How to Build Your Enterprise Startup

First-time founders usually struggle to start their Enterprise startup, especially with sourcing pilots and developing a sales pipeline with Enterprise as a customer. As part of the CMU T&E Startup School event series, this panel discussion provides a future founder with a guide to successfully building your Enterprise startup.

Agenda:

5:00-6:00 pm PDT: Panel Discussion + Q&A

We will explore a few key themes on building your Enterprise startup and a few more along with questions from the Audience!

Experience starting an Enterprise startup the first time and the journey!

​Enterprise Sales; From pilot to the first client and to building a sales pipeline

​Early Stage Metrics: current traction vs potential for growth

Fundraising tips for Future Enterprise Founders

About the Panel Speakers:

Mehdi Samadi, (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehdisamadi/) is the Co-Founder & CEO of Intellipse. Prior to co-founding Intellipse, he was the Co-Founder of Solvvy, where he had been both the CTO & CEO on different occasions. Mehdi holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon.

Danielle D'Agostaro, (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ddagostaro1/) is the Principal Partner at WV Ventures, a $100M VC joint venture between Advocate Aurora Health, Foxconn, Johnson Controls, and Northwestern Mutual, and is a Strategic Advisor at Alchemist Accelerator. Prior to joining WV Ventures, Danielle was the Managing Partner & COO at Alchemist Accelerator and a Pitch Mentor at European Innovation Academy. She was also an Associate Account Manager at Adobe & holds a BA in Media Studies from UC, Berkeley.

Ehsan Totoni, (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ehsan-totoni-44928286/) is the Co-Founder & CTO of bodo.ai. Prior to co-founding bodo.ai, Ehsan was a Researcher for the Intel Science & Technology Center for Visual Cloud Systems at Carnegie Mellon. He was also a Research Scientist at Intel Labs, a Research Assistant at Walt Disney Animation Studios & holds a Ph.D. in CS from the U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Panel Discussion will be moderated by:

Jennifer Li, (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferhli/) is an Investment Partner at Andreessen Horowitz within the Enterprise & Infrastructure practice. During her tenure at a16z, she has been a Board Observer at Fivetran, DBT, Mux, Rasa, Instabase, Dialpad, Netlify, Preset, Orbit, Rewatch, and Stacker and co-led investments in Tandem, Rive, and Vantage at the seed stage (to name a few). Prior to a16z, she was a Senior Product Manager at Solvvy, Product Manager at AppDynamics, and a Product Fellow at Kleiner Perkins. Jennifer holds an MS in Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon.