIQ, Winokur has held executive positions in sales and business development at several enterprise software companies, including Compuware, Frame Technology (now Adobe), Documentum (now EMC) and Ingres. Winokur received a BS in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and is a frequent guest lecturer, mentor and advisor at both the University of Illinois and Stanford University. 

       
 
 

Henry H. Wong

Henry H. Wong has been a prolific and successful entrepreneur, executive, and venture investor in Silicon Valley for over 25 years.  Henry applies his operational experience, investment talent, and his China expertise to advise, invest in, and build high technology companies with a global vision.  He is the founder of Diamond TechVentures, and was a venture partner at Crystal Ventures, where he was actively involved with companies including SMIC, LGC Wireless, Infinera, and Exavio.  As an entrepreneur, Henry has had several significant successes, including SS8 Networks Inc., where he was the founder, CEO and Chairman, as well as IP Communications, XaQti Semiconductor, CNet Technology Inc., and Combinet (ISDN Systems), all of which he co-founded and led.  In 2002, Henry was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He is an advisor to several non-profit organizations and is active in community organizations.  Henry holds a B.Sc. degree in Business from the University of Utah and a MBA in Telecom Management from Golden Gate University.  He is also a Mentor in the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB MBA Program Stanford).