Cornell Business

Issue date: 4/5/01 Section: Johnson News

Many questions crossed my mind as I awoke on the morning of February 16th. As one of the organizers of the inaugural Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Symposium, I should have focused on more important issues than the question of why had I woken up on my couch with a hangover and fully dressed in a sport coat and wingtips. With a dose of Advil for the headache and some Alka Seltzer for the 2:30 A.M. Full Suicide pizza at the Hot Truck, I was ready to face the more serious challenges of my day. I was to be disappointed. Four months of planning and a horde of volunteers made everything run almost flawlessly.

The day began with a presentation by the Big Red Venture Fund. The student partners took the opportunity to recruit their replacements for next year, to show off their website, and to make an exciting announcement. The fund will hold a business idea contest this spring. The winners will receive cash prizes as well possible investment and incubation of the best ideas. (Check out www.brv.cornell.edu for more details.)

The next workshop continued the theme of good ideas. Intellectual property lawyer and Cornell alum Kevin McGovern of McGovern Capital LLC ran a workshop on using proprietary rights as the foundation of a world leading company. Judging by the looks on many faces, attendees expected a dry dissertation but left with one of those “wow” moments of having learned something.

Next on deck was Steve Butler of eMarketer. Steve gave everyone extensive data on the state of e-commerce in the marketplace. Then, he took it one step further by turning that data into information we could use. Just as people were absorbing the multitude of what we had learned, Dr. Teo Dagi, the morning keynote speaker, hit us with the next “wow.”
Someone must have bet Dr. Dagi some serious money that he could not sum up all relevant aspects of the venture capital industry in an hour and a half. He mesmerized the sold-out crowd with a concise, yet vivid account of all things related to venture capital. His presentation ran the gambit from the history and structure of the industry (dating back to silk trading in Constantinople) to key things to understand as an investor or entrepreneur in a deal. Afterward, the crowd was abuzz about what they had just seen. I did not, however, see anybody pay up on the bet.

The next events, panel discussions on the Idea-to-IPO Process and Investing in the Post-Nasdaq Crash Economy, were structured to mix people of varied experience and perspective in an intellectual debate about the entrepreneurship and venture capital processes. Panelists included intellectual property lawyers, venture capitalists, the leader of a business incubator, and successful and budding Cornellian entrepreneurs. The resulting discussion brought out some spirited rebuttals and more than a few nuggets of good, practical information. It is always amusing to see lawyers go toe-to-toe with people who want to circumvent the rules (i.e., the stereotypical entrepreneur).

Howard Lee of Crystal Internet Ventures, the afternoon keynote speaker, capped our event with a vision of how the Internet will affect our lives and the business environment in the coming years. According to Dr. Lee, the Internet is sort of like The Blob out of the B-movies. There is no escape. The real business opportunities are in the necessary infrastructure, not necessarily the content.

By all accounts the symposium was a hit. Based on the positive response we received this year and feedback from those who could not get tickets, the Symposium will be back next year with a larger venue, an extended agenda, and more available tickets. Contact the Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Club in the future for more information.

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