Managing Startup Programmers
Class
Wednesday, March 15, 8:30am - 10:00am
Speaker: Joe Marasco
Once you get beyond the founding team of programmers, putting together a high-trust environment is crucial to any startup. We discuss several aspects of this dynamic: the role of politics in technical organizations, the proven ways to successfully communicate with programmers, getting sign-up, and creating a success-oriented culture. Although there is no one recipe for managing the different kinds of teams that inhabit startups, it is a fallacy to believe that there are no rules at all. We provide guidelines to help talented software developers manage their teams of startup programmers in getting their products out the door.

Capturing the Vision & Developing the Plan
Class
Wednesday, March 15, 10:30am - 12:00pm
Moderator: Rosemary Remacle
Panelists: Mark Jensen, J. Peter Herz, Jackie Kimsey
The purpose of this session is to help engineers who are thinking of launching a startup get a handle on really what they've got - an idea, a feature, a product, or a business? This session will feature a panel of serial entrepreneurs and VCs with software experience who will lead the audience through a series of evaluations critical to success, including "Does your idea pass the "So What?" test?", "Is it a critical need of a nice to have?", and what do you do if you've uncovered a whole new industry but no-one believes you? (think Yahoo)

Have I Got What it Takes to be a Successful Entrepreneur
Class
Wednesday, March 15, 1:45pm - 3:15pm
Moderator: Chris Gill
Panelists: Bill Reichert, Peter Yared, John Occhipinti
Once you get beyond the founding team of programmers, putting together a high-trust environment is crucial to any startup. We discuss several aspects of this dynamic: the role of politics in technical organizations, the proven ways to successfully communicate with programmers, getting sign-up, and creating a success-oriented culture. Although there is no one recipe for managing the different kinds of teams that inhabit startups, it is a fallacy to believe that there are no rules at all. We provide guidelines to help talented software developers manage their teams of startup programmers in getting their products out the door.

Startups - Risks versus Consequences
Class
Wednesday, March 15, 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Moderator: Jim Chapman
Panelists: Konstantin Othmer, Robert Rositano
The purpose of this session is to help engineers who are thinking of launching a startup get a handle on the risks, and consequences, of launching a startup company. This session will feature a panel of serial entrepreneurs and VCs with software experience who will lead the audience through a series of evaluations of risks versus consequences including "Just how risky is launching a startup company?" , "Are you fishing in a big enough pond?" , "What sort of business entity should I choose?", and "Should I leave my day job?"

Creating a Winning Founding Team
Class
Thursday, March 16, 8:30am - 10:00am
Moderator: Laura Roden
Panelists: Dee DiPietro, Jef Graham, Fred Greguras, Max Shapiro
The purpose of this session is to help engineers who are thinking of launching a startup get a handle on the importance of the founding team, and how to put one together. This session will feature a panel of serial entrepreneurs and VCs with software experience who will lead the audience through a series of evaluations of evaluations critical for building a successful founding team, including "Just how important is the founding team?", "What sort of people should I look for?", "Where do I find these people?" and "How do I pay them?"

Funding your Startup - Bootstrap versus Venture Capital
Class
Thursday, March 16, 10:30am - 12:00pm
Moderator: Joe Becker
Panelists: Ken Brenner, Peter Dumanian, Ken Toren
The purpose of this session is to help engineers who are thinking of launching a startup get a handle on the pros and cons of Bootstrapping a startup by generating early sales versus raising Venture Capital. This session will feature a panel of serial entrepreneurs and VCs with software experience who will lead the audience through a series of evaluations critical for understanding Bootstrapping versus raising Venture Capital, including "How can I tell if my idea is fundable?" , "How and when can I expect to raise venture capital from Angels or VCs?" , "What are the advantages and downsides of bootstrapping instead?" , "Are there alternative sources of funding I can leverage?"

Open Source and the Entrepreneur
Class
Thursday, March 16, 1:45pm - 3:15pm
Speaker: William Weinberg
Open Source and the Entrepreneur Open Source is increasingly playing a key role in the business and technology mix available to both start-ups and to mature companies. To realize maximum benefit from this worldwide movement, it is imperative that entrepreneurs comprehend the Open Source development model, licenses used to distribute Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and the rights and obligations that accompany those licenses, and modes of doing business with and around Open Source, This presentation will offer attendees an essential understanding of FOSS development and community practices, describe prevailing Open Source software licenses and best practices for working with them, and provide entrepreneurs with recipes for adding Open Source to their business strategies.

Startups, Lessons from the Field
Class
Thursday, March 16, 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Speakers: Dejan Nenov & Ross Wheeler
Launching a software startup is the ultimate balancing act. The entrepreneur must carefully time the shift of focus on funding, product building, recruiting, marketing and selling. Defining "startup success" unambiguously is critical and often means stating an exit criteria  in other word are you going to build your company as an acquisition target or do you crave the IPO limelight? Or maybe you are doing this for the sake of being your own boss, or even as a social engagement for your peers? This presentation will discuss the pros and cons of these software entrepreneurial archetypes and attempts to share front-line experience, success, failures, dos and don ts in their context. Intended to be interactive, this session will ask the questions: Who are the first and last people you should be hiring? Does "stealth mode" make sense? What is the role of product management and program management in a software startup? When do you need a separate CTO and VP Engineering? When do you need a "development process"?

Presenting to a Venture Capitalist: A Guideline
Class
Friday, March 17, 8:30am - 10:00am
Speaker: Tim Connors
This session covers the presentation guidelines to follow when you need to present your company to a venture capitalist. What are the important topics for the presentation? What should the flow look like? How many slides should you use and how long should the presentation be? Do you need a business plan? While the focus will be on a venture capitalist presentation, you should be able to use the lessons taught in the class for any investor presentation.

Software Patents
Class
Friday, March 17, 10:30am - 12:00pm
Speakers: Dennis S. Fernandez & Heather Meeker
In this panel discussion, legal representatives from several leading software companies and the open source community discuss the merits of software patents. We'll briefly cover the GPL and its effect. Learn what's involved in filing a software patent. Also discussed are current topics in software law including patents covering open source software.

Private Company Exit Strategies
Class
Friday, March 17, 1:45pm - 3:15pm
Speaker: Brian Flynn
At some point in a successful private company's lifetime, you will have the opportunity to "exit" or sell your company. In this talk, we cover the myriad of options available to the entrepreneur. We'll go over the current technology M&A environment and trends. We'll discuss what the buyers are looking for. When an offer occurs, how can you prepare for it? If you're ready to sell, what options do you have?

Offshoring: Pro's and Con's
Class
Friday, March 17, 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Speaker: Jeff Goodwin
This session discusses the benefits and the issues involved with off-shoring. Where should you offshore? Popular countries are compared including India and China. What are the real cost benefits? Entrepreneurs will discuss when it does and does not make sense to move development or testing off-shore with real world examples.