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Angel Pitch Events
Present your start-up company to early stage investors. All Duke alumni, students, staff, faculty, parents, and invited guests, are welcome to attend these events.
posted Mar 26, 2013, 1:32 PM by Howie Rhee
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updated
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Over 40 Duke startups have applied to pitch at the 7th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event!
You're invited! Attend our 7th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event in San Francisco. The DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event is a great event for learning about entrepreneurship, seeing the latest Duke startups, and meeting other entrepreneurial Dukies. We select six startups founded by Dukies to pitch to a panel of Duke investors. See our blog posts summarizing past events: 2011 in NYC, 2011 in San Francisco, and 2010 in NYC.
posted Aug 30, 2012, 1:18 PM by Howie Rhee
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updated Nov 9, 2012, 1:39 PM
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Over 40 Duke startups have applied to pitch at the 6th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event!
Want to attend? You're invited! Attend our 6th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event in New York City. The DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event is a great event for learning about entrepreneurship, seeing the latest Duke startups, and meeting other entrepreneurial Dukies. We select six startups founded by Dukies to pitch to a panel of Duke investors. See our blog posts summarizing past events: 2011 in NYC, 2011 in San Francisco, and 2010 in NYC.
This event will be held on November 13, 2012 from 6:00-9:00pm at Google's Offices in Manhattan (111 8th Avenue, Water Tower Cafe, 5th Floor). Space is limited and an RSVP is required.
posted Mar 12, 2012, 8:06 AM by Howie Rhee
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updated Jun 5, 2012, 1:49 PM
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You're invited! Attend our 5th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event in San Francisco. The DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event is a great event for learning about entrepreneurship, seeing the latest Duke startups, and meeting other entrepreneurial Dukies. We select six startups founded by Dukies to pitch to a panel of Duke investors. See our blog posts summarizing past events: 2011 in NYC, 2011 in San Francisco, and
2010 in NYC.
posted Jul 18, 2011, 2:23 PM by Howie Rhee
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updated Oct 5, 2011, 7:05 AM
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You're invited to attend the 4th DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event in New York City on October 12th, 2011!
The DukeGEN Angel Pitch Event let's selected Duke startups pitch to a panel of investors. This year we had 38 teams apply and we've selected the top 6 teams to present. Come to this great event, network with other Dukies and hear some great pitches. See our blog posts summarizing past events (2010 event in NYC and 2011 event in San Francisco).
posted Feb 17, 2011, 5:54 PM by Michael S. Cann Jr.
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updated Jun 1, 2011, 5:25 PM by Howie Rhee
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DukeGEN is hosting its third Angel Pitch Event. We received 50 applications from startups founded by Duke alumni and students, and have selected seven of the startups to pitch at our event on June 1st at RocketSpace in San Francisco. All Duke alumni, students, faculty, parents and invited guests are welcome to attend this free event.
This video shows three of the presentations given by Duke founders at our early stage investor event at Dogpatch Labs in SF last year and should provide a sense of the format of the event for those who were unable to attend.
The investor panel includes the following individuals, who have built and sold companies for $1.4B:
Jim Scheinman T '88 of Maven Ventures, his early stage investment fund. With over 15 years experience, Jim is a serial entrepreneur, angel
investor, and adviser to consumer internet and mobile start-ups. He is a
pioneer in social networking and engagement
marketing. Jim is best known for his role as employee number one
at Bebo, the third largest social network when it was
acquired by AOL in early 2008 for $850M. He was also the first business
employee
at Friendster. Maven Ventures was the first investor in Social Gold
which sold to Google in 2010 & is currently an investor/adviser at
Tango, the leading mobile video call platform; and PageOnce, the leading
mobile personal finance app.
Josh Felser T '86, B '90 of Freestyle Capital, an early stage venture capital fund designed to fill the void between retreating angels and venture capitalists moving into later stage investments. Josh
is a seed investor and serial entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of
Freestyle Capital, Spinner (first Internet music
service, sold to AOL for $320mm), Grouper/Crackle (video sharing
service, sold to Sony for $65mm) & FYILiving.com (health
information, launched in April 2010). He is also on the board of Duke's
Center for Entrepreneurship.
Ryan Spoon T '03 of Polaris Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in seed and early stage investments in companies engaged in the information technology and life sciences sectors. Ryan was the founder of beRecruited, the nation's number one online networking destination for high school student-athletes seeking recruitment from college coaches and universities. beRecruited was acquired in 2007. Ryan worked for four years at eBay where he focused on user acquisition and launched and ran Kijiji (eBay's U.S. classified advertisements site). He also served as VP of Marketing at Widgetbox, a widget distribution platform.
Aaron Patzer E '02, founder and CEO of Mint, a free, simple, and secure personal finance web application which consolidates your financial life in one place. Aaron became the Vice President and General Manager of the Personal Finance Group at Intuit when that company acquired Mint.com for US$170M in November 2009. Prior to Mint, Aaron was a Lead Architect as Nascentric and the technical lead of the San Jose office. Aaron was selected by Fortune Magazine to the Top 40 Entrepreneurs Under 40 in 2009 and Money Magazine named him as one of the top 8 Money Heroes of 2008. He has twelve patents issued or pending to his name.
As with last year, the winning teams will be connected with "super angels" in Silicon Valley (thanks to Josh Felser).
Several of the companies which presented at last year's event have made significant progress since then. RefYo, co-founded by Ed Spiegel E '99 and Kevin Lochner E '99 has tripled its revenues and turned down funding offers in favor of growing organically. CoverHound, founded by Basil Enan T '03, has signed contracts with eight major auto insurance providers and recently joined the most recent AngelPad class. Zipongo (fka FitNet), founded by Dr. Jason Langheier M '09, is in the process of closing an angel round, which includes some prominent investors from the valley.
DukeGEN is hosting an event for Duke founders of "consumer internet" & "online media" ventures to present their business concepts to a panel of sophisticated early stage investors and venture capitalists.
This event will be held on Tuesday, October 19th from 6:30-9:00pm in New York City at Dogpatch Labs at 36 East 12th Street, 2nd floor, NYC. This event is open to the entire Duke community and may be of particular interest to:
Entrepreneurs who seek funding for their ventures;
Angel investors and venture capitalists looking for new investment opportunities; and
Duke alumni who desire to develop contacts with other Blue Devils involved with new venture creation.
Our investor panel includes:
Chris Fralic of First Round Capital (thanks to Josh Felser T'86, B '90 for the introduction)
posted Aug 3, 2010, 10:56 AM by Howard Rhee
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updated Mar 17, 2011, 12:44 PM by Howie Rhee
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DukeGEN hosted an event for the entire Duke community during which eight Duke founders of non-enterprise Internet businesses or consumer mobile application services, platforms, or applications presented their business concepts to a distinguished panel of Duke angel investors and early stage venture capitalists. Our panelists have built and sold companies for a total of $1.4B. Future DukeGEN events may focus on different industries.
This event was held on Wednesday, May 12th from 6-8:30pm in San Francisco at Dogpatch Labs (Pier 38, The Embarcadero). See map at the bottom of the page.
Jim Scheinman T '88 of Maven Ventures, his early stage investment fund. Jim is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and advisor to start-up companies. He is a pioneer in social networking and engagement marketing, the predominant source of revenue for online social networks. Jim is best known for his role as employee number one at Bebo, the third largest social network in the world when it was acquired by AOL in early 2008 for $850M. He was also an early employee at Friendster. Jim is currently the COO/CMO of PageOnce, the leading smartphone personal information management company.
Josh Felser T '86, B '90 of Freestyle Capital, an early stage venture capital fund designed to fill the void between retreating angels and venture capitalists moving into later stage investments. Josh is best known as a co-founder and the President of Spinner, the first multi-channel Internet radio service which was acquired by AOL for $320M. He was also a co-founder and the CEO of Grouper/Crackle, one of the first Internet video networks. Grouper/Crackle was acquired by Sony Pictures for $65M. In December 2009, Josh and several others launched The Start Project, an incubator.
Aaron Patzer E '02, founder and CEO of Mint a free, simple, and secure personal finance web application which consolidates your financial life in one place. Aaron became the Vice President and General Manager of the Personal Finance Group atIntuit when that company acquired Mint.com for US$170M in November 2009. Prior to Mint, Aaron was a Lead Architect at Nascentric and the technical lead of the San Jose office. Aaron was selected by Fortune Magazine to the Top 40 Entrepreneurs Under 40 in 2009 and Money Magazine named him as one of the top 8 Money Heroes of 2008. He has twelve patents issued or pending to his name.
Ryan Spoon T '03 of Polaris Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in seed and early stage investments in companies engaged in the information technology and life sciences sectors. Ryan was the founder of beRecruited, the nation’s No. 1 online networking destination for high school student-athletes seeking recruitment from college coaches and universities. beRecruited was acquired in 2007. Ryan worked for four years at eBay where he focused on user acquisition and launched and ran Kijiji (eBay's U.S. classified advertisements site). He also served as VP of Marketing at Widgetbox, a widget distribution platform.
Dogpatch Labs
Dogpatch Labs is located on the second floor at Pier 38 show above from Google Street View. Head into the alley, enter by the first door on the right and follow the DukeGEN signs to the top of the stairs to Dogpatch Labs.