Join the Entrepreneurship Club for an invigorating discussion with the Chief Security Officer and Head of R&D of Quotient Technology, a leader in online promotions (store loyalty programs, digital coupons, digital publishing) and customer engagement analysis. Michael has a wide background in tech innovation and startups, so please come pick his brain on what's important for startup founders, what's changing in the retail space, and everything else about entrepreneurship! Michael Walsh has a BS in Applied Math from Caltech and an MS from Northwestern in Industrial Engineering. Since graduating from Caltech, Michael has been involved in several entrepreneurial projects and startups. His journey through tech innovation let him to co-found Quotient in 1998, and the company has since created massive value for consumers and retailers.
Dinner with Jim Simmons: Investing in the Internet of Things, Cleantech, and the Future
Time: Thursday, May 18th, 7PM
Place:Athenaeum
Jim Simmons is a Caltech alumnus who has spent much of his career looking for answers to these questions. He co-founded Simmons Goodspeed Ventures in 2006 to invest in early stage startups in cleantech and IoT. Since co-founding his venture capital firm, he has joined the boards of companies working on water purification, security, and internet technology for government lotteries. Please sign up below to join the eClub in a dinner conversation at the Athenaeum and learn from Jim's experience and insight. Perhaps he will inspire you to start creating opportunities in these very important sectors.
6th FLoW DOE Cleantech Up Finalsbinson
Time: 4:30pm - 8:00pm, May 1, 2017
About the program: FLOW prepares students with projects aimed at making a positive contribution to environmental sustainability for entrepreneurial success. With a special emphasis on scientists and engineers, FLOW establishes a core foundation of skills to turn ideas and technologies into products and businesses. Through our program, scientists and engineers emerge as future leaders in the business community. The program begins with a training series presented by our partners at the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (“I-Corps”) initiative in Los Angeles, IN-LA. Their training is called BLITZ and it provides real-world experience and the opportunity to learn from the marketplace. IN-LA helps with identifying markets and customer base, determining commercial readiness, and developing transition plans to move technology to market. The capstone of the training is participation in the FLOW DOE Cleantech UP competition, where student teams pitch their business plans and ideas in pursuit of over $100,000 in cash prizes and prototype-building awards. Come and hear the presentations of final round teams and join the celebration of the winners!
More information
Alibaba, The house that Jack Ma built
Time: Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 3:00 pm
Location: Crellin Laboratory 151
Duncan Clark first met Jack in 1999 in the small apartment where Jack founded Alibaba. Granted unprecedented access to a wealth of new material including exclusive interviews, Clark draws on his own experience as an early advisor to Alibaba and two decades in China chronicling the Internet’s impact on the country to create an authoritative, compelling narrative account of Alibaba’s rise. An intriguing insider’s account of how Jack Ma conquered China’s internet, by an early adviser to the company.
A Conversation with Caltech's Fashion and e-commerce Guru
Time: April 13, 4pm - 6pm
Location: Beckman Institute 115
Join the eClub on April 13 for a late afternoon discussion about fashion, e-commerce, and opportunities beyond Caltech with Thanh Khuu, Caltech alum and CTO of Hollar. All eClub members and Caltech affiliates are welcome to stop by and pick Thanh's brain! Thanh Khuu graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor's in Engineering and Applied Science and has since gone on to lead ShoeDazzle as CTO. He then founded and lead Shop Hers until its acquisition by Tradesy. His most recent company, Hollar, is a is a fast growing online store where you could find your next awesome gift or goodie. Thanh Khuu also received his MBA from UCLA in 2004.
ACBA PITCH at ArtCenter College of Design
Time: Sat, Mar. 25, 2017
Location: ArtCenter College of Design
ACBA Pitch is an event that offers ArtCenter students a platform to pitch their ideas and designs to investors, industry professionals and the public. It connects the worlds of design, technology, and business by reaching out to Caltech, USC, and local incubators, to help build trans-disciplinary partnerships between ArtCenter students and outside students and professionals. More information and registration at www.acbapitch.com
Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) - meetup at Caltech
Time: January 20th 1PM
Location: Red Door
ATI SEAL is seeking applicants for its nation-leading accelerator program for June - August 2017 in Austin, TX. ATI SEAL is a program of the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), the startup incubator for the University of Texas at Austin. Now in its 10th year, ATI SEAL has worked with over 75 companies, which have gone onto to raise almost $50M in funding. The key focus for the program is to identify and confront the potential deal-killers of the startup. While most participants have proven the technology and likely even deployed it, they have not really done the hard work to make sure there is a viable business to build around the technology. Thanks to a grant from the Kauffman Foundation, the first 10 startups accepted from outside of UT Austin will receive a small stipend to be in Austin for the summer.
RFX, INC and e-on software: DIGITAL NATURE
Time: Thursday, November 17th from 6-10:30PM
Location: RFX Inc, 748 Seward Street Hollywood
Are you interested in computer graphics and visual effects software? How about digital nature? If you said yes to both, you should join eClub on a company visit to RFX, Inc, a visual effects support company founded by Caltech alum Ray Feeney. We will be attending a talk on updates to e-on software's VUE & PlantFactory 2016 packages. The event is on Thursday, November 17. The group will will leave from Caltech at 6PM and return at approximately 10:30PM. Dinner and transportation are provided.
A Novel ‘Acapreneurial’ Organizational Model for Biomedical Research: Principles & Practices at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR)
Time: July 27th, 3-4PM
Location: Broad 200, Caltech
What is the best way to organize nonprofit biomedical research to impact the healthcare sphere? At present, there is only one U.S. model for nonprofit biomedical research - the academic model - in which to investigate new principles to improve the health and well-being of an individual. This talk will introduce a new organizational model termed the ‘acapreneurial’ model that posits a hybrid culture of academic science, which focuses on new knowledge and its validation, with pre-venture entrepreneurial activity, which focuses on invention, market validation (i.e. innovation) and financial return. As president and CEO of the Lankenau Institute of Medical Research, the speaker will present principles, practices and outputs of this integrated model as implemented at one of the first U.S. Institutes dedicated to cancer research in the 1920s and now focused on disease modifier pathways and products in cancer, diabetes, autoimmunity and cardiovascular disease.
INNOVATION IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Time: Thursday, September 15, 2016 at 1:30-5PM
Location: Ramo Auditorium
The Caltech Office of Technology Transfer & Corporate Partnerships, Innovate Pasadena, and the Caltech Entrepreneurship Club present a panel discussion on Innovation in Artificial Intelligence followed by an expo & reception featuring local companies who are taking technologies out of the lab and into everyday life.
Science Entrepreneur and Policy Seminar with Christie Canaria
Time: 8/24 Monday, 3-4 pm (2015)
Location: Spalding Laboratory 106
Join us for a talk with Caltech alum and AAAS fellow Christie Canaria, who will share her experiences both in industry and science policy. Refreshments will be provided. Christie Canaria (Chemistry Ph.D. 2008) is a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow, leveraging her experiences in start-up company innovation, biotechnology, medical/biological imaging, and biosensor design in the Small Business Innovation Research Development Center of the National Cancer Institute under the National Institutes of Health. Previously, Christie managed an optical microscopy facility at DOE Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as an imaging expert and neurobiologist and worked at Illumina, Inc., then a small start-up company in San Diego and now a global leader in genomic sequencing. Christie earned a PhD in Chemistry from Caltech and BS in Chemistry from UCSD.
3Day Startup (3DS) - Caltech information session
Time: Friday, October 9th, 11AM - 12PM (2015)
Location: Crellin 151
3Day Startup is a 72-hour learning by doing campus workshop guiding students through the early stages of starting up companies over one intense weekend. The participants will form teams, brainstorm ideas, conduct market validation, build prototypes, create branding, pitch ideas, and LAUNCH companies in an extreme hands-on environment. It is open to all Pasadena-area university/college students from all disciplines. 3 Day Startup Pasadena is a playground where you can convert your entrepreneurial notions into actual companies. 3DS Pasadena 2015 takes place on November 6-8th, 2015 at Pasadena City College - Circadian Conference Hall.
Turning technology into startups - a presentation by Caltech OTTCP and eClub
Time: Tues, Oct 20th at 3-4PM (2015)
Location: Guggenheim 101
Have you ever thought about building a company? Do you want to learn the winning principles to building a successful company? Do you want to know how Caltech's Office of Technology Transfer supports Caltech startups? Come to this event to learn about entrepreneurship, how companies are built from the ground up, and the resources available at Caltech to make it happen. This event is hosted by Caltech entrepreneurship club and OTTCP in collaboration with Innovate Pasadena's Connect Week.
Coffee Chat With Doug Renert of Tandem Capital
Time: Nov 5th, Thursday, 1:00pm-2:30pm (2015)
Location: TBD
Intro of Tandem Capital: Tandem is Silicon Valley’s first and largest mobile industry seed fund. Following each startup investment, we work very closely with the founding team in our Burlingame, California offices for the next 6 months. We typically source our investments through referrals from trusted sources, including top accelerators, incubators and university programs. Tandem has backed graduates from Ycombinator, 500 Startups and Techstars among others, helping teams find product-market fit and prepare for substantial funding rounds.
Intro of Doug: Doug Renert is a founding partner of Tandem Capital, Silicon Valley’s largest mobile-first seed fund. Doug started his career as a corporate attorney with Gray Cary (now DLA Piper) and then spent eight years as a VP at Oracle, buying and building businesses to catapult the company into new markets. He left Oracle in 2005 to become the founding CEO of Tello, a venture-backed company delivering IP communications services to business users.
How failures and road-blocks can be MORE influential and beneficial than immediate success
Time: Nov 20th 3-4pm (2015)
Location: Beckman Institute Room 121 Refreshments and social after talk
Caltech Alum Michael Walsh, Chief Security Officer & Head of Research and Development at Quo2ent, will be on campus this week. He has been a software engineer since 1985, and spent 26 of those 30 years at eight different companies (including TriStar Market Data and Torque) which were in startup mode when he joined. He'll discuss his firsthand experience with what success (and failure) looks like in the startup world.
Pasadena Angels Screening Meeting Signup
Time: Wednesday, December 16th (2015)
Location: TBD
Caltech eClub is proud to announce a collaboration with Pasadena Angels (
About) to provide Caltech students with the opportunities to get a closer look at how Angels work and how startups give pitches. Each month there is a screening meeting where Pasadena Angels get together to hear pitches from startups. eClub will send a couple of students to the meeting each time. Students will be able to learn about the stories of those startups and how Angels make decisions on investment. Screening meetings are especially relevant and instructive to students and entrepreneurs. Space is very limited. You will get an email if you are chosen to go this month. Signup here:
http://goo.gl/forms/UukY65hWS2
I2I event series: Innovation in Aerospace
Time: Friday, January 22nd 2016, 1:30-3:00pm (2016)
Location: Caltech - Hameetman Auditorium
The Idea 2 Innovation (i2i) event series, co-presented by Innovate Pasadena and Caltech, provides ongoing opportunities to bring together the Pasadena innovation community with industry leaders to exchange ideas in an inspiring and welcoming environment which fosters entrepreneurship.
PANELISTS:
*John Tracy. Chief Technology Officer, The Boeing Company
*Scott Fouse. VP, Advanced Technology Center, Lockheed Martin Corporation
*Erik Antonsson. Corporate Director of Technology, Northrop Grumman Corporation
*Vandad Espahbodi. Co-Founder of Starburst Accelerator
Life Science Strategy Consulting: Personalized Market Research In a World of Personalized Medicine
Time: 2/19 Friday, 11AM - noon (2016)
Location: 151 Crellin
Stephane Budel is a partner at DeciBio with over 15 years of combined experience in life science business consulting, entrepreneurship and academic research. In this presentation, he will go over life science consulting, how DeciBio fits in this space, and how to assess new opportunities for novel and disruptive life science technologies. Stephane Budel is a partner at DeciBio with expertise in clinical diagnostics focusing on NGS and molecular diagnostics (MDx). Prior to DeciBio, Stephane spent ~2 years as a Life Science Specialist at LEK consulting, where he conducted multiple projects in similar markets. Dr. Budel earned his Ph.D. from Yale University for his research on the molecular mechanisms of spinal cord injury and schizophrenia. This event is bought to you by Caltech eClub and Biotechnology Club.
Lunch with a Venture Capital Partner
Time: Friday, February 26th 2016, 12:00-1:00pm (2016)
Location: Invitation only
**Limited to 5-6 participants. Registration over. Please disclose if you are currently developing a commercial viable technology.** Participants will have the opportunity to network with a venture capital partner, solicit startup growth advice, or pitch potential ideas. All fees are covered. Kara Nortman is currently a partner at Upfront Ventures. Before joining Kara was co-founder of Seedling where she currently serves as Chairman. Prior to starting Seedling, Kara spent close to seven years at IAC where she acted as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Urbanspoon and Citysearch. Prior to Urbanspoon/Citysearch, Kara co-headed the M&A group at IAC where she lead some of their most successful acquisitions, notably Urbanspoon, Dictionary.com and Aston Hotels. While at IAC, Kara also served as a board member to Hatch Labs, IAC’s mobile technology incubator, where she recruited and advised Tinder. Kara also spent time at Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and Battery Ventures. Upfront Ventures is a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm that is focused on investments in early stage technology companies. It has raised over $1.2 billion in funds.
Office hours for founders with Fahd Bangash
Time: Tue 3/29 3 pm to 4:30 pm - 5:30pm (2016)
Location: Red Door Cafe
Email fahd@virtualforce.io to schedule your 20-minute spot. Fahd is a 2x founder and Head of Growth at virtualforce.io where he helps startups like WhiteCoat Healthcare (Idealab), Moving Analytics (USC), ProducePay (DTLA) fine-tune product definition and fast-track product development. Founders can bring product and engineering related questions ranging from building MVP to growing users. You can also discuss general startup issues such as fundraising and recruiting.
Extracting Value from Hard Problems
Time: Tuesday, April 12th 2016, 4:30pm - 5:30pm (2016)
Location: Beckman Institute Room 115
Ben Jun and Alex Hartz from HVF Labs, a venture capital firm and innovation lab founded by Max Levchin, will come to campus to speak about extracting value from hard problems. HVF stands for "Hard, Valuable, Fun." They will speak about their experiences building and selling complex technologies, in addition to their process for identifying problems that are both hard and valuable. HVF is an umbrella project for Max Levchin's data-focused undertakings. Its core thesis is that thanks to low-cost sensors of every imaginable type, near-ubiquitous wireless broadband, and advances in distributed computing and storage, data is becoming our most plentiful, and most under-exploited commodity. The insights mined from it will unlock enormous productivity gains, create efficiencies where none existed before, and meaningfully improve lives. The mission of HVF is to be the catalyst of that transformation. Registration:
http://goo.gl/forms/ANA3Fy7Dyt
FINDER – Development and Commercialization of an earthquake victim detecting radar at JPL
Time: Wednesday, April 13th, 3-4PM (2016)
Location: Crellin 151
Introduction: FINDER (Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response) is a low power radar developed at NASA's JPL. The radar detects buried victims in rubble using microwave sensors for human vital signs. FINDER got its first real disaster experience a year ago in Nepal, where it was used in the rescue of 4 buried victims in Chautara. Jim Lux, the developer of FINDER, will discuss the creation of the product and the path to commercialization.
Bio: Jim Lux has been an engineer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 17 years, he is currently managing the development of two small satellites to measure the properties of the ionosphere. In addition to FINDER, Jim also works on communications systems for deep space exploration, radars to help land on Mars and measure the winds on Earth, and was a Principal Investigator for experimental radios on the International Space Station. Event organized by the Caltech Entrepreneurship club (Zach, zshao1@caltech.edu) and Caltech Alpine Club (Cody, finkec@caltech.edu)
Pasadena Angels Screening Meeting Signup
Time: April 27th (2016)
Location: TBA
Caltech eClub is proud to announce a collaboration with Pasadena Angels to provide Caltech students with the opportunities to get a closer look at how Angels work and how startups give pitches. Each month there is a screening meeting where Pasadena Angels get together to hear pitches from startups. eClub will send a few students to the meeting each time. Students will be able to learn about the stories of those startups and how Angels make decisions on investment. Screening meetings are especially relevant and instructive to students and entrepreneurs. Space is very limited. You will get a confirmation email if you are chosen to go this month. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, April 27.
Coffee Chat with Caltech Alumni - Ted Zoli, PE
Time: Thursday, April 28th at 10:30AM - 11:30AM (2016)
Location: Outside of Red Door
RSVP link required, first 10 registrants only: http://goo.gl/forms/cpXDNIQmfx. Ted Zoli is one of the bridge engineering and design industry’s most recognized figures. He is the subject of profiles in magazines, such as Esquire and Popular Mechanics, as the first structural engineer to receive the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Genius Award. As HNTB’s national bridge chief engineer, Zoli brings international acclaim as the innovator behind numerous bridges — long span, movable, pedestrian and rail. Among his most notable projects are the cable-stayed Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston, the curved cable-stayed Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge in Omaha, Nebraska, and the Lake Champlain Bridge between New York and Vermont. (http://www.hntb.com/ThoughtLeadership/Bio/Theodore-Zoli,-PE,https://www.macfound.org/fellows/68/). Ted graduated from Caltech in '89 with a Masters in Civil Engineering.
At the Crossroads of Data Analytics and Entrepreneurship – A conversation with Francisco Gimenez
Time: Thursday, May 5th, 3-4PM (2016)
Location: 107 Annenberg
RSVP: http://goo.gl/forms/nqabuzNT4o.
Data Science has, or is in the process of, transforming every enterprise industry today. The obvious examples are Google, Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook, but there are a remarkable number of old industries that are seeing rapid changes after decades of technological stagnation. We dub this transition the “smart-enterprise wave” and have been actively investing in companies using data-drive approaches to solve old problems. Francisco Gimenez, the resident data scientist at 8VC, will talk about his experiences investing in these companies and prototyping data-science products for them. Personal Bio:
Francisco Gimenez is the Resident Data Scientist at 8VC where he focuses on helping portfolio companies strategize, prototype, and recruit for data science teams. Francisco is also the founder of Catenus Science, a data science consulting and recruiting firm that uses an apprenticeship model to help early stage companies build data science teams. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford in Biomedical Informatics, where he was a Ruth L. Kirchstein Fellow. Prior to that he got his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from UC Berkeley.