Venture Forum Features Pitches from Three Companies, Contest Details
Thursday night, about 100 Rensselaer alumni and New York-area venture capitalists participated in a Venture Forum meeting, organized by the Rensselaer Entrepreneur Network. The meeting consisted of presentations by three established companies affiliated with the RPI Incubator program who are seeking venture funding, followed by a brief presentation on the Rensselaer Open Business Plan Contest.
Read on for a description of the presentations....
The Venture Forum meeting took place at the New York Athletic Club and was co-sponsored by LaunchCenter 39, Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt, Maynard & Kristol, LLP, Quantum Venture Partners, and Golenbock, Eisman, Assor & Bell, LLP.
The first company presentation was given by Steinar Flatland of Document Development Corporation. DDC provides mechanisms to automatically or semi-automatically produce structured documents, like contracts and sales proposals. Next to present was Thea Snyder, an executive with Biazo. Biazo is a Customer Relationship Management software company focusing on the telecommunications industry. Walt Sherwood made the last company presentation, on behalf of Starfire Systems. The company makes high-tech polymers used in the aerospace, trucking, and power generation industries.
The formal part of the program was concluded by Simon Balint, Assistant Director of the Rensselaer Incubator Center. Simon introduced the Rensselaer Open Business Plan Contest, is "open to all alumni, faculty, staff, Incubator and Tech Park companies" and is geared toward "{refining and polishing} the business plans of early stage companies".
A number of people were involved in making this event a success. However, the team of Tom Payne and Dan Zettler were most involved in the organizational efforts.