Now that the US economy appears to be emerging from a recession that featured a severe credit crunch, is financing more readily available for early to growth stage technology companies in Southern California? This blue ribbon Financing Panel will review the strong evidence that financing is increasingly available, and will focus on what companies are most likely to benefit. Southern California Technology Companies have evolved to face the capital shortage of the past year. New investors are entering the marketplace as prior players exit. Funding for growth or an acquisition: what are the differences? How do you navigate this environment? What are the best financing strategies? What can you do to be a more attractive target for funding? What about after the funding?

These issues will be addressed by a Panel that includes a private equity manager, a growth stage venture capitalist and an angel investor, as well as a bridge fund, an investment banker and a technology commercial lender, all of whom are active in this current market. Come see how things have changed and what’s coming down the road. This will be an interactive panel with opportunity for discussion, so please come prepared to ask questions and discuss ideas. 

Speakers: 

• James Andelman, General Partner of Rincon Ventures (Growth Stage VC)
• Jeff Carmody, Managing Director of Agility Capital Partners (Bridge Funding)
• Peter Cowen, Senior Partner of Groundwork Equity (Angel Stage)
• Stephen Hughes, Senior Relationship Manager of Silicon Valley Bank (Lender)
• Alain Rothstein, Principal of Vicente Capital Partners (Private Equity Fund)

Moderator:

• Jamie Somes, Managing Partner of Angeles Capital Partners, LLC

Speaker Bios: 

Jim Andelman - Rincon Venture Partners

Jim Andelman is co-founder and General Partner of Rincon Venture Partners.  Rincon is an early stage venture capital firm focused on software and web-based businesses in Southern California with proven revenue models and capital-efficient operating plans. Jim has more than fifteen years of experience in venture capital investing, technology investment banking and advisory services and strategic business consulting. Before founding Rincon, he led software investing for Broadview Capital Partners, a $250 million expansion-stage venture capital firm in the Bay Area, and was a member of the Technology Investment Banking Group at Alex. Brown & Sons.

Jim serves on the Boards of Directors of Brickfish, Campus Explorer, Digital Performance and Iconix Video. He previously served on the Boards of Cadforce (acquired by Neilsoft) and Packet Island (acquired by BroadSoft).  Jim received an MBA (1st in his class) from the Tuck School at Dartmouth and a BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (magna cum laude). www.rinconvp.com

Jeff Carmody - Agility Capital

Jeff Carmody has an extensive background in venture debt financing through his years of experience at Sand Hill Capital and his current managing role at Agility Capital.   He is an active member of the business finance community of Southern California through his associations and active networking. He is a graduate of UCSB.

Jeff co-chairs the South Coast Business & Technology Awards Dinner celebrating technology companies and benefiting the Santa Barbara Scholarship Foundation.  He also judges the Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Greater Los Angeles area.  Jeff has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Coast MIT Enterprise Forum, chaired the Advisory Committee for the Technology Council for the Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce, and was a member of the Central Coast Venture Forum Steering Committee.  He was also a founding board member of the Westlake Village/Santa Barbara Chapter of the Tech Coast Angels.   He is a frequent lecturer and advisor to many emerging growth companies on strategies for successful debt, angel and venture capital investing and is a panelist at many business plan competitions. 

Peter Cowen - GroundWork Equity, LLC

Peter Cowen is a Senior Partner of GroundWork Equity, LLC. He specializes in assisting local emerging technology and scalable service companies. During his career, he has advised more than 200 startups, helped raise over $150 million for early stage businesses, taken executive operating positions, hired key executives, advisors and board members, found investors for these ventures and negotiated exits. He also held sales and marketing positions with HP and Unilever. 

Named by the Los Angeles Business Journal as one of the top 25 angel investors in Los Angeles, Mr. Cowen has invested in more than 30 companies and served on over a dozen Boards of Directors. He was one of the first members of the Tech Coast Angels in Los Angeles.  He is currently on the board of directors of the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Business (AGSM) Alumni and joined the UCLA AGSM faculty on a part time basis starting in the summer of 2008. Mr. Cowen has an MBA in finance from UCLA AGSM and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Stephen Hughes – Silicon Valley Bank

Stephen Hughes is a Senior Relationship Manager for Silicon Valley Bank based in Los Angeles. Mr. Hughes leads SVB Financial Group’s Early Stage team in the region. Prior to joining SVB, Mr. Hughes served as Founder and CFO of a venture-backed software company (How2TV) and Head of Royal Bank of Canada’s US Technology Banking Group. He earned both his MBA and an Honors BA in Business Administration from the Ivey Business School in Canada

Through its 27 domestic offices and operations in England, India, Israel, and China, SVB Financial Group (NASD: SIVB) provides domestic and international commercial banking, investment management, and valuation services to technology companies at all stages of their life cycles – from startup to public. With over 10,000 clients, SVB is the preferred partner for more than half of the venture-backed technology companies in the US.

Alain Rothstein – Vicente Capital Partners

Alain Rothstein has over 10 years of private equity experience. Alain began his career with Interlaken Capital, a middle market buyout firm in Greenwich, CT.  There he focused on companies with revenues ranging from $50 million to $200 million across a variety of industries including specialty chemical manufacturing, financial services and business outsourcing services.  Select investments include Master Protection Corporation, Strategic Distribution (Nasdaq: STRD) and First Marblehead (NYSE: FMD). Prior to Vicente Capital, Alain was a principal at Kline Hawkes & Co. where he led and co-led investments in logistics, healthcare services, residential services and environmental products.  He is a current board member of U.S. Dermatology Medical Management and Rayne Corporation.  His prior board positions include CaseStack, Inc., Certus Corporation and Environmental Services Group.

Alain is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Los Angeles and on the Executive Committee of Wharton Private Equity Partners.  He is also a volunteer and finance committee member for Chrysalis (www.changelives.org), an organization helping local economically disadvantaged and homeless individuals become self-sufficient through employment opportunities.  He is a frequent lecturer and panelist on the subject of private equity.  He earned his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

James D. Somes – Angeles Capital Partners, LLC.

Mr. Somes is the Managing Partner and co-founder of Angeles Capital Partners, LLC. and Managing Partner of Angeles Capital Group, LLC (a FINRA / SiPC broker/dealer). Angeles Capital is the result of the recent combination of Angeles Capital Group with Alexander Dunham Capital Group/Securities.  Angeles Capital is a merchant bank focused on M&A and private equity/debt for emerging growth companies with industry expertise and focus on information technology, software, defense, digital media and gaming. His industry experience includes founding 6 companies in the software and digital media areas. Operational experience includes the restructuring of Liquid Audio (LQID: NASD.NMS) (the first legal digital music and rights management company) as Chairman and Special Committee Chairman and buyout/operation of System Integrators, Inc (a leader in newspaper pre-print publishing software).

He has more than 25 years experience in investment banking, principal investing and leveraged finance and has originated, structured and placed private equity, leveraged acquisition, mezzanine, project finance and international merchant banking transactions amounting to over $6 billion.   Previously, Mr. Somes was at Security Pacific Business Credit where he was the West Coast manager for the company’s $80 million mezzanine debt fund.  Prior to that, he was Vice President of Citicorp Leveraged Capital and with Citicorp International Limited/Asia Pacific Capital Corp., Citicorp’s Hong Kong-based Asia/Pacific Merchant Bank.  Mr. Somes received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Tufts University and his MBA/MSUP from Columbia University.