FountainBlue

Our High Tech Entrepreneurs' Forums are open to high tech entrepreneurs & their teams (such as staff members, advisers, board members or investors) with a wide range of entrepreneurial experience, at various stages of growing or supporting a new or existing entrepreneurial venture. Please note that these forums are for entrepreneurs only, no service providers except for presenters and sponsors.

We are grateful to Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP http://www.klng.com for their generous sponsorship of FountainBlue's High Tech Entrepreneurs' Forum through 2006! Because of their generous support, these events are free for pre-registered life science entrepreneurs (no service providers please). (A $20 fee applies if you are not pre-registered.) Below is a typical agenda for our meetings.

We are grateful to Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP http://www.klng.com for their generous sponsorship of FountainBlue's High Tech Entrepreneurs' Forum through 2006! Because of their generous support, these events are free for pre-registered life science entrepreneurs (no service providers please). (A $20 fee applies if you are not pre-registered.)

The next FountainBlue High Tech Entrepreneurs' Forum is scheduled for Monday, October 9 from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. at the Kirkpatrick and Lockhart offices 630 Hansen Way in Palo Alto. The theme for this month's High Tech Entrepreneurs' Forum is Building an Effective Executive Team and our guest facilitators are Linda Usoz, Partner in Corporate and Employment Law at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart http://www.klng.com and Kurt Amundson, a consultant who has served as COO and CFO for a series of high tech firms across the Silicon Valley.

Linda is an experienced business professional and lawyer, passionate about proactively helping her small and large client companies address with their employment challenges. As one of the two founding partners for K&LNG's Silicon Valley practice, Linda takes pride in the successful launch of K&LNG and looks forward to continuing to serve the entrepreneurial high-tech community in Silicon Valley.

FountainBlue is pleased to have hosted a series of hands-on entrepreneurs' workshops in early 2006. Topics for these workshops included:

• Acquiring Your First Customers, with Mike Griego of MXL Partners facilitating
• Scrappy Project Management Practices for the Enterprising Entrepreneur, with Kimberly Wiefling from Wiefling Consulting facilitating
• See http://www.fountain-blue.com/consulting/ProjectOverview.htm for a project overview template
• See http://www.fountain-blue.com/consulting/CoreTeamStructure.htm for information on a core team structure
• See http://www.fountain-blue.com/consulting/GenericProjectPlanningDashboard.htm for a generic project planning dashboard
• Covering Your Bases: Legal Checklist for Entrepreneurs, with Gail Hashimoto and Mark Heyl from Hopkins & Carley facilitating
• Selling Your Company's Unique Value, with Jennifer Vessels from Next Step facilitating

Creative Funding Options for the Enterprising Entrepreneur

• Ask yourself some thought-provoking questions before seeking funding. What you are going to do will bias how much funding you will seek and from whom by when. (e.g. a fabless chip company may require a multi-million-dollar investment while a web-based company may require far less)
• Be conservative about the amount of time and money you will need - estimate high
• If you don't seek enough money for example, you may find yourself in desperate need of cash, and the 'center of gravity' from shift from you as the entrepreneur to the funder
• If you don't allocate enough time to get the funding, you may have to make do with far less money until the funding comes through, and the financial burden may force your hand
• Do some market research to determine how receptive are about your idea and the space in general
• When doing the research, peel back the onion. Don't just investigate which got company funded by whom, but also why did they get the funding. Was it the technology? The management team? Domain expertise? User base? Strong revenue ramp-up? This information will shape how you build the company prior to funding, how much funding to seek and who to seek funding from.
• Have a plan B if you don't get the funding you're seeking - is it a bridge loan? An asset-based line of credit? Founders? Friends, Family? Angels? Corporate investment?
• If you seek funding and get turned down, take the opportunity to learn from the experience. Ask for specific feedback on why. When gaps are identified, ask the prospective funder if they know someone who can fill the gap.

You are welcome to join us for our upcoming forums - on the second Mondays of the month from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. for the High Tech Entrepreneurs and TBD for the life sciences and energy entreprenerus. Please also join our mailing list at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/SVEntrepreneurs for invitations to future events.