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Speakers:
Sam Colella,
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Versant Ventures
Ram Shriram,
Founder, Sherpalo Ventures
Moderator:
Geoffrey Yang,
Managing Director, Redpoint Ventures
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In the first quarter of 2006, venture-capital and private-equity fundraising increased 18 percent over the same period in 2005, according to the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Venture Economics. While technology and life sciences garner much of this capital, the landscape within the sectors is changing. Life sciences, which accounted for 28 percent of 2005's VC investments, is shifting from biotech - down $29M in 2005 from 2004 - toward medical devices - up $4M in 2005 from 2004.
Our distinguished panel of venture-capital luminaries will explore which technology and life science sectors are hot this year and which sectors to avoid. Is China a bubble or the first wave of an important trend? What life is left in Internet investments? Hear their insights on the new role angel investors will play in today's market and how to measure private-company valuations.
Sam Colella is a highly respected venture capitalist recognized for his leadership in life sciences investing. Over the course of his career, Mr. Colella has acquired more than 20 years of successful operating experience in the high technology industry and more than 20 years of investing experience in the healthcare sector. He is credited with an extensive list of successful public life science companies and is currently a director of Alexza Pharmaceuticals, 5AM, Genomic Health Inc., Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Alavita, and Symyx, and is Chairman of Fluidigm and Thermage.
Ram Shriram started Sherpalo Ventures in January, 2000, with the goal of applying his wealth of operating and company building experience to promising early stage ventures. He is a founding board member of Google Inc. and 247customer.com, serves on the boards of Plaxo, Zazzle.com, PodShow and Business Signatures and has been featured on the Forbes Midas List for several years. Prior to founding Sherpalo, Ram served as an officer of Amazon.com when Amazon acquired Junglee and prior to that was a member of the Netscape executive team.
Geoff Yang is a founding partner of Redpoint Ventures, where he emphasizes investments in systems and consumer media. He was responsible for the firm's investments in Ask Jeeves, Excite, Foundry Networks, Juniper Networks, MMC Networks, TiVo and Wellfleet, and serves on numerous boards including Ask Jeeves, TiVo, Azul Systems, BigBand Networks, Calix, Caymas Systems, Efficient Frontier, MySpace, JotSpot and Oodle. In addition, Geoff was founding director or previously led many investments including Agile Networks, Centillion, and Whitetree.
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