FountainBlue

Change is a given, one of the few knowns in life, particularly with the global economy shifting as dramatically and quickly as it has been recently. FountainBlue has been a fixture in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial community since January 2006, with the launch of its first events, and the monthly series we have produced. We have attracted and recruited a range of entrepreneurial speakers and engaged and connected the community, facilitating conversations, relationships and many successes, from hirings to fundings to contracts.

In November 2011, through our activities and through our conversations with our members, we have decided that we can better serve our members by providing coaching, consulting and recruiting services, and supporting partner organizations in producing events for early stage clean energy, high tech and life science entrepreneurs. As such, FountainBlue sunsetted all of our entrepreneur forums, effective January 1, 2012, but will continue to produce our When She Speaks series on an ongoing basis.

What does sunsetting entrepreneurial events mean for you in terms of event admissions?

• If you are not a member, you can join as a member for about $20 and attend the remaining November and December entrepreneur forums free. Or you can continue to attend at the partner or general rate of $32-$42 each.
• If you are an annual member and you joined this year, you will receive all membership benefits around our events through this year.
• If you are an ongoing member and you joined this year, we will send you individual e-mails about your options to ensure that you get the event-attendance value you expected when you joined.
• If you are an ongoing member and you joined last year or before, please send us an e-mail if you would like to have a conversation about how we can ensure you receive the value you expected when you joined.
• If you are confused about whether you’re a member or not, or just want to have a conversation about our events, please reply to this e-mail with your thoughts.

Which organizations will we be partnering with?

• For our clean energy series, we will continue to work with Clean Tech Open to support their alumni, and with MITNC and SVForum to support their program and outreach efforts.
• For our life science series, we will continue to work with Bio2Device group members, with BayLink LLC and their portfolio of clients, and with MITNC and SVForum to support their program and outreach efforts.
• For our high tech efforts, we will continue to partner with AAMA and JHTC to support their program and outreach efforts, and VLAB as an advisory board member.
• We are continuing to support other organizations in the region by promoting events to the community. E-mail us at info@FountainBlue.biz if you would like to have a conversation about working more closely together with your organization.

Now that FountainBlue is sunsetting its entrepreneurial events, what kinds of communications will you be receiving if you are on the list?

What types of consulting and recruiting services will we provide?

• Starting in January, instead of receiving weekly invitations to our clean energy and life science events, you will receive a weekly newsletter with the following elements:
• What’s new from FountainBlue
• Hot trends or recommendations from the community
• E-mail us at info@svexecs.com if you would like us to share a story or article which would be of interest to the overall community
• Profiles in Innovation
• E-mail us at info@svcleanenergy.com, info@svlifescience.com, or info@sventrepreneurs.com if you would like to nominate an innovative company to be profiled

• List of job openings (detailed job descriptions are only available for members)
• Call or e-mail us if you would like to have a conversation about your hiring needs or if you are interested in specific posted positions
• Leadership themes/quotes
• Community event recommendations
• Other – your suggestions for other topics of interest are welcome
• 
  

What types of consulting and recruiting services will we provide?

• We are offering and refining these services to clients now. Our December newsletter will provide details on how we will be serving the start-ups and corporations in our network. In the meantime, please feel free to share your needs or send us your inquiries through e-mail, info@FountainBlue.biz.

In the end, remember that Silicon Valley is known the world over for its ability to pivot in the face of change, in order to address the market changes and better address customer needs. As we taper off our clean energy and life science forums, we will leverage the networks connected, the communities developed, and the information shared as we shift our focus to coaching and consulting to early stage start-ups and recruiting and coaching for mid-size and larger corporations seeking more female and diverse talent for their management team.

We invite your inquiries, suggestions, feedback and interest as we continue with our consulting, coaching and recruiting efforts! If you’re interested in catching up over the phone or in person, please visit http://meetwith.me/lindaholroyd and suggest a good time to connect.

One Conversation, One Leader, One Organization at a Time

Events for Entrepreneurs – NO SERVICE PROVIDERS PLEASE
Our Entrepreneurs' Forums offer networking, education and support for high tech, clean energy and life science entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley. Each group meets monthly to share successes and challenges with conversations on a pre-set theme, with experienced presenters, and a focus on helping fellow members run and grow their entrepreneurial ventures.

• Clean Energy Entrepreneurs’ Forum: FountainBlue's Clean Energy Entrepreneurs' Forum was launched in February 2007 and sunsetted in December 2011. It provided networking and program benefits for 30-100 clean energy entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and investors across Silicon Valley and beyond. Our events were generally held on the first or second Mondays of the month, depending on holiday schedules, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Our monthly topics drilled down more into individual clean energy sub-industries, as well as business innovations and challenges. Each event featured a panel of entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and investors speaking on challenges and opportunities, providing advice for information to all. A summary of past and upcoming topics and speakers is available at http://www.svcleanenergy.com, notes from all our previous sessions are available at http://fountainblue.biz/cleanenergy/cleanenergynotes.html, and you can sign up for our free mailing list by sending an e-mail to info@svcleanenergy.com. 
• High Tech Entrepreneurs’ Forum: FountainBlue's High Tech Entrepreneurs' Forum was launched in March 2006 and sunsetted August 2011. It provided ongoing networking and program benefits for 30-100 entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and investors across Silicon Valley and beyond. For this series, we ran an annual high-tech funding trends panel in January, an annual cloud and security event in May, an annual virtual worlds conference in September and a bi-monthly business analytics trends event. Each event featured a panel of entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and investors speaking on challenges and opportunities, providing advice for information to all. A summary of past and upcoming topics and speakers and notes from all our previous sessions are available at http://www.sventrepreneurs.com. 
• Life Sciences Entrepreneurs’ Forums: FountainBlue's Life Science Entrepreneurs' Forum was launched in September 2006 and sunsetted in December 2011. It provided ongoing networking and program benefits for 30-100 life science entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and investors across Silicon Valley and beyond. These events were generally held on the second, third or fourth Mondays of the month, depending on holiday schedules, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Our monthly program topics covered the range of life science sub-industries. Each event featured a panel of entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and investors speaking on challenges and opportunities, providing advice for information to all. A summary of topics and speakers is available at http://www.svlifescience.com, and notes from all our previous sessions are available at http://fountainblue.biz/lifescience/lifesciencenotes.html. To sign up for our free life science mailing list, e-mail us at info@svlifescience.com.

Events for Executives
FountainBlue facilitates connections between early stage clean energy, life science and high tech companies and seasoned executives from similar industries.

• When She Speaks: FountainBlue's When She Speaks was launched in May 2006 and provides ongoing networking and program benefits for 40-200 high tech women and men-who-support-having-women-in-leadership positions across Silicon Valley and beyond. Our monthly events are held on the second Fridays of the month, from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. at high tech companies across the valley. Every month, we profile a panel of women senior executives in high tech companies speaking on a range of leadership challenges and issues for Silicon Valley high tech women in particular. Our series is designed to celebrate women leaders in Silicon Valley, stimulate critical thinking and conversation around leadership challenges and issues, empower and inspire all participants, including the next generation of leaders, and build a proactive, collaborative and supportive leadership community overall. A summary of topics and speakers is available at http://www.whenshespeaks.com, and notes from all our previous sessions are available at http://fountainblue.biz/whenshespeaks/whenshespeaks.html. To sign up for our free when she speaks mailing list, e-mail us at info@whenshespeaks.com.

Testimonials About FountainBlue Events

Great Program

• The wonderful topic, insightful comments from an excellent panel, excellent facilitation made for a very stimulating program. I shall be back again and again.
• This was really an outstanding panel discussion - great moderator/facilitator, great panel members - really a very lucid and illuminating discussion.
• This was my first opportunity to attend this event, and a key take-away for me as the value of maintaining a vibrant network. 
• FountainBlue events explore crucial business issues and contribute to the discourse at the cutting edge of Bay Area / Silicon Valley business.
• FountainBlue's programs are exceptional because of the relevance and timeliness of the topics, the quality of speakers combined with the interactive nature of the programs, and the organized and efficient manner in which the events are run.
• I enjoyed the sessions, the speakers, and the attendees. It was a pioneering group that reminds me of the early days of Silicon Valley and the PC entry. Thank you for producing it.
• FountainBlue's events are consistently high quality and well attended.
• FountainBlue events accomplish the impossible: they stimulate discussion on the social and business issues of the day, build a sense of community between previously unknown parties, mobilize a community into action, all while respecting the time constraints of busy executives in Silicon Valley.
• It's an amazing networking opportunity - the caliber of the attendees, in terms of their qualifications, activities, and accomplishments, was truly astounding.
• FountainBlue forums are informative and interesting, and the notes sent afterwards are an additional value-add which the evening spent at FountainBlue all the more productive. Keep up the excellent work.
• Today’s event was excellent on every dimension in my opinion. I was pleasantly surprised.
• High signal to noise on this one. Great job.
• I am a regular attendee and each time I think the same thing: It’s the best session so far. FountainBlue events just keep raising the bar!
• The workshops and retreats run by Linda Holroyd are life-changing, for the better!
• FountainBlue events are as practical as they are inspirational.
• The spirited discussion and strong opinions found in every FountainBlue event make it engaging and thought-provoking.
• Thank you for the extraordinarily valuable, effective, creative and sensitive (in the best sense) work that you are doing with FountainBlue.   
• FountainBlue started off providing an exceptional value, and Linda keeps raising the bar, helping and supporting more people in deeper ways. I am proud to be a member and supporter.
• Linda is a true professional. She knows how to put together events that explore crucial business issues and contribute to the discourse at the cutting edge of Bay Area / Silicon Valley business.

Great Networking

• Excellent people to meet – people with different perspectives but with great positive energy and acceptance. This led to some really deep and creative discussions with people from diverse backgrounds.
• At FountainBlue’s meeting, I got back in touch with old friends, learned about some interesting tools, and was sent home thinking about how I am collaborating with others.

• I found FountainBlue's event not only a great opportunity for meeting industry executives, exchanging ideas and talking about technology with people knee-deep into it, on the panel and in the audience.
• I wish now I hadn’t had another appointment to scoot off to directly after to allow for more networking.
• Thanks for making time for introductions around the room.
• Everyone at FountainBlue’s event is receptive to networking.
• The quality of the participants was so high, and everyone was so willing to help!

What great notes:

• FountainBlue events are amazingly well-organized, with great speakers and amazing follow-up. The notes from previous discussions themselves are well worth the entrance fee. 
• This was my first meeting. It was so good in all respects and I will definitely return and become more involved.
• I don’t know how Linda so quickly crystallizes the learnings from each event and hits the nub of the matter, making sure that everyone benefits from the learnings.