This semester’s event was held on Tuesday, February 25, at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. We tried a different format this time: in the past we’ve had all of the current companies attend. Alumni would mill around from room to room, listening to pitches and giving on-the-spot feedback. This format gave the entrepreneurs the benefit of a rapid-fire set of reactions from multiple viewpoints and what was essentially a real-time dress rehearsal for their VC pitches. To experiment with a different structure this semester, however, we limited the event to the three Tuesday teams (Bandvest, Klickable, and ProtEquity), and encouraged our guests to narrow their focus to one or two of the teams.

Despite some seriously inclement weather, a few hardy alumni were undeterred, and a number of InSITE execs, senior fellows, and Wednesday team members came out as well.

Mike Kasdan (2001 alum), an intellectual property lawyer at Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, joined the Klickable team, along with Wednesday team members Ben Zhuk and Sean Weinstock. Senior fellows and execs sat in as well: Rob Schneider, Katherine Chung, and me (Tim Cohan).

Mike was kind enough to give us his thoughts on the event from the alumni perspective: “It was a great opportunity to reconnect and brainstorm with the team to help refine the Klickable pitch. It was also a great reminder of what I had loved about InSITE as a student participant – working with smart, motivated people, who bring a variety of skill-sets and perspectives to the table, to assist real entrepreneurs to build cutting edge businesses.” Team leader Mike Dibenedetto, who kept the meeting focused and moving along, was pleased to have Mike’s input; he says generally that the alumni feedback was “invaluable…it gave us a chance to hear what was working and what wasn’t from people who had deep experience with pitching entrepreneurial ventures.”

Molly Siems (InSITE 2007) brought her media interests and expertise to Bandvest, a company she sees as “super promising;” according to Kat Chung, Molly’s contributions garnered rave reviews among the team. “We heart Molly” was apparently the consensus. Of course, the benefits of reaching out to alumni clearly run both ways; Molly says that she’s “really grateful to have such an awesome network of people to bounce ideas off of and definitely get as much as I give.” Special thanks also to Marisa Tricarico (a Wednesday team member who just can’t stay away from an InSITE event), who lent her feedback to the Bandvest team as well. Following up with his thoughts on the event, team leader Dan Harman notes that Marisa and Molly’s input and suggestions were “invaluable.”

Along with alum Sam Sagalnik, InSITE Chairman Paul Tumpowsky lent his input to the ProtEquity, which he describes as “a very interesting company… a true financial technology firm, an ideal fit for the New York City venture ecosystem.” Paul adds that he’s confident that with the assistance of the InSITE team he saw in action, “ProtEquity will be able to articulate its unique and valuable solution in a competitive and ever-changing space.”

The happy hour at Cassidy’s afterward was lively as usual, and gave us all a chance to relax and connect with the alumni in a more informal setting. We were pleased to see Vinay Patel and Geoff Reed (both InSITE 2009) made it out to have a drink and meet some of the new fellows as well.

Thanks again to the alumni and senior fellows that braved a cold, wet evening to join us. If any of those reading this have more thoughts on how it went, ideas for future alumni advising events, or people I’ve forgotten to note or thank, please post them here or email me at vp.internal@insiteny.org.

– Tim Cohan, VP Internal 2009-2010

BuyWithMe’s founder and CEO is InSITE alumnus Andrew Moss (NYU JD ’01). Andrew discussed his experience running BuyWithMe, and the decision to raise venture funding with InSITE:

The BuyWithMe Concept
BuyWithMe partners with local merchants to offer group discounts on its website to consumers in target cities (currently Boston, Washington D.C., and San Diego). Consumers indicate if they are interested in a deal through the website. Once a certain minimum people sign up, the deal activates, customers are charged, and BuyWithMe sends a link to a printable voucher used to redeem the discount.

BuyWithMe positions itself as a win-win for both consumers and businesses. Consumers get discounts at stores in their local areas. Merchants get new customers, advertising on a website targeted at local shoppers, and guaranteed volume.

Moss explained how BuyWithMe functions as a new advertising medium for businesses which have traditionally been limited to newspaper or radio ads. Unlike newspaper and radio ads, however, BuyWithMe is much more highly targeted to consumers who are actively looking to shop, and offers a superior ability to track and quantify the success of a promotion. Businesses also do not pay unless the promotion works and the targeted number of shoppers sign up.

In this respect, BuyWithMe is similar to other online “flash sale” companies, most notably Gilt Groupe, which is also funded by Matrix Partners. Unlike Gilt, however, BuyWithMe is locally targeted, focuses on driving guaranteed store visits rather than shipping merchandise online, and covers many industries besides apparel.

Founding BuyWithMe
Moss’ background as a corporate lawyer and hedge fund manager isn’t typical of most entrepreneurs, but prior to starting BuyWithMe Moss already been involved in entrepreneurship. While at college, Moss and a few friends started a business making custom t-shirts and merchandise – an effort that eventually evolved into customink.com. While Moss left the business relatively early to enroll in law school, he said that a lot of the knowledge and unit economics of Customink transferred to BuyWithMe. The experience also contributed to Moss’ decision to leave his day job to run BuyWithMe full time. “I didn’t want to miss out again,” he said.

Moss discussed how one of the biggest challenges starting out was getting initial traction in Boston. In a classic version of the chicken-and-the-egg problem, merchants were reluctant to sign up before BuyWithMe had an established user base, but user growth in turn was largely dictated by the number of deals on the site. A well-timed partnership with Boston.com tipped the scales for BuyWithMe, driving enough traffic for BuyWithMe to gain momentum. Currently, Moss is focused on trying to scale the concept nationally, with launches in new cities expected soon.

Securing Funding
Moss was initially cautious about seeking venture funding, influenced by the notion that certain companies benefit minimally from venture funding, and the fact that Customink succeeded despite raising minimal venture financing in only one round.

Despite being approached by numerous other firms, Moss took the initiative and reached out to Matrix Partners largely because of their experience with e-commerce generally, and online sales and group purchasing in particular. “In my opinion BuyWithMe is part of a select category of businesses where VC expertise can really add a lot of value,” Moss said. “[Matrix Partner] Nick Beim was a huge value-add. He made lots of introductions and offered insightful advice based on his experience with Gilt.”

Moss also discussed some of the differences between advising entrepreneurs on the fundraising process as an InSITE fellow and actually going through it as a company founder. “One of the biggest differences was the importance of the personal relationships,” Moss said. “It’s really important to have people who not only give you money, but who are trusted advisors with whom you want to spend time working. We didn’t want to just raise capital, we wanted intelligent capital.”

Moss believes his business background and experience with the pitch process from InSITE was helpful while raising funding. “It was great to not have to learn to pitch on the fly,” Moss said. “Many companies come in with a great idea but are still working on the business process. Having a coherent pitch on the viability of the business impresses VCs and helps your case.”

– Alessandro Presti

To reach nationals, team Smeagle first competed in the Columbia Venture Capital Investment Competition. In that competition, an initial field of more than thirty teams was narrowed down to seven that participated in Finals on February 12th, 2010.

To prepare, the teams were given business plans two days in advance of Finals. On competition day, teams conducted blitz eight-minute due diligence sessions with each entrepreneur and negotiated a term sheet with their favorite investment prospect.

The competition was judged by an exceptional panel composed of Somak Chattopadhyay (VP, Greenhill SAVP), Sarah Tavel (Senior Associate, Bessemer Venture Patners), Charlie O’Donnell (Entrepreneur in Residence, First Round Capital), Owen Davis (Managing Director, NYC Seed), Raymond Thek (Vice Chairman, Lowenstein Sandler), Matthew McCooe and Chris Brady (Chart Venture Partners), and David Birnbaum (Alloy Media + Marketing).

The judges were impressed by the whole field and praised team Smeagle in particular for its negotiation skill, understanding of deal terms, and rapport with entrepreneurs.

– Shirley Xu and Greg Pennington

In a wide ranging discussion, Fred first delivered his annual update on the state of the VC industry, describing the growth of small funds and the new secondary market for shares in growing firms prior to formal exits from M&A or an IPO:

Fred next turned to an update specifically on internet businesses, particularly e-commerce and mobile models:

Finally, Fred gave us an update on the remarkable growth of Twitter and its development into a more mature company:

After his update, questions from InSITE Fellows spurred a lively discussion on a wide range of topics including:

- The importance of proactively managing your social network presence for both your personal and professional life
- Building a great team for a successful startup
- The return of Rob Kalin to Etsy and its development as a major e-commerce platform, as well as how to maintain the creativity center for a startup post-acquisition by another company
- How New York can better develop its internet and entrepreneurial sector
- How a VC can help develop a great entrepreneur into a great manager

You can see watch the entire talk at our YouTube channel.

After the talk, Fred joined our Fellows for drinks at Amity Hall:

Quartzy provides online lab inventory management for life-scientists, making it easier for scientists and labs to share their reagents (expensive chemicals). The company was founded by Adam Regelmann, a MD and PhD from Columbia, Meena George, a PhD in Neuroscience from Columbia, and Jayant Kulkarni, a PhD in Engineering from Cornell.

For more on the Olin Cup competition and Quartzy’s winning entry, check out this recent post from The New York Times’ You’re the Boss blog.

- Bandvest is an online music marketplace where artists raise money to record a professional EP by pre-selling their EP to fans at a discounted price and giving them meaningful incentives including equity in the EP in the form of ‘Bandvest Bucks.’

- EcoSystems offers hardware systems that allow users to easily create or customize furniture under comprehensive, environmentally-friendly frameworks.

- Klickable is an easy-to-use online video platform that allows users to create interactive Klickable videos.

- ProtEquity offers a Home Equity Protection (HEP) product for homeowners that allows them to protect the value of their home against regional housing market declines.

- Trist develops location-aware mobile applications that allow organizers and owners of events and venues to place branded information and content at their visitors’ fingertips.

Teams of Fellows have been paired with each company; they will work to improve their pitches over the next two months in preparation for InSITE’s Spring 2010 Final Pitch Event on Friday, April 9th.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

- Josh Brandley, Columbia MBA ‘11

- J. Ryan Golden, NYU JD ‘11

- Shiv Hira, NYU MBA ‘11

- Alessandro Presti , Columbia JD/MBA ‘13

- Sean Weinstock, NYU JD ‘12

- Ben Zhuk, Columbia MBA ‘11

Bios for new fellows are available here. We thank all those who applied to InSITE for its Spring 2010 Fellow class.

Paul Tumpowsky, the Chairman of InSITE, stated on their election to the board, “Originally InSITE’s Board was mainly comprised of involved InSITE alumni. We designed the Board this way because most of the issues that the Board worked on were internal and not that interesting to people that were not in the organization before becoming Board members.”

“Over the years, the student leadership has improved the planning and execution associated with running InSITE on a day to day basis. Now I believe that we can start to face more outward and begin to bring others on who represent the constituents that InSITE works with – venture capitalists (Chip Meakem and Alex Ferara), entrepreneurs, and the NY technology community as a whole.”

“I have approached two members who I feel we can trust and who I think represent the other constituents, NY technology and entrepreneurial community to join the Board. Both individuals have been involved with InSITE since its inception and are willing to put in the time and effort to support the organization. They also bring unique skills and relationships to the group.”

“We are very happy that dawn and Mac have joined the Board. I am confident that their participation will be valuable to the students and the organization overall. I would like to thank two outgoing members of the Board, Dina Penny and Todd Tiberi for their service over the years.”

“Having seen InSITE’s growth, since it’s inception when it was under the NYNMA umbrella, I’m impressed with how Paul and his student InSITE teams work with NY early-stage companies and VCs, to form valuable and helpful relationships, that only foster the continued growth of the NYC technology startup ecosystem. I’m also honored to be asked to serve on the board, and help InSITE help form our successful entrepreneurs and VCs of tomorrow,” said dawn barber on the announcement.

Mac Lipscomb added, “I have joined the InSITE Board, an entrepreneur mentorship program run by NYU and Columbia law and business students. Started 10 years ago, I was involved at the beginning and have been very impressed with the organization’s development. Without hesitation, the quality of talent accepted into this organization will define many leadership positions for industries, governments, and the legal and ethical foundations of many dynamic businesses of the 21st century.”

Both new Board members bring a remarkable range of experience in technology and entrepreneurship to the InSITE Board:

dawn barber is the co-founder of NY Tech Meetup http://www.meetup.com/ny-tech/ . dawn has extensive experience in planning and organizing groups and conferences in and around the New York technology community, since having been one of NYNMA’s directors from 1998-2001.

MacAdory Lipscomb Jr is the “go-to-guy” shaping how Americans and the world view Media, Sports, Celebrities, Politics and Technology. In a career ranging from the Carter White House to 2009’s Tiger Woods’ self-immolation, with a stop for the Mike Tyson ear-biting incident, he was a founding executive of XM Satellite Radio with corporate credentials that also include Accenture, Showtime Networks Inc, WorldSpace, and start up & venture coaching of 400+ CEOs including the IPO road show for Live Person. He is one of those rare executives that connect all the dots with McAdory & Co. Strategic Communications, a general management, marketing and crisis communications consultancy. A Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, Mac also has an MBA from Colorado, a Master’s in Speech Communications from Auburn University, and a Government and Politics degree from the University of Maryland where he is a member of the Executive Committee of the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences Board of Visitors. He is a Cable Pioneer and was honored with the inaugural Cable Industry Vanguard Award for Public Relations.

Our Spring application cycle focuses on law students. Business school students, particularly Columbia J-termers, are welcome to apply, but should explain either their reasons for not applying in the Fall or their significant new experiences in VC and/or entrepreneurship since their last application.

Application guidelines are available here.

Info sessions will be held at:
- NYU Law, Furman Hall Room 216 on Thursday, January 21 at 12:00pm
- Columbia Law on Tuesday, January 19 (details TBA)