Seeding The Entrepreneurial Revolution

This event features ...

• Two presentations
  >> 7-Steps to a Successful Startup - Mr. Naeem Zafar, Founder, Concordia Ventures
  >> Mr. Jay Elliot, General Partner, Voyant International
• Networking
• Introductions by the sponsors
  >> Semantic Seed
  >> SSV Network

Speaker: Naeem Zafar, Founder, Concordia Ventures
ConCordia Ventures (https://concordiaventures.com/)

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 and CEOs. He founded Concordia Ventures, a company focused on educating and advising entrepreneurs on all aspects of starting and running a business.

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.

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.

Speaker Jay Eliot:, General Partner, Voyant International

Mr. Elliot is currently a General Partner in Voyant International, a technology incubator company focused on the intersection of users and media using the “best of breed” technology. As the President of RocketStream, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Voyant, he is in the process of developing software products to facilitate the use of the internet. Previously, he was the Founder and Chairman of Migo Software, Inc. a mobility software company, and inventor of its flagship product, Migo. Mr. Elliot has more than 30 year’s operations’ experience with such corporate giants as IBM, Intel and Apple Computer.

He served as the Executive Vice President of Apple Computer responsible for all corporate operations plus overall corporate business planning reporting directly to Steve Jobs, Chairman of the Board, CEO, and co-founder of Apple. Also as a member of the Macintosh Development team he oversaw the software development of the Macintosh software. During his tenure at Apple sales grew from $150 million to more than $3 billion.

After graduating from college, Mr. Elliot joined IBM as a programmer working on the airline reservation system and moved into management in several key projects in the Disk drive development business, development of the ATM system, the Fair Transaction System and eventually managed the company’s 16,000-employee software division as the Director of the IBM Santa Teresa software Laboratory. Elliot left IBM to join Intel and at Intel was the director of the California operations reporting to Intel’s CEO, Andy Grove and Chairman Gordon Moore.

In addition to his vast technology background, Elliot has extensive experience in both the entertainment and healthcare industries. He served as the chief executive officer of San Francisco Studios, where he produced the Academy Award nominated documentary, “Berkeley in the Sixties,” and the NBC television series, “Midnight Caller.” In 1995 Mr. Elliot moved to Los Angeles and became the President of Acclaim Entertainment and created some very successful Hispanic TV shows that eventually helped Telemundo become competitive with Univision.

In the healthcare industry, Elliot was the chief executive officer of New Health Systems, a network technology group connecting physicians and payers to patients and affiliated hospitals. As part of the New Health plan, Mr. Elliot spent one year with the UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Computer Science Department helping to develop a software system for the operation of Tele-medical centers. It was while working with UCLA that Mr. Elliot came up with the idea for Migo.

Mr. Elliot holds a BS in Mathematics from San Jose State University and a BA degree in Business from the University of California at Berkeley, California.

For more information on Voyant, please go to:https://voyant.net/... (https://voyant.net/)

[

About the event host:

Semantic Seed was established in 2008 by the founders of Urban Technology Ventures and Breakthrough Ventures who at the time saw an opportunity to aid first time entrepreneurs struggling to find funding from angel investors and venture capitalist to hatch ideas. Semantic Seed is a special kind of venture capital firm and idea accelerator that cares more about funding “Good People” than your resume credentials and your business plan.

The Labs mission is to become a catalyst for early stage companies to graduate into venture capital ready companies. Start-ups and entrepreneurs can capitalize on the experience, skills and networks that Semantic Seed can provide to streamline development and accelerate commercialization of ideas.

Please Note: Free wine and snacks will be provided by Semantic Seed, please bring your laptops for co-working style presentations and networking with others. Bring lots of business cards, and be ready to meet fellow entrepreneurs.

Semantic Seed provides WIFI, white boards, and break out rooms for brainstorming sessions with other entrepreneurs.