October Open Coffee: YOUR STARTING LINEUP: BUILDING THE TEAM YOUR VENTURE NEEDS TO LAUNCH & GROW

[Eric Renz-Whitmore]

YOUR STARTING LINEUP: BUILDING THE TEAM YOUR VENTURE NEEDS TO LAUNCH & GROW

Whether you're seeking investment or just trying to launch your venture, the core members of your founding team are the essential drivers of initial success - but they may not always be part of the company's next phase. Guest speaker Kent Fuka shares his thoughts on what startups need to develop their plan and attract potential investors.

ABOUT OUR GUEST SPEAKER MR KENT FUKA:
Mr. Kent Fuka serves as the Chairman of Thinkwell Corporation, an e-Learning company in Austin TX. Kent is on the Santa Fe Business Incubator's Board of Directors. Kent was a general partner in CenterPoint Ventures, a VC firm that invested $450M in technology companies in the southwest. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist in 1996, he was an early employee of three successful, venture-backed start-up companies, each of which had successful public stock offerings. He served five years as Vice President of Customer Service at Tivoli Systems, a large software company in Austin and 9 years in product development, marketing and customer service management positions at Convex Computer Corporation in Dallas. Mr. Fuka was also an early employee of Apollo Computer in Boston, where he was a product evangelist. Over the past 15 years, Kent has served on the boards of a number of startup companies. After retiring from the VC business in 2002, he went back to school to get a masters degree in Astronomy, and now has a an observatory at his home outside Santa Fe. He also holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Southern Methodist University.

Event Lineup:

8:30 AM Doors Open
9:00 AM Official start
9:15 AM Intro and Program Start
9:35 AM Talk & Structured Q&A Concludes
10:00 AM Program Concludes

Coffee and snacks included!
Sign up at: http://opencoffee25oct.eventbrite.com/

About Open Coffee:

Santa Fe Open Coffee brings experienced entrepreneurs, members of the investment community and others interested in entrepreneurship and starting new ventures together in an informal setting.

Santa Fe Open Coffees were originally created by Flywheel Ventures and are presented by Los Alamos Connect (Formerly Northern New Mexico Connect - NNMC) with support from the New Mexico Technology Council and Santa Fe Business Incubator.

For more information about Los Alamos Connect, please visit: http://www.nnmconnect.net/

The Santa Fe Business Incubator is located at 3900 Paseo Del Sol (just south of Airport Road and near NM599).