Monthly Programs - December 8, 2009
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Campus Center - Odeum Room
Doors open for networking: 5:30 p.m.
Meeting: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Cost: Free for $125 members, $15 for $50 members, $30 non-members
Pre-registration
Parking
Building Buzz and Branding
Nancy J. Rosenzweig
Building a company requires building a brand. WPI Venture Forum keynote speaker Nancy J. Rosenzweig will offer practical tips to help entrepreneurs understand and communicate with their customers, build brands along with their companies, and attract venture funding. At the December 8 meeting, she will share her experiences taking little-known brands such as Zipcar and Tom's of Maine and making them household names. Now President and CEO of Polliwalks, Inc., a premium children's footwear company, Rosenzweig has built consumer-facing brands across technology, life-science, packaged goods and service industries.
Throughout her career, Rosenzweig has fused her business acumen with passionate support for entrepreneurship and socially responsible organizations. Prior to joining Polliwalks, Rosenzweig was President and CEO of The Natural Dentist, the first oral care company founded to address oral health with whole body health in mind. There she led a complete re-branding and re-formulation of the company's original product line that more than tripled the company's sales, and led to significant venture capital investment.
As Chief Marketing Officer at Zipcar, the country's largest car-sharing company today, Rosenzweig expanded membership and revenue more than 100 percent annually. She has also run marketing and communications for Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc., the world's leading provider of employer-sponsored child care and early education, and Tom's of Maine, where she helped lead the evolution of the company from a predominately health channel brand to a nationally recognized mass-market brand.
Case Presentation: Zeo, Inc.
David P. Dickinson
Zeo Inc., formerly known as Axon Labs, was started by a group of sleep-deprived students at Brown University. Looking for a way to fight grogginess and perform at a higher level during the day, they learned that the stage of sleep from which a person awakens has a significant effect on how that person feels in the morning. So they developed a comfortable way to track sleep and help people wake up "on the right side of the bed". Zeo combines breakthrough educational sleep technology and tools with proven coaching methods from both sleep science and behavioral science to provide the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach for consumers.
President and CEO of Zeo since 2007, David P. Dickinson is now in his third startup company. Before his startup career, Dickinson had a long career in executive marketing positions with four Fortune 500 corporations.
Panelists who will critique the case presentation include Rosenzweig; Mark Roberge, Vice President Sales for HubSpot, an internet marketing software company in Cambridge, who previously founded startups in the social media and mobile sectors; and David Wilson, attorney with Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP in Boston, who advises clients on social media and data security issues related to technology.
Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: July 19, 2010 16:39:45