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In this special event, we are honored to have two successful entrepreners and executives to talk about how to build good foundation for your startup.


Topic 1: STARTUP ISSUES AND STRATEGIES

Many first-time entrepreneurs form startups with structural flaws that are very difficult to fix as the company grows. The purpose of this event is to explore some of the key issues entrepreneurs need to understand so that the company will be built on a good foundation that fosters addition of talented people, attract investors and support successful growth. Some of major area that will be discussed by the panel:

1. Co-Founders: what makes for a good winning team
2. Ownership strategy that will support talent acquisition and funding
3. Key successful traits of an entrepreneur
4. How to create customers: the importance of integrated marketing and sales system

Topic 2: The Importance of Integrated Online and Offline Sales and Marketing in the Mobile Space

Peter Drucker said the purpose of a business is to create customers. Whether your company in B2B, B2C, or B2B2C space, you need to understand how to get customers and generate revenue and profit. While marketing and sales have evolved with the advent of Web, search, social, mobile, and big data, the fundamentals of sales and marketing do not change. Join Steve Tsai, President of The IPO Group, for a top level view of the state-of-the-art marketing and sales system and the inner workings of integrating online and offline marketing, sales, and business development activities that are critical to any hi-tech company.

SPEAKERS

Thomas Hong is CEO of Board of CEOs (BoC)

BoC is a members-only organization in Silicon Valley. Its participants includes CEOs, angels, VCs, Investment Bankers, and corporate executives. Thomas previously held various engineering management positions at IBM, Memorex, Apple, National Semiconductors & Intersil. As serial entrepreneur, he was Principal Founder/CEO of 4 computer peripheral and networking products companies. He raised funding from Angel investors, VCs and corporate investors. He managed one company from startup to $23 million revenue and $1 million profit in the second year. He has recruited domestic and international distributors in most major countries and has sold 12 technology licenses to private and public companies. During the last 10 years, Thomas has been the Founder of CEONetworking which transformed to the Board of CEOs. He facilitates these organizations providing advice/consulting to hundreds of hi-tech CEOs in Silicon Valley. He has also been on the Advisory Board of several hi-tech startups.

Steve Tsai, Partner of Board of CEOs and President of the IPO Group

Steve is a business executive and entrepreneur with diverse experiences. He held executive positions at Sun and Unisys in research, development, and marketing. He had three start-ups, one went IPO in 4 years and the other one was acquired in 3 years. As a partner at Board of CEOs, Steve has advised more than 100 companies on funding, growth, and M&A. As the president of The IPO Group, Steve helps client companies win market leadership by integrating the cutting edge online and offline sales and marketing concepts and practices. Notable successes include NetScaler acquired by Citrix in 2005 for $325M and NeoAccel acquired by VMware in 2011 where he was the VP of business development and ran China operations. Steve was a board member of the Internal Angel Investors, a venture partner at a global VC firm, and on the advisory boards of several startup companies.