Southern California Monte Jade To Host Its First Elevator Pitch Contest

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 1, 2006 — SCMJ, the Southern California chapter of the well know non-profit Chinese American Association Monte Jade, announced today that it has received warm responses to its first ever 3 Minutes Elevator Pitch Contest that will be held on Nov 18th, 2006 at Caltech Campus, with Caltech Entrepreneurs' Club as the co-organizer.

“What does 3 minutes mean to you? If you ask Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, they will tell you it means life or death, at the early stage of Google. It was only during those 3 or so minutes that they convinced their first angel investor to write a check of 100k, which was life-saving to their early development and growth," says Christine Xu, Chair of the event, "Nowadays, everyone is busy, especially investors. You may only have several minutes to impress them or lose the opportunity forever. Effective and persuasive communication and presentation are essential for entrepreneurs, especially if they are looking for outside investment. You may have a million dollar idea, or a cutting edge technology or a unique business model, but if you can't convince your investor to share the same vision, they will not invest in you. "
This 3 Minutes Elevator Pitch contest seeks to prepare future entrepreneurs, especially Chinese entrepreneurs in southern California, who are typically shy and disadvantaged by language and cultural barriers, a chance to practice their pitch to a panel of successful entrepreneurs and investors and receive valuable tips and feedbacks on how to deliver a concise, effective pitch.
"We have invited some of the best entrepreneurs and most active angel investors to be our panelists," says Co-Chair HC Lee, a successful entrepreneur himself, having sold a company to JDSU, "The panelists include angel investors from Tech Coast Angels, one of the largest angel investor groups in the world and Pasadena Angels, CEOs from public companies, and venture capitalists from Bay Area and even from China."
Among the judges, there are Dr. Michael D Bick, a serial entrepreneur and investor, currently CEO of MedicKey and former CEO of Xtrana, a public company that was merged with Alpha Innotech; Clifton K. Chang, Managing Partner & Founder of Santa Monica based Altair Investment Company, formerly a managing partner of the Trammell Crow Company, the nation’s largest real estate developer; Paul Deridder, MD, MBA, Executive Committee Member of Tech Coast Angels; Steven Kan from Clearstone Venture Partners, formerly with Yahoo/Overture, where he helped to grow Yahoo's contextual advertising business from a $3 million annual run rate to over $100 million in less than 15 months; Gideon Kory, CFA, Managing Director of Pacific Summit, formerly with Roth Capital, Kevin Scanlon, Director of Tech Coast Angels and Pasadena Angels, Dr. Xin Hunhua, Chairwoman of the Board, CEO, Shanghai ZhongBo Capital Co, etc.
"We have also received many strong candidates who are very interested in participating in the pitch," says Co-Chair Owen Wu, also the founding Chairman of SCMJ, "the presenting companies range from red hot green tech companies, web 2.0 companies, SNS, healthcare companies to hotel management companies, many of those are targeting China market. We thought this will be a very local event, however, we got candidates coming all the way from MIT, New York, Texas and China."
Victoria Wu, a Stanford graduate and currently working for BCG, is one of the participants. "I think this type of event will be very beneficial to future entrepreneurs here in Southern California. The perception is that Southern California seems to lag a little behind in terms of vibrant entrepreneurial activities and exchanges. SCMJ has always provided a series of events and forums that entrepreneurs can really learn something from."
"That's exactly what SCMJ is aiming for, to become a conduit to promote entrepreneurship and professional networking in the Chinese community, and provide mentoring and coaching to the younger generation." Says Lou Chang, the current Chair of SCMJ, "In the past, we have done a lot of speakers’ event, this event, however, takes on a different approach. We let our targeted audiences to take charge and be in the spot light, Even though it's a little risk-taking, but it will be a very rewarding and fun experience for everyone involved!"
For More information about the event, please go to website http://www.scmj.org and sign up online.

About SCMJ (Southern California Monte Jade
Founded in 2002 by Dr. Owen Wu and several others established the Southern California, SCMJ is a chapter under Monte Jade with the main objective to expand the learning experience about current high-tech developments worldwide and provide a unique opportunity to meet top-level executives of high-tech companies and top government policy makers in the global high-tech industry. SCMJ membership consists of professionals from the Southern California area in the United States. SCMJ's activities include monthly professional mixers with guest speakers, annual entrepreneur apprenticeship program, venture capital forums and social gatherings.