Monthly Programs - February 13, 2007

Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Campus Center - Odeum Room
6:00 - 9:00 P.M.
Pre-registration

Build Your Company’s Success Team

David Beisel

Debora Bloom

Carol Bergeron

What does a young technology-based company need to know about assembling its first executive team? Once it gets funded, how should it fill out that team? And as the company’s growth creates new needs, how should it change the team structure?

The WPI Venture Forum’s February 13 meeting will offer three experts to answer these critical questions. Included on the keynote panel are Carol Bergeron, founder of Bergeron Associates; Debora Bloom, Principal of Debora Bloom Associates; and David Beisel, Principal at Masthead Venture Partners.

Bergeron will talk about assembling the initial executive team of startup firms. She will share information on effective methods used in the selection process, such as a hiring model and assessment tools, effective team building techniques, and tell-tale signs for needed leadership changes as companies grow.

Diversity in early stage companies makes a difference for business, and Bloom will explain how to ensure that different kinds of team members make their full contribution to company goals, including ways to communicate successfully across differences.

Beisel will take the investors’ perspective, describing how investors look at teams. He will share that the key to building an excellent startup management team is to find an appropriate balance between the skill-set which the company needs now and what it will need in the future.

About the speakers

Carol Bergeron founded Bergeron Associates in 1998 and has more than 23 years’ experience helping organizations achieve their goals through human capital and organizational performance improvement solutions. Tangible results of her work include building the bench strength of employees, improving operational efficiency and growing revenue and profits. In addition to being a consultant, Carol is also an instructor, author and community leader.

As Principal of Debora Bloom Associates, Debora Bloom specializes in workforce diversity, harassment prevention, and leadership development. Over the past twenty years she has consulted to dozens of technology, health care, manufacturing, financial services and government organizations on effectively managing the human side of their businesses. She brings an international perspective and Spanish language fluency to her work. Before establishing her own firm in 1986, Debora held human resource positions at Wang Laboratories and Digital Equipment Corporation and was also a hospital department head.

David Beisel currently identifies and evaluates digital media and mobile investment opportunities at Masthead Venture Partners, an early stage venture capital firm based in Cambridge, MA. Prior to joining Masthead, he co-founded Sombasa Media, an e-mail marketing company which was successfully acquired and subsequently became the About Direct division of Primedia. As Vice President of Marketing at Primedia, Beisel led the marketing group responsible for the company's e-mail newsletter product suite, managed the division's customer relationship operations, and coordinated related business development activities. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an AB in Economics, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Duke University.

Case Presenter

TrueLight Technologies LLC

Angel DeCegama

Dr. Angel DeCegama, founder of TrueLight Technologies LLC, will present his business plan for a company dedicated to delivering high-quality video to desktop PCs using breakthrough video compression technology. A recent MassHighTech article discussed this startup enterprise’s rapid emergence.

TrueLight’s technology can compress video several times better than the latest MPEG algorithms to funnel high bandwidth content through a narrow Internet channel that when decompressed, produces high quality video in real time. TrueLight’s patented compression technology will allow streaming video, even high definition (HDTV), to be delivered to a desktop PC through a broadband connection. Breakthrough applications are possible in such areas as content protection, video conferencing and telemedicine over the Internet and within intranets.

Dr. DeCegama has worked as a senior engineer at Lockheed Sanders, GTE Corp., and NCR Corp. and is now an engineering professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology. He comes to the WPI Venture Forum looking for assistance with securing additional funding, identifying market channels and a market launch strategy, and building a team to move the company forward.

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Last modified: Jan 31, 2007, 11:53 EST