Ventures Pitches to Investors
Tuesday September 29
11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
Venture Pitches will be for companies intending to scale that are raising money through Angel and/or Venture Capital investors.
Companies
Joshua Bradley
Founder and CEO
Closing the achievement gap in elementary math with a flexible classroom and distance learning product.
Investor Panelists
Namrata Banerjee
Carnegie Mellon Accelerator
Namrata is Director of VentureBridge and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. She is a Venture Partner with Republic focused on early stage investments and also serves as a startup advisor. Prior to Republic, she was a Venture Associate with AVG Basecamp Fund, an early stage industry-agnostic fund.
Before Venture Capital, Namrata worked at an incubator in Zimbabwe supporting entrepreneurs in Southern Africa. Prior to that, she worked in startups, two of which she took from idea to revenue, and worked in Industrial Automation where she worked on a range of software and firmware products.
Namrata has an interdisciplinary background - a BS in Biology & Software Engineering from India, an MA from the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Carnegie Mellon, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business, Berkeley.
Before Venture Capital, Namrata worked at an incubator in Zimbabwe supporting entrepreneurs in Southern Africa. Prior to that, she worked in startups, two of which she took from idea to revenue, and worked in Industrial Automation where she worked on a range of software and firmware products.
Namrata has an interdisciplinary background - a BS in Biology & Software Engineering from India, an MA from the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Carnegie Mellon, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business, Berkeley.
Toby Corey
Zentreprenuer.life
I’m a lifelong entrepreneur turned Zentreprenuer and Stanford University Lecturer. I believe deeply in customer-centric big idea thinking. I like to be on and preferably over the edge as much as possible. I used to think that I was figuring life out over time, silly me. I learned to let my journey expand and flow and then I realized the more knowledge I acquire, the less I really know. That “less” part is what shapes me and where awe-ness exits. I’m grateful for: learning so much at Tesla, SolarCity, USWeb, Novell and several other great companies along the way, falling in love with technology early in life, taking disco dance lessons in 1978 after watching “Saturday Night Fever”, currently sitting on the boards of Buoy, Advanced MicroGrid Solutions, WildLifeDirect with Chairman Dr. Richard Leakey (former board member) and advisory boards at Inboard Technologies, YaDoggi and CruzFoam
Thomas Armstrong
White Summers
Mr. Armstrong has over 36 years of legal experience in representing companies and investors in venture capital financings, private placements, angel financings, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters. His practice includes representation of companies and investors in various industries including medical devices, software, internet, consumer goods, telematics and entertainment. Mr. Armstrong is also a FINRA registered investment banker holding a Series 63 license, a Series 79 license and a Series 82 license.
Joel Gambord
Gambord Investments
As a builder & land developer, my company built apartments, income-producing commercial and self-storage projects throughout the 1960s and 70s in the heart of what is now Silicon Valley - the cities of Santa Clara and San Jose, the east bay city of Alameda, and Reno Nevada. I can't tell you how much fun I had doing this.
Moderator
Jennifer Kwan
CSUMB College of Business
Jenny is a member of the CSUMB entrepreneurship and economics faculty with a PhD from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. She is currently studying the commercialization of publicly funded R&D and the history of venture capital. Prior to CSUMB, Jenny was a researcher at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research for over a decade. She also has a background in technology, with a decade of experience as an engineer in manufacturing at Apple and Solectron. In addition to her PhD from Berkeley, Jenny holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.
