Technology Investment Conference
Silicon Valley
Open Doors
November 11-12, 2010
Open Doors
November 11-12, 2010
SVOD2009 Announcement
SVOD 2009 Silicon Valley Open Doors The Fifth Annual International Conference on Entrepreneurship R E-I N V E N T ! Come help us celebrate SVOD 2009 -- a special Fifth Anniversary edition of our yearly conference! With speakers like Vinod Khosla, General Partner, Khosla Ventures, Charles Giancarlo, Managing Director, Silver Lake Steve Blank, Serial Entrepreneur and Founder of Epiphany as well as a Lecturer at the Stanford University's Graduate School of Engineering, Guy Kawasaki, legendary Esther Dyson, Ron Conway, Founding General Partner, Angel Investors LP Jason Pressman, General Partner, Shasta Ventures, Eric Buatois, General Partner, Sofinnova Ventures, Sergei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels, Vish Makhajani, COO of Zynga, Kittu Kolluri, GP NEA, Matthew Trevithick, Venrock, Franklin Pitch Johnson, Founding Partner, Asset Management Company, and many others -- this is a not to be missed event for the Russian-speaking entrepreneurs and the Venture Capital community on both sides of the ocean. This year’s theme will drive a very exciting Agenda exploring re-invention as it affects the startup process on multiple levels -- technologies, business models, financing, monetizing and team building. Whether you are looking for a deal flow, funding, information or networking – SVOD 2009 is the place to be! *** Since its very foundation, America has always had a re-invention mindset. Scores of immigrants came to the United States in promise of re-inventing their lives, their careers and themselves. Re-invention means renewal, continuous progress, innovation and never standing still. The high tech industry more than any other industry in the world is synonymous with re-invention. IBM, the venerable Grand Father of the East Coast blue chip computer companies, has been quietly re-inventing itself for decades. At the other end of the spectrum, Apple, the West Coast “Enfant Terrible,” re-invented itself in the most dramatic fashion by branching out into consumer electronics and the retail businesses. Here in the Silicon Valley, “The Next New Thing” has become a battle cry for thousands of entrepreneurs pursuing their dreams. Many of their recent success stories rely on re-invention of long-known ideas: Google re-invented search, Facebook re-invented social networks, Twitter re-invented blogging, Even today, in this tough economic climate, the smart money is not on developing surviving strategies, but on identifying new opportunities. In the words of Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste, as it presents an occasion to do things you could not do before." For the entrepreneurs, the question is “What are the areas that are ripe for re-invention?” Is it real time Web? The new generation of e-commerce, auctions, and games now married to social networks? The new browser or the new Internet OS? Increasingly smart location-aware services? Or is it the new areas, earmarked by the US Government for billion dollar grants and subsidies? Green IT, sustainable energy, healthcare? Whatever they are, their stories are being written as we speak and we invite you to hear them first hand this December at SVOD 2009!
Confirmed Speakers List:
Silicon Valley Open Doors 2009 Date: December 9-10 Location: Computer History Museum, Mountain View, Silicon Valley, CA To Register: www.svod.org
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Sponsors
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING“We are glad to have an opportunity to meet with the movers and shakers of the Silicon Valley and to invite them to participate in building the new high tech industry in Russia. We will continue using AmBAR/SVOD as a platform to dispel some old myths about Russian ways of doing business and tell our partners a new story – that of a reliable and competent friend interested in building long-term relationships.” Leonid Gozman, Board Member, RUSNANO
"The wonderful thing about entrepreneurs is that their passion for starting new companies transcends languages and geographic boundaries. I felt very comfortable at SVOD and recognized its participants as having the same type of DNA that made Silicon Valley what it is today." Ron Conway, Founder and Managing Partner of the Angel Investors LP funds, early stage investor in Google and PayPal
"The progress SVOD has made over the past five years is to a great extent a reflection of the overall progress evident in Russia in the areas of entrepreneurship and venture capital. Even though much needs to be improved before Russia can become a consistently preferred destination for foreign capital, the overall quality of Russian companies and savvy-ness of the entrepreneurs participating at SVOD 2009 is an indication that the Russian start-up market, and the technology sector in general, is moving in the right direction." Peter Loukianoff, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Almaz Capital Partners.
Alexei Andreev, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Harris and Harris.
“When in 2002 we started AmBAR in the Silicon Valley, we dreamt of creating a professional Russian-speaking community (a high-tech club with a Russian accent!) that would help the Russian expats start their companies, as well as making our experience useful to the fledgling high-tech industry back in the old country. I'm delighted to see this dream come true at the 2009 SVOD conference. Seeing so many promising startups with Russian technologies at the core, gives me hope that in a few years these entrepreneurs will become successful and take their turn to mentor and invest, giving back to the community.” Igor Plotnikov, Visionary Engineer and Executive
"If one were to stack up 1 billion dollars, the stack would be about 1 kilometer high. At the present time, Russia has several high-tech venture funds whose monetary “stack value” is higher than Everest. At the same time, a small university startup project has no viable venue to present its technology to a community of like-minded individuals. Fortunately for us, U.S. CRDF (United States Civilian Research and Development Foundation) has taken an active interest in our projects via its experts in Siberia and financed our students’ trip to the Silicon Valley. We hope that our participation in SVOD 2009 will help us to commercialize our projects. Our heartfelt Thank You goes to U.S.CRDF and SVOD!” Alexander Uvarov, Pro-rector of Computer Science and Engineering, Tomsk State University
“Please accept our sincere "Thank you" for putting so much of your time, energy and heart to organize such a remarkable event. Elmira Ryabova, CTO, ADCO Engineering
"The SVOD-2009 conference was a wonderful event. Networking is very important for start-ups. The challenge for them is often not money: it is mentoring and finding people who can give good advice from experience. That’s why it’s important for RUSNANO to send people back and forth, so they can get more involved in the global start-up community. SVOD can help to attract more experienced advisors, entrepreneurs and investors to Russia, so that Russians and Americans can learn from their foreign counterparts." Esther Dyson, Founder, EDventure Holdings
"I consider AMBAR and SVOD absolutely fantastic venues that help entrepreneurs in a very real way. When we started our first company, DB Best, we were able to find angel investors and a lead architect. Three years later we were acquired by Microsoft. I don't know if we were able to achieve that without dedication of the folks from AMBAR. Presenting our new startup www.Pikaba.com at the SVOD 2009 generated excellent contacts for us and I'm looking forward to report another "success story" in the very near future. So big THANK YOU to AMBAR and SVOD" Dmitry Balin
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