Getting Your First Few Customers and Building Your Sales Organization

Speaker: Naeem Zafar, member of the faculty of Haas Business School at the University of California Berkeley. Naeem did six startups and has extensive experience in mentoring and coaching entrepreneurs.

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Food and Drinks will be graciously provided by our evening host, Sun Startup Essentials

Agenda

* Networking and food
* Welcome and SSVN overview - Thomas J. Buckholtz
* Sun Startup Essentials - Marina Fisher
* Speech and discussion - Naeem Zafar
* Networking

Main presentation

Getting Your First Few Customers and Building Your Sales Organization

Summary -

This session will focus on how an entrepreneur gets his or her first few customers and how a sales process can be developed. The session will provide 5 golden rules for entrepreneurs to jumpstart their sales and 2 common mistakes that can be deadly. The sales process starts earlier than you may think. Identifying customers and make them a part of your product definition can be vitally important. Speaker will share his mistakes and lessons learned during his six Startups.

Bio -

Naeem Zafar is a member of the faculty of Haas Business School at the University of California Berkeley, where he teaches Entrepreneurship and Innovation as part of the MBA program. Naeem did six startups and has extensive experience in mentoring and coaching entrepreneurs. He founded Concordia Ventures, a company focused on educating and advising entrepreneurs on all aspects of starting and running a business. www.ConcordiaVentures.com

Naeem was the president and CEO of Pyxis Technology until 2007. He has also been president and CEO of Silicon Design Systems and Veridicom, a Bell Labs spin-off that invented the silicon fingerprint sensors. Naeem has held senior marketing and engineering positions at several companies, including Quickturn which had an IPO. His eBooks “7-steps to a Successful Startup” and “The Definitive Entrepreneur’s Guide to Lawyers” can be found www.FiveMountainPress.com

Naeem obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Brown University (magna cum laude), and a MSEE from the University of Minnesota. Naeem is a charter member of TiE and the president of OPEN Silicon Valley.