Building Business The Lean Way - A Tech and Entrepreneurial Discussion

We wanted to finish things out before summer in a big way, so we assembled a phenomenal panel to go into a tech and entrepreneurial deep dive on Lean Methodology and the vital importance it has in the realm of entrepreneurship and tech.

For those of you who need a quick briefing on Lean Methodology check out these two links:

A quick overview: http://theleanstartup.com/principles

A book you should buy: http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898

We will be giving away two copies of The Lean Startup on the night of. When you attend the event we will have a raffle that you can enter for free to win a copy!

During the event we are going to focus on the stories of our panelists, and their experiences in their own respects with lean, tech, and entrepreneurship.

Our panelists range from tech experts at Yashi, one of NJ’s own startups that has made it big and helped put NJ on the map, to a pro in the Lean and Product Design Sprint space, to entrepreneurs who are paving the way for New Jersey Entrepreneurship and who will be for years to come!

We know that this panel has the expertise to give you a ton of value, and great lessons to take home and apply to your own ventures.

We hope that you get great tech and entrepreneurial advice from this event, but ultimately we want to help you generate an awareness and a fundamental knowledge of what Lean is, and how you can leverage it to science the hell out of your startup or business!

Keep an eye on the event as we will be adding panelists and updates on the exact event location in regards to the room and parking.

More on our panelists below:

Mark Paone - VP Of Engineering At Yashi (https://yashi.com/)

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A Jersey Shore native whose passion for technology began in early childhood, Mark Paone has been involved in New Jersey's tech scene for nearly a decade. Directly out of high school, Paone started his first business venture with Unique Servers, a game server provider with locations across the US, Australia, and Europe. While running Unique Servers, Paone attended NJIT for Computer Science and graduated with honors. Shortly thereafter he joined the ranks of Yashi, an ad tech company from Toms River, as one of their first software engineers. Alongside a small team of engineers, Paone built up Yashi’s demand-side and supply-side platform, directly leading to a $33M acquisition by Nexstar Broadcasting in 2015. Paone currently serves as Yashi's Vice President of Engineering, where he leads a team of developers in building out innovative new technology in the ad tech space.

Alex Britez - Director Of Innovation at Macmillan Learning (http://www.macmillanlearning.com/catalog)

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Alex Britez has a background in design, engineering and educational learning theory. As the Director of Digital Innovation at Macmillan Learning, he is leveraging his broad skill set and experience to help the organization accelerating it's learning, reduce risk and identifying opportunity. Part of this success has been through meticulously introducing a much more consumer centric approach to product development. Inspired by the Lean Startup movement, Design Thinking, and several other problem-solving frameworks, he has designed various tools to help create a process that is both flexible and repeatable. This has resulted in a positive shift in culture, where ideas are placed in front of customers quickly, and the learning loop starts almost immediately.

Clark Lagemann - Founding Partner Medpro Wellness (http://www.medprowellness.com/about-us/management-team/)

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Clark is a seasoned entrepreneur who has become a mainstay in the New Jersey startup ecosystem.

He has excelled at multiple corporate positions as well as built several companies within the healthcare space. He’s a “get it done” guy, and is responsible for taking his current company from idea to profit within the first 18 months. When not improving patient health and wellness through products, he devotes his time to creating communities that support entrepreneurs, as well as mentoring dozens of technology startups throughout the region. Even with such a full plate, Clark has spent much of his “free” time in the last year training for the 140.6 mile IRONMAN competition, considered by many to be the most challenging endurance race in the world, and one for which he has raised thousands of dollars for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

Anthony Frasier - The Phat Startup (http://anthonyfrasier.com/about/)

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Anthony Frasier is a digital strategist, tech entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. A Newark, NJ native, Anthony has a long history of mentoring and advising startups & community infrastructures, to solve real problems and build solutions. Anthony has been instrumental in bringing up a new generation of black & minority technology leaders.

Frasier is formerly known for being one of the savvy founders of The Phat Startup, an integrated media company that produced resources for aspiring entrepreneurs. By leveraging Lean Startup methodology and drawing on the connections between entrepreneurship and hip hop, you can credit Frasier and his team for successfully creating the critically acclaimed Tech808 conference that featured some of the best minds in technology.

Our Startup Presentation For The Evening:

Jonathan Maxim - VeaLife - http://vealife.com

Jonathan brings unmatched entrepreneurial energy to every pursuit – thriving in competitive, agile environments and driven by passion, accountability and measurable success. From working in a Fortune 50 company directing product launches, to taking a mobile fitness app to market starting from scratch, his experience spans the business landscape.

Vea Fitness is the only app to give you monetary rewards for crushing workouts, like “Run 2 Miles, Get 10% off at New Balance” . Using GPS tracking, Vea notifies you when you've achieved the reward, logs all your workouts automatically and provides a coupon code to use your discount.

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Food Details

We will not be providing food on the night of, but there is the Red Hawk Diner on campus just two buildings over from University Hall where you can feel free to grab food prior to or after the event!

Schedule

6:00pm - 6:30pm: Networking (Food will not be provided, but there is a cafeteria inside the building that event attendees can get food at.)

6:30pm - 6:40pm: Opening and hosting groups have the floor to speak. Ask segment.

6:40pm - 6:50pm: Startup Presentation - Jonathan Maxim - VeaLife.

6:50pm - 7:00pm: Discussion overview and panel introduction.

7:00pm - 8:00pm: Panel discussion and Q&A.

8:00pm - 8:30pm: Focused breakout sessions and additional networking.

8:30pm - 9:00pm: Event wrap up.

When, Where, Directions

Wednesday June 22nd, 6:00pm, Montclair State University

University Hall Room 1010

Parking can be found in the Red Hawk Parking Deck, and from there you can walk up University Promenade or behind Dickson Hall to get to University Hall.

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