2010 Spring Final Pitch Event
By · CommentsOn Friday, April 9, 2010, InSITE Fellows, Spring 2010 Companies, representatives from 6 venture funds and other guests gathered at the offices of Cooley Godward and Kronish for InSITE’s 2010 Spring Final Pitch Event.
InSITE’s Spring 2010 companies presenting were:
ProtEquity
Bandvest
modos
Klickable
Active Locations
A distinguished panel of senior venture capitalists and entrepreneurs provided invaluable feedback on each pitch. These included:
Jason Finger / Founder of Seamlessweb and EIR at Bessemer Venture Partners
Will Porteous / General Partner at RRE Ventures
Morgan Rodd / General Partner at Milestone Venture Partners
Other venture firms present were InSITE Sponsor Greenhill SAVP, Rose Tech Ventures and Tipping Point Partners.
InSITE is tremendously thankful to our sponsors for supporting us through another outstanding semester:
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati
Canaan Partners
Contour Venture Partners
DFJ Gotham
Investor Growth Capital
Greenhill SAVP
Kodiak Venture Partners
Milestone Venture Partners
RRE Ventures
InSITE also thanks Cooley, Godward and Kronish for hosting our Pitch Event for the fourth semester.
We captured brief interviews with several participants in this Klickable video:
InSITE 2010 Honors and Elections
By · CommentsOn Tuesday, April 13th, InSITE hosted it’s 10th Anniversary Celebration and closing dinner. We were thrilled to be joined by many special guests including:
Alex Cohen, InSITE Founder and GC and CCO for On Deck Capital
Andrew Moss, InSITE Alumni and Founder of BuyWithMe
Ben Lilienthal, InSITE Alumni and Founder of Vapps
Bronson Lingamfelter, InSITE Alumni and Associate at Rose Tech Ventures
Dan Lifton, InSITE Board and COO at Quality of Life Labs
David Pashman, Legal Team Leader at Meetup
Dawn Barber, InSITE Board and Founder of NY Tech Meetup
Josh Spodek, InSITE Alumni and Founder of Submedia
Karl Alomar, InSITE Past President and CEO at China Export Finance
Mac Lipscomb, InSITE Board and Operating Partner at InSITE Sponsor RRE Ventures
Mark Davis, InSITE Alumni and Associate at DJF Gotham Ventures
Matt McCooe, InSITE Alumni and Managing Partner at Chart Venture Partners
Molly Siems, InSITE Alumni and Account Manager at Fly Communications
Pete Karlen, InSITE Board and VP at EarthWater Global
Robyn Soto, InSITE Board and Director at Tishman Speyer
Sacha Ross, Associate at InSITE Sponsor Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Vic Singh, InSITE Alumni and Co-Founder of NearVerse
Vinay Jain, InSITE Board and Associate at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Zubin Canteenwalla, InSITE Alumni and Associate at NGEN Partners
InSITE presented several special awards:
Fellow Achievement Award: Shirley Xu
For special service as a first year InSITE Fellow, including leading our first VCAP Special Project Team and volunteering to serve as Special VP for Alumni Companies to survey their funding success, which showed that InSITE Companies had raised more than $215M in venture financing since 2000.
Alumni Achievement Award: Andrew Moss
For extraordinary accomplishments in entrepreneurship since graduating from InSITE (and NYU Law in 2001), particularly founding BuyWithMe in 2009 and raising a $5.5M Series A round.
First Annual Inductee into the InSITE Hall of Fame: Paul Tumpowsky
For guiding InSITE through 10 highly successful years as Chairman of the Board including developing the organization’s core program and relationships with sponsors, startups and supporters throughout the NYC venture community.
A full list of InSITE honors is available here.
Current InSITE Fellows and Board Members elected ten new executives to run the organization in 2010 – 2011 and two out-going Fellows to serve as Young Alumni Board Members:
Lastly, InSITE thanks the outgoing Class of 2010:
Christian DiCarlo, Columbia MBA
Duncan Welstead, Columbia MBA
Geetika Agrawal, NYU MBA
Godfrey Powell, Jr., NYU MBA
Haley Boruszak, NYU MBA
Jane Kang, NYU JD
Jeff Hui, Columbia MBA (who will stay on with InSITE as a Young Alumni Board Member)
Jennifer Gootman, NYU MBA
Justin Heyman, Columbia MBA
Kesha Cash, Columbia MBA
Max Eckstein, Columbia JD
Jane Kang, NYU JD
Ricky Opaterny, NYU MBA
Rob Schneider, Columbia MBA
Roy Simkhay, Columbia MBA
Ryan Orton, Columbia MBA
Shawn Khazzam, NYU MBA
Tony Leotti, NYU JD/MBA
Vinay Ganti, NYU JD/MBA
– Rich Powell, NYU JD ’10, signing off as 2009-2010 President; thanking all the past Execs, Team Leaders, Alumni and Supporters for another great year; and wishing the best of luck to the stellar 2010-2011 Execs
Jason Finger Sits Down with InSITE
By · CommentsJason Finger, Founder and, until February 2010, CEO of Seamlessweb; recently named Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Bessemer Venture Partners; and, most importantly, NYU JD/MBA ’99, sat down with InSITE last Wednesday night.
As I’m sure anyone who has met him will quickly attest, Jason is a profoundly nice guy, and was willing to speak with us on a wide range of topics from his time in a law firm to founding a remarkable company to turning down his first exit opportunity.
Jason first discussed his background and how starting out working at a law firm and seeing the inefficiencies there inspired him to write the business plan for Seamlessweb:
Jason next discussed leaving the law and raising his first friends and family, and later institutional, rounds of funding, as well as about the early technical challenges of building a scalable enterprise platform for the ordering system:
Jason then described growing and expanding the business to the consumer side, and its 2006 sale to Aramark, as well as his recent transition from CEO to his new job as E-I-R at Bessemer Venture Partners:
Jason later went onto discuss the process of scoping a business model as an entrepreneur as opposed to as an investor, as well as the sometimes delicate interpersonal issues that arise when a group of friends starts a business together:
The rest of the talk is available at InSITE’s YouTube Channel.
Jason then joined us for drinks at InSITE’s local watering hole, Cassidy’s:
— Rich Powell, President 2009-2010
InSITE Celebrates 10th Anniversary
By · CommentsThe resurgence of the New York technology entrepreneurship and start-up activity coincides with the 10th Anniversary of InSITE. The recent wave of innovation and the influx of talent from around the world serve to illustrate what InSITE has known since its inception – New York is the best city in the world to start a business. InSITE is proud to have been an integral part of this community for the past decade.
On Tuesday, April 13th, InSITE (Investments from Student Interaction with Technology and Entrepreneurs) is celebrating its 10th Anniversary, hosting its current Fellows and alumni.
With its first class graduating in 2000 and always comprised of MBA and JD students from Columbia and NYU Business and Law Schools, the program has grown significantly in size and scope over the past decade. InSITE Fellows are selected each academic year though a competitive application process, and only a fraction of those who apply are accepted based on their interests and demonstrated experiences in an entrepreneurial or venture oriented career. This year, the organization received more than 150 applications for 24 new Fellow positions.
Led by Chairman Paul Tumpowsky (CBS/InSITE ’00), each semester InSITE Fellows source a group of early stage New York startups for its advisory program. Over the past decade, teams of Fellows have worked with more than 100 New York startups to help them better articulate their businesses, refine their strategy and sharpen their value proposition. InSITE also hosts a variety of programs, including term sheet negotiations and a speaker series which has included prominent venture capitalists Alan Patricof and Fred Wilson, and supports New York Angels through their Future Angels initiative.
The program has been enormously successful for both the student Fellows and the companies that have completed the process. Since 2000, InSITE companies have raised more than $170 million in venture funding. Notable InSITE alumni companies include Vindigo, Broadview Networks, ON Networks, Hycrete, Recycle Bank, Hopstop, FlavorPill and Organic Motion.
InSITE Fellows have pursued careers in a variety of industries, including investment professionals at venture funds including Bessemer Venture Partners and DFJ Gotham, attorneys from in-house counsel at Amazon’s Lab126 to Wilson Sonsini and Skadden Arps, management consultants at McKinsey & Company, investment bankers and, of course, entrepreneurs.
Recently, Alex Ferrara (CBS/InSITE ’04) was promoted to Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, and Andrew Moss (NYU JD/InSITE ’01) the Founder and CEO of BuyWithMe.com, raised a $5.5 million Series A Round from Matrix Partners.
InSITE Fellows, Alumni, its Board of Directors and invited guests will gather on the 13th to celebrate the organization’s successes over the past decade and elect the next group of student leaders to manage the organization though another successful year.
InSITE is sponsored by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, the preeminent law firm focused on early stage technology businesses, as well as a number of top venture capital firms: Canaan Partners, Contour Venture Partners, DFJ Gotham, Greenhill SAVP, Investor Growth Capital, Kodiak Venture Partners, Milestone Venture Partners, and RRE Ventures.
For more information on InSITE Contact:
Paul Tumpowsky
212.999.6200
Paul.Tumpowsky@InSITEny.org
Register now for the
Spring 2010 Final Pitch Event
Friday, April 9, 2010
8:30 am – 11:00 am
Click here to RSVP
| InSITE Overview | InSITE (Investments from Student Interaction with Technology and Entrepreneurs) brings together the best and brightest students from Columbia and NYU’s Business and Law schools to support New York-area entrepreneurs to develop their businesses and support their pursuit of private equity, venture capital, or angel investments. Since 2000, InSITE Companies have raised more than $160M in venture funding. |
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| Event Includes |
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| Date | Friday, April 9, 2010 8:30am – 11:00am |
| Location | Cooley Godward Kronish The Grace Building 1114 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036 (Google Maps) |
| Schedule | 8:30 am – 9:00 am: Registration with light breakfast will be served 9:00 am – 10:30 am: Company presentations 10:30 am – 11:00 am: Closing statements and networking |
| Presenting Companies |
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RSVP
Click here to RSVP
If you have any questions about the InSITE Pitch Event or problems RSVPing, please contact Katherine Chung at vp.teams@insiteny.org.
Fred Wilson Again Cites InSITE Talk on A VC
By · CommentsFred Wilson again discussed his Third Annual InSITE talk on A VC on Sunday, 3/7.
This time, related to the point about the challenges of living and conducting business very publicly online he discussed with us, he laments the time and energy he has to put into reviewing videos of his talks (often very early in the morning – sorry about that Fred!) uploaded after events.
While this means that far more people can watch the talk than could attend in person, it comes at the cost of those speaking have to carefully manage the content given the much wider audience.
– Rich Powell, President 2009-2010
Spring 2010 Alumni Advising Event
By · CommentsEach semester, after the teams and their companies have had a few meetings to refine their concepts and pitches, InSITE hosts an Alumni Advising Event. The aim of the event is to invite former InSITE fellows to hear the pitches, offer feedback, and meet our current roster of entrepreneurs and fellows.
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
Fred Wilson’s Annual Talk with InSITE
By · CommentsFred Wilson, Managing Partner of Union Square Ventures, returned to InSITE for his now-annual third talk with InSITE on Wednesday, March 3rd at NYU Law.
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:
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3/10/2010 UPDATE: Fred re-blogged portions of the talk on A VC on 3/5.
– Rich Powell, President 2009-2010
2009 Fall Final Pitch Event
By · CommentsOn Friday, December 4, 2009, InSITE Fellows, Fall 2009 Companies, representatives from 10 venture funds and other guests gathered at the offices of Cooley Godward and Kronish for InSITE’s 2009 Fall Final Pitch Event.
InSITE’s Fall 2009 companies presenting were:
- Krossover Intelligence
- Rightframe
- [me] & goji
- Payperks
- Catchafire
- Tigerbow
A distinguished panel of senior venture capitalists and entrepreneurs provided invaluable feedback on each pitch. These included:
- Bob Greene / Co-Founder and Partner, Contour Venture Partners
- Thomas Lehrman / Founder and CEO, Boliven
- Charlie O’Donnell / Entrepreneur in Residence, First Round Capital
Charlie O’Donnell said of the pitches, “I was amazed by the quality of companies at InSITE’s Pitch Event. I don’t remember ever being at an event like this where I could feasibly see every single company be funded.”
Thomas Lehrman, who returned to join the Final Pitch panel for a second semester in the row, noted that “InSITE really took the time to find top notch companies to present to us. I was truly impressed by all of the presentations during the pitch event.”
InSITE is tremendously thankful to these sponsors for supporting us through another outstanding semester:
- Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati
- Contour Venture Partners
- DFJ Gotham
- Investor Growth Capital
- Greenhill SAVP
- Kodiak Venture Partners
- Milestone Venture Partners
- RRE Ventures