SPEAKERS & JUDGES

MORNING KEYNOTE - 9:00 AM

Sir Richard Branson

Richard Branson is a flamboyant British entrepreneur with a seemingly insatiable appetite for starting new businesses. His internationally recognized brand "Virgin" is splashed across everything from credit cards to airlines and mobile phones. Branson is continuously seeking new business opportunities and loves a good challenge, especially when he enters a market that is dominated by a few major players.

The Virgin Group is a network of over 200 companies spanning a variety of industries.

INSPIRING CLOSING REMARKS - 4:30 PM

Christian Audigier

Christian is one of the world's hottest fashion designers and entrepreneurs. He is known as both a fashion icon and a marketing genius. When he launched Ed Hardy, Christian not only created a brand, but a lifestyle of freedom and fun. This innovative couture brand rose to exceptional popularity in record time. He built a fervent following for his Ed Hardy and Christian Audigier brands, including more than 5,000 celebrities, athletes and musicians.

Audigier Brand Management Group develops, markets and licenses an international portfolio of designer brands, including Christian Audigier, Ed Hardy, Smet, Crystal Rock and others.

YOUR HOST

Dan Bliss

Dan is the co-founder of PerfectBusiness and creator of The Perfect Pitch 2009 Conference. He has launched or turned around numerous businesses, including restaurants, bars, concert clubs, music festivals, magazines, internet companies and others. Starting with no money, Dan built 10 businesses by the time he was 30. He received brief notoriety as "the guy who bought and sold the world-famous Hollywood sign." Dan is passionate about helping entrepreneurs discover new financing sources or game-changing revenue streams.

PerfectBusiness.com provides entrepreneur education and resources for new and existing business owners.

ENTREPRENEUR PRESENTATIONS - 10:00 AM

Didrick Medical

ICON Aircraft

Vubiq

CLICK HERE to learn more about the winners of The Perfect Pitch 2009 competition.

INVESTOR PANEL - 10:45 AM

Tim Draper - Moderator

Tim is the Founder and Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He is a highly-influential venture capitalist with early investments in companies such as Skype, Overture, Baidu, Hotmail and many other major brands. His "viral marketing" ideas were instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. He is regularly featured on TV, radio and as a keynote speaker at industry events.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson is an industry-leading venture capital firm with $6 billion under management and more than 500 companies funded. It was recognized as the #1 Dealmaking Venture Capital Firm for 2008. DFJ Global Network is an international network of early-stage venture capital funds with offices in over 30 cities around the globe.

John Babcock

An experienced venture investor, John Babcock has been a partner at Rustic Canyon Partners since the firm's formation in 1999. John brings over 15 years of technology industry experience to both the firm and our portfolio companies. He focuses on investment opportunities in clean technology, technology-enabled services, outsourcing and advanced construction materials.

Rustic Canyon Partners is one of the largest venture capital firms in Southern California. Rustic Canyon invests in seed-stage and later-stage opportunities typically requiring a $2-4 million initial investment.

CLICK HERE to watch a PerfectBusiness interview with John.

Mark Suster

Mark joined GRP Partners after having worked with GRP for nearly 8 years as a 2-time entrepreneur. Most recently, Mark was Vice President, Product Management at Salesforce.com (NASDAQ: CRM) following its acquisition of Koral, where Mark was a founder and CEO. Prior to Koral, Mark was Founder and CEO of BuildOnline.

The partners of GRP have invested in some of the leading global brands, including Costco, Dick's Sporting Goods, Caribou Coffee, Starbucks, P.F. Chang's, Overture, Bill Me Later and many others. GRP now manages approximately $1 billion on behalf of more than 150 limited partners in North America and Europe.

Scott Sangster

Scott is both an active investor and an advisor for early-stage companies. He is a member of the Los Angeles branch of Tech Coast Angels. Scott formerly oversaw Strategy & Corporate Development at the Walt Disney Internet Group. His role was to seek, evaluate and acquire new media growth opportunities.

Tech Coast Angels is the largest angel investor organization in the country. OrganicStartup advises and assists entrepreneurial ventures.

Andy Wilson

Andy is founder and Managing Director of Momentum Venture Management (MVM). Prior to founding MVM, he served in senior executive positions at Yahoo!/Overture Services, RiverOne and Bowne & Co. While with MVM, Andy spearheaded the raising of MVM’s two bridge funds and has led various portfolio companies through early commercialization and next rounds of venture funding. Andy currently serves on the boards for DPI (Chairman) and Brown Bag Naturals (Vice Chairman).

TECHNOLOGY & TRENDS PANEL - NOON

Jason Nazar - Moderator

Jason is the Co-Founder and CEO of Docstoc. Before starting Docstoc, he was a partner in a venture consulting firm in Los Angeles where he worked with dozens of startups. He holds have a BA from UCSB and his JD/MBA from Pepperdine University, where he was the Student Body President of both Universities.

Docstoc.com is the premier online community to find and share professional documents.

CLICK HERE to watch a PerfectBusiness interview with Jason.

Shawn Colo

Shawn co-founded Demand Media with Richard Rosenblatt in April, 2006. Since the Company's inception, Shawn has led over 30 acquisitions of websites and technology companies. In addition, Shawn negotiated and structured over $450 million worth of equity and debt financings for Demand. He is presently the Head of M&A, focused on mergers and acquisitions as well as strategic corporate partnerships. Prior to founding Demand, Shawn was a principal with Spectrum Equity Investors, a $4 billion media and communications focused private equity firm.

Demand Media is the leader in distributed social media powering 3 billion conversations per month.

Scott Painter

CEO / Founder - Zag & TrueCar

Just named the 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Technology Council of Southern California, Scott is passionate about cars, direct-to-consumer businesses and technology.  He’s drawn to big, game-changing ideas.  He has raised hundreds of millions in venture capital for dozens of companies.  He founded CarsDirect.com and is the founder and current CEO of Zag.com and TrueCar.com. Under Scott’s leadership, CarsDirect.com secured $350 million in funding and played a principal role in the transformation of the auto retail industry.

Zag is a technology and services company that has created a better way to buy a car.  It operates a robust shopping, research and pricing platform that saves buyers money by concentrating on group buying power. TrueCar is the authority on new car pricing. TrueCar aggregates data to show buyers and dealers how much people actually paid for a particular car in a particular geographic area.

Jon Swartz

Technology Reporter – USA Today

Jon is an award-winning technology writer and Pulitzer Prize nominee. He covers Silicon Valley trends, social networking and various aspects of Internet security, including software, spam and hacking. A high-tech journalist since 1987, Jon has written for Chicago Tribune, Forbes, London Times, MacWEEK, San Francisco Chronicle and Times-Picayune. He is also an author and appears regularly on TV, Internet and radio programs.

USA Today is America's largest circulation newspaper.

Frank Addante

Founder / CEO – Rubicon Project

Frank is a serial entrepreneur with one IPO and two acquisitions before the age of 30. He previously served as CTO and technology Founder of L90, Inc., a publicly-held Internet advertising company that was acquired by DoubleClick after a successful $112 million IPO. He invented adMonitor, one of the Internet's most successful ad serving platforms for Global 2000 companies. Frank's fifth company was StrongMail, the leading email delivery infrastructure provider for thousands of companies worldwide, including Fox Sports/MSN, Ticketmaster, Williams Sonoma, FTD, Netflix and MySpace.com. Frank was named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist and has been quoted in publications such as Forbes, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, LA Times and NY Times.

Rubicon Project is an online advertising technology company that pioneered the category of Ad Network Optimization. Today, the company has over 1,400 premium publisher customers, optimizes over 40 billion ad transactions per month and reaches over 450 million unique internet users around the globe.

ENTREPRENEUR PANEL - 1:30 PM

Tom O'Malia - Moderator

Tom's entire career experience has been in entrepreneurial ventures and teaching. He has served as the Director of the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Under his leadership, USC's entrepreneur program consistently ranked among the top programs in the nation. He has personally taught and inspired thousands of entrepreneurs. Tom is widely-regarded a leader in both academic and business circles.

The USC entrepreneur program was recognized as the #1 program in the country by Success Magazine.

CLICK HERE to watch a PerfectBusiness interview with Tom.

Steven Lipscomb

Steven founded the World Poker Tour with a vision to create a professional league of poker players comparable to the various professional sports leagues. His experience as both an entrepreneur and television/film producer enabled him to achieve his vision.

The WPT Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded company that oversees the World Poker Tour brand and various tournaments, programs and internet operations.

CLICK HERE to watch a PerfectBusiness interview with Steven.

Wing Lam

While surfing in Mexico's Baja Peninsula, Wing and his two brothers would refuel on freshly-prepared tacos found in roadside stands. Wing's family had operated restaurants in Brazil and California. In 1988, Wing and his brothers decided to import the fish taco they craved and give it a unique twist. Wahoo's was born. They combined the freshest ingredients with Brazilian recipes and an Asian flare. Wahoo's restaurants became a respected brand among avid surfers.

Wahoo's Fish Taco operates 53 locations (and growing) in California, Colorado, Hawaii and Texas.

CLICK HERE to watch a PerfectBusiness interview with Wing.

Jeff Tinsley

Jeff is the founder of MyLife.com, which was formerly known as Reunion.com. Jeff is experienced in building profitable online ventures. Among his past successes are RealityTracker, GreatDomains.com and Intelligent Business Concepts. He has also invested in several other successful companies.

MyLife.com is America's largest and most comprehensive people search service with over 30 million registered users.

CLICK HERE to watch a PerfectBusiness interview with Jeff.

EFFECTIVE WEB STRATEGY - Breakout Session - 3:30 PM

Tony Adam

Tony Adam has been involved in technology since 2001, with a focus on Internet Marketing, Product Development, Social Media and SEO. He has worked with many SMBs, startups, and larger organizations such as PayPal and Yahoo! Most recently, Tony was Yahoo! as SEO Program Manager at Yahoo! heading up strategies for SEO and spearheading efforts on the Social Media front for almost all of Yahoo!'s media properties, providing SEO strategies, tactical SEO advice and Social Media Promotion for Yahoo! content.

BillShrink is a free, personalized savings tool that helps you save money on your everyday bills.

Jackie Peters

Jackie started out as a developer during Web 1.0 - her career went from there to screen design, to multimedia development and ultimately to building and executing communication strategy. In 2001, Jackie co-founded Heavybag Media. Her role is to develop marketing strategies that utilize social tools, community platforms, traditional and non-traditional media and technology in order to enable brands to engage their audience on a meaningful level.

Heavybag Media is an interactive marketing firm, which believes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and understanding how all of the parts work together makes it even greater.

PR & MARKETING TACTICS THAT WORK - Breakout Session - 2:30 PM

Tyler Barnett - Moderator

Tyler Barnett was recognized as one of Business Week's "Best Young Entrepreneurs Under 25." He represents some of America's best-known brands and has demonstrated a particular skill in using technology marketing to drive PR campaigns.

Barnett Ellman is a public relations firm dedicated to firms interested in targeting the millennial generation.

CLICK HERE to watch a PerfectBusiness interview with Tyler.

Greg Cargill

Greg built a career in the new media industry by working his way up through the cutting-edge media departments at Interscope Records, IGA Records, Virgin/Immortal Records, Suretone Records and Custard Records.  Over the course of 8 years, Greg learned to master the art of customer engagement.  His experience and advanced marketing strategies are now used to generate business for bigMETHOD’s roster of clients.

bigMETHOD is a digital marketing agency focused on leveraging social media to connect clients directly with their audience.  bigMETHOD has created proprietary tools to measure the effectiveness and marketing campaigns.

Lewis Howes

Lewis is the co-author of the LinkedIn success book "LinkedWorking: Generating Success on the World's Largest Professional Networking Website." He runs SportsNetworker.com and RippleResults.com, while also helping professionals and corporations achieve greater returns through social networking. Lewis is also a former athlete and two-sport All-American.

Ripple Results helps offline businesses make waves in the online world by creating tutorials and case studies to show people how to attract customers online.

HOW TO BRING A PRODUCT OR INVENTION TO MARKET - Breakout Session - 3:30 PM

Mateo Neri - Moderator

Co-Head of Entrepreneurial Mentorship Initiative – Art Center College of Design

Mateo has co-founded five corporations over the past 17 years creating web applications, enterprise software and online products still in the market today for Fortune 2000 companies. He has successfully raised several million dollars in angel funding. Mateo teaches an entrepreneurial curriculum on how to take a product or idea to market.

Art Center College of Design is a leader in art and design education for almost 80 years. Its programs challenge students through a transdisciplinary curriculum that explores socially responsible, creative and design-based solutions to real-world issues.

Julie Pickens

CEO / Co-Founder - Little Busy Bodies, Inc (Boogie Wipes)

As co-founder of Boogie Wipes, Julie has led the product line from idea to $4 Million in retail sales in two years.  Little Busy Bodies is a finalist for Oregon Entrepreneur of the Year.  The Mompreneur story of Boogie Wipes has been featured in over 200 media outlets across the country including CNBC, FOX News, The TODAY Show, Reader’s Digest, Chain Drug Review and The Los Angeles Times.

Boogie Wipes, saline wipes for stuffy noses, are now sold in 40,000 locations across the US, Canada and Mexico, including Wal-Mart, Nordstrom, Watsons, Rite Aid, Rexall, Sam’s Club, Toys”R”Us, Kroger, Safeway and Walgreens.

Stephen Key

Inventor – Spinformation

Stephen is a successful, award-winning inventor who has licensed his ideas for over 30 years. Several of his products have been endorsed by celebrities, such as Michael Jordan and Alex Trabek, and sold in retail giants, such as Walmart, Walgreens, 7-Eleven and Disney stores. A new children's medication product which features Stephen's latest invention (a rotating label technology) will be appearing in 9,000 stores this fall. As an inventor, Stephen has been featured in the L.A. Times, Newsweek, Money Magazine, CNN.com, ABC News, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch and the Dr. Phil Show.

Spinformation is a licensing company that specializes in rotating label technology for the packaged goods industry. Stephen has 12 patents for rotating label technology, which are licensed by Spinformation.

HOW MONEY IS MADE IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS - Breakout Session - 3:30 PM

Dan Cull - Moderator

President / Co-Founder - Gorilla Music

Dan is the country‘s most prolific talent buyer. He personally oversees 15 full-time talent buyers who help him organize and promote more than 10,000 band performances each year. His company is expanding into new areas of the music industry, including strategic partnerships with major record labels. Dan has been promoting concerts since 1997, and has worked with thousands of headlining acts, such as Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, My Chemical Romance, Good Charlotte and System of a Down.

Gorilla Music produces 1,300 concerts each year and more than a dozen music festivals in 70 cities across the country.

Jenny McPhee

Agent - The Kirby Organization (TKO)

Jenny is a music booking agent at the fast-growing TKO agency. TKO was founded when veteran agent Dave Kirby left The Agency Group to set off on his own. Prior to TKO, Jenny was a booking agent for The Agency Group.

TKO is a full-service agency that represents bands such as Anthrax, Fear Factory, Mudvayne, Hank III, Buckcherry, Motorhead, Papa Roach and many other acts.

Charlie D‘Atri

Marketing Director / Director Synergy & Special Projects - Hollywood Records / Disney

Charlie wears several hats at Disney. He markets a roster of artist projects, which range from multi-platinum stars to first-step beginners as well as soundtrack albums. Charlie is also responsible for internal marketing at Disney, including cooperative efforts with different divisions. In addition, he handles artist signings, product development and other special projects. He has worked at Hollywood Records / Disney for the past 14 years. Prior to that, Charlie held Director and V.P. roles at Columbia Records, Def Jam and Chrysalis Records.

Hollywood Records operates as a unit of Disney and releases many film soundtracks, as well as hits from many prominent young stars, including Miley Cyrus, Jesse McCartney, Plain White T's and the Jonas Brothers.

"HOW TO WIN IN BUSINESS" FROM REALITY TV ENTREPRENEURS - Breakout Session - 2:30 PM

Darren Hardy - Moderator

Publisher & Editorial Director - SUCCESS Magazine

Darren is the visionary force behind SUCCESS magazine. He has interviewed and collaborated with countless super-achievers, including top CEOs, revolutionary entrepreneurs, superstar athletes, entertainers and experts on human achievement. Darren distills the very best ideas and strategies, mixes in his own street-tested principles, and shares these insights with over a million people every month. Darren regularly appears on national radio and TV, including CNBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and others.

SUCCESS magazine is a national publication and media company designed specifically to serve the growing entrepreneur, the home-based and small-business markets.

Kelly Perdew

Winner of "The Apprentice" on NBC; CEO of RotoHog.com

Kelly is a nationally recognized speaker and entrepreneur. After winning the second season of NBC's hit show "The Apprentice," Kelly spent 2005 as an Executive VP in The Trump Organization. He has held numerous leadership positions in companies such as Core Objects Software, MotorPride.com, K12 Productions and eteamz.com. Kelly was most recently President of ProElite.com, an online social network for combat sport enthusiasts. Kelly is a graduate of US Military Adademy, West Point and holds a JD from UCLA School of Law and MBA from Anderson School at UCLA. Kelly is presently CEO of RotoHog.com.

RotoHog.com offers a full suite of robust fantasy sports games, casual games and social network applications for strategic business partners.

Shawn Nelson

Winner of "Rebel Billionaire" on FOX; Founder / CEO of LoveSac

In 1995, a determined 18-year-old thought to himself, "I want to take a beanbag and Oversize it." So he did. Shawn created a "Sac" seven feet across. He sewed the first five Sacs on his mother's sewing machine. LoveSac was born, and the company grew and expanded into other fun furniture lines. Shawn later gained notoriety after winning $1,000,000 on FOX's reality hit "Rebel Billionaire" starring Sir Richard Branson.

LoveSac is an alternative furniture company that produces oversized "Sacs," sectional furniture and bedding. LoveSac also operates stores in 21 states and 3 countries.

5-MINUTE PITCH FEEDBACK - Breakout Session - 2:30 PM

This is a Special Breakout Session. You must sign-up upon arrival at the conference to present your business and get personal feedback from these experts. Spaces are very limited.

C. Bryce Benjamin

Bryce has been a successful angel entrepreneur since the early 1980's. Over his career, he has alternated between stints as investor, CFO, COO or CEO in nearly 20 companies. Bryce was founding CEO/Chairman of Language Weaver, the world's leading language translation software. He was an early investor and board member for IntelliChoice, Inc., until it was sold to Primedia. He was Chairman of MyCarPage.com, until a successful management buyout in 2005. Bryce currently serves on the boards of two non-profits and on the Executive Committee of Tech Coast Angels.

Tech Coast Angels is the largest angel investor organization in the country. Alta Ventures is a family private equity fund aimed at making investments in very early stage ventures located in California.

Karen E. Klein

Karen is a Los Angeles-based columnist for Business Week and The Los Angeles Times.  She has also written for Newsday, The Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Daily News and Sunset Magazine.  For more than a decade, she has focused on small business and retirement planning.  Her byline has appeared in Entrepreneur Magazine and other national business publications.

Karen’s “Smart Answers” column in Business Week and “In Box” column in The L.A. Times give advice to thousands of entrepreneurs each week.

Sam Horn

Sam is renowned for her ability to show entrepreneurs and organizations how they can develop attention-grabbing, one-of-a-kind ideas and approaches that help them break out vs. blend in. She does this through books, consulting, weekend camps, media interviews and presentations.

Sam has been featured on NPR, Investor's Business Daily, MSNBC, Business Week and other media. Her clients include Intel, Boeing, Legg Mason, Capital One, Amex OPEN, American Bankers Assn., SCORE and Hewlett-Packard.

Tom O'Malia

Tom's entire career experience has been in entrepreneurial ventures and teaching. He has served as the Director of the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Under his leadership, USC's entrepreneur program consistently ranked among the top programs in the nation. He has personally taught and inspired thousands of entrepreneurs. Tom is widely-regarded a leader in both academic and business circles.

The USC entrepreneur program was recognized as the #1 program in the country by Success Magazine.

CLICK HERE to watch a PerfectBusiness interview with Tom.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BUSINESS FORMATION - Breakout Session - 3:30 PM

Chas Rampenthal

Chas Rampenthal is experienced in general corporate, partnership, venture capital and securities law. Before joining LegalZoom, he was a founding partner of Belanger and Rampenthal LLC and was an associate at firms in Boston and Los Angeles. Chas was also an officer and aviator in the United States Navy. Chas is admitted to practice law in both California and Massachusetts.

LegalZoom is a legal document service company that helps people create legal documents, including business formations (incorporations, LLCs and DBAs), patents, copyrights and trademarks.

WISDOM FROM SERIAL ENTREPRENEURS - Breakout Session - 2:30 PM

Mark Verge - Moderator

Founder - WestsideRentals.com; Co-Founder - PerfectBusiness.com

Mark is a prolific entrepreneur who built WestsideRentals into the leading apartment search site in California. He presently owns or co-owns 17 other businesses, including hotels, real estate, restaurants/bars and PerfectBusiness.com. Mark got started as an entrepreneur selling coins and has parlayed his successes into many other businesses. He pursues new projects that are strategically aligned with his existing businesses, or simply because he finds them exciting. Mark enjoys helping and working with aspiring entrepreneurs.

WestsideRentals.com is the #1 apartment and rental search site in California. PerfectBusiness.com provides entrepreneur education and resources for new and existing business owners.

Nolan Bushnell

Founder - Atari, Chuck E. Cheese’s, Tapcode & uWink

Nolan is best-known as the founder of Atari Corporation and Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theater.  He is revered as the “Father of the Video Game Industry.”  He has founded numerous other companies, including Catalyst Technologies, a technology incubator; Etak, the first car navigation system; Androbot, a personal robotics company; and ByVideo, the first online/kiosk ordering system.  Over the years, he has won numerous entrepreneur and technology awards, and is one of America’s great entrepreneurial stories.  He presently heads Tapcode and uWink.

Tapcode is a digital media and hospitality software company.  uWink owns and operates restaurants with touch screen terminals that allow customers to order food and play games.

Holly Han

Holly has worked in consumer products, fashion and technology in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles for the past 16 years. She has started four businesses, ranging from MyShape (with venture capital funding) to 64North (bootstrap funding). Holly is also Director of Special Projects at The Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

MyShape is an innovative online retailer that matches clothing to consumers based on their body shape and profile. 64North provides web design, branding and consulting services. The Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the UCLA Anderson School of Management is recognized as one of the top entrepreneur programs in the country.

HOW SMALL BUSINESS LENDING REALLY WORKS - Breakout Session - 2:30 PM

Karen E. Klein - Moderator

Karen is a Los Angeles-based columnist for Business Week and The Los Angeles Times.  She has also written for Newsday, The Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Daily News and Sunset Magazine.  For more than a decade, she has focused on small business and retirement planning.  Her byline has appeared in Entrepreneur Magazine and other national business publications.

Karen’s “Smart Answers” column in Business Week and “In Box” column in The L.A. Times give advice to thousands of entrepreneurs each week.

Alberto Alvarado

District Director - Small Business Administration

As District Director of SBA's highest dollar lending volume office in the country, Alberto is responsible for the delivery of SBA programs to over 12 million people in Los Angeles. For eleven years, he served as District Counsel and managed the SBA's largest Legal Division in the country. Prior to this, he also worked as a staff attorney for the U.S. SBA.

In the past 3 years, the SBA Los Angeles District office ranked #1 in the country in lending nearly $3.4 billion to 15,079 businesses. The nation's largest SBA district office also oversees seven Small Business Development Centers, five chapters of SCORE and five Women's Business Centers.

Bill Schleifer

Regional VP, Business Banking - Union Bank

Bill is the Regional Vice President for Business Banking at Union Bank. He specializes in helping small businesses with sales ranging from $0 to $10 million. Before Union Bank, Bill worked as the Sales Manager for Cal National and Pacific National Banks. He previously spent over 13 years at Wells Fargo Bank, where he was recognized nationally as a top-producing Business Development Officer for the Commercial Banking Group.

Union Bank is known as a Business Bank for Entrepreneurs and is the 5th largest bank in California by deposits with over 300 branches statewide.

THE PERFECT PITCH COMPETITION JUDGES

Okapi Venture Capital provides long-term capital and management support to emerging businesses in the information technology and life science sectors. Okapi currently manages a venture fund chartered to invest in seed and early-stage companies.

Rustic Canyon Partners is one of the largest venture capital firms in Southern California. Rustic Canyon invests in seed-stage and later-stage opportunities typically requiring a $2-4 million initial investment.

Tech Coast Angels is the largest angel investor organization in the country. Alta Ventures is a family private equity fund aimed at making investments in very early stage ventures located in California.

PerfectBusiness is an online entrepreneur resource that provides training courses, business plan software and funding introduction services.

The Virgin Group is a network of over 200 companies spanning a variety of industries, including transportation, entertainment, retail, communications and internet businesses.

Flybridge Capital Partners teams with talented entrepreneurs to grow innovative global companies in the consumer, healthcare and information technology markets. Flybridge is a venture capital firm with $560 million under management and has a passion for early-stage investing.

PwC provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders. PwC also publishes the MoneyTree Report which tracks venture investment in the U.S.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson is an industry-leading venture capital firm with $6 billion under management and more than 500 companies funded. It was recognized as the #1 Dealmaking Venture Capital Firm for 2008. DFJ Global Network is an international network of early-stage venture capital funds with offices in over 30 cities around the globe.

The Elevator is an international magazine that tracks private equity deals, luxury goods and philanthropy around the world. It is created for an elite audience looking for edgy private equity investments and industry insight.

August Capital manages $1.3 billion in venture capital funds and has invested in more than 75 companies across the technology spectrum. August invests in companies with technical innovation and entrepreneurial excellence.

Baroda Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on early-stage venture investments (Seed and Series A) in the consumer internet, SaaS and digital media industries ranging from $100K to $5M.

Venture Hype is a member-based network for seed-stage investors who are excited about profits and promising startups. It offers a refreshing take on startup investing scenes and it features seasoned industry players to inform, educate, and entertain angel investors on venture investing ABCs.

Santa Monica Capital Partners is an entrepreneurial merchant bank, which raises capital and funds emerging growth companies.

Tech Coast Angels is the largest angel investor organization in the country. GKM Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on IT companies in the western U.S.

Cal Cap Partners manages venture capital funds and invests in small to medium sized technology-based businesses with high growth potential. Investments range from $1.5 million to $10 million per placement.

Tech Coast Angels is the largest angel investor organization in the country. OrganicStartup advises and assists entrepreneurial ventures.

The partners of GRP have invested in some of the leading global brands, including Costco, Dick's Sporting Goods, Ca ribou Coffee, Starbucks, P.F. Chang's, Overture, Bill Me Later and many others. GRP now manages approximately $1 billion on behalf of more than 150 limited partners in North America and Europe.

Qualcomm Ventures is a $500 million fund committed to strategic investments in early-stage high-technology ventures. Qualcomm Ventures has funded numerous companies and set up regional funds to spur development internationally.

Momentum Venture Management helps early-stage companies achieve early business results and develop credibility in order to attract funding and transform into sustainable, successful businesses.

Arizona Angels is a group of accredited investors who invest primarily in Arizona-based early-stage and developing-growth companies.