During this half day conference at Cooley LLP's New York office, leading industry experts will discuss fundamentally new approaches to funding for concepts, prototypes and finished products. Hear and see first hand the innovative funding solutions developers, content creators, and entrepreneurs can use.

Use hashtag #PFIN before, during and after the event to ask questions and give comments.

This event is nearly sold out, On-site Registration Tickets will not be available.

Who Should Attend

Developers and Content Creators: smartphone application developers, games developers, entrepreneurs, writers, film makers who are looking for new and innovative ways to finance their projects.

What You'll Learn

• How entrepreneurs are funding their ideas, projects and ventures through peer-to-peer financing
• What new platforms have been created to connect ideas with money
• How new tools like PayPal adaptive payments are revolutionizing how money can travel seamlessly from peer-to-peer
• Why your venture may never need venture financing
• How funders are looking for ways to share risk and are interested in meeting the next generation of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial financing

Agenda

Available Alternatives to Traditional Funding

What are the options for funding? Incubators, mentors and more. This session will discuss the new ideas that are driving the next generation of financing. We’ll discuss crowd funding and the ways that businesses are getting from a good concept to a successful business. As part of our discussion, one of the top law firms for entrepreneurs, Cooley Godward will help sift through what works and what doesn’t.

Moderator:
Nathan Beckord - Founder and Principal, VentureArchetypes

Nathan Beckord has been consulting to startups for over 10 years. As Founder and Principal of VentureArchetypes, he has worked with more than 100 companies across a broad range of industries-- from software, SaaS, and social media, to mobile/wireless, entertainment, and consumer products. His startup clients have collectively raised more than $88 million in seed, Series A, and Series B financing. He has also served in interim CFO and Business Development roles, and helped several firms structure key strategic partnerships with Fortune 500 companies.

Speakers:

Lewis Gersh - Managing Partner, Metamorphic Ventures

Lewis Gersh is a Managing Partner at Metamorphic Ventures which focuses on very early stage companies in digital media and transaction processing technologies. Metamorphic Ventures has 11 active portfolio companies that range from pre-revenue up to $50MM+ annualized.

Prior to Metamorphic, Lewis founded Worldly Information Network, which created and provided investment information to both the retail and institutional markets and the associated online advertising inventory on the largest portals at the time.

Yao-Hui Huang - Co-Founder and Managing Director, The Hatchery

Yao-Hui Huang is a highly entrepreneurial executive who works with businesses and startups in many industries with a focus on technology, helping them to grow their organizations in a market-smart and cost-effective way. Yao has started and run several companies in the technology, digital media, and venture space.

She is a cofounder and Managing Director of The Hatchery, a venture collaboration organization with international reach bridging the gap between entrepreneurs and investors through resources, advisory, funding and building communities. She has had multiple successes as an entrepreneur and supports other companies in advisory and C level management roles. With greater and greater needs and access by entrepreneurs, The Hatchery was found.

Dr. Huang started with an extensive career in pharmaceutical sciences including Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth, and Merck. She transitioned out of the healthcare industry to follow the opportunities in technology by founding Gigapixel Creative, an award winning interactive agency focused on strategy, design, and development and often approached for finding software solutions for analog processes and revenue streams for companies who wish to capitalize on potential of digital media and internet platforms.

Eric Tobias - Special Counsel, Technology Transactions, Cooley LLP

Eric Tobias is Special Counsel in the Technology Transactions practice group and a member of Cooley LLP's Business department. He joined the Firm in 2009 and is resident in the Reston, Virginia office. Eric’s practice focuses primarily on online media and technology related transactions including matters related to the sale of online advertising and sponsorships, marketing agreements, content and software licensing, distribution arrangements, product development, electronic commerce, outsourcing, and strategic relationships.

In the 10 years prior to joining Cooley, Eric held senior legal positions at online media and technology companies. Eric was responsible for media and technology issues, including privacy at Everyday Health, the operator of the largest advertising network of health, diet and fitness websites. As General Counsel at e-Security, a software company in the security space, he helped engineer the sale of the company. At MicroStrategy, Eric was responsible for technology and media matters associated with MicroStrategy’s internet subsidiary, Strategy.com. Eric’s experience as in-house counsel allows him to provide practical legal advice that helps his clients balance legal risks and business benefits. Eric was formerly an associate in the Washington, DC based law firm now known as DowLohnes. Prior to attending law school, Eric was a book editor at Simon & Schuster in New York where he published a number of national bestsellers.

David Kuchar - Co-Founder and CTO, LendFriend

David Kuchar has been a software architect and entrepreneur for the last decade. In his most recent role, he is the Co-Founder and CTO of LendFriend peer to peer lending service provider which targets friends and family.

David successfully bootstrapped his first company, ASPNetMedia, using a combination of savings, personal loans, and credit card debt. This process led him to conceive LendFriend, whose aim is to make borrowing and lending money between friends and family a simple and positive experience for all involved.

Marinell Montales - Founder, Ventriloqui Marketing

Marinell Montales worked alongside writer and director John T. Trigonis during the fundraising campaign for John's short film Cerise on IndieGoGo. A collaborative way to fund ideas, IndieGoGo launched in 2008 to provide any idea (creative, cause or entrepreneurial) the tools and process to raise money, offer perks and keep 100% ownership. IndieGoGo is in over 100 countries with over 3,500 projects. Ms. Montales devised the strategies and tactics producers employed to build their fan base and reach influencers who eventually became advocates and funders of the project.

The Future of the API: PayPal X

PayPal has just released its new APIs which are driving innovation in financing. The guys who work directly with the new APIs will be on hand to show you what you can do with the hot new tools. It will also be your chance to let them know what you need to succeed.

Speaker:
Praveen Alavilli - Developer Evangelist, PayPal Developer Network

Praveen Alavilli is the developer evangelist for the PayPal X Developer Network helping developers to monetize their ideas and applications using PayPal Payments Platform. Prior to PayPal, Praveen worked at Amazon.com and AOL as a System Architect designing and building Web Authentication and Identity systems. Praveen is an active member of several Internet Identity communities like OpenID and OAuth.

The Future of Peer Financing

What’s down the road? What are the emerging trends for startup financing. We’ll have a lively and informative panel discussion on what you can expect for funding your business from start to success. Learn from the people who are leading the charge how your business can be a breakout success using the leading edge ideas that are reshaping financing.

Moderator:
Trevor Cornwell - Founder and CEO, Embarkons

Trevor Cornwell specializes in launching and growing technology-based businesses that leverage the Internet to deliver content and streamline customer offerings. His current enterprise is Embarkons, the social information exchange for projects, now in beta. In 1997, he founded the business jet reservation network, Skyjet after determining technology would create market efficiencies for aggregating charter aircraft inventory. In 1998, he launched the first real-time booking engine for the charter jet industry. His company was acquired by Montreal-based Bombardier Aerospace in July 2000, and experienced 50 times growth in revenue from when it was acquired.

He has also previously started several media companies in emerging markets, including CET Online, an early pioneer in Internet-distributed news. Most recently, he developed video personalization software that produces customized video streams based on viewer behavior. He is a regular speaker at business conferences and forums, and is currently active with SVASE (Silicon Valley Association of Start-up Entrepreneurs) and Agile Entrepreneurs (by invitation-only group of technology startup founders in the San Francisco/Bay Area).

Speakers:

Jouko Ahvenainen - Co-Founder, Grow VC

Jouko Ahvenainen is serial-entrepreneur, e.g. co-founder of Grow VC, the first global peer-to-peer micro-funding service for startups, and Rate Cards Inc, print media ad network. He also co-founded Xtract, the world first social network analytics company. Before his serial entrepreneur career Jouko held senior positions at diverse technology firms including Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Powerwave Technologies Inc., Nokia, and Sonera in various sales, managerial and management consulting positions. In all roles he has been a key driver to create new business. He is one of the pioneers in social media marketing, and personally had significant role to develop and sell the first social marketing intelligence solutions for mobile and media companies. He has also traditional marketing experience, starting from some well known political campaigns in mid 90's. Jouko has vast experience of international business in Asia, Europe, and North America; he has lived and worked in Finland, Malaysia, UK, and the US, and run business in Hong Kong.

Jason Korosec - General Manager, PayPal Platform

Jason Korosec is the GM for the PayPal platform product team. In his role, Jason applies his extensive payments, identity, and business launch experience to PayPal, by selecting the services, features and functions that will enable developers to create cool applications. When he is not busy at PayPal, he spends his time teaching payments at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, and at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala.

Bo Yaghmaie - Partner, Cooley Business Group, Cooley LLP

Babak (Bo) Yaghmaie is a partner in the Cooley Business department and a member of the Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practice groups. He joined the Firm in 2009 and is resident in the New York and Palo Alto offices. Mr. Yaghmaie is the head of the New York Business Technology Group.

Mr. Yaghmaie's practice entails the representation of private and publicly-held emerging growth high technology and life science companies, leading investment banks and venture capital funds, with a particular focus on private placements and venture financings, public offerings of equity securities, and mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Yaghmaie has been involved in many of the leading corporate and financing technology transactions in the New York area, and regularly represents numerous venture-backed companies and venture capital funds. Mr. Yaghmaie was recognized in both 2008 and 2009 by Chambers USA as one of "America's Leading Lawyers," was top-ranked in 2009 by Legal 500 and has been selected as a New York Super Lawyer. Mr. Yaghmaie has represented both issuers and underwriters in public offerings by venture-backed issuers across a variety of industries, including public offerings by Albany Molecular Research, Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Best Software, Emcore, Globix, GoldLeaf Financial Solutions, Hologic, IDX, Innovasive Devices, Knight/Trimark, Media Metrix, MediciNova, Myriad Genetics, Predictive Systems, Progen Pharmaceuticals, StarMedia, Technitrol, Tellium and Trimeris.

Mr. Yaghmaie has also served as counsel to many leading investment banks, including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Friedman Billings Ramsey, Goldman Sachs, Hambrecht & Quist, Morgan Stanley, Robertson Stephens, Cowen & Company and Thomas Weisel Partners. Mr. Yaghmaie has been named among the Top 100 IPO Lawyers in the United States.

Mr. Yaghmaie is a faculty member of the Practicing Law Institute. His topics of instruction include venture capital, securities laws, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Yaghmaie has authored chapters in the Securities Filings volume entitled, "Compliance with the Securities Act in the Acquisition Context and in the Venture Capital: Nuts and Bolts volume entitled, "Venture-backed Company Structures 101: Basic Issues to Consider." Mr. Yaghmaie serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Venture Capital Association.

Mr. Yaghmaie also is amongst the authors of the widely used book, Venture Capital & Public Offering Negotiation, published by Aspen Law & Business. He is a senior contributing editor of VC Experts' Venture Capital Encyclopedia.

Vladimir Milutin - Senior Director of Worldwide Strategy and Market Development, Joyent

Vladimir Milutin is Senior Director of Worldwide Strategy and Market Development at Joyent and has been marketing and selling cloud services since 2003. As an expert in the areas of Electronic Data Archiving, Risk Management, eDiscovery, Internal Investigations and ILM, Vlad is focused on the intersection of the Financial Services industry and the Cloud.

Ram Lakshmanan - Founder, chittai

Ram Lakshmanan is the founder of chittai, first online platform to run Chit Funds. Chit Funds is a 1000 years old financial instrument, that is used for lending & saving by millions of people in several developing countries.

Before founding Chittai, Ram Lakshmanan was a software architect for a major financial bank in U.S., where he developed several mission critical applications. He has also developed several successful open source products.

Ask Cooley LLP

You've got questions. They've got answers. So grab a sandwich and ask away. Bo Yaghmaie, head of the New York Business Technology Group at Cooley and Eric Tobias, Special Counsel in the Technology Transactions practice group will be able to address the questions that you have about getting your business into gear the right away. Whether your growing fast or just getting started, this is the place to get the key legal questions you have answered. And you'll also be able to hear what's on the mind of your peers.

Speakers:

Bo Yaghmaie - Partner, Cooley Business Group, Cooley LLP

Babak (Bo) Yaghmaie is a partner in the Cooley Business department and a member of the Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practice groups. He joined the Firm in 2009 and is resident in the New York and Palo Alto offices. Mr. Yaghmaie is the head of the New York Business Technology Group.

Mr. Yaghmaie's practice entails the representation of private and publicly-held emerging growth high technology and life science companies, leading investment banks and venture capital funds, with a particular focus on private placements and venture financings, public offerings of equity securities, and mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Yaghmaie has been involved in many of the leading corporate and financing technology transactions in the New York area, and regularly represents numerous venture-backed companies and venture capital funds. Mr. Yaghmaie was recognized in both 2008 and 2009 by Chambers USA as one of "America's Leading Lawyers," was top-ranked in 2009 by Legal 500 and has been selected as a New York Super Lawyer. Mr. Yaghmaie has represented both issuers and underwriters in public offerings by venture-backed issuers across a variety of industries, including public offerings by Albany Molecular Research, Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Best Software, Emcore, Globix, GoldLeaf Financial Solutions, Hologic, IDX, Innovasive Devices, Knight/Trimark, Media Metrix, MediciNova, Myriad Genetics, Predictive Systems, Progen Pharmaceuticals, StarMedia, Technitrol, Tellium and Trimeris.

Mr. Yaghmaie has also served as counsel to many leading investment banks, including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Friedman Billings Ramsey, Goldman Sachs, Hambrecht & Quist, Morgan Stanley, Robertson Stephens, Cowen & Company and Thomas Weisel Partners. Mr. Yaghmaie has been named among the Top 100 IPO Lawyers in the United States.

Mr. Yaghmaie is a faculty member of the Practicing Law Institute. His topics of instruction include venture capital, securities laws, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Yaghmaie has authored chapters in the Securities Filings volume entitled, "Compliance with the Securities Act in the Acquisition Context and in the Venture Capital: Nuts and Bolts volume entitled, "Venture-backed Company Structures 101: Basic Issues to Consider." Mr. Yaghmaie serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Venture Capital Association.

Mr. Yaghmaie also is amongst the authors of the widely used book, Venture Capital & Public Offering Negotiation, published by Aspen Law & Business. He is a senior contributing editor of VC Experts' Venture Capital Encyclopedia.

Eric Tobias - Special Counsel, Technology Transactions, Cooley LLP

Eric Tobias is Special Counsel in the Technology Transactions practice group and a member of Cooley LLP's Business department. He joined the Firm in 2009 and is resident in the Reston, Virginia office. Eric’s practice focuses primarily on online media and technology related transactions including matters related to the sale of online advertising and sponsorships, marketing agreements, content and software licensing, distribution arrangements, product development, electronic commerce, outsourcing, and strategic relationships.

In the 10 years prior to joining Cooley, Eric held senior legal positions at online media and technology companies. Eric was responsible for media and technology issues, including privacy at Everyday Health, the operator of the largest advertising network of health, diet and fitness websites. As General Counsel at e-Security, a software company in the security space, he helped engineer the sale of the company. At MicroStrategy, Eric was responsible for technology and media matters associated with MicroStrategy’s internet subsidiary, Strategy.com. Eric’s experience as in-house counsel allows him to provide practical legal advice that helps his clients balance legal risks and business benefits. Eric was formerly an associate in the Washington, DC based law firm now known as DowLohnes. Prior to attending law school, Eric was a book editor at Simon & Schuster in New York where he published a number of national bestsellers.

The Future of Micro Finance: appbackr

Got an idea for an iPhone app? With appbackr, you will learn how you can finance your app by selling wholesale units—right now! This Digital Wholesale Marketplace is reshaping the way apps get built. There will be a live demonstration to show you how you can go from idea to money in your bank in less than sixty seconds.

Speaker:

Trevor Cornwell - Founder and CEO, Embarkons

Trevor Cornwell is the founder of appbackr which helps people make money with apps.  appbackr won the recent PayPal X Developer's Challenge and was just awarded $50,000 in the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs Seed Competition.  Trevor will show you how the service works; how the PayPalX APIs helped create a platform for the business and how this model can help you.