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Seattle 2.0 Startup Day: Planning to make the startup plunge, or already in the deep end? Look no further than this one-of-a-kind one-day conference to inspire and inform your new life as an entrepreneur. GeekWire is pleased to present the fourth year of this popular favorite, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday Sept. 22 at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Wash, followed by a reception.

The day features a lineup of startup veterans sharing their experiences and key lessons. Featuring keynoter Aaron Levie, Co-Founder and CEO, Box.

Bonus For Attendees

Hone Your Elevator Pitch: In the morning, a handful of lucky entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas to investor judges, get feedback and compete for a chance to present to the entire Startup Day audience. To get in on the Elevator Pitch, register below (no extra charge but space is extremely limited; choose ticket type “entrepreneur + elevator pitch.”). Check out our list of judges here.

Advice From Experts: Attendees can sign up for advice from experts in our Startup Resource Center. Bring your burning questions in finance, law, sales, marketing, PR, team-building, design, U/X and more. When you check in at registration, choose a category and enjoy a one-on-one meeting with best-in-breed advisors. First-come, first served so don’t miss out on this opportunity. Check out our list of experts here.

Speakers

Aaron Levie
Aaron Levie
CEO, Box
Darrell Cavens
Darrell Cavens
CEO, zulily
Aviel Ginzburg
Aviel Ginzburg
Co-founder and C3PO, Simply Measured
Mary Jesse
Mary Jesse
Founder and CEO, Ivy Corp.
Steve Murch
Steve Murch
CEO, BigOven
Adam Schoenfeld
Adam Schoenfeld
Co-founder and CEO, Simply Measured
Jonathan Sposato
Jonathan Sposato
former CEO Picnik, Chairman, GeekWire
Jordan Weisman
Jordan Weisman
CEO at Harebrained Schemes
Adam Tratt
Adam Tratt
CEO, Giant Thinkwell / HaikuDeck
Brenda Spoonemore
Brenda Spoonemore
CEO and co-founder, Dwellable
Mike Fridgen
Mike Fridgen
President & CEO of Decide.com
Aaron Levie
Aaron Levie
CEO, Box
Aaron is the CEO and co-founder of Box, which he originally created as a college business project with the goal of helping people easily access their information from any location. He is the visionary behind Box's product and platform strategy, which is focused on incorporating the best of traditional content management with the most effective elements of social business software.
Darrell Cavens
Darrell Cavens
CEO, zulily
Darrell is the CEO of zulily, the fast-growing private sale daily deals site for moms, babies and kids. Prior to founding zulily, Darrell most recently spent a year at Microsoft, and almost nine years at Blue Nile. Darrell started at Blue Nile in 1999, just a few months after the company was founded. There he worked in various roles, most recently as senior vice president of marketing and technology. Prior to joining Blue Nile, Darrell spent a number of years at Starwave, a Seattle-based Internet company, working on large web properties like ESPN.com and ABCNews.com.
Aviel Ginzburg
Aviel Ginzburg
Co-founder and C3PO, Simply Measured
Aviel is Co-Founder and C3PO (Chief Product Officer + SciFi fan) of Simply Measured. At times in his career he has worked as a software engineer, a designer, and as a marketer. He approaches product development through his own "composition model", which based on the fallacy of composition, posits that while a product must be broken down and constructed in parts, one cannot lose sight of the goal of the whole, as its own nature will not necessarily be directly representative of those parts individually. Before Simply Measured he was one of the first employees at Appature, a rapidly growing marketing solutions platform. He holds a BS in Economics (for no apparent reason) from Vanderbilt University where he spent most of his time actually studying philosophy and film.
Mary Jesse
Mary Jesse
Founder and CEO, Ivy Corp.
Mary is a tech veteran who was instrumental in developing and deploying the first large scale wireless data systems in the U.S. A veteran of McCaw Cellular, AT&T Wireless and RadioFrame Networks, she holds bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering and is listed as an author on more than a dozen U.S. and international patents. Her latest startup, Ivy Corp., is developing an innovative group messaging solution.
Steve Murch
Steve Murch
CEO, BigOven
Steve is founder and CEO of BigOven.com, a leading mobile grocery and recipe app with over 7 million downloads and 1.6 million registered users. Steve has also served as Chairman of Escapia (www.escapia.com), the leading SaaS solution for the US vacation rental industry, acquired by HomeAway in 2010. Steve was co-founder, President, CEO and Chairman of VacationSpot.com, a pioneer in the online reservation of vacation rentals, which was sold to Expedia in January 2000 for approximately $87M. At Expedia, Steve was Vice President of Vacation Packages, leading the vacation package and destination services teams, creating two patents on the first-ever dynamic vacation packaging system on the Internet, which now represents billions in annual transactions for Expedia.
Adam Schoenfeld
Adam Schoenfeld
Co-founder and CEO, Simply Measured
Adam is the CEO and Co-Founder of Simply Measured, a leading social media analytics company. Adam has led Simply Measured to become a well recognized brand in the analytics market, serving 25% of the top 100 global brands, 40,000 users, and leading digital agencies. Adam has been quoted on data-related topics in places like Forbes, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb and spoken about measurement and analytics at events around the country. Adam is a two-time entrepreneur, former Analyst and Management Consultant, and a long-time data geek. In his limited free time, Adam can be found on the golf course, a place where he used to win tournaments, but these days is just focused on keeping it in play.
Jonathan Sposato
Jonathan Sposato
former CEO Picnik, Chairman, GeekWire
Jonathan is currently the chairman of Geekwire.com, the region's top technology news site. He also has the distinct honor of being the first person to sell 2 companies to Google. As the CEO of Picnik, Jonathan created a category-defining (1st search result for “photo editor”) online photo editor to profitability and reached over 60M visits a month. Prior to Picnik, Jonathan founded Phatbits which went on to become Google Gadgets. Prior to Phatbits, Jonathan was a senior manager in Microsoft’s consumer division, personally delivering the next level of thought on key Microsoft properties to chairman Bill Gates and the company’s leadership, as well as driving the development of award-winning software applications, video games, and social communications applications.
Jordan Weisman
Jordan Weisman
CEO at Harebrained Schemes
Jordan is a legendary game designer and serial entrepreneur behind such projects as FASA, Virtual World Entertainment, Wizkids, 42 Entertainment, Smith & Tinker, and the creator of BattleTech / MechWarrior, Shadowrun, and Crimson Skies. Under his leadership, Harebrained Schemes raised more than $1.5 million on Kickstarter, more than three times the original goal, to revive the Shadowrun franchise.
Adam Tratt
Adam Tratt
CEO, Giant Thinkwell / HaikuDeck
Adam Tratt is a Founder, CEO, and marketing professional with experience ranging from startups to the enterprise. His company, Giant Thinkwell, made waves as a 2010 graduate of Seattle Techstars (backed by Madrona and Founder’s Co-Op) and after a dramatic reboot from social games, has recently launched Haiku Deck, an iPad app that allows anyone to create flawlessly beautiful presentations for promoting ideas or sharing stories. Tratt began his career as a Product Manager for the first ever Microsoft Internet product, Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word. His crowning achievement was teaching Bill Gates how to create his first web page using Microsoft Word. Gates thought the demo sounded "salesy." Tratt took it as a compliment. After marketing stints at a few dotcoms in the eCommerce sector (iCat and iShip), Tratt left technology to become the first marketing hire at board game startup, Cranium. Cranium went on to create more than a hundred different toys, games, and books -- selling millions of units worldwide and winning multiple Toy of The Year awards.
Brenda Spoonemore
Brenda Spoonemore
CEO and co-founder, Dwellable
Brenda Spoonemore is currently a co-founder and CEO at Dwellable, an independent vacation rental search site which was recently named one the top 10 best travel apps for the iPad by CNN. Spoonemore also chairs the board of Atomic Moguls, Inc, a social gaming company she founded in 2006, and previously served as CEO of Atomic Moguls from founding the company through April 2011. Before founding her first company, Spoonemore was Senior Vice President of Interactive Services for the NBA, with responsibility for the league's digital P&L, including global operations, licensing and strategy, as well as the NBA All-Star Technology Summit. Spoonemore holds a B.A. in English from Pomona College in California and a Master’s degree from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Mike Fridgen
Mike Fridgen
President & CEO of Decide.com
Mike is the President & CEO of Decide.com, the next generation Consumer Reports. Prior to Decide, he served as Vice President of Marketing & Product Development at Farecast.com, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2008. At Microsoft, Mike led product management for Bing Travel and Bing Shopping. In the late 90s, Mike was co-founder and CEO of TripHub.com, a venture backed online travel startup. Mike has a MBA from Harvard Business School and BA from University of Washington.
Andy Sack
Andy Sack
TechStars/ Founder's Co-op/Lighter Capital
Greg Gottesman
Greg Gottesman
Madrona
Frank Artale
Frank Artale
Ignition
Julie Sandler
Julie Sandler
Madrona
Jason Stoffer
Jason Stoffer
Maveron
Yongbai Choi
Yongbai Choi
Vulcan Capital
Boris Wertz
Boris Wertz
version one ventures
Rahul Sood
Rahul Sood
Microsoft Bing Fund
Bob Crimmins
Bob Crimmins
Moon Tango/TechStars
Mike Koss
Mike Koss
Coinlab/Startpad
TimeTopic
9:00- 10:00 AM
Registration and Refreshments

Enjoy coffee and conversation but don’t forget:

  • If you signed up for the elevator pitch, pick your time slot: 10:30-11:30. Check out our judges here.
  • First come, first served: Choose a topic for 1:1 advice from an expert at our Startup Resource Center. 1:15-3:45 PM. Check out our experts here.

 

10:00 AM
Adam Tratt, Co-founder and CEO, Haiku Deck

Startup Storytelling for the win

10:25 AM
Mike Fridgen, President and CEO, Decide

Branding, startup style

10:50 AM
Steve Murch, Founder and CEO, BigOven

Bootstrapping: Less cash, more cowbell

11:10 AM
Morning Break
11:25 AM
Aviel Ginzburg & Adam Schoenfeld, Co-founders, Simply Measured

Co-founding: The good, the bad, the ugly

11:50 AM
Darrell Cavens, CEO Zulily

Clear Vision for the Future

12:15 PM
Lunch
1:15 PM
Elevator Pitch

Your judges: Andy Sack (TechStars), Boris Wertz (version one ventures), Frank Artale (Ignition), Greg Gottesman (Madrona Venture Group), Rahul Sood (Bing Fund).  Check out all the judges, screeners and coaches here. 

All morning, entrepreneurs lined up to pitch their ideas and get feedback from investors. From these “auditions,” the top three presenters face a panel of judges.   In this live version of GeekWire’s Elevator Pitch, both the judges (and the audience) will choose their winner(s).

1:45 PM
Jonathan Sposato, former CEO Picnik, Chairman, GeekWire

Everything I need to know about design I learned in a hotel 

2:10 PM
Mary Jesse, Founder and CEO, Ivy Corp.

Got culture?

2:35 PM
Afternoon Break
3:00 PM
Jordan Weisman, CEO, Harebrained Schemes

Warning: Startups may be hazardous to your health (and ego)

3:25 PM
Brenda Spoonemore, Co-founder and CEO Dwellable
A biz dev playbook for startups:
Why, when and how to do deals to help your business win
3:50 PM
Closing Keynote

Aaron Levie, CEO, Box joins GeekWire’s John Cook and Todd Bishop for a lively fireside chat.

4:30 PM
After-Party

Welcome to the live version of GeekWire’s Startup Resource Center! As an extra benefit for attendees, select an expert (or two) for a one-on-one meeting and get free (read: priceless) advice.

When you check in at registration, our staff will set you up with an appointment card with the category(ies) and time slot(s) of your choice. Prepare some questions for your brief meeting so you can make the most of the opportunity. And don’t worry about missing any content from the main stage; We’re recording all the sessions.

Financial and Business Management: Bader Martin, sessions at 1:45, 2:15 and 3:15.

From tax returns to accounting and management reporting, business structuring and funding to exit planning, visit the pro’s at Bader Martin, who are dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and their ventures succeed.

Legal: 1:45 PM

From formation to intellectual property, licensing to financing, we’ve got the best in the business.  Sign up and line up for a meeting with one of the following folks:

Business: 2:15 PM

From acelerating sales and building your team to pitching investors and the media, we’ve got the experts for you:

Design/UI/UX: 3:15 PM

From brand identity to user interface and user experience, get some practical tips on powerful design and delighting your users:

Seattle 2.0 Startup Day: A conference for aspiring entrepreneurs, early stage startup founders, and anyone else seeking an edge in the startup world. GeekWire is pleased to present the fourth year of this popular one-day conference, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday Sept. 22 at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Wash., followed by a reception.