10:45 AM - Noon
Session A:
VC and Investment in the Broadband, Wireless & P2P Entertainment/Technology Space, Part I
The VC and Investment community has always led the way in recognizing the newest opportunities in the technology and entertainment space. VC funds are always available for the right idea and in this two part, morning and afternoon session, we will focus on the three sectors leading the entertainment and technology space today, broadband, wireless and the P2P technologies. Broadband has been the holy grail for the entertainment industry for years, but what it represents today, is the reality of locking in millions of users. Wireless represents the explosive technology of the moment and P2P is this unknown, amorphous concept that represents the “hot button” technology of the moment.
Carl Rosendahl, Partner, SOFTBANK Venture Capital
James P. McNiel, Senior Vice President, Pequot Private Equity
Ravin Agrawal, Partner, EastWest VentureGroup
Mariana Danilovic, CEO, Digital Media X
Gary Curtis, General Partner, CMGI @Ventures
Curtis L. Mo, Partner, Brobeck, Phleger, & Harrison, LLP
Zach Maurus, Vice President, Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown
Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S. Inc., Moderator
Zach Maurus is a Vice President in Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown’s US Internet Media Investment Banking practice. The practice is focused on providing financing and strategic advisory services to companies in the areas of broadband, wireless, enhanced television, interactive content and commerce and emarketing. In addition to working closely with start-ups in these emergent technology sectors, the group also provides advice to domestic and international large cap companies in the media, cable and satellite industries with respect to convergence strategies for the new economy. Zach has been with the firm for seven years and has worked closely with Internet, media and technology clients in executing mergers and acquisitions advisory services and public and private equity and debt offerings. His clients have included Amazon.com, Colo.com, Covad, Digital Insight, Digital River, DoubleClick, Electronic Arts, Exodus, The Learning Company, NBC and Zip2. Zach received both his BS and MBA degrees from Stanford University. He can be reached by e-mail at zach.maurus@db.com.
Curtis L. Mo, Partner, Brobeck, Phleger, & Harrison, LLP: Mr. Mo co-heads the Business & Technology Practice Group in our Palo Alto office, and has recently been selected by California Law Business as one of the "Top 20 Lawyers in the State of California Under the Age of 40." In addition, Mr. Mo has lectured at seminars sponsored by the Practicing Law Institute and other professional groups, and has given expert legal commentary on emerging growth companies and the technology sector for CNN Moneyline, CNBC Business Center and various publications. Brobeck is a Corporate and securities law practice, with focus on mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, private placements and restructurings. Mr. Mo has represented a wide variety of companies—ranging from start-up and emerging growth to Fortune 500 Companies—investment banks, venture capital firms, and other U.S. and international clients in hundreds of transactions. Mr. Mo has extensive experience in the representation of emerging growth companies, particularly in the Internet, information technology, networking and communications technology sector.
Mariana Danilovic: Ms. Danilovic is the CEO & President of Digital Media X, which she founded in February of 2000. Digital Media Incubator LLC provides seed financing and incubation to digit
al media and convergence companies. Prior to founding DMX LLC, Ms. Danilovic founded and managed the Digital Media Business Incubator at KPMG LLP. This practice developed numerous "cutting-edge" clients, including Digital Entertainment Network, Internet Wire, Tonos.com, Beyond Music, mySMART.com, Internet Wire, Popular Arts, WalkThisWay.com, FirstLook.com, Bridge Entertainment, Thirsty.com, and QST.com. The practice successfully assisted the sale of the Well to the Salon. Prior to joining KPMG, Ms. Danilovic headed business development for Mandalay Entertainment. She was also in business development at Sony Pictures Entertainment and at Twentieth Century Fox International Television Group. Prior to attending business school, she worked in Product Management and Mergers & Acquisitions for Transamerica and Sun America. Ms. Danilovic earned a Master in Business Administration degree from Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from University of California at San Diego. She serves on the Board of Directors of VIC, the Board of Directors of the Zone Club, the Board of Directors of California Culture Net, the Industry-University Council of University of California’s Digital Media Innovation Program, and as a member of the Los Angeles Mayor Riordan’s Digital Coast Roundtable.Ravin Agrawal, Partner, EastWest VentureGroup: Prior to joining EastWest VentureGr
oup, Mr. Agrawal was a New York -based business consultant for McKinsey & Company, the global management consulting firm. At McKinsey, Mr. Agrawal was deeply involved in the evolution of Internet commerce by helping major global banks respond to the opportunities presented by start-ups with new business models and technologies. He also managed several programs to improve the operations of media and entertainment companies, and international business development efforts for technology clients. Previously, Mr. Agrawal had founded and served as chief executive of SouthAsia.com, a pioneering web design firm in Bangalore, India, and had been a noted nationwide speaker on the commercial possibilities of the Internet for South Asian companies. While earning his MBA, he was selected by the Walt Disney Company as the first student Producer in its new electronic entertainment unit, Disney Interactive. There, he designed original video-game, PC, and online product concepts. Mr. Agrawal received a BA in Economics from Harvard College, where he served as the Producer of the Hasty Pudding show and as an editor of the Harvard Lampoon, and he received his MBA from Harvard Business School.James P. McNiel, senior vice president, is one of a handful of Pequot Capital professi
onals whose record combines engineering, hands-on business development experience and tenure as an entrepreneur. Leveraging 20-year career in high technology and venture investments. McNiel works with entrepreneurs. to achieve the kind of long-term, resource- and experience-rich partnerships valued by leaders of early-stage companies. McNiel began his career as an assembly-level programmer with Convergence Corporation, part of a team that was to win multiple Academy Awards for engineering excellence for a new video editing system. After pioneering design work in interfaces for videotape recorders, McNiel joined others in a successful effort at Lucasfilm Ltd. to build the first non-linear videotape editing system, EditDroid. In 1984, as a team leader working at Lucasfilm's Industrial Light and Magic facilities, he designed the industry's first heuristic controller for the industrial laser disc player. After leaving Lucasfilm in 1986, McNiel joined AST Research to assist in developing the industry's first zero wait state PC, advancing from a position as software product manager to product line manager. Later, as director of advanced products, his team was responsible for development of the AST Bravo and Cupid architectures - two of AST's most successful product initiatives. McNiel left AST in 1989 to join Archive Corporation, a start-up company developing tape backup solutions for the network. Following that company's acquisition of Maynard Electronics, he elected to join Cheyenne Software as director of business development, continuing work on tape backup technology. Rising to the post of executive vice president of corporate development, McNiel was instrumental in bringing the company to profitability, helping drive sales growth to $128 million from $4 million in the process. In 1997, McNiel's seventh year with the company, Cheyenne was sold to Computer Associates for $1.3 billion in cash. McNiel sought to bring his experience as business-builder and engineer to bear on the growth of several other firms, founding the McNiel Group. These included USWeb, for which he served as acting executive vice president of business development, and broadband wireless systems developer Spike Technologies, where he served as board member. In 1998, he worked with Pequot Capital on an investment in Netegrity Corporation, a developer of secure connections for business for which he continues to be a board member. This initial cooperation with Pequot Capital led to an exclusive consulting relationship, and in July, 1999, McNiel's partnership with the group. Today, he sits on the boards of Netegrity, Asia Online, Futurelink and Xevo. A graduate of the Wharton Advanced Management Program, McNiel speaks frequently at industry events.Gary Curtis, General Partner, CMGI @Ventures: Mr. Curtis brings 25 years of infor
mation technology experience to CMGI @Ventures. He spent more than a decade with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) - most recently as senior vice president, director and a member of BCG's Executive Committee. He was responsible for leading BCG's worldwide IT practice and personally served the top management teams at several of the largest global capital markets institutions worldwide. Mr. Curtis also spearheaded BCG's e-commerce strategy work for major clients and was general manager for BCG's "WebLab" organization, a global network of wholly owned Web interface design laboratories which work exclusively for BCG's e-commerce strategy clients. Prior to joining BCG, Mr. Curtis spent 11 years with American Management Systems (AMS), a publicly traded, information technology consulting and systems development firm. He was vice president and director of AMS' Advanced Technology Group. Previously, Mr. Curtis was director of Computing Services at the University of Chicago.Joanna Tamer, President, S.O.S. Inc.: Joey Tamer helps companies craft their vision