Contact: Jeff Fishburn
OnPR for Oregon Entrepreneurs Network
503-802-4408
August 3, 2010, Portland, Oregon – Today the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) announced that applications have opened for OEN’s Venture Northwest 2010 conference, the premier forum for early and growth stage investment opportunities in exciting companies throughout the Pacific Northwest.
“A significant component to getting the State’s economy growing again is tied to connecting the people with the ideas to the people with the expertise and funding. This will lead to generating new entrepreneurial success,” said Diane Fraiman, chair of OEN’s Venture Northwest and a partner at Voyager Capital. “OEN’s Venture Northwest promises to bring together the stake holders with the means to more effectively power the innovation economy and spur job growth through entrepreneurship.”
This year OEN’s Venture Northwest will focus on bringing together leaders from the venture capitalist, state and local government, and university commercialization communities to discuss and debate new ideas that will foster entrepreneurialism and stimulate tremendous business. The event will feature panel discussions among leading national VCs, Oregon’s government leaders, and renowned university commercialization experts.
The venture capitalist panel will include partners from Norwest Venture Partners, a leading Silicon Valley-based VC firm that makes early to late stage venture and growth stage equity investments across a wide range of sectors including mobile, online advertising, infrastructure and systems companies like enterprise software company PeopleSoft and Rackspace, an Internet hosting and cloud computing company; Steamboat Ventures, the venture capital firm affiliated with The Walt Disney Company, whose investments in the entertainment, consumer, software and semiconductor sectors include Pure Digital, the maker of the Flip video camera and GroundTruth, a Seattle-based mobile measurement firm; Bessemer Venture Partners, started by Carnegie Steel co-founder Henry Phipps in 1911, whose investments include high-tech innovators like Skype as well as retail innovators like Staples and The Sports Authority; and General Catalyst Partners, a leading Cambridge, Massachusetts firm whose investments include internet and new media, software, consumer services and network infrastructure companies such as travel search company Kayak, game developer Big Fish, and online video company Brightcove.
The university commercialization panelists include Luis Mejia, a senior associate at Stanford University’s Office of Technology Licensing, and George Pernsteiner, Chancellor of the Oregon University System, among other recognized national leaders in this industry segment.
Since 1997, 156 companies have been selected to present at OEN’s Venture Northwest, and have gone on to raise $1.5 billion in venture funding, a median of $10.4 million per company.
“OEN’s Venture Northwest will provide an opportunity for entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors to network, discuss and generate new ideas that will stimulate growth in Oregon and the Northwest,” said Linda Weston, OEN’s president and executive director. “At OEN’s Venture Northwest 2010 we intend to celebrate entrepreneurs and highlight their importance to the region's economy.”
OEN’s Venture Northwest 2010 will be held November 4, 2010, at The Governor Hotel in Portland. Nomination and registration information is available on the OEN’s VNW website (www.venturenw.org). The submission deadline for nominations is Thursday, September 2, 2010.
About Oregon Entrepreneurs Network
Founded in 1991, the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to providing opportunities for Oregon entrepreneurs and to improving the business climate for emerging companies statewide. The organization has members throughout Oregon and southwest Washington. For more information about OEN, visit www.oen.org.
