THE PATHWAYS TO A SUCCESSFUL ‘SCALE-UP’
2021 April 06
Location: Virtual
IEEE Entrepreneurs Network – Boston – are all about entrepreneurs!
There are important strengths that startup company founders and entrepreneurs have launch companies, to prove a value proposition and establish some traction in the market, and that success might land you seed investment. But to land an A round, you need to establish a business model that can scale to a level that can justify the kind of return A round investors would seek. Read More.
This event is co-organized by IEEE Entrepreneurship.
The ENET webinar on April 6, 2021, is on the important topic of scaling your company.
- How do you establish a business model that can scale?
- How do you implement the scale-up of your business? …including what resources you are going to need to bring to bear to successfully commence the scale-up of your business.
- What are the inflection points? … At what level of scaleup, will you achieve an inflection point sufficient that your company might attract potential acquirers and a potential liquidity event for you and your investors.
- How do you scale to a successful exit/liquidity event?
This is all part of our topic for the evening “Pathways to a Successful Scale-up.” The discussion will also include how there are different pathways to scaleup in different fields, and how scale-ups vary between tech, life science, and e-commerce companies. Our three, well-experienced speakers, are each drawn from different sectors of the economy, including technology companies, life science/medical devices, staffing, commerce, and beyond from the diverse experiences of our panel, moderated by ENET Chair Emeritus Rob Adelson.
After each of the speakers offers a presentation of different aspects of the topic, we will end the evening with a fireside chat, with the audience and moderator questions for each of the speakers on the panel. There will be more than an hour of online networking available to registrants.
There will be more than an hour of online networking via Grapevine, available to registrants before the meeting, and a half-hour networking post-meeting, that would give attendees the chance to “meet” virtually the speakers and moderator.
Register Now!
Agenda:
5:30 – 6:45 – Networking on Grapevine Network
7:00 – 7:10 PM – ENET Chairperson’s announcements
7:10 – 7:25 PM – eMinute Pitch – Up to 3 Startup companies’ presentations
7:25 – 8:10 PM – expert speakers on the night’s topic
8:10 – 8:30 PM – Moderator and Audience Q & A with the speakers
8:30 – 9:00 PM – Networking on Grapevine Network
(all times are USA Eastern Daylight time)
A question and answer session will follow the panel discussion, and panelists will be available afterward for responses to individual questions.
Speakers:
Jennifer Crawford, Co-Founder @ Sparent, LLC, Fairfax, Virginia, a virtual assistant agency staffed by stay-at-home moms with skills to spare. Sparent provides virtual assistant services as well as virtual staffing. Since 2015, Jennifer has been and remains Founder @ PodFest Productions, LLC, the first podcasting conference in the DC area. This intimate conference informs, educates, and empowers a diverse group of podcasters to share their unique voice with the world. Besides those companies in business, Jennifer also works and performs in the entertainment field. She is Co-Founder & Managing Imp (Imp Wrangler) @ The Improv Imps, where she performs with a group of people who love being funny together in front of an audience, with performances all over the DC metro area in both long and short-form improv. Since her college days at George Mason University, in the period between 1991 and 2015, Jennifer has been the owner and founder of several other companies, including a 4-year stink as CIC (chick in charge) @ Soundry Productions, where the company opened its doors after converting an auto body shop into a public coffee shop, performance space, art gallery and early co-working space for the creative class.
Ken Stauffer, Chair of The Board Of Trustees @ Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology. East Elmhurst, NY.
Ken has spent 30+ years in the telecommunications industry. He began his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, NJ after receiving his AAS from Vaughn College, a BSEE from Pratt, and an MSEE from Polytechnic University in New York City. Ken left AT&T in 2000 to become an entrepreneur as part of a management team founding EPIK Communications–a $460M start-up in Florida. He designed EPIK’s advanced services strategy, created both the Product Innovation Group and EPIK Labs, implemented a suite of “enlightened” IP and Ethernet products, and served as EPIK’s Senior Vice President of Operations and Chief Technology Officer. He also led a team to create the vision for “The NAP in 2011of the Americas” in Miami which was later sold by Terremark to Verizon in 2011 for $1.4B. In Jan 2003, Ken formed Technology Assurance Labs to provide consulting, design, and testing services to venture capital groups, network equipment manufacturers, and service providers. He also founded Cypress Equipment, a product sales company. Starting in 2010, Technology Assurance Labs develops RFID products for the rail industry and IoT products for the propane and natural gas industry. Ken served as CEO for both companies for 15 years, before stepping down to become Chair of the Board of Directors @Vaughn College. Ken is also a Life Senior Member of IEEE, and he co-founded the IEEE Entrepreneurship Initiative in 2015 and currently serves as the 2020-2021 Chair of the IEEE Entrepreneurship Steering Committee.
Mark Bonifacio, President @ Bonifacio Consulting Services LLC, a manufacturing consultancy firm that works with medical device OEM’s and contract manufacturers to help them grow organically and through mergers and acquisitions. So, the scale-up of life science companies to a successful event is Mark’s work and business. Mark leverages his education, decades of global manufacturing experience, an extensive international network to provide unique value. In his early career, Mark worked for several major medical device OEM’s then co-founded APEC, a medical device contract manufacturer. Mark built APEC from the ground up and sold it to Freudenberg Medical in 2007. He established Bonifacio Consulting Services soon after. Today, Mark assists organizations in business growth, strategy and tactical execution, M&A, joint ventures, and licensing. He also advises on cost-reduction initiatives, operational and organizational improvements. Notable clients include TE Connectivity, MedPlast, Wendel, Onex, Medtronic, and Millipore, among others. With a B.S. in plastics engineering from the University of Lowell (now UMASS-Lowell), Mark brings deep engineering and operational expertise along with an entrepreneurial drive. Mark is well-known in medical device manufacturing and is a regular speaker and contributor for industry events and publications.
Moderator and Chief Organizer
Robert A. Adelson, Principal, Business and Tax attorney @ Adelson & Associates, LLC. Chair Emeritus @ Boston Entrepreneurs’ Network (ENET).
Rob has been an attorney for over 30 years specialized in business, tax, stock and options, employment, contracts, financing, trademarks, and intellectual property. Rob began as an associate at major New York City law firms before returning home to Boston in 1985 where he has since been a partner in small and medium-sized firms before joining Engel & Schultz LLP where he was a partner from 2004 to 2019. When the senior partners retired, he moved his law practice to his own firm, effective 1/1/2020. Rob represents entrepreneurs, start-ups and small companies, independent contractors and employees, and executives. Rob is a frequent speaker on business law topics and author of numerous articles published in Boston Business Journal, Mass High Tech, and other publications, plus more than thirty articles since 2016 on executive employment topics published by CEOWorld magazine. He has been named among the “Top 20 Boston Startup Lawyers” by ChubbyBrain.com, a website that provides tools for entrepreneurs. Rob has been on the ENET Board since 2002, was Vice-Chair 2005-2009, and ENET Chairman 2009-2019. He was also a Co-Founder and Board member of the 128 Innovation Capital Group (2004 -2015). In 2016, he received the IEEE USA Professional Achievement award for “extreme dedication to the entrepreneurship community.” He holds degrees from Boston University, B.A., summa cum laude, Northwestern University (Chicago), J.D., Law Review, and New York University, LL.M. in Taxation.
Co-Organizer
Thomas Monaco, Program Manager – IEEE Entrepreneurship @ IEEE, which is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity, the organization providing publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities. The Boston Entrepreneurs Network (ENET) has since its founding and remains affiliated with IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (www.ieee.org) Over more than 11 years from 2009 to the present, Tom has worked in a series of positions @ IEEE – currently, IEEE Entrepreneurship Community Program Manager, previously, Technical Activities Project.