2008-04-16 - The Princeton Entrepreneur's Network of Boston's Annual Business Plan Competition The Princeton Entrepreneur's Network of Boston is holding its Annual Business Plan Competition at 6:00 pm on Wednesday April 16, 2008 at McCarter & English, LLP (www.mccarter.com). This is an excellent opportunity for enterprising Princetonians and non-Princetonians who wish to bring their ideas to market to connect with and get feedback from seasoned entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other service providers. In response to our request, we received many promising business plans. After much internal review, we have selected the following three for our competition: Ecovolve Energy: an innovative developer of carbon-negative energy technology. FreeGreen: a business to make green design accessible to all home owners. StudentBusiness: a resource that connects student entrepreneurs in the U.S. with resources to help them succeed. To help us our judge the plans, we are pleased to have the following distinguished panelists from Boston's entrepreneur community: Geraldine Alias '00 (Fidelity Ventures) Matthew T. Henshon '91 ( Henshon Parker, LLP) Chris Loose '02 (Stericoat) The three selected business plans will be asked to present a copy of their executive summary to the panelists prior to the program. Public Words (www.publicwords.com) in Boston will provide feedback and presentation guidance to the three selected plans if they so choose. At the reception, the entrepreneurs will make a ten-minute presentation and take comments and questions from the panelists and audience. The following prizes will also be awarded: Legal services equivalent to 50% off a basic incorporation or two hours' of partner time depending upon the client needs from Swiggart & Agin, LLC (www.swiggartagin.com ). One-hour consultation on startup finance, strategy and operations depending upon the client needs from Adz Group (www.adzgroup.com ). Meeting at .406 Ventures (www.406ventures.com ) for an elevator pitch to this venture capital firm. Thank you, Kevin Dutt '93 Bryan Holasek ’83 The Boston Chapter of PrincetonEN is grateful to McCarter & English, LLP for their sponsorship of this event.

2008-01-23 - Guest Speaker: Ranch Kimbal '80 Boston Chapter of PrincetonEN was honored to host Ranch Kimball '80 as he presented "The Secret Behind Rising Healthcare Costs in Massachusetts." Ranch C. Kimball is President and Chief Executive Officer of Joslin Diabetes Center, the world’s largest diabetes research center, diabetes clinic, and provider of diabetes education. As Joslin’s seventh president and first business executive to hold these roles, Kimball sets the strategic direction of the organization and oversees all operations regarding its growth, and is focused on expanding the impact of Joslin on the healthcare epidemic of our time. Previously, Kimball spent 25 years in the private sector helping businesses grow. He ran a private equity firm for Kissinger McLarty Associates and was a partner at Boston Consulting Group, working extensively with technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, media and healthcare companies during his 16-year tenure. His wealth of experience is sure to provide our group with a unique perspective into both the health care industry and how to be successful in growing a business. More information about Ranch can be found at The Joslin's Diabetes Center web-site: http://www.joslin.org/847_1066.asp. The Boston Chapter of PrincetonEN is grateful to McCarter & English, LLP for their sponsorship and hosting of this event.

2007-11-28 - PrincetonEN of Boston Dinner, Officer Elections The Boston Chapter of the Princeton Entrepreneurs' Network met in Bertucci's in Back Bay for a casual dinner and officer elections. The PrincetonEN of Boston used this meeting to elect its new officers and map out upcoming events and vision for the organization.

2007-07-18 - Round Table Meeting to Discuss Entrepreneurship in the Clean Energy Space The Boston Chapter of the Princeton Entrepreneurs\\\' Network met at Bertucci's in Back Bay for our annual entrepreneurs\\\' round table. This year, we were pleased to welcome David Marcus to our meeting, who led us in a discussion about Entrepreneurship in the Clean Energy Space. David provided an exciting and thorough overview of his venture and what challenges and opportunities he faces in the clean energy space. The Bertucci's is located at 39-45 Stanhope St., just off of Clarendon St. in the Back Bay. About our special guest: David Marcus, CEO, General Compression David Marcus has been a wind energy investor since 2002. He is the Managing Partner of Chestnut Capital, which is a partner, investor, or shareholder in several wind energy developers, including Ridgeline, Midwest Renewable, NedPower, Greenlight, Windworks, and the Clean Power Income Fund, and in several wind energy technologies, including Princeton Power, Fallbrook Technologies, and Mechanology. David is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Princeton University, and a founder and former CEO of APEX Property Exchange, a financial services firm founded in 1989 and sold to JPMorgan in 2002. He is a Trustee of the Boston Children’s Museum. David and his wife Julie have three children and live in West Newton, MA.

2007-04-18 - Annual Business Plan Competition The Princeton Entrepreneur's Network of Boston held its Annual Business Plan Competition at 6:00 pm on Wednesday April 18, 2007 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel. Kevin Dutt '93 moderated the well attended meeting. This year's competitors included: Celery, Andrew Gibson, SteriCoat, Joel Forrest Moxley ‘02 & Chris Loose ‘02 and Little by Little, Lawler Kang & Maureen Lantz After each pitch, the presenters received feedback from our panel of experts, which included: Stephen Hallowell of Commonwealth Capital Ventures Lance Kawesch, Esq. of The Kawesch Law Group Eric Emmons ’96 of The Massachusetts Green Energy Fund At the end of the pitches, our panelists voted and select SteriCoat to be this year's winner! The Boston Chapter of PrincetonEN is grateful for the financial support of Venator Partners and Kawesch Law Group for this event.

2007-01-24 - Building a Successful Entrepreneur: Garages or Boardrooms? On the evening of January 24, the Boston Chapter of the Princeton Entrepreneurs’ Network posed the following question to a panel of distinguished entrepreneurs: Building a Successful Entrepreneur: Garages or Boardrooms? Our panel included: Randy Bogue - Founder and Managing Director, Venator Partners Paul Maeder – Managing General Partner, Highland Capital Partners Ryan Moore – General Partner, Grand Banks Capital Norman Strate- Past CEO, Protonex Technology and President of Total Biocide Solutions We again extend our thanks to our panelists for sharing their thoughts and advice. Several attendees commented on the deep value they took away from the panel and the insights that they gained especially regarding building a successful founding team and finding a balance between entrepreneurial passion, drive and sometimes naiveté and executive experience, caution, and focus. The message from the panel was clear that no single profile ensures success or failure and that it is usually the full founding team that is the key. To build that team one needs to start early and to identify talent long before it might seem necessary, because the recruiting cycle is very long. To assist with that panelist Randy Bogue’s firm has made an Entrepreneur’s Hiring Checklist available http://www.venatorpartners.com/Entrepreneurs_Hiring_Checklist.pdf. We also would like to thank our event sponsor Swiggart & Agin (http://www.swiggartagin.com) a Boston law firm providing services to companies, including computer and medical technology firms.

2006-11-28 - Princeton Entrepreneurs' Network, Boston Chapter, Annual Meeting and Elections Boston area Tigers who are interested in entrepreneurship met to enjoy our annual evening of pizza and conversation. The Boston Chapter also elected our officers for the coming year and began planning our 2007 events.

2005-11-09 - Porter Bibb, Managing Partner of Mediatech Capital Partners Publisher, journalist and veteran investment banker Porter Bibb, spoke at the Union Club of Boston on November 9, 2005, on topics ranging from his days as an early publisher of Rolling Stone magazine, to serving as Director of Development for the New York Times, to founding the investment banking division at Bankers Trust, and most recently, serving as Managing Director of Mediatech Capital, which is building ventures in both the US and China. In a lengthy, wide open Q&A session afterwards, Mr. Bibb offered additional insights into trends in media technology, the future of newspapers, and the rewards and pitfalls of investing in Communist China.

2005-11-02 - Lawler Kang: a Joint Event with Princeton Net-Nights Author Lawler Kang, presented to PrincetonEN of Boston and Net-Nights, on November 2, 2005, the ideas behind his new book, “PASSION AT WORK: How to Find Work You Love and Live in the Time of Your Life” Mr. Kang’s lively, multi-media presentation focused on inspiring his listeners to choose not just a correct career, but a way of life that one can fee passion about. He seeks to inspire people to stop merely working at a job and to engage in the process of finding their Life’s Work.

2005-05-11 - Boston's Business Plan Pitch Night/ Competition For this year's competition, the Boston Chapter of PrincetonEN was treated to four excellent presentations by the following entrepreneurs: Gerry Wilson of yOOnew), Quincy Vale of PowerHouse Enterprises, Gregory Stock of Signum Biosciences, and Guillaume Cottarel of Cellicon Biotechnologies, Inc. After each presentation, competitors and attendees listened to feedback from our panel of experts, including Craig Boyce (Bain Capital), Russell Pyle (M/C Venture Partners), William Read, (School Street Capital Group(, and John Ricketson (Axia Capital). At the end of the presentations, the attendees and panelists voted for Signum Biosciences as the First Place winner and yOOnew, Inc as the second place winner. The prizes were payment of the entrance fees to compete in the national competition held several weeks later in Princeton. PrincetonEN of Boston offers its congratulations to our winners and thanks all our presenters and panelists for providing us a very exciting evening.

2005-02-09 - Princeton Entrepreneurs cheer on the Celtics The Princeton Entrepreneurs' Network of Boston thanks Wyc Grousbeck '83 for tickets to the Celtics-Clippers game. The Celtics did not fail to provide an exciting game and came through in the end with a 94-89 win. We wish Wyc and the team the best of luck for the remainder of the season.

2005-01-20 - Celtics CEO, Wyc Grousbeck ‘83 One Entrepreneur’s Journey: Route 128 to North Station Wyc Grousbeck ‘93, Managing Partner & CEO of the Boston Celtics entertained an appreciative crowd at the Union Club with a discussion of his background, future outlook and the business issues involved when his group of investors purchased the storied Celtics franchise in the autumn of 2002.

2004-10-20 - A Venture Capital Update: Recent Developments in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industries. An informative panel presentation & Q&A was held at the The Union Club with Steven Dickman '84, President and CEO, CBT Advisors; Michael Lytton ‘76, General Partner, Oxford Bioscience Partners; and Jay Teich, Founder, CEO and Chairman, Thermogenic Imaging. Attendees enjoyed hors d’ouevre beforehand and watching the Red Sox take the American League pennant away from the Yankees afterwards.

2004-04-21 - Yearly New Ideas/Business Plan Pitch Night Business Plans for new ventures were presented by Matt Nuffort and Jeff Hunt of ConcordAV, Andreas Lord of BookMark Review, and Angela Piscitello of Invest My Assets. Feedback was provided by audience members, plus a select panel of experts consisting of: Bijan Salehizadeh, Senior Associate, Highland Capital Partners. Bruce Henderson, President, Matrix USA. Rodd Langenhagen, Managing Director, Revolution Partners. Todd Hixon, Managing Director, DFJ New England Fund. Bookmark Review was selected to represent the Boston Chapter in the business plan competition of the National Conference on May 28, 2004. Tom Meyer moderated and Prasanna Dhungel introduced the panel.

2003-10-22 - Alternate Sources of Financing Given the market conditions, especially the difficulty in securing Venture Capital, this topic seemed especially appropriate to the audience. After hors d'oeuvre, the panel discussed Alternate Sources of Financing. The panel members were: Guy Bradley ’84 an independent investor who currently sits on the boards of directors of WebCT, Virtual Ink, and Access International, and is involved with Common Angels; Jim Chung, the managing director of incTANK's Boston office; and Oscar Jazdowski, senior relationship manager at the Silicon Valley Bank. Bill Erdman '84, Chief Executive Officer of VASE, a start-up company that is developing wireless home management systems for networked devices in a connected home then presented his Business Plan Pitch. This was followed by a critique of the Business Plan and an open microphone for comments and short pitches. Opening remarks were given by Bill Swiggart; and Tom Meyer introduced the speakers and moderated.

2003-07-23 - Precept Discussion Led by Professor Louis LeGuyader On July 23, 2003 Princeton’s Professor Lou LeGuyader met with the Boston Chapter of the Princeton Entrepreneur's Network at Bertucci’s in the Back Bay to lead an educational and inspirational discussion on “The Accounting Treatment of Stock Options”. Did you see “inspirational” and “accounting” in the same sentence? Yes you did! Professor LeGuyader presented a bold and defensible proposal for the charging of options to "comprehensive income." He explained how such a method will not only correct the obfuscation of mere footnote disclosure, but will also preserve the tax and incentive advantages of options for employees of rapid growth companies without destroying the incentives of employers to use them. Great conversation and food was enjoyed by all. This evening was moderated and organized by Bill Swiggart and Tom Meyer, with help from Tom Pears and Charlie Kohl.

2003-04-23 - New Ideas/Business Plan Pitch Night This Business Pitch evening consisted of networking, appetizers and drinks, the presentations, and more networking. Dirk Godshalk, of Infinidex, Kevin Jarrell, of Modular Genetics, and Tom Szaky, of Terracycle, delivered pre-approved presentations on their companies. Constructive feedback on their business plans was provided by audience members, plus a select panel of entrepreneurship experts consisting of: Geraldine Alias ‘00, Associate, Battery Ventures, Todd Hixon ‘72, Managing Director, DFJ New England Fund, Tom Janes, Managing Director, Lincolnshire Management, and William Stevenson ’80, President, Sanbolic, Opening remarks were given by Bill Swiggart; Prasanna Dhungel introduced the panel; and Tom Meyer moderated.

2003-02-26 - The State of the Venture Capital Industry Presentations on "The State of the Venture Capital Industry” were given to a full house of Tigers at the Union Club. Bryan Pearce, a Partner in the Technology, Communications & Entertainment Practice of Ernst & Young and head of E&Y’s New England Area Venture Capital Advisory Group presented “2002 Annual Review and 2003 Forecast of the Venture Capital Industry”. Alex Wilmerding, Principal at Boston Capital Ventures, presented “Trends in Venture Capital Valuations and Terms”. This insightful and educational evening was moderated by Bill Swiggart and coordinated with the assistance of Tony Aquilina, Matt Crowley, Prasanna Dhungel, Pierre duPont, Charlie Kohl, Tom Meyer and Tom Pears.

2002-10-23 - A panel discussion on "Funding a Startup" was held at the Union Club. Current tactics and future strategies for funding a startup were shared by the experienced panel, which was composed of: Joe Caruso, President of Bantam Group, Inc.; Michael Greeley, Founder and Managing General Partner of IDG Ventures; Michael Heffernan, Co-Founder of Collegium Pharmaceutical; and Chris Kryder, MD, Founder, President and CEO of Doctor-Driven Systems, Inc. The evening concluded with audience members taking turns sharing their current business ideas and requirements in an open mike session. This entertaining and educational evening was moderated by Bill Swiggart and coordinated with the assistance of Tony Aquilina, Matt Crowley, Prasanna Dhungel, Pierre duPont, Charlie Kohl, Tom Meyer and Tom Pears.

2002-07-23 - A round table discussion on "Starting Your Own Business" was held at Bertucci's in the Back Bay. Participants discussed their latest and future ventures and shared tips and ideas on how to be successful. Bill Swiggart presented a checklist of action items for starting a new venture. The event was organized by Tom Meyer.

2002-05-01 - The Boston Chapter's first "business-pitch" evening Featured presentations by: Charlie Kohl '72 regarding his new Customer Relationship Management software company called Concentric Spheres Inc., Julio Gomez '82 discussing a cyber cafe chain aimed at suburban youths called Treehouse Inc, and Matthew Stack, '04, who spoke on a system and services to enable doctors' offices to comply with federal regulations governing the portability and privacy of patient records to be purveyed by Synitech, Inc.. Providing constructive criticism and advice regarding these offerings were panelists Timothy Gardner, Chief Scientific Officer at Cellicon Biotechnologies Inc., Kara Nortman, Associate at Battery Ventures, Ryan Moore, Principal at Grand Banks Capital and Bill Swiggart, Partner at Swiggart & Agin, LLC, plus many audience members. Prasanna Dhungel and Tom Meyer convened and moderated the event.

2002-02-27 - A joint networking evening with PrincetonEN's New Jersey Chapter The Boston Chapter of PrincetonEN convened a joint networking evening with PrincetonEN's nascent New Jersey Chapter. The chapters linked via video-conference technology at the Boston and Princeton offices of host Hale and Dorr LLP. Stephen Forrest, recent head of the Electrical Engineering Department of Princeton University, and head of Princeton's Center for Photonics and Optoelectronic Materials, presented on the topic: "Can Industry and Academia Get Along?" Professor Forrest, inventor of more than 80 patents, spoke of his experiences in licensing Princeton-originated technology to start-up companies via Princeton's Office of Technology Licensing

2001-11-28 - Focus on Biotechnology Michael Lytton, General Partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners, delivered an overview of recent developments in biotechnology and life sciences; and Timothy Gardner, a Boston area biotech entrepreneur, presented on the business plan of Cellicon Biotechnologies, Inc., a company that he founded to improve productivity in certain aspects of the drug discovery process.

2001-03-07 - The Business Plan for Chorus Motors plc Isaiah Cox, Founder & CEO of Chorus Motors plc, described his company's business plan for the worldwide licensing of a controller to make AC motors as powerful and reliable as DC motors, at a fraction of the cost of DC motors.

2000-10-25 - Capital Markets Alternatives (IPO, Private placements, M&A) for Technology / Internet Companies. Michael J. Halloran, Managing Director and Head of the Global Technology Investment Banking Group of Deutsche Banc Alex Brown, spoke on the topic of "Capital Markets Alternatives (IPO, Private placements, M&A) for Technology / Internet Companies."

2000-06-28 - Protection of individual privacy and the information demands of e-commerce. Devin Hosea, President and founder of Predictive Networks, Inc., and Harvey Silverglate, of the law firm of Silverglate & Good, debated the nexus between the demand for protection of individual privacy and the information demands of e-commerce.

2000-02-09 - Demystifying the Venture Capital Experience Howard Cox, of Greylock Ventures, spoke on "Demystifying the Venture Capital Experience." Breakout sessions followed: "Getting Money AND Much More: Raising Capital From the Right Place," Devin Hosea, Founder & CEO, Predictive Networks, Inc. "Finding a Job with a Start-Up," Katherine Issel, MBA Candidate, Harvard Business School "Negotiating Non-Disclosure and Non-Compete Agreements, and Other Issues," William F. Swiggart, Attorney, Swiggart & Agin, LLC

1999-10-11 - Starting and Funding for a rapidly growing Internet company Julio Gomez, Jr., founder and CEO of Gomez Advisors, described the experience of starting and obtaining funding for a rapidly growing Internet company.