San Diego: Secrets to Tech Success – Insights and Advice from Serial Entrepreneurs
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Cooley LLP
4401 Eastgate Mall
San Diego, CA 92121-1909
The Stanford Law School and Stanford GSB San Diego Alumni Chapters cordially invite you to attend a panel discussion focusing on emerging growth technology companies and the people that build them. Our panel of successful entrepreneurs will share their stories, tips, warnings, and tricks, covering everything from incubating new ideas, to building a sustainable enterprise, to when and how to pursue exit scenarios and liquidity events. Join us for what is sure to be a fascinating evening with many interesting and useful insights.
Panelists
- Moderator: Jason Kent, JD ’98, Partner, Cooley LLP
- Mitch Edwards, JD ’86, Founder, Tofana Partners
- Brian Kelleher, MBA ’91, Managing Partner, Tigris Ventures LLC
- Rick Kornfeld, President and CEO, Kitu Systems
The panel discussion begins at 6:00 p.m., and there will be time to network with fellow alumni before and after the program. Drinks and hors d'oeuvres will be served. Registration is free. Kindly register by Thursday, May 14.
This event is generously hosted by Cooley LLP. It is co-sponsored by the SLS and GSB San Diego Alumni Chapters.
MEET THE PANELISTS
Jason is a partner in the Emerging Companies and Public Companies practice groups and a member of the Cooley Business department. Jason represents private and public companies in a wide range of corporate and securities matters, including private financings, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, tender offers, joint ventures, commercial agreements, corporate governance matters, and employment and compensation arrangements. He also advises investment banks, venture capital firms, and private equity funds in connection with financings and other transactions. Jason is counsel to companies in diverse industries, including biotechnology, medical device, retail and consumer products, sports, semiconductor, software and cleantech. His clients range from start-ups to public companies with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues. Jason received a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.A., summa cum laude from Claremont McKenna College.
Mitch is a veteran CFO and General Counsel of public and private high technology and consumer brand companies and has 25 years’ experience in corporate finance, growth strategy, mergers & acquisitions, IPOs, and venture capital. Mitch is the Founder of Tofana Partners, a Private Equity fund. He has served in varied roles including President, CFO, and General Counsel at Skullcandy, BitTorrent, Razer PC Gaming, Groxis, Digital Courier Technologies and several several hi-tech and entertainment companies, and has completed IPOs for Skullcandy, DCTI and several portfolio companies. Prior to this, Mitch was a Partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP and he specialized in IPOs, corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions for high technology companies. Prior to Brobeck, he served at Shearman & Sterling and specialized in international mergers and acquisitions and leveraged buyouts. He earned a J.D. from Stanford Law School, a B.A./M.A. from Oxford University (Marshall Scholar), and a B.A. from Brigham Young University (Valedictorian). He has worked in the White House and at the United States Supreme Court.
Brian is the Managing Partner at Tigris Ventures LLC, an unconventional seed-stage investment firm and venture incubator with access to over $20M in capital. Tigris focuses on early-stage ventures, primarily in the Southern California region, with relatively low risk that can produce a significant return on investment within two to four years. He recently served as CEO of BIT MedTech, a company he originally founded as California MedTech. He eventually led the acquisition by German-based BIT Analytical. Before that, Brian founded Endonetics, a venture-backed medical device firm that developed products for the diagnosis and treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Brian served as CEO and Chairman of Endonetics, and assisted in the sale of the company to Medtronic. He has held technical and management positions with Analog Devices, Medtronic, Winfield, and Nellcor/Puritan-Bennett. Brian earned a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke and an M.B.A. from Stanford.
Mr. Kornfeld currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer for Kitu Systems, Inc., a leader in communication protocol software for the Internet of Things market. From 2006 to 2008, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of NextWave Wireless. From 2004 to 2006, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Staccato Communications. Prior to joining Staccato, Mr. Kornfeld was Vice President and General Manager of Texas Instruments' Wireless Chipset Business Unit. He joined Texas Instruments as part of the acquisition of Dot Wireless, where he served as Co-Founder, Chairman, CEO and President. Prior to founding Dot Wireless, Mr. Kornfeld was a founder of NextWave Telecom, Inc., where he was the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Consumer Products division. Previously, Mr. Kornfeld was Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm Inc., leading the development of the first commercial CDMA subscriber equipment. Prior to Qualcomm, Mr. Kornfeld held various technical positions at M/A-Com Linkabit. Mr. Kornfeld serves on the board of the La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology, Resonant (NASDAQ:RESN) and Kitu Systems, Inc. He serves on the Council of Advisors of University of California, SanDiego's Jacobs School of Engineering where he also participates in the university's Von Liebig Clean Tech grant activities. He also serves on AIPAC's San Diego council and AIPAC's national council. Mr. Kornfeld is also Vice-Chairman emeritus of Commnexus and the founding Chairman of EvoNexus. Mr. Kornfeld received his BS degree in 1982 from the University of California, San Diego where he was also named the Alumni of the Year in 2001. He is the named inventor on 17 patents.