More details of next week’s “Southland” conference announced
(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following information was provided by LaunchTN.)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Launch Tennessee (LaunchTN), a public-private partnership supporting high-growth companies in Tennessee, has announced two panels for its upcoming Southland conference that will explore national and regional trends in venture capital and early-stage funding.
A new conference that brings together the ideas, talent and capital that fuel a strong startup culture, Southland is scheduled for June 12-13 at the Cannery in Nashville. Tickets for the two-day conference are available online at www.southlandse.com.
Both of the investor panels announced today are scheduled for the first day of the conference. The national panel, “VC Trends: From Silicon Valley to the Southeast,” will feature Mark Kvamme, Paul Santinelli and Jason Sibley. Kvamme is a co-founder and partner of Columbus, Ohio-based Drive Capital. He previously was special limited partner and general partner at Menlo Park, Calif.-based Sequoia Capital, where he was the founding investor of LinkedIn, Cast Iron Systems (acquired by IBM), MarkLogic Corporation and Funnyordie.com.
Santinelli is a partner at North Bridge Venture Partners in Palo Alto, Calif., where he specializes in communications and infrastructure and focuses on investments in open source, software, security, Internet applications and infrastructure and communications. He was previously founder and CEO of NOCpulse, a Silicon Valley software startup that was acquired by Red Hat Network.
Sibley is a director at GE Ventures, Healthymagination Fund. He was previously a vice president at GE Equity and a member of its healthcare investment team. He is currently building out GE Ventures’ Boston investment office, which is focused on life sciences, medical technology and energy investments.
“Mark, Paul and Jason are experienced investors who can provide the kind of insight that early-stage companies need,” said Charlie Brock, CEO of LaunchTN. “This panel will be an outstanding opportunity for entrepreneurs to get an insider’s perspective on what investors are looking for today.”
The regional investor panel, “VC Trends: Focus on the Southeast,” includes Rik Vandevenne with River Cities Capital Funds of Cincinnati, Ohio and Raleigh, N.C.; David Jones with Southern Capitol Ventures/Bull City Venture Partners of Raleigh, N.C.; Spence McClelland with Noro-Moseley Partners of Atlanta; and Sid Chambless of the Nashville Capital Network.
In addition to investor panelists, representatives from more than 35 venture capital companies are attending Southland, including Durham, N.C.-based Hatteras Venture Partners; Menlo Park, Calif.-based Shasta Ventures; and Battery Ventures, which has offices in Waltham, Mass., Menlo Park, Calif., and Israel.
Other Southland speakers and panelists include Slava Rubin, co-founder and CEO of Indiegogo; Dan Pelino, general manager of IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry; Ali Partovi, co-founder of Code.org; George Kliavkoff, executive vice president and deputy group head of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication; Gary Swart, CEO of oDesk; Paul Singh, partner at 500 Startups; and Sarah Lacy, founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily.
LaunchTN is a public-private partnership focused on supporting the development of high-growth companies in the state of Tennessee with the ultimate goal of fostering job creation and economic growth. LaunchTN focuses on four key areas: entrepreneurship, commercialization, capital and outreach. LaunchTN is in part funded by a grant from the State of Tennessee. Please follow LaunchTN on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.
