“How to Pitch”: Entrepreneurs Learn the Secrets of Marketing to Angel and Venture Capital Investors at a Morning Session in Silicon Valley

Menlo Park, California (March 9, 2005) – On March 15, 2005, leading Venture Capital and Angel investors are set to speak and coach entrepreneurs at the FundingPost “Silicon Valley Pitching Workshops” events sponsored by the City of Menlo Park, Orrick and TriNet. While most events only allow start-ups to network with investors, this event allows entrepreneurs to pitch their companies to early-stage investors and received helpful feedback from Angels and Venture Capitalists. The FundingPost Event Calendar and registration information are online at: http://www.fundingpost.com/events.asp

After completing four successful events in the same format in New York City and Philadelphia, FundingPost is bringing the “Pitching Workshops” model to Silicon Valley to help local start-ups get the kind of constructive critiques they need to be successful in achieving funding. There will be two pitching workshops, a morning session and an afternoon session. City of Menlo Park Mayor Mickie Winkler is scheduled to give the morning keynote speech.

After the keynote talks by Mickie Winkler, Mayor of the City of Menlo Park, the panelists will discuss what they look for in a successful entrepreneurial company pitch. Then the thirty companies in attendance will have the opportunity to give their own two minute “elevator pitch.” After the session, FundingPost will provide each start-up company with feedback from the investors. The speakers on the morning panel include:

• David Adams, Managing Director, Rocket Ventures
• Brian Ascher, Senior Principal, Venrock Associates
• Robert C. Marshall, Managing Director, Selby Venture Partners
• Alex Osadzinski, Venture Partner, Trinity Ventures
• Alexander J. Rhea, Founding General Partner, Pyramid Technology Ventures
• Kai Tse, Principal, GKM Ventures
• Bret Wilbur, Regional Sales Consultant, Trinet
• Peter Wolken, Special Limited Partner, Diamondhead Ventures

The eight panelists speaking at the morning and afternoon panels have extensive experience in the angel and venture capital investing arena.

Brian Ascher joined Venrock Associates in 1998 and is now a Senior Principal in Venrock's Menlo Park office. Mr. Asher is a Director of Atrenta, Datallegro, RelayHealth, T3Ci, Unicru, Vocera Communications, and Winery Exchange. Prior to Venrock, Mr. Ascher was Senior Product Manager for Intuit's Quicken.com website. Previous to his work with Intuit, Mr. Ascher worked as a Strategy Consultant at Monitor Company.

David Adams is a managing director of Rocket Ventures, and serves on the Boards of eBoomerang, Financial Interactive, and Rappore Technologies. Previously, Mr. Adams co-founded Greenfield Technology Ventures, a small seed fund and venture catalyst firm focused on enterprise software companies, where he specialized in investing in and providing interim management assistance to seed stage companies.

Robert C. Marshall is a Managing Director at Selby Venture Partners. Drawing on his own time as an entrepreneur, as the co-founder and founder of highly successful companies such as Tandem Computers, Diablo Systems, and InfoGear Technology, and driven by his interest in exciting new technology, Mr. Marshall offers seasoned guidance tempered with deep respect for the challenges young companies face. Mr. Marshall is currently on the board of 3ware, Inc., Bay Microsystems, Inc., Blue Pumpkin Software, Inc., Quicksilver Technology, Inc., Sierra Monitor Corp. and Wytec, Inc.

Alex Osadzinski is a Venture Partner at Trinity Ventures. Mr Osadzinski has over 20 years' experience in computer systems and software sales, marketing, engineering and general management. Mr Osadzinski held a number of management positions at Sun in the US, including VP Markets & Product Strategy. After general management positions at Grass Valley Group (Tektronix) he was VP Sales & Marketing at Be. More recently, he was VP Marketing at Vitria Technology and CEO of Katmango.

Mr. Tse is a Principal of GKM Ventures. Prior to joining GKM, Mr. Tse spent 4 years at Osprey Ventures where his investments included Netbotz, Atrua and Appshop, among others. Previously, Mr. Tse worked in business development and operations at Vcapital.com, a private equity exchange startup, where he was responsible for sourcing and analyzing venture capital investment opportunities and business development opportunities with venture capitalists, service providers and investors.

Alexander J. Rhea is a Founding General Partner of Pyramid Technology Ventures.
In late 1999, Mr. Rhea co-founded Pyramid Technology Ventures, a $123 million transatlantic venture capital fund with offices in both San Francisco and Paris. Prior to co-founding PTV, Mr. Rhea was an Investment Director at Part’Com (now Iris Capital), where he distinguished himself by being an early investor in such private companies as Phone.com, Interwave, Signalsoft and Be. From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Rhea served as the President of the US subsidiary of LaborBirkmayer, an Austrian medical group. Mr. Rhea started his first company, AJR Consulting, in 1986.

Peter Wolken joined Diamondhead Ventures in June 2000. Mr. Wolken has been a successful venture capitalist for more than 25 years. Prior to joining Diamondhead Ventures as a Special Limited Partner, Mr. Wolken founded (1982) and was a General Partner at Associated Venture Investors (AVI), which managed $140M across three funds. Prior to AVI, Mr. Wolken was a General Partner at Page Mill Partners, which was an investor in several successful companies, including Software Publishing Corporation, 3Com Corporation, Apple Computer and ASK Computer Systems.

Bret Wilbur has been in the HR Outsourcing business since 1998 in sales, sales management, and marketing roles. At TriNet he is a Regional Sales Consultant focused on providing his expertise to technology and professional services companies in the greater Bay Area. Prior to TriNet, Bret was with Administaff and Adecco. He is also a licensed benefits broker.

“We are delighted to be returning to Silicon Valley. The Pitching Workshops have been successful because both the entrepreneurs and the investors see the value of the exchange,” said Joe Rubin, Director, FundingPost. “The economy for early-stage investing is improving. Our investor panels are excited to see the new dealflow in these early companies, and the entrepreneurs are finding the investors’ tips and responses helpful for improving and refining their pitches.”

"We are pleased to provide the opportunity for entrepreneurs to share their business plans with venture capitalists, as VC investing is on the rise and this is a great forum for identifying promising new companies," said Peter Cohn, partner in Orrick's Emerging Companies Group.

“FundingPost has created innovative, high quality forums allowing TriNet to share our knowledge of the key human capital components with the decision makers building exciting new companies along with the institutional investors and advisors that are looking to help them grow those firms,” said Doug Bailey, Director of Sales, TriNet. “Their ability to bring the proper balance of the right entrepreneurs, the top players in the investment community, and the right partners like TriNet has been key to our mutual success.”

For more information about the Silicon Valley Pitching Workshops and other FundingPost events, contact Keith Henry at 203-659-6649 or visit the FundingPost website at http://www.fundingpost.com/events.asp

ABOUT FUNDINGPOST:
FundingPost is an entrepreneur and investor network reaching more than 60,000 executives and 6,000 Venture Capital and Angel Investors across the nation each month.

For over four years FundingPost has worked with thousands of Angel and Venture Capital Investors and Entrepreneurs. FundingPost has hosted over 4,000 CEOs and 500 Venture Funds at events in 15 cities nationwide, as well as providing a quarterly Dealflow magazine and a deal-exchange Website that has, on average, seen an introduction of an Investor to an Entrepreneur every business day since its inception. FundingPost’s mission to reach investors and entrepreneurs in every medium possible – both online and offline, and it is experiencing strong growth as the venture capital markets continue to improve worldwide.

ABOUT ORRICK:
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP is an international law firm with approximately 700 lawyers in North America, Europe, and Asia. The firm focuses on litigation, complex and novel finance, and innovative corporate transactions. Orrick clients include Fortune 100 companies, major industrial and financial corporations, commercial and investment banks, high-growth companies, governmental entities, start-ups, and individuals. The firm's 14 offices are located in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, Pacific Northwest, London, Milan, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and Taipei.

For more information, please contact our Communications Team at pr@orrick.com.

ABOUT TRINET:
Founded in 1988, TriNet offers the simplicity of a single solution for outsourcing benefits, payroll, and human resources. The company's online and in-person services allow customers throughout the United States and Canada to streamline their business, gain enterprise-level resources, and focus on strategy rather than administration. TriNet specializes in offering secure, paperless HR transactions to industries such as technology, venture capital, banking, accounting, and professional services.

TriNet is a member of the Vedior Group of companies. Vedior, NV is the world's third largest staffing and human resource firm with over $6 billion in revenue. TriNet is also a member of the Inc. 500 Hall of Fame, an honor earned for five consecutive rankings in Inc Magazine's list of fastest-growing, privately held companies. In addition to an annual financial audit conducted by Ernst & Young, TriNet is audited quarterly by the Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC), a non-profit organization providing financial assurance and responsibility standards for companies performing outsourced employer services. At the present time, TriNet is one of only six firms to receive continuous accreditation since the ESAC's founding in 1995.

For more information, visit www.trinet.com