Monthly Programs - February 12, 2008

Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Campus Center - Odeum Room
Doors open: 5:30 p.m.
Meeting: 6:30 - 9 p.m.
Cost: $15 members, $25 non-members
Pre-registration
Directions
Parking

Presentations :

Valuation, Funding, Scaling Up and Exit

Speakers: Alan Cody, John Hession, Jeff Bentley, Greg Erman

What is a start-up business worth and how is its valuation determined? How can that help attract funding and ultimately affect scaling the business? And once the business scales, is there a viable exit strategy?

Four experts in the areas of valuation, funding, scaling up, and exit strategy will address these questions at the February 12th meeting of the WPI Venture Forum. Entrepreneurs thinking about the future of their business will find valuable information and contacts through this program’s presentations.

Alan Cody

Valuation

Alan Cody, Managing Director in the Boston office of Duff & Phelps, LLC, will address the topic of valuation. Part of the Financial Reporting Practice, Cody has more than 20 years of experience in business valuation, mergers and acquisitions, corporate financial strategy, transaction due diligence analysis, and technology commercialization planning and valuation in a wide and diverse field of industries. He holds an AB from Cornell University, SM in Management from MIT and is a CFA Charterholder.

Funding

John Hession

Presenter John Hession will discuss start-up funding. Managing partner of the Boston office of Cooley Godward Kronish, he is a partner in the Venture Capital Financing and Emerging Companies practice groups and a member of the Business department. Attorney Hession represents emerging-growth companies, principally in the medical device, software, life sciences, telecommunications and electronic commerce fields, as well as angels and venture capital funds in the investment process in these sectors.

He has participated in, structured and negotiated more than 200 venture and angel financings, 30 public offerings, more than 125 strategic alliances involving technology transfers, and over 150 acquisitions ranging in size from $1 million to $4.2 billion. Hession has won several awards during his 25-year career in the legal profession. Voted by Digital Industry in May 2001 as "one of Boston’s best VC lawyers," and by Boston Magazine in October 2002, as "one of Boston’s best start-up company lawyers," he has been nominated for the last four years by Boston Magazine as a "Super Lawyer" and one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts.

Scaling up

Jeff Bentley

Scaling up will be the subject for Jeff Bentley, CEO, CellTech Power LLC. Bentley is responsible for company management, business development and strategic relationships. He has more than 15 years of leadership experience in the fuel cell industry and 30 years of experience in the development of military and high technology products.

For 10 years, Bentley was a vice president and energy consultant for Arthur D. Little, (now TIAX). His functional experience includes military and computer product engineering, technical sales, marketing and business development and general management. He has a BSME and MSME from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Exit Strategy

Greg Erman

Making a profitable exit will be covered by Greg Erman, a frequent speaker at WPI Venture Forum events and a serial entrepreneur focused on commercializing technology to decentralize the delivery of healthcare. Most recently President and CEO of Renalworks Medical Corporation, Erman sold that company to Fresenius Medical Care, the leading company in its industry. A venture-backed firm spun-out of MGH, MIT, and Draper Laboratories, Renalworks developed an implantable medical device for the treatment of patients with chronic kidney or cardiovascular diseases.

Erman previously worked with Partners HealthCare on the commercialization of new medical device technologies, driving the development of many life-saving technologies including ambulatory ECG monitors and ultrasound brain cancer treatments. Earlier, Erman founded and was President and CEO of MarketSoft Corporation, an enterprise software company, for six years. He raised $70 million in venture capital and led MarketSoft to a prominent position in the marketing automation category.

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Last modified: Feb 15, 2008, 11:29 EST