The “Perfect Venture Conference”—- A Success Story for Technology Start-Ups and Early-Stage Investors

FundingPost (http://www.FundingPost.com) is proud to announce that 20 early-stage technology companies and more than 50 Venture Capital and Angel Investors participated in the highly-successful “Perfect Venture Conference” on April 5-7, 2006. The “Perfect Venture Conference” was sponsored by Merrill Lynch, Morrison and Foerster and PPS for Healthcare, and was an opportunity for leading emerging technology companies and top Angel and Venture Capital firms to make important connections and network. While many entrepreneurs wonder what it takes to secure venture capital financing, and need opportunities to showcase their businesses, the 20 participating companies got a good and intensive three-day lesson on what it takes to succeed. More information about the conference can be found online at: http://www.FundingPost.com/pvc.

FundingPost has completed 15+ sold-out venture events in New York City over the past four years, and is proud to announce the success of the “Perfect Venture Conference.” After years of smaller events, FundingPost decided to host a three-day conference to directly address the requests of entrepreneurial companies who want higher investor-to-company ratios and more chances to pitch. At this three-day event, panels of and keynote speeches by Venture Capital Investors answered the questions these young technology companies had. In addition, the participating companies had multiple opportunities to hone their pitches and show off their ideas to the investors in attendance. Each company pitched multiple times to the Investors, while the panels and workshops covered the entire fundraising process including: How to Give a Great Pitch, Building Revenue and Customers, Building Your Management Team, Setting Valuation, Preparing Your Finances, Meeting with Investors, Negotiating Term Sheets, Exit Strategies, and the current state of IT Investing. Both the pitching and the panels were extremely instructive in teaching these entrepreneurs all they need to know about how to get venture capital funding.

The companies that attended the conference are: Blue Pearl Software, Sunnyvale, CA; business-instruments.com, New York, NY; CFN Services, Herndon, VA; Deep Liquidity, Houston, TX; Full Screen Publications, Miami, FL; IBP Corporation, Alabaster, AL; MindTouch, St. Paul, MN; Mission Research, Lancaster, PA; PayCommerce, Avenel, NJ; Pet Wellness Plans Inc., Norcross, GA; Pie Digital Inc., San Francisco, CA; Progressive Pipeline Management, Atlantic Highlands, NJ; Pulse Digital, New York, NY; RezTrak, LLC., Houston, TX; River Rock Development, LLC., Jersey City, NJ; Senscient, League City, TX; Sticky Incorporated, Santa Cruz, CA; Tivitz, Annapolis, MD; UdesignWeprint, Boston, MA; and Velocent Systems, Inc., Naperville, IL.

The response of the emerging technology companies to the event was tremendous. Mark Casey, President, CFN Services, said, “We made some great contacts, and as importantly, the conference was educational and has definitely helped us improve our ‘pitch.’”

“The event gave us so many opportunities to practice our pitches and to meet these elusive but clearly ‘perfect’ Venture Capital Groups, we could not have asked for more! The lessons we learned, the advice and the referrals we took away with us, and the truly supportive attendees and sponsors made the event a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us,” said Jean Berthold-Belote, Director, Sales & Marketing, Senscient, Ltd.

"I was a little hesitant to invest money to attend FundingPost’s ‘Perfect Venture Conference’ in New York,” said Brian Johnson, Founder, Sticky, Inc. “But it turned out to be one of the best decisions we have made. We were able to get in front of dozens of qualified venture firms, and FundingPost did a great job of finding firms that matched our target industry. Within three days we had follow-up calls from venture capitalists inquiring about our company after attending the event. That traction never would have happened for us without making an investment in attending the ‘Perfect Venture Conference.’ FundingPost definitely created return on investment for us!”

The investors also felt that the event provided them great value. “FundingPost had a terrific group of attendees and speakers. I was glad to be a part of it, and would welcome the opportunity to do so again in the future,” said Elad Yoran, CEO and Founder, Security Growth Partners, LLC. Irvin Barash, President, Vencon Management echoed this statement saying, “The quality of the presenting companies was exceptional.”

Noting that the event was also successful because of the opportunity it provided to the entrepreneurs, investor Sookja Han, Executive Managing Director, Korea Technology Investment Corp. said, “It was one of the best VC conferences that I have attended…. Giving entrepreneurs ample chances to practice on their presentation under time constraints was great. I look forward to the next event.”

More than 50 Venture Capital and Angel Investor funds participated in the event. Funds represented included: Aegis Capital Group, Anthem Capital Management, Apex Capital Corp., Arca Group, Arrowpath Venture Capital, Ascend Ventures, Battery Ventures, BRM Capital, Coast Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, Core Capital Partners, Cross Atlantic Capital Partners, Delaware Crossing Investor Group, Endeavor Capital, Global Media Fund, Grotech Capital Group, IDG Ventures, IDT Ventures, Innovation Philadelphia, Intel Capital, Inverness Capital Partners, Israel Infinity Fund, Korean Technology Investment Group, Liquid Capital Group, LORE, Masthead Venture Partners, Milestone Venture Partners, Millennium Technology Ventures, NGP Energy Technology Partners, NJTC Venture Fund, North Sea Ventures, NY Angels, Osage Venture Partners, Rho Capital Partners, Ridgewood Capital, Rocket Ventures, SASI, SAVP, Sceata Technology Group, Security Growth Partners, Signal Equity Partners, Softbank Capital, StartUp Massachusetts, StarVest Partners, Tech Coast Angels & Venture Farm, The Verticom Group, TriState Investors, Updata Capital, Updata Partners, Vencon Management, Inc., and Wasatch Venture Capital. For a full list of speakers, please visit http://www.FundingPost.com/pvc/.

Sponsors Merrill Lynch, Morrison and Foerster and PPS for Healthcare were also pleased with the outcome of the event. Patricia Griffith, Partner, PPS for Healthcare, described the Perfect Venture Conference as, “First class and professional in all regards; rich with content and perspective; overflowing with wonderful, bright, willing participants.”

Joe Rubin, Principal, FundingPost, said of the event and its success, “We are thrilled that we could provide such a valuable and meaningful experience to the entrepreneurial and venture communities. Clearly, there was a need in the market to offer 20 emerging technology companies the exclusive opportunity to pitch their businesses to 50+ Venture Capitalists over three days. We are expecting great results over the next few months from this conference. We look forward to following these 20 companies as they prosper and grow.” Aren Cohen, VP of Business Development, FundingPost, added, “We look forward to providing this opportunity to other young companies and investors at more Perfect Venture Conferences in the future.”

For more information about the New York City “Perfect Venture Conference” and other FundingPost events, call (800) 461-5509 or visit FundingPost’s “Perfect Venture Conference” website at http://www.FundingPost.com/pvc.

ABOUT FUNDINGPOST:
FundingPost is an entrepreneur and investor network reaching more than 80,000 executives and 6,000 Venture Capital and Angel Investors across the nation each month.

For over five years, FundingPost has worked with thousands of Angel and Venture Capital Investors and Entrepreneurs. FundingPost has hosted over 5,000 CEOs and 600 Venture Funds at events in 15 cities nationwide, as well as providing a quarterly Dealflow magazine and a deal-exchange Website that has, on average, seen an introduction of an Investor to an Entrepreneur every business day since its inception. FundingPost’s mission is to reach investors and entrepreneurs in every medium possible – both online and offline, and it is experiencing strong growth as the venture capital markets continue to improve worldwide. For more information: http://www.FundingPost.com