Sponsors
Sequoia CapitalSequoia Capital provides startup venture capital for very smart people who want to turn ideas into companies. As the “Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs”, Sequoia Capital’s Partners have worked with innovators such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bob Swanson of Linear Technology, Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems, Dan Warmenhoven of Network Appliance, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Jen-Hsun Huang of nVIDIA, Michael Marks of Flextronics, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube, Steve Goldman and Sujal Patel of Isilon Systems, Dominic Orr and Keerti Melkote of Aruba Wireless Networks and Jit Saxena of Netezza. Sequoia Capital is a charter sponsor of TechCrunch20 and has been a strong partner to develop the TechCrunch20 team agenda.
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Mayfield FundMayfield Fund provides “venture capital with impact” by partnering with exceptional individuals to create industry-leading companies. Mayfield brings a global view to investing, with dedicated local teams in China and India who invest in early to growth stage companies in the IT and other sectors. In the U.S., the firm’s investment sectors include communications/wireless, consumer/media, enterprise software and semiconductors. Mayfield has over $2.7 billion under management and a team of twelve investing professionals. Since its founding in 1969, Mayfield has raised 12 funds, invested in more than 470 high-growth companies, taken more than 100 public, and more than 150 have merged or were acquired.Mayfield offers entrepreneurs a team of partners with operating experience and results-driven venture capital expertise virtually unmatched in the industry. The firm has a flexible approach and encourages its portfolio companies to adapt to the latest changes, whether it’s regarding globalization or iterating toward the newest industry standards. The Mayfield Fund is hosting an after-hours party on Monday, September 17 of the conference.
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Fenwick & West LLPEstablished in 1972, Fenwick & West LLP is a full service law firm with a primary focus on technology and life sciences clients ranging from start-ups to established companies of national and international prominence. The firm’s litigation and tax groups service clients from a wide range of additional industries. They have over 250 attorneys providing services from offices located in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, California.Fenwick & West is committed to providing innovative, cost-effective and practical legal services and solutions that focus on global technology industries and issues. The firm believes that technology will continue to drive our national and global economies and we look forward to partnering with our clients to create the products and services that will help build great companies. the team differentiates themselves by having a deeper understanding of their clients’ technologies, industry environment and business needs than is typically expected of lawyers. Fenwick & West will offer one unfunded company $10,000 off the legal fees toward the company’s first round of financing.
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Perkins CoieFounded in 1912, Perkins Coie is an international law firm offering a full spectrum of legal services. With more than 600 lawyers in 15 offices across the United States and in China, the firm represents clients that range in size from FORTUNE 100 companies to start-ups, and has historically represented market leaders in traditional and cutting-edge technology industries.While the firm offers a broad range of services, it focuses intensively on litigation, corporate finance, intellectual property, real estate, and labor and employment. The firm has a strong international capability through its offices in Beijing and Shanghai, the ongoing experience of many of its attorneys in the United States and its network of relationships with law firms around the world. The firm is rated highly by its clients for the quality of its client service. |
Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & RabkinSince the firm’s creation in 1954, Howard Rice has been dedicated to excellence in the practice of law—excellence in client service, excellence in performance, excellence in hiring, and excellence in challenging our attorneys with complex and interesting engagements. The firm strives to provide the highest quality of service on a cost-effective basis.Howard Rice provides legal representation across more than 20 practice areas to clients who are among the most sophisticated consumers of legal services. While the firm has the breadth of practice of a large firm, it also maintains one of the industry’s lowest ratios of associates to directors (partners). As a result, the firm can provide depth where it is needed and, at all times, the expertise, creativity and responsiveness that only the direct involvement of senior attorneys can ensure. |
Charles River VenturesCharles River Ventures is a venture fund with more than 30 years of history focused on early-stage investments. Commonly serving as the first investor in its portfolio companies, CRV selects visionary entrepreneurs with innovative ideas, and provides the support they need to build great companies from the ground up. The firm’s recent areas of focus include:
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Clearstone Venture PartnersClearstone Venture Partners excels at leading early-stage investments and company development across numerous sectors including: business and consumer internet opportunities within digital media, publishing and internet advertising, mobile and communication offerings as well as enterprise and carrier technologies. The firm prefers to lead financings and participate actively in the guidance of portfolio companies through its own management team. Clearstone also invests alongside market leaders with established syndicates.With a strong presence in southern California as well as offices in Northern California and Mumbai, India, Clearstone is in a position to bridge the gap between media and technology both in the US and globally. Clearstone seeks out founders with a passion for their project and insight into large existing and potential markets. With many incubated projects having seen success, Clearstone prides itself on its expertise in helping founding teams all the way from initiation to exit. Past successes for the firm have included companies such as Overture (sold to Yahoo), Paypal, MP3.com, eToys, Netzero/ United Online and many others. |
AxosoftAxosoft is a leading provider of bug tracking, help desk and software project management tools for software development teams. Axosoft’s flagship product, OnTime, is in use by over 5,000 software development teams worldwide, helping them ship their products on-time and on-budget. OnTime is available as a Windows application, Web 2.0 Installed product or Web 2.0 Software as a Service (SaaS).Axosoft is offering its OnTime 2007 software/webware ($4,000 value) to all TechCrunch20 presenting companies. Axosoft is also offering its Ontime 2007, 5 User Starter Pack ($495 value) to all companies who apply to TechCrunch20.
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AOLAOL is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations and offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services. The AOL Developer Network, available at dev.aol.com, provides third-party developers with direct access to AOL’s technology platforms and open APIs. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC is based in Dulles, Virginia and has operations across Europe, Asia, and North America. |
Profile BuilderOnline identities can be created, managed and consolidated with Profil.es, a breakthrough web product that gives individuals a centralized platform to manage and enhance their online presence. Users can customize their Profil.es and control visibility and access, while tracking in-depth statistics on performance and activity. A unique Profil.es icon can easily be added to emails, blogs, websites and anywhere HTML code can be placed - including sites such as eBay, MySpace, Facebook and Match.com. Currently in beta, Profil.es was created by Profile Builder, a company that develops products to enhance your online identity.Stop by the ProfileBuilder booth at TechCrunch40 and build your Profil.es. In return, you’ll receive a Profil.es button that gives you the chance to win a MacBook(tm) or an iPod nano(tm).
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AgoracomAgoracom is an on online financial community focused on connecting small-cap investors and companies in an environment free of profanity, bashing, spam and name-calling. Small-cap companies are the biggest victims of first generation finance communities due to scarcity of analyst and financial media coverage, providing unscrupulous investors with the ability to manipulate stock prices through chat room and discussion forums. As such, they were highly-motivated to participate in any solution that would relieve them of their pain. AGORACOM created an ASP discussion forum model that public companies pay for via monthly fees on annual contracts. Using the ASP model, small-cap companies are able to amalgamate their investors into one central location for the purposes of communicating and sharing important information.Agoracom generated $1.4 million in revenue and $300,000 in profit in 2006. In 2007, the Company is on track to generate more than $2 million in revenue and $500,000 in profit. Agoracom is launching its wiki application at its exhibit booth at TechCrunch40. |
SunWith limited budgets and IT staff, startups need all of the help they can get to support their businesses, development, applications, and services as quickly and inexpensively as possible in order to generate revenue. Sun Microsystems (TM) offers solutions to these issues with the Sun Startup Essentials(TM) program.The fee-free Sun Startup Essentials program helps startup companies get a jump start working with industry-leading equipment and cutting edge technologies to build scalable, reliable, high-performance, and secure solutions to support and grow their new business. And, program members who do not choose to build and operate an infrastructure themselves can still leverage the benefits of a Sun platform by renting Web hosting services from Sun partners. Access to no-cost open source Solaris™ 10 Operating System (OS) as well as other popular open source infrastructure software and tools helps startups get up and going faster Visit www.sun.com/startupessentials for the most current and comprehensive information on the program. |