The Startup Epicenter: Interview With Scott Lane

I 'emailterviewed' Scott Lane about the upcoming The Startup Epicenter (27-29 March 2007). The event is going to be held at Fenwick&West's offices in Mountain View.

Stowe: Scott, could you tell me a bit about the event, and who you expect to be attending?

Scott: The speakers all have significant hands-on operational experience and know intimately the issues that the attendees will be facing. It's exciting to have such a diverse and responsive set of speakers and panelists to have interactive discussions with 50-60 entrepreneurs! The shared learning, collaboration and networking will be a joy to be a part of.

There are four primary types of attendees:

1. Funded tech startups, wanting to get an extra edge, they're working hard and doing great, but need more. They're going for their 'B' round, and need to be working through tactical issues faster!
   
2. Boot stapped startups, needing to stretch their dollars, get intros to partners, need better outreach, seeking bridge loans from Angels to funding from $500k-2M
   
3. Founders working on their new ideas, getting traction, need to find other resources such as biz/mktg talent as well
   
4. Those only on the idea stage, haven't gotten deep into engineering or 'direct' market research validation yet

Stowe: Could you highlight a few of the sessions and the presenters?

Scott: Sure. As I said, a great bunch of speakers.

1. Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures, KPCB,etc.) Killer App vs. Killer Capabilities

   Vinod will talk about the unique attributes to turn these ideas into something the customers absolutely will push strong to get. (a must have) He may also have a "clean tech" angle on how to have the back end operation more "clean."
   

2. Noah Kagen (OkDork, Mymint.com, formerly Facebook, Intel, Microsoft)
   
   Noah will talk about web development and how important, clean simple design is to building the web experience, viral effect, brand identity,etc. and how much fun it should be, and how their customers perceive them.

3. Clint Chao (GP, Formative Ventures), Sayre Stevick (Partner [VC Financings, M&A, IP)s], Fenwick & West & Alyssa Rapp (Founder & CEO, Bottlenotes)
   
   They'll talk about the good, bad and ugly of partnerships and how the companies can leverage their marketing and sales dollars the most effectively and not just differentiate amongst all the others, but win against the competition. They'll also make sure everyone knows about biz dev pitfalls to be aware of.

Stowe: What do you think are the most tangible takeaways that attendees will gain?

Scott: Here's a few:

1. Operational issues - better web design, direct market research, head start on better partnerships, better able to work between engineering and marketing, (near term strategy and tactical issues - no theory here), waste less time getting to market
2. Better use of money - stretch limited dollars, can last longer between fundings, stretch precious bootstrap dollars significantly, build a stronger customer base for less, how to be more fundable (the starting steps to be strong enough to have some effect on funding)
3. Better viral reach - how to really connect with the customer base - early on, go after the right market
4. Great networking with peers and funders, ability to start new partnerships as a result
5. More intimate setting - they'll get to know the funders and the funders will get to know them (entrepreneurs) better

tags: startup+epicenter, vinod+khosla, scott+lane, noah+kagen, clint+chao, sayre+sevrick

Comments

[Shelley]

You forgot to mention that this is a male's only conference, specifically for men.