Entrepreneurs Hear from Experts How to Raise Venture Capital in New...

May 21, 2005 -- On May 24th, 2005, leading Venture Capital investors are set to speak at the FundingPost (http://www.fundingpost.com) "Raising Venture Capital" event in New York City sponsored by Morrison and Foerster. Many entrepreneurs wonder what it takes to secure venture capital financing. At the breakfast event, two panels of Venture Capital Investors will answer these questions by discussing they are looking for in new investments right now. The FundingPost Event Calendar and registration information are online at: http://www.fundingpost.com/events.asp

FundingPost has completed 12+ sold out venture events in New York City over the past three years and it is proud to announce its next Venture Capital event in New York. At the morning session there will be two panels where the venture capitalist panelists will discuss valuation trends, term sheets, and hot industry sectors. In addition, four companies will have the opportunity to give a twenty-minute pitch to the panelists. For more information about pitching, contact Keith Henry 203-659-6649 or visit the FundingPost website at http://www.fundingpost.com/events.asp.

The speakers on the "Raising Venture Capital" panels include:

- Salvatore Tirabassi, Partner, Dolphin Equity Partners

- Alan Patricof, co-founder, Apax Partners, Inc.

- Jesse Lawrence, Associate, Updata Partners

- Douglas M. Chertok, Senior Managing Director, Hudson Ventures

- Shayne Veramallay, Associate, NJTC Venture Fund

- Arun Savkur, Managing Director, Quantum Fund LLP

- Todd Pietri, General Partner, Milestone Venture Partners

- Jerry Sprole, CEO, Leasing Technologies (Venture Leasing)

- John H. Friedman, Managing Partner, Easton Capital

- Ray Mirza, Principal, East River Ventures

- Patrick Gallagher, Associate, Morgan Stanley Ventures

- Arthur Klausner, Venture Partner, A.M. Pappas & Associates

Salvatore Tirabassi joined Dolphin Equity Partners in 1999. He serves on the board of five portfolio companies: Airband, RateIntegration, SilverCarrot, Vercuity and VitalStream. He is a former board member and now observer on the board of Gomez.

Before joining the Dolphin team, Mr. Tirabassi was a product development and marketing consultant to Diamond Lane Communications, Inc., a venture capital-backed DSL hardware manufacturer that was subsequently acquired by Nokia Corporation. Prior to his experience at Diamond Lane, he worked at Diefenbach Elkins International, a strategic marketing consulting firm now an affiliate of McCann Erickson.

Alan Patricof is co-founder of Apax Partners, Inc. (formerly Patricof & Co. Ventures, Inc.) Alan founded the firm at a time when venture capital was at an incipient stage and has been instrumental in growing the industry from a base of high net-worth individuals to its position today with broad institutional backing.

Mr. Patricof has helped build several major global companies and was instrumental in the start-up, financing, and subsequent strategic guidance that helped facilitate the growth of companies such as America Online, Office Depot, Cadence Systems, Apple Computer, FORE Systems, NTL, Audible, Inc. He was a founder and chairman of the board of New York magazine, which later acquired the Village Voice and New West magazine.

He has written extensively on venture capital and on challenges in the developing world; most recently he has had several op-eds appear in the Financial Times and a thought piece on private sector involvement in the developing world appeared in the April 2005 issue of the Milken Institute Journal.

Jesse Lawrence joined Updata Partners full-time in May of 2003 after an 8-month internship. Jesse is actively involved in identifying new opportunities within the enterprise software market for Updata as well as managing the Updata Internship Program. Jesse graduated from Columbia Business School in 2003 with a concentration in Finance. Prior to Columbia, he worked at The Wedding List and BrowseUp, where he led growth-stage strategy and business development efforts.

Doug Chertok is a Senior Managing Director at Hudson Ventures. Doug focuses on investments in enterprise software and services, with a particular interest in online advertising, marketing and communications. Doug works with several of Hudson's companies, and serves on the Board of Directors of Pivot Solutions, Poindexter Systems, and E-Tran and is an adviser to Netkey, inQ and The Relegence Corporation.

Before joining Hudson in 2000, Doug worked with many public and private companies as an attorney, in executive management and as a founder. Most recently, Doug practiced law at Morrison & Foerster where he represented early stage technology companies in venture financings, IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, employment and intellectual property matters. Prior to that, Doug held several operating positions within the real estate and casino gaming industries, most recently as a Corporate Director of Lady Luck Gaming Corporation, which following its IPO, was sold to Isle of Capri Casinos (Nasdaq: ISLE). Doug began has career by founding and operating a New York based food manufacturing and distribution company.

Shayne Veramallay joins NJTC Venture Fund from Salomon Smith Barney's Private Equity Group where he focused on the healthcare, biotech, and communications industries for middle to later stage private companies specializing in PIPE financings. Shayne focuses on advanced materials (including nanotechnology), energy, and biotech. Shayne attended Indiana University for his undergraduate degrees in Finance and International Business.

Arun Savkur is a Managing Director at the Quantum Fund LLP. An IBM corporate senior management type turned serial entrepreneur and now a venture capitalist/angel investor, Arun was matured by launching four successful start-ups and capitalizing them through liquidity events (without "going public"), wooing corporate buy-ins, private sales and spin-offs in the 1980-90s in fields that range from electronics, software and telecom which were based primarily in design/development & OEM manufacturing. Following a strict philosophy of "fully reinvesting of one's profits, globally and on a cross-industry basis to balance one's portfolio and mitigate economic risk," he has been able to leverage rapid equity growth and ownership in large infrastructure projects each exceeding $100 million in areas of power, telecom, mining and media.

In addition, to being the Managing Director of Quantum Fund LLP, he also heads his angel fund with a close group of investors, Nanoinvest LLP and has invested over $3 million in 10 start-up ventures over last 2 years in nanotechnology, wireless, media and renewable energy.

Todd Pietri is a General Partner of Milestone Venture Partners and brings a unique combination of information technology and financial expertise to its management. From 1992 to 1997, Todd ran the IT consulting and direct sales divisions of CompuSystems, an ERP software developer and provider of IT consulting services to industrial distributors and manufacturers. He earned his MBA while working full-time for CompuSystems. After business school, he joined Callier Interests, a turn-around leveraged-buy-out firm in Houston, Texas.

Subsequently he served as Vice President at Legacy Securities Corp of Atlanta, Georgia, a leading regional investment / merchant banking boutique. There he co-founded Legacy's Technology and Communications Investment Banking Group, which completed a number of high profile Technology M&A and private institutional capital-raising transactions. Mr. Pietri is currently a director of Bizbash Media, Inc. and NavTrak, Inc. and is a board observer of Derivatives Portfolio Management, LLC, ExpertPlan, Inc. and Octagon Research Solutions, Inc. Mr. Pietri is a CFA charterholder.

Jerry Sprole is the CEO of Leasing Technologies. Respected in the industry as an innovator, Jerry is not only a pioneer in the development of venture leasing and other leading edge lending financing concepts, but he has served as a Director of the Eastern Association of Equipment Lessors (EAEL), and as a member of the Debt/Equity Committee of the Computer Dealers and Lessors Association (CDLA).

Prior to founding LTI, Mr. Sprole was Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Intech Capital Corporation, a $100 million vendor leasing company. Previously he held the post of Vice President at First National Bank of Boston, where he was employed for more than nine years in various commercial lending functions.

Prior to founding Easton Capital, John Friedman was the founder and Managing General Partner of Security Pacific Capital Investors. Security Pacific Capital Investors was a $200-million private equity fund geared towards expansion financings and recapitalizations. Prior to joining Security Pacific, John was a Managing Director and Partner at E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co., Inc., where he spent eight and a half years. During his tenure, John was involved in Warburg's investments in Computerland, Tweeds, Babbages' and US Healthcare. Previously, John was an attorney with Sullivan and Cromwell. He holds a JD degree from Yale Law School and a BA degree from Yale College. John currently serves on the Boards of Conor Medsystems, Renovis, Acorda Therapeutics, Comverse Technology, Trellis Bioscience, YM BioSciences, Assistive Technology, and ModelWire, Inc., and is on the President's Council at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Ray Mizra joined East River Ventures after working for several years in Management and High-Tech Consulting for both Deloitte Consulting and Price Waterhouse. During his consulting career, he managed large-scale Enterprise Software, B2B, and E-commerce engagements within the Financial Services, Entertainment, and Technology industries. He also spent time working in the Mergers & Acquisitions group at Robertson Stephens. Ray holds a BA in Economics and Government from Cornell University, a BS in Industrial Engineering from Rutgers University, and an MBA in Finance, Management, and Entrepreneurship from Columbia Business School.

Mr. Gallagher joined Morgan Stanley in 1995. He spent one year in the Debt Capital Markets Group, one year in the Technology Corporate Finance Department, and two years with Venture Partners. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Gallagher spent two years working in Toyota's Corporate Treasury Department. In 2003, Mr. Gallagher rejoined Venture Partners after working in various business development roles at RealNames, an Internet Services company and former Venture Partners portfolio company. Mr. Gallagher is a Director of Constant Contact and Core Security and is involved with the following portfolio companies: Plateau Systems, Bowstreet and Immobilien Scout.

Arthur Klausner recently joined A.M. Pappas & Associates as a Venture Partner. From 1990 through February 2004, Mr. Klausner was with Domain Associates, a venture capital firm specializing in life sciences companies, serving as a General Partner from 1997 through February 2004. During that time, he was a board member of Domain portfolio companies such as Santarus (IPO in 2004), X-Ceptor (acquired by Exelixis), and Altea Therapeutics, and he was a board observer for Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Johnson & Johnson). Previously, Mr. Klausner spent six years at Bio/Technology magazine (now Nature Biotechnology), where as Senior Editor he researched and prepared over 200 articles concerning scientific and business aspects of applied biology.

"We are delighted to be returning to New York City. Our series have been successful because both the entrepreneurs and the investors see the value of the exchange," said Joe Rubin, Director, FundingPost. "Entrepreneurs are finding the investors' tips and responses helpful for improving and refining their pitches and our investor panels are excited to see the new dealflow in these early companies."

For more information about the New York City "Raising Venture Capital" event and other FundingPost events, contact Keith Henry at 203-659-6649 or visit the FundingPost website at http://www.fundingpost.com/events.asp

About Fundingpost:

FundingPost is an entrepreneur and investor network reaching more than 70,000 executives and 6,000 Venture Capital and Angel Investors across the nation each month.

For over four years FundingPost has worked with thousands of Angel and Venture Capital Investors and Entrepreneurs. FundingPost has hosted over 5,000 CEOs and 600 Venture Funds at events in 15 cities nationwide, as well as providing a quarterly Dealflow magazine and a deal-exchange Website that has, on average, seen an introduction of an Investor to an Entrepreneur every business day since its inception. FundingPost's mission to reach investors and entrepreneurs in every medium possible - both online and offline, and it is experiencing strong growth as the venture capital markets continue to improve worldwide. For more information: http://www.fundingpost.com

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