An Investment with High Returns

As the saying goes, the more you put into something, the more you get out of it. That definitely applies to the WPI Venture Forum.

Like most of you, my schedule can get pretty hectic, and there are a lot of competing demands for my time. As an attorney, a husband and a father to two young boys, I can find plenty of other things to occupy my evenings. Yet, for the last several years, I have done my best to make sure that my second Tuesday of the month is available to attend the WPI Venture Forum meetings.

As a Worcester resident who commutes daily to Boston, I first became involved in the WPI Venture Forum as an effort to stay connected to what was going on in the Central Massachusetts entrepreneurial community. Since that time, I have increased my presence and my role at the WPI Venture Forum, currently serving on the Executive Board as its Vice Chair and assisting with the annual Business Plan Contest.

The WPI Venture Forum offers its participants an excellent resource for tracking trends in technology, exploring topics of interest to entrepreneurs and those who work with them, and building a network for success. I encourage you to attend the monthly meetings to learn from the wealth of knowledge being shared by our speakers and discover cutting-edge companies examined in the case studies. Use the networking breaks during the monthly meetings and the special networking events held throughout the year to connect with fellow entrepreneurs, service providers and funding sources. For those of you with a new technology venture, consider submitting your business plan to this spring's annual business plan contest and take advantage of the mentoring made available as part of the competition to hone your pitch.

For a small investment of your time and resources, the WPI Venture Forum can offer you high returns for years to come. I hope you will consider making the WPI Venture Forum part of your plans.

Sincerely,

Patrick R. Jones, Esq.,
Gesmer Updegrove, LLP
Vice Chair, WPI Venture Forum
Executive Board