Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Jasmine Antonick
Just north from Seattle on August 18, the GROW Conference (held in Vancouver, Canada) is proving the Pacific Northwest and our Canadian cohorts are capturing the attention of Silicon Valley in a big way.
Who’s coming? M&A executives Neeraj Anora of Google and Amin Zoufonoun of Facebook; as well as investors such as Jeff Clavier (SoftTech VC), Rob Hayes (First Round Capital) and startup veterans like Garrett Camp of StumbleUpon and Uber are flying up to Vancouver to met with founders and share their insights at GROW.
PNW area founders are invited to join in. Can you think of a better excuse for a road trip? If you register now, you also have time to sign up for networking activities like kite boarding on August 19 following the conference.
“Vancouver, Seattle and Portland make up a super-cluster of tech innovation and we’re all in the same boat when in comes to making the Pacific Northwest a great place to be an entrepreneur.” says Chris DeVore, General Partner at Founders Co-op in Seattle. “Gatherings like GROW are key to building up an eco-system that will see more successful startups plant their roots up here.”
Seattle 2.0 VIP Discount (limited quantity): http://bit.ly/GROWseattle
WHO’S COMING? MEET SILICON VALLEY INVESTORS, FOUNDERS, AND CONNECTORS:
- Neeraj Arora, Principal, Corporate Development – Google
- Jason Bailey, General Manager of Virtual Currency - Super Rewards
- Rob Bailey, VP of Business Development, SimpleGeo
- Garrett Camp, Founder - StumbleUpon
- Wesley Chan, Investment Partner - Google Ventures
- Jeff Clavier, Managing Partner - SoftTech VC
- Matt Galligan, Co-Founder, CSO - SimpleGeo
- Mike Ghaffary, Director - Yelp
- Rob Hayes, Managing Partner - First Round Capital
- Jeff Lawson, Co-Founder – Twilio
- Lars Leckie, Partner - Hummer Winblad
- Howard Lindzon, Co-Founder, CEO - StockTwits
- Don Mattrick, President, Interactive Entertainment Business – Microsoft
- Issac Saldana, Founder – SendGrid
- Aydin Senkut, Founder and President – Felicis Ventures
- Munjal Shah, GM, Boutiques - Google
- Yona Shtern, Co-Founder and CEO - Beyond the Rack
- Matt Van Horn, VP Business Development - Path
- Brian Wong, Founder - Kiip
- Amin Zoufonoun, Director, Corporate Development – Facebook
“The goal of GROW is to connect the next generation of entrepreneurs with top investors and mentors from Silicon Valley,” says Debbie Landa, CEO of Dealmaker Media and co-founder of GrowLab accelerator.
“We’re busting the myth that you need to be in the Valley to be relevant. Fact is, investors and corp dev executives are looking outside the Valley for innovation. It’s our job to make those connections for them at GROW.”
