Are you ready to delve into the world of entrepreneurship and venture capital? Procopio is the premier sponsor of an Access Silicon Valley and U First Capital event on March 6, 2024, in Procopio’s Silicon Valley office: an EXCLUSIVE one-night only discussion with Barry Eggers, Co-Founder and Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, ranked in the top 10 VC firms in the world. Lightspeed has over 500 portfolio companies in the enterprise, consumer, and health sectors, with over $18 billion of committed capital . You may’ve heard of a few of their investments like the Honest Company, Nest, Nutanix, AppDynamics, MuleSoft, DataStax, Stripe, Snap, Carta, GrubHub, Rubrik, and Ripple, to name a few.

Seating is extremely limited, so reserve yours now!

In the upcoming event, “Unplugged” (aptly named for its interactive, audience-driven nature), Barry Eggers, known for his experience to identify and foster innovative startups, will explore a broad spectrum of subjects.

The discussion will span the ever-evolving realm of entrepreneurship, the evolving landscape of AI and venture capital. Drawing from his personal experience, Barry will provide valuable advice for startup founders. He will guide attendees on streamlining the fundraising process and sharing what elevates one investment opportunity over another. Furthermore, Barry will provide insights into the do’s and don’ts when pitching to venture capitalists, along with the essential components of a persuasive pitch and deck. This session promises unique insights into the world of venture capital and emerging growth companies.

Don’t miss this Barry unplugged!!

Agenda

6:00pm – 7:00pm: Light dinner/refreshments, networking

6:50pm – 7:00pm: Sponsor Introductions

7:00pm – 7:45pm: Conversation with Barry

7 :45 -8:00: Audience Q&A

8:00pm – 9:00pm: Networking

About Barry

As a co-founder of Lightspeed, Barry is something of a Silicon Valley pioneer. After all, as a native of Sunnyvale, he remembers when the area was filled not with startups but with cherry and apricot orchards. And although he attended undergrad at UCLA, he soon returned to the valley to earn an MBA at Stanford.

He’s been here ever since. After grad school, Barry worked in M&A at Cisco Systems, in San Jose, and later, by the recommendation of his old friend and classmate Chris Schaepe, became a partner at Weiss, Peck & Greer.

It was here, in early 2005, that he and Chris, along with Ravi Mhatre and Peter Nieh, set out to found Lightspeed. In addition to building the firm, Barry specializes in information technology infrastructure with a focus on analytic platforms, cloud, networking, and emerging infrastructure.

About Lightspeed Venture Partners

For over twenty years Lightspeed has been the first investor and an early backer of some of the most innovative companies in the world. In service of bold founders with big ideas, we stand behind our companies with high conviction from Seed to Series F and beyond.Lightspeed believes in investing behind bold ideas and the founders brave enough to build them. They pursue those opportunities based on their merits regardless of where the founder resides. The future is global and so is Lightspeed.

About Roger Rappoport and Access Silicon Valley

Roger Rappoport is a former entrepreneur and the founder and leader of Procopio’s Emerging Growth and Venture Capital practice group. He has extensive experience in advising startup and well-established emerging growth companies across all sectors and industries, from formation through multiple rounds of funding and exit.

Roger is an active angel investor and a frequent speaker and panelist on topics and issues related to the development and implementation of a company’s formation and funding strategy. Before attending law school, he was the founder of a technology company. As an emerging growth and venture capital attorney, he has been involved in hundreds of transactions such as merger and acquisition transactions, private equity and venture capital financing transactions, and complex restructuring transactions.

Roger is also the founder of Access Silicon Valley, a platform for entrepreneurs, on a global basis, to gain access to Silicon Valley’s best and brightest Venture Capitalists, “been there done that” entrepreneurs, and experts. Take a closer look at the Access Silicon Valley Video Fireside Chat Series hosted by Roger, with representatives of some of the Valley’s most high profile VCs, such as Andreessen Horowitz, Foundation Capital, Floodgate, Mayfield, Venrock, Canaan Partners and more.

About U First Capital, Etka Dang and Sanjit Dang

U First Capital is a prominent venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments and dedicated to supporting innovative startups. With a rich history and a strong track record, U First Capital has been at the forefront of fostering entrepreneurship and driving technological advancements.

Our experienced team of investors and industry experts possess a deep understanding of emerging trends and market dynamics. We carefully select visionary founders and disruptive ideas across a range of sectors, including technology, healthcare, fintech, and more. By providing crucial funding, strategic guidance, and invaluable resources, we empower entrepreneurs to transform their concepts into successful businesses.

At U First Capital, we prioritize long-term partnerships and actively engage with our portfolio companies. We offer mentorship, operational support, and access to our extensive network of industry connections, enabling startups to accelerate their growth and overcome challenges. We pride ourselves on being more than just financial backers; we become trusted allies on the entrepreneurial journey.

Dr. Ekta Dang Dr. Ekta Dang is the Co-Founder and CEO of U First Capital and drove venture capital investments at Intel prior to that. She has an excellent track record of achieving at least 1 Exit every year: Pensando (Acquired by AMD in 2022), Nextdoor (IPO 2021), Palantir (IPO 2020), Orb Intelligence (Acquired by Dun and Bradstreet in 2020), Pinterest (IPO 2019), Docusign (IPO 2018), etc. She has invested in category-leading companies such as SpaceX, Uniphore, Pensando, and DevRev.

Dr. Dang is a member of Congressman Ro Khanna’s Leadership Circle and advises him on technology policy. She is also an Advisor to the Chancellor of the University of California San Diego and has been on the Science Translation and Innovative Research (STAIR) Grant Committee of the University of California Davis. She is also an Advisor to Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She is a Contributing Writer for Venture Beat.

She has been a successful Venture Capital Investor, Corporate Executive, Speaker, and Writer in Silicon Valley for two decades. At Intel, she has solid experience both in Venture Capital and on the operating side. She brings a stellar network from the Venture Capital and Corporate world to the startups. She has been a mentor at Alchemist Accelerator, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Google Launchpad, etc. She is an invited Speaker at several top Venture Capital/Startup conferences, like TiECon, Silicon Valley Open Doors, etc. She has also co-chaired TiECon’s entrepreneurship track.

She has a Ph.D. in Physics (Electronics) and has attended UC Berkeley Haas School’s Venture Capital Executive Program. She has published several research papers in IEEE and other reputed international journals.

Dr. Sanjit Dang has been a successful Venture Capitalist, Corporate Executive, Board Member, Speaker and Writer in Silicon Valley for almost two decades. He is currently the Co-Founder and Chairman of U First Capital. They provide Venture Capital as a Service to Corporations by bringing Startups, University IP, etc in the Corporate’s specific areas of interest (dedicated model). Prior to that, he was at Intel Capital where he led Venture Capital investments in Enterprise Software. He has been an Investor and on the Board of several companies, including True Fit (AI for eCommerce, Raised $100M), Reflektion (AI recommendation for eCommerce, Raised $42M), Helpshift (AI-driven Customer Service, Raised $38M) and Enlighted (Smart Lighting, Acquired by Siemens in 2018). He is also an investor in Mirantis (Cloud Computing, raised >$100M), GoodData (SaaS Business Intelligence, raised over $100M) and Arcadia Data (Big Data 2.0, Raised $26M).

He is on the Advisory Council of UN’s World Artificial Intelligence Organization. He has also been on University of California President’s Innovation Council. Sanjit has the fastest Engineering PhD from University of Illinois (2yrs 9mo after undergrad), which he received in 2000 with top research awards. He also attended the VC Executive program at Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. He’s an invited Speaker at several top conferences, eg SURGE/WebSummit, Venture Summit West, TiECon, Collision, ShopTalk, McKinsey Leadership Summit, Silicon Valley Open Doors, Global AI conference, etc. He’s a mentor at Stanford and Berkeley’s Entrepreneurship programs.

Sanjit has over a decade of Executive leadership experience in Product Design, Business Development and Strategy across several domains: Big Data, Natural Language Processing, 3D Camera/Apps, Supply-Chain Analytics and Flash Memory. He has managed $2Bill/year accounts and executed >30 partnership deals in $100M-$2Bill range. Always striving to be ahead of the curve, Sanjit worked on Big Data Analytics before industry created the term ‘Big Data’. Similarly, he launched 2 online courses during graduate school in 1999 and published iconic papers on learnings, way before the MOOC revolution started.

Disclaimer

By attending Access Silicon Valley events, you understand that you may be photographed or videotaped. You agree to allow your photo, video, or film likeness to be used for any legitimate purpose by the event hosts, producers, sponsors, organizers, assigns, and/or by anyone involved in the event in any capacity. This includes usage on social media platforms.

Your email address will be shared with Procopio and U First for the purposes of sending you invitations to upcoming venture capital and other startup events.