This past summer, I had an externship at the Founders Fund in San Francisco.One of the results from this internship was that Justin Fishner-Wolfson inspired and encouraged me to run a conference.The goal of my conference, NextGen Conference, was to bring together young, first-time entrepreneurs with more experienced and seasoned entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. About ten days ago, this conference was a reality.On November 14th at Stanford University, NextGen Conference took place.
Over the last few months, I created an All Star speaker lineup – Jeff Clavier, Kevin Hartz, Keith Rabois, Dan Olsen, Larry Chiang, and many more.There was representation from the Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Maples Investments, Soft Tech VC, and many more venture capital firms.With such an awesome group of speakers, I expected ticket sales to come easy.My goal was to make this event no larger than seventy-five people. Shockingly, twenty-five days ago, zero people were registered for my conference.However, with much help and support from the speakers, my event was sold out! We reached full capacity!Students and young entrepreneurs from Stanford, Berkeley, SF State, Cal Poly, and the University of Illinois were in attendance. Our sponsors included: Minogi.com, Intel, Verizon Wireless, and Macgasm.net.Both Intel and Verizon Wireless came on board seventy-two hours before the event.
At the after party I overheard someone say, “I learned more at NextGen Conference than at TechCrunch 50”. Positive feedback and requests for more events like NextGen Conference have flooded my inbox in the last two weeks. Because of that, there will probably be a NextGen Conference in 2010!
Shout out goes to Daniel Brusilovsky. Even though he was not present at NextGen Conference, Daniel helped use his contacts to help NextGen Conference. Because of Daniel’s contact, Brady Valentino, our site, www.nextgenconf.com looks beautiful! Also, Daniel helped sign Intel as a sponsor.
Rob over at the Founders Fund gave me a couple hour overview of Venture Capital – VC 101. We went from the ground up. Rob started off explaining a bunch terms VCs use…followed by the differences between private equity and the public markets. Next, he explained in depth the investment process and the forms of investment. There is a bunch more to add to this post! If you are interested in viewing the notes, send me an email. All in all, the lecture was very helpful.
Spending time at the Founders Fund has been great. I have had a blast and will continue to make the most out of it!
Let me briefly tell you about my first day. Justin Fishner-Wolfson (the guy who I am interning for) was in New York, so I arrived and met Ken, Luke, Brian, and Andrew. Andrew gave me a brief overview on the importance of accounting in both the venture and startup world. Through our two conversations that day, I learned that you have to know accounting when starting a company…with that said, I will definitely be taking classes on accounting in college.
I then heard a company (that will remain nameless) pitch to the Founders Fund. This particular company had a preexisting relationship with a couple of the people working at the Founders Fund. Relationships and having a strong team are key in the venture and startup world. One could say that most important part of a startup is arguably the team. The idea constantly evolves and changes…but the team will always be the same.
My junior year in high school will come to an end in eight days!
Here’s a real brief post announcing my summer plans:
During half the month of June, I will be interning at the Founders Fund in San Francisco. If you live in Silicon Valley and want to meet up please contact me!
For three weeks in July I will be hanging out in Aspen, Colorado with my family and a couple of friends.
Finally, in August I will visit Hawaii for the first time.
Along with those travel plans I will be: hanging out with friends, working on a few business projects, playing a ton of tennis, studying for the SAT, and relaxing.
