From the producers of the acclaimed Under the Radar, the Momentum Growth Conference honors 15 industry leaders dominating the next stage of the growth cycle - a who's who of leading companies with real customers, real revenue, real partnerships, and the vision to change their market landscape in the next 12-18 months.

At Momentum, discussions will not only be about how these superstars gained momentum, but also how they plan to keep it. We'll be talking about growth - the business opportunities that lie ahead for the Momentum 15, the current stakeholders in the market and the entire ecosystem surrounding it.  The conference will also feature Ones to Watch – rising stars who have every indication of being unstoppable.

Momentum 15 Companies:

The Momentum Growth Companies and Ones to Watch have been selected by Dealmaker Media’s editorial team and the Momentum Growth Conference selection committee comprised of bankers, industry executives, influencers, analysts, and VCs. Companies selected will be invited to participate in the conference program and profiled on Dealmaker Media and its partner blogs.

Conference Program in 2007:

The one-day conference will feature keynotes, panel discussions, and presentations featuring key industry players, Momentum Growth companies, and the Ones to Watch.

Topics:

• Business Models That Drive Momentum
• What Advertisers Want, What Businesses NeedPartnerships - Relying on the Kindness of Strangers
• Thinking Outside the "Bubble"
  
• Social Communities - Winning Friends and Influencing People
• Buy, Sell, Hold? - Yes, You Have Mo' to Think About
  

Participants:

The 300 participants include CEOs, investment bankers, corporate and business development executives from public companies, VCs, industry analysts, service firms, and press.

2006 SUCCESS STORIES:

Past companies and speakers can be found here.

Photobucket | Acquired by News Corp. for $300M.

Facebook | Yahoo! offered $1B but was turned down.

Blinkx | Acquired by Autonomy – IPO’d on London's AIM.

Glu Mobile | IPO’d raising $84M, giving the company a market cap of $320M+.

GENERAL EVENT INFO
Location:
Thursday, October 4, 2007 | 8:00am - 6:00pm

Microsoft, Conference Center, Building 1
1065 La Avenida Street | Mountain View, CA, 94043
Microsoft Phone: 650-693-1001

Directions: http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/info/usaoffices/northernca/siliconvalley.mspx

TRAVEL INFO

Airport: San Jose
Hotels: http://silicon.valley.hotelguide.net/hl1ba.htm

• How to attract attention of the right buyers
• How to find out what acquirers are willing to buy
• How to play hard to get and be bought, not sold

 SOLD OUT!!

August 15, 2007 | 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Nokia Research Center | Palo Alto, CA

•  What are brand advertisers expecting to see and pay for in mobile advertising?
•  Are brands engaging or is it still experimental territory?
•  Do consumers want advertisements? What is a good user experience?

Moderator:
Andreas Kluth, Technology Correspondent, The Economist
Speakers:

Peter Barry, Head of Venture Capital and Start-ups, Vodafone Group

 

Strategy Series | Partnering with Gorillas 
July 18, 2007 | 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Perkins Coie | Menlo Park, CA

•  How to have a clear and realistic understanding of what you can get out of a relationship with a bigger company.
•  Types of research that can yield invaluable insights into what big companies are looking for in technology partners.
•  Negotiating the terms of the deal without giving away the crown jewels.
•  How to spot red flags in the negotiating process and knowing when to walk away.

DISCUSSION SESSIONS:

Sessions will be moderated, yet interactive, using the collective wisdom from both featured speakers and participants. The following topics will be framed using specific experiences or case studies to illustrate why and how specific strategies worked.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:

AOL/Userplane | Mike Jones | CEO, Userplane
Fenwick & West | Sam Angus | Partner
First Round Capital | Rob Hayes | Partner

Google | Amin Zoufonoun | Principal, Corporate Development  

Intel Capital | Rob Rueckert | Senior Investment Manager
Jive Software | Dave Hersh | CEO
Microsoft | Don Dodge | Emerging Business Team, Collaboration

Panorama Capital | Mike Jung | Principal

Salesforce.com | Adam Gross | VP, Developer Marketing

Salesforce.com | Mark Suster | VP, Salesforce Content

SAP | Dan Maloney, Vice President, SAP Global Ecosystem and Partner Group
Scale Venture Partners | Sharon Wienbar | Managing Director
ThinkFree | Jonathan Crow | Director of Marketing
TSX | Ungad Chadda | Director of Listings
WebEx | Jay Shah | Vice President, Business Development

CONFIRMED PRIVATE SPEED-DATING COMPANIES

Central Desktop | DreamFactory | EchoSign | Habeas | IMified | Jive Software | Netvibes | Oddcast | Pageflakes | Salesforce Content (formerly Koral) |  Seriosity | Smartsheet | Thinkfree | Vyew | Yugma | Zoho

SCHEDULE:

10:30am - 12:00pm - Invitation-Only Speed Dating

12:00pm - 1:00pm - Registration and Grab-a-Lunch

1:00pm - 2:00pm - Scale & Scalability - Cool Technology to Cool Millions

Ok, so say you've built the greatest office product since paper clips. Now, let's say you have attracted thousands, no scratch that, millions of users and they all love what you've built. Now what? How do you turn your exponentially better office solution into a viable, scalable business? Once you have customers, how do you scale and monetize to go from a cool technology product to cool millions? This session will allow participants to dialogue with leaders who have had success in building a sustainable business in this sector.

2:00pm - 2:20pm - Break

2:20pm - 3:20pm - Till Death Do Us Part? - Building Mutually Beneficial Partnerships

While it is probably true that your venture may be the next big thing, it is also true that your probability for success would exponentially increase if you had a Tech Heavyweight in your corner. Whether for distribution, marketing, development, monetization strategy, or just leveraging existing APIs, teaming with a giant is the strongest route to building an empire. Learn from those who have negotiated on both sides of the table what it takes to get a deal done and how to make it work for you.

3:20pm - 3:50pm - Break

3:50pm - 4:50pm - Exit Here - Veer Left at IPO or Right at Acquisition

Recently, acquisitions have been the only viable exit for many start-ups. However, there was a time in Silicon Valley when IPO was the exit of choice. With interest rates still relatively low and buyers flooding the market, acquisitions don't seem to be losing any steam. But the public markets are becoming more attractive options for some companies. In fact, some have even prophesized that 2007 will be the year of the IPO. In this panel, we'll hear directly from those who have "walked the walk" on what it's like to veer left at IPO or right at acquisition and how to determine the best option for your company.

5:00pm - 6:30pm - Invitation-Only Speed Dating

5:00pm - 6:30pm - Attendee Reception

TO REQUEST AN INVITATION: Space is limited for this event. To request an invitation, please complete our form.

The cost to attend The Dealmaker Forum is $125 for members and $165 for non-members.

Which Comes First - Eyeballs or Revenues?
June 6, 2007 | 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Perkins Coie | Menlo Park, CA 

Most consumer-facing startups fight an uphill battle to gain massive user adoption, or dare we say, eyeballs. Try asking 10 start-ups where the money will come from, and 9 out of 10 will say, "advertising." Despite the fact that ad dollars are moving off TV and out of magazines, are there really enough advertisers out there to make everyones' business profitable (or even sustainable)? Didn't we learn anything from the last millennium? This Strategy Series event will bring together a collection of seasoned executives share their views on how to plan more strategically.

Discussion points include:

• What turns a consumer-facing company into a breakout play sustainable by advertising dollars?
• How do you a build a business that can withstand fluctuations in the advertising market? 
• How do you think about and plan for alternative strategies (M&A or IPO) for growth while ramping up your user base? 

 

April 19, 2007 | 6:30pm - 8:30pm

The difference between success and failure is execution - so what's your strategy for success?

You may have a cool technology, but so what? The bottom line is always the same: a good idea is just not enough - to play and compete in this game, companies need to have a scalable revenue model, sustainable critical mass, a bullet-proof strategy and flawless execution.

We will discuss the key factors that lead to success and separate the bench warmers from the players. Discussion points include:

• What's your bullet-proof strategy to gaining market share?
• What are the most successful revenue models?
• How do you identify and measure your company's value proposition to go from a "nice to have" to "must have"?
• Once the beta is over, how do companies find paying customers?
• Once they find paying customers, how do they keep them, stay innovative and continue building and delivering value for them?
• How do you identify strategic partnerships to drive growth and adoption, and what is your value add?

 

February 13, 2007 | 6:30pm - 8:30pm | SAP Labs | Menlo Park, CA

The FACT: Change is undeniably afoot in the business software space.
The CATALYST: Start-ups with a value proposition for small-to-medium businesses.
The SITUATION: The SMB has been an elusive market for many years because the economics of finding and servicing business with few people and financial resources has not been worth the pay off. However, as web-based computing has exploded ?" the sands have shifted ?" in favor of the nimble start-up.
The OPPORTUNITY: Nowhere is the opportunity for a thriving revenue model is it more apparent than the emerging "Office 2.0" space where software and services are available for a fee. It's like turning on a switch ?" and presto ?" you've got a database, a website, secure storage ?" all for a monthly fee.
The RISK for the SMB market: The upstarts worry that notable giants will just "do it anyway." The RISK for existing enterprise market: Existing enterprise players who worry that these nimble and low-cost solutions will erode their market share.

In this strategy series, we'll explore strategies for success on both sides of the fence, reveal threats and opportunities you need to understand before you can compete, and determine whether everyone will be able to play together on the court... or whether some will be merely bench-warmers for the real players.

Topics to be covered:

How do we define the SMB market today and what kind of revenues does this market represent? What are the greatest pain-points for the SMB market?
What products are gaining the most traction and generating the most revenues?
How will traditional software firms' offerings change?

MODERATOR:
Mitchell Kertzman - Partner, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

PANELISTS:
Jason Lemkin - CEO, EchoSign
Zach Nelson - CEO, NetSuite
Cliff Reeves - General Manager, Microsoft
Jason Wolf - Senior VP of Strategic Initiatives, SAP

LOCATION:
SAP
3410 Hillview Ave Campus
Palo Alto, CA 94304

Registration closes on February 13, 2007 at 3:00pm
Non Members - $60 advance / $70 at the door

Members - $40 advance / $50 at the door

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