Click on the Video Below and Sample a Session from a previous Digital Hollywood event. For Additional Video Sessions, Click Here Digital Hollywood, October 18-21, 2010 Tuesday, October 19th SuperSessions Special Workshop 10:45 AM – Noon - DHFi-5, DEALS-2 Investment, Funding Strategies and Deal Flow A Primer for Content and Technology Companies I. Understanding Funding and Strategy Greg Akselrud, Partner, Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP Jim Labe, CEO, TriplePoint Capital Richard Hull, Producer & Financier Art Chang, founder and CEO, Tipping Point Partners Gee Leung, Director, MESA Global Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S. Inc., Moderator Gee Leung, Director, MESA Global: Gee is a Director with MESA Global, a boutique investment bank focused on providing capital raising and M&A advisory services to clients in the digital and traditional media industries. Through more than 12 years as an investment banker, Gee has advised some of the leading companies in the digital media services, online entertainment, online advertising and online games sectors; helping clients raise over $2 billion in capital and advising on over $500 million in M&A transactions. Prior to joining MESA, Gee was a Principal at Inverness Advisors, a San Francisco based advisory firm, where he led the digital media effort. Prior to Inverness, Gee was a Vice President in the media practice at Montgomery & Co., where he focused on digital media services. Earlier in his career, Gee worked as an M&A banker at Friedman Billings Ramsey and a corporate finance banker at Citigroup. Greg Akselrud is a founder and partner at Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP, a Los Angeles-based boutique law firm. He is the Chairperson of the firm’s Interactive Media and Videogames practice group. Greg advises a wide range of public and private clients across a number of industries, including companies in the entertainment, Internet, technology, and apparel industries. Greg’s practice and experience includes: • acting as strategic counsel to film and television production companies, representing their interests in investment transactions, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions; • advising entertainment, Internet, peer-to-peer and other technology clients in a variety of matters arising on the Internet or mobile networks, including, with respect to content licensing and exploitation, IP strategic counseling, Internet advertising and other revenue generating transactions (bundling, co-marketing and co-branding), and general website matters (preparation of terms of use or service and privacy policies, and compliance with the DMCA); • serving as primary counsel to publicly-held and private companies, providing advice on all aspects of their business activities, including general corporate matters, securities law compliance, corporate governance matters, public and private issuances of securities (including angel, venture capital, private equity and debt securities offerings), mergers and acquisitions (including public reverse mergers), and joint ventures and strategic alliances; • structuring commercial transactions and joint ventures in Europe and Asia for the purpose of licensing content and technology. Greg is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, teaching Business Planning I: Financing the Start-Up Business and Venture Capital Financing. Jim Labe, CEO, TriplePoint Capital: Mr. Labe is widely recognized as the pioneer of the venture leasing and lending segment of the commercial finance industry. He played a key role in making venture leasing and lending an essential source of capital for venture capital-backed companies. Over the past twenty-five years, Mr. Labe has worked closely with venture capitalists and entrepreneurs introducing them to the benefits of venture leasing and lending. He has closed venture lease and loan transactions with hundreds of venture capital-backed companies. Bonus Round, his forthcoming book, is the first definitive insiders' guide to venture leasing and lending. Prior to co-founding TriplePoint, Mr. Labe founded Comdisco Ventures in 1987, the venture division of Comdisco, Inc. He led the division as CEO for over 14 years, managing more than $5 billion in lease and loan transactions to more than 1,200 leading venture capital-backed companies. Under his leadership, Comdisco Ventures recognized thirteen consecutive years of profitability representing more than $500 million in cumulative pre-tax profits. Comdisco Ventures was recognized by BusinessWeek, Forbes, The Red-Herring, and other industry publications as the leader of the venture leasing and lending industry. Mr. Labe personally trained senior members of many of the existing firms in the venture leasing and lending industry. Prior to Comdisco Ventures, Mr. Labe served as a Director at Equitec Financial Group, the first nationwide institution to provide warrant-based leases to venture capital-backed companies. During his tenure at Equitec, he developed the concept of venture leasing to early stage companies, managing more than $300 million in lease and loan transactions to more than 200 companies. Mr. Labe has played a pivotal role in making venture leasing and lending an essential source of capital for private venture capital-backed companies and in the process has educated the financial and academic communities on the concept. Mr. Labe is a speaker at venture industry conferences and appears as a guest speaker on the topic at both Harvard Business School and the University of Chicago School of Business. When not at the helm at TriplePoint Capital, his diverse civic interests include Stanford University’s Athletic Advisory Board, Silicon Valley Community Ventures (Pacific Community Ventures), the Youth Tennis Association (YTA), the East Palo Alto Tennis Tutorial Program (EPATT), and serving as a volunteer camp counselor for underprivileged inner-city youths. Mr. Labe holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Middlebury College in Vermont. Richard Hull, Producer & Financier: Richard Hull is a proven leader of private equity backed media and entertainment companies; a successful operator, financier and dealmaker with particular expertise in growth and turnaround situations; and a seasoned steward of investor capital. He occupies a rare position at the heart of traditional media and entertainment, digital distribution and finance. Most recently, Hull was recruited by Ignition Partners, a venture capital firm comprised of early Microsoft employees with almost $2 billion under management, and charged with salvaging and rebuilding the asset value of Blowtorch Media & Entertainment. The company had previously raised $50m for the distribution of content to young-adult audiences, including feature films, advertiser-financed digital content and online media applications. As an early pioneer in Hollywood’s charge towards online and mobile content, Hull previously advised major media companies such as Warner Bros., the Walt Disney Company and MTV Networks, as well as major private equity and venture capital groups, on digital entertainment strategy, distribution and finance. A former award-winning film and television producer/financier constantly on the leading edge of market trends, Hull quickly proved himself as one the most prolific in the business with collaborations that include virtually every major studio, network and media company. His 20+ projects, primarily geared toward teen and young-adult audiences, have collectively grossed hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide and include one of the most successful teen movies in history, SHE’S ALL THAT. Hull co-authored the upcoming book Dancing With Digital Natives: Staying in Step With the Generation That's Transforming the Way Business Is Done (Cyberage Books, December 2010) which blazes the trail for how brands can better utilize digital entertainment distribution. To kick off the launch of the book, he recently delivered the keynote speech for the Buying and Selling eContent Conference. Hull recently led the recapitalization, and joined the Board of Directors, of Manana Media, one of the largest DVD and digital content distribution companies for U.S.-based Latino audiences. Art Chang, founder and CEO, Tipping Point: It's hard to believe that I've spent 25 years with emerging growth companies, especially the past 10 years in the New York City venture capital community. I founded Tipping Point Partners in 2005 to bring my experience as an entrepreneur and investor to helping other entrepreneurs find and realize their next big idea. We especially like companies that have figured out that data captures and empowers the connection between people and the stuff they are passionate about. Tipping Point Partners works for startup companies and new divisions of established companies, generally as hands-on management and board members and occasionally as investor. In 2008, I helped start Cookstr.com, where I serve in the lead finance and operations role, in addition to my responsibilities at the Tipping Point companies. I worked on about $1.5 billion in private investment and M&A transactions, including enterprise software, grid computing, interactive television, power generation, biotech, real estate private equity, and legal services. I admit to being addict to the speed/punishment of the startup life, I was a founder or manager in eight start-ups, including e-commerce, television, online music and real estate and spent six years in government. I started my career in architecture, ending with the architect I.M. Pei. One of my favorite jobs was waiting tables in college. I volunteer as an advisor to the Catherine B. Reynolds Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship at New York University, served on the Board and Executive Committee of the Brooklyn Public Library Foundation and spent 8 years on the Board of Safe Horizon. I also interview undergraduate applicants to Yale University. I received my MBA from New York University and my BA from Yale in women’s studies with an art history concentration. I'm a licensed securities broker, securities principal and financial operations principal. I live in Brooklyn with my wife, Allison Thrush, a private equity professional, and my two fun-loving boys. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S. Inc: is a widely-acclaimed strategic consultant to technology and media CEOs, U.S. and worldwide. Her work helps create wealth for founders and investors of entrepreneurial ventures, and a high return on investment for Fortune 500 in-house ventures. Her capital strategies drive up her clients' valuations and profitability. She has a special expertise in working with emerging and disruptive technologies. She consults to Fortune 500 companies, capitalized start-ups, and investment funds, often serving as a "shadow CEO" to extend her clients' bandwidth. She advises product and service companies and consultants. Her work optimizes her clients' growth, dealflow and profitability. Her clients have included J.P. Morgan Capital, Sony, IBM, Apple, Hearst, Blockbuster, Technicolor, Harper Collins, Discovery Channel, Time-Warner, Agfa and Scitex, and many early stage ventures such as Earthweb and iSuppli. Her clients say she is "a brilliant strategist and a practical, down-to-earth, get-it-done person," "invaluable in understanding the competitive landscape and alternative strategies" and that she "cuts right through the noise, giving a clear vision of the future," "protecting us from liability and cutting our costs." She has consulted since the early days of the PC through to her Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 clients of today. Her clients have been in the business, enterprise and consumer sectors, with companies in technology, hardware and software, media and entertainment, publishing and advertising, distribution, and investment and venture funding. She has worked in the U.S., Europe and China. A strategist, policymaker, dealmaker, and negotiator, her work includes strategies on entry, exit, capitalization, return on investment, growth, positioning, pricing, distribution, risk-assessment, new market and international expansion, due diligence, and intellectual property.