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| Entrepreneur Testimonials |
(Specific citations are available upon request) |
"Dear Mike, First of all, thank you very much for this great opportunity to participate in the Private Equity 2010 Forum. This is one of the most important and useful meetings I have ever attended. I was very impressed by extremely thoughtful organization of the meeting and the way how everything (including small technical details) was done to increase productivity and efficiency. Since our first talk over the phone, I thought that this Forum should be extremely useful and important. However, its organization and pre- and follow-up support exceeded all my expectations in many regards, including the depth of information supplied and your invaluable feedback.
Thank you so much for all your efforts and invaluable help! You have done a great job with this Forum and I really appreciate your ongoing, encouraging support. On a separate note, I would very much like to thank you for the invaluable follow-up information that you have sent me today. This is priceless advice and information. I highly appreciate it……. I will certainly keep you informed on our progress as we follow-up with investors.
With best regards, many thanks again for your invaluable help and support and looking forward to our continuing cooperation”
President, SignaBlok
"Mike, Thank you for including us in your very well run and interesting conference at the Yale Club. After hearing and reading about the other 29 entrepreneurs' dreams yesterday, my confidence in the power of this country's creative business people is greatly renewed. And I've learned I'm not alone in my passionate pursuit of an entrepreneurial dream. Continued success with your business; you're providing a valuable service to your fellow entrepreneurs and investors."
Co-founder and Principal, McCary Stevens Associates
"Dear Michael, I am writing to you as someone who has attended many of your events at the Yale Club. Those events are probably the most interesting and professional venues that I have had the pleasure of attending. All of the participants have enjoyed an audience of private equity professionals, private investors, venture capitalists and banks to listen to their promotional stories and be able to develop a program where those groups would like to invest. The camaraderie which is developed at those events and the coordination by your son and his team leave everyone with a feeling that they have experienced a professional, organized and well run event.
I am always impressed at the lack of vendors and service providers which do not exist at these well coordinated meetings. I have been to other meetings of this type and I have seen many vendors and service providers, don't know how you do it.
I am looking forward to the next event and many events in the future. I, as a businessman and a private investor have been privy and had the opportunity to develop long term relationships with serious minded business people of a certain caliber. I leave you with my last thought and that is that the caliber of individual and corporation that you attract is by far the highest. No other event attracts this type of audience. The people who come to the event to try and gain financing are fortunate to have this type of venue. I have met many of them. They are all delighted to be there.
I look forward to seeing you in November and if I can help you in any way, please feel free to let me know.
"
President and Founder, Carter Stone & Co.
Phil, Please find the description of an excellent 1-day, East Coast-based, early-stage venture capital event, in both the body of this email below and attached, for your review. It is the 2010 National Venture Summit & Emerging Growth Forum, being held on June 17th, 2010 in New York City at the Yale Club in midtown Manhattan. It is hosted by Mike Segal and Bryan Emerson, 2 long-time, early-stage venture capital specialists. …….. Mike Segal convinced me and 2 of our clients, Consult A Doctor and Adopt-A-Classroom, to go to their March event, one of the 4 events they hold a year. It was time and money well spent. There are several ways to visit…..but the best, to be sure, is to present to the group at-large. There is a limit, to the best of knowledge, of 15 companies. The reason so many companies seeking capital want to be at this event is that, simply, that it's the best forum on the US for getting to more qualified angel groups, family offices, VCs and institutional investors, generally totaling 150 to 200 investors from all over the country. It's almost a "Road Show" that comes to the company.
If you've been looking for money in a dedicated, structured and organized way, spending a minimum of 4-5 hours per day for the past several months, you know what the difference is between an "investor" and a qualified investor; simply, a qualified investor is someone who invested in a new pre-revenue or early-stage company (less than $1MM in revenue) in the past 12 months (not an existing portfolio company). As you probably know, in 2009 and 2010 that probably rules out 70-75% of all Angels, Angel groups, Family Offices, Private Equity and Venture Capital firms and funds. If you've attended other events around the States, you may not have looked at the attending "investors" that way. We do, because, if you look at the national figures from the National Venture Capital Association, the North American Angel Capital Association, the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, etc., you know that the $17.3B invested in 2009 …is expected to stay flat in 2010. This means that, for the most part, only the firms which invested in 2009 will invest in 2010. That $17.3B is down from $30B in 2008 and down from $100B in 2000, you know that the 25-30% of all the groups are the only people you should spend more than 2 minutes with.
This event hosts more Principals, from funds which actually invested in new companies in the past 12 months, on a factor of 5:1, to any event I've attended in the past 2 years. These aren't principals which invested in no new companies, ….but they're folks who actually put-up their own money last year. Simply, the 2010 National Venture Summit & Emerging Growth Forum is, certainly the March event was, as good as it gets for an early-stage company in this market. The value of presenting to Principals of VC funds which actually made an investment last year in an early-stage company is immense.……
Managing Director - Corporate Finance , CP Capital Securities
Hi Mike, Thanks so much for both hosting the event and providing this information to us, in addition to allowing us to enter at such a late date. We've already begun contacting some of the companies who expressed interest in the Company, with positive results, and will continue to contact more companies over the next couple of weeks. We will certainly keep you updated as to our progress, and try to give you a list of the companies we've been in contact with as well - Thanks again!
President, Vanity Events
Hi Mike, Thank you very much for your detailed follow-up to last week's venture capital conference. It is very much appreciated. Please let me know if there is ever anything I can do to assist you at any time in the future. I will let you know when we have a firm deal in place. Have a great day!!!
President, Jabbersmack
Mike, Niall and I enjoyed the conference last week. This was the first event of this type that I've attended and you can clearly see the value of bringing together entrepreneur and investor when there is mutual interest in business vertical. We had some good conversations with many of the investors and found a couple who we thought might have interest in this space. Please let us know if anyone has made contact with you regarding IrishCentral and what we can do to continue conversations. Thank you.
President, IrishCentral
Laura & Bryan: It was great see you both yesterday and Elliot and I both feel the event was well worth our while. I did not get a chance to say good bye to you yesterday but wanted you both to know how much I appreciate your efforts. I look forward to seeing you both again, perhaps in Beijing this time! Maybe a Starlight investor forum in China???
President, eChina MD
Bryan, Thanks for this follow-up. I think you guys did a GREAT job! I've been to a lot of VC Fairs and yours was extremely well done.
President & CEO, eC Research, LLC
"Let me congratulate you and your team on a most excellent meeting today. I've attended many events like this over the past 30 years and I must say that yours may well be the very best of its kind. My expectations, quite frankly, were more than exceeded……… Toward that end, we received 18 requests for a PPM from attendees. Additionally, we have at least 5 follow-ups by telephone which may precede additional requests….."
President, Bath n' Clip
"Dear Mike, Truly can't thank you enough for including me at your event. It was indeed an act of un-common kindness and speaks volume about you - not to mention all of the laurels bestowed upon you by so many of your other attendees! It was also a pleasure to meet David, who is a great credit to you. With full thanks to you, I am hopeful that I was successful in meeting several potential investors. Please see the list below, as you requested, and let me know if/when you'd like to discuss……. Of course, I met several others, but these are the only ones I started to seriously follow up with. Thank you again, Mike."
President, CommonKindness
"As requested, I'm providing you with a list of contacts made by my business associates and me during your private equity forum. Overall, I felt your investor conference provided a good platform for presenting Freedom Sciences business opportunity to a large group of potential investors in a relatively short period of time. My team and I left with a very positive feeling that there were several interested groups willing to delve deeper into the prospects of investing in our company. The Yale Club provides a first-class atmosphere for firms to network and have face-to-face time with the investor community. I'm not sure if the outcome of our 10 minute presentation and networking opportunities will lead to us closing on the $3.0 million investment we are seeking, but we certainly met many investor groups in the seven hours or so spent at your forum.......I will be diligently following-up on all of the leads generated from your event. Any feedback you can provide me from those firms in attendance and those who completed your questionnaire would certainly be helpful. Whatever the outcome, I'd like to thank you, Bryan, David and your entire team for giving us the opportunity to showcase our company and its innovative product offerings
Again, thank you for providing the opportunity to showcase our business opportunity. I hope I can report to you shortly that we obtained the needed investment due to presenting at your private equity forum. However, the next few months will tell us if your forum and our efforts will achieve the level of success anticipated. Stay tuned!
"
President/CEO, Freedom Sciences, LLC
"Mike, We wanted to sincerely thank you and Private Equity 2006 for having us at the event. We were able to accomplish in a day what others I've spoken to have spent months trying to do--gain insightful VC contacts and make the appropriate, high-level contacts. As a small business owner, this event was invaluable. Larger companies have the resources to send people out chasing money and developing contacts and relationships, attending tons of events. Unfortunately, as a startup we can't send high-level talent far and wide detracting from producing and selling to make contacts. Private Equity 2006 solved this problem for us. It allowed us to efficiently present our business to hundreds of people without it feeling like a trade-show or a rat-race. While I write this letter only a few weeks after the event, we've already had over a half-dozen in-person meetings with VCs and other investors. One or two, who weren't at the event, were aware of it, or heard about us through their colleagues that attended. Again this is a great credit to you and your team for organizing this event in such as way. It's the perfect atmosphere to make the person-to-person contact that can't be done through mailings and cold-calls. You have our gratitude and respect, and thank you for what you're doing for the entrepreneurial community and what you've done to help our company.
"
President, salesElement
"Mike, As CEO of Knowledge Delivery Systems, I was delighted to participate as an entrepreneur presenter in the recent June Private Equity Forums held at the Yale Club. I was impressed with both the quality and seriousness of the private equity direct investor attendees as well as of the corporate presenters. This conference differentiated itself from other venues in terms of providing me with at least half a dozen serious private equity investor prospects, who have followed up requesting my business plan. From the perspective of a private equity investor, Private Equity Forums is a great event to attend, because of the considerable attention devoted by Mike Segal to select only the best entrepreneurial investment opportunities. From the perspective of an entrepreneur, this is a great event to attend because of the professional forum provided for your company, the high percentage of serious direct investors in attendance, and importantly the back-up support and follow up details provided. I look forward to culling the many valuable new contacts provided to me by this event, and believe that the visibility provided to my company will be a very important ingredient in ensuring the growth and success of Knowledge Delivery Systems in the future. Mike, thanks for a very well-organized and successful event.
"
CEO, Knowledge Delivery Systems, Inc.
"I am writing you to congratulate you on your outstanding meeting. The format, from an entrepreneur point of view, is optimal. The audience is down to business and is willing and able to make the investment; the attention is focused on a small number of companies; and there are not a lot of service providers and middlemen. Presenting at your meeting was one of the most cost effective ways to reach serious investors."
President and CEO, PCAsso Diagnostics
"Outstanding! Mike Segal's Private Equity Forum is the place for meeting the movers and shakers of the VC industry. After attending the forum we determined that to be a player in today's market attending this forum is a must. Absolutely the best networking opportunity we have seen to date.
"
Executive Vice President, Allied Energy
"Dear Mike and Bryan, I would like to thank you and congratulate you for the incredible event you have prepared. I was a unique opportunity for me, as well as something that I will never forget….We are following up with the contacts we made on Yale and hope that soon some great news will be delivered. My best wishes for you and all team from M. J. Segal Associates, the nicest group with the best good hearts.
"
President, Upload Beverages
"Dear Mike: Yair Safrai of Concord Ventures recently received your email detailing the Private Equity VIII event to be held on November 12. Concord Ventures is a major shareholder in our company and Mr. Safrai serves as chairman of our company's board of directors. We are currently in the process of raising capital and Mr. Safrai highly recommended that we participate in this event as it will be excellent exposure to investment opportunities. For your convenience, I'm attaching a copy of our executive summary for your review. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
"
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CEO, Viola Networks
"Hi Mike, I want to thank you and Bryan for for your efforts culminating in what looks to be a very positive set of meetings yesterday for ARC. We are, of course, already following up on our new contacts……. Again I want to thank you and Bryan for a job well done.
"
President, ARC
"Bryan, Thank you for the follow up. I will contact the other groups who are interested in getting additional material from us. Below is a list of the equity groups that we made contact with at the conference and showed an interest in BodyBlocks. Each one has been contacted with a follow up by email and phone as appropriate. Some of these were also on your list to follow up. Any correspondence sent to you by interested participants please route it to me and I can distribute it to the team members. I will let you know how we progress with the connections. Thank you for a well organized conference."
Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, BodyBlocks Nutrition Systems
"Bryan - Good Morning. We are still in shock about the response that we received about DataCall. I can't tell you how much that all of us appreciate Starlight Capital. I will be in constant communication with you regarding these leads. The following companies are requesting immediate information from DataCall Technologies: Progressive Technology Partners, ISG Capital LLC New York. Bison Capital Partners, Dolphin Equity Partners, New York Landmark Capital, CT Capital Foundation Ventures, NY Ventures, New York, Lehman Brothers, New York, GK Partners, Stamford, CT Coral Capital Partners, Atlanta, GA Praetorian Group, New York, Centerprise Technology Advisors, New York Damas International, Greenville, SC Solera Capital, NY. One more thing, If you have any more ideas or suggestions on marketing applications I would greatly appreciate that…. Perhaps we can meet or chat before Thanksgiving. Again Bryan thanks very much…... "
CEO, DataCall
"Mike, Rob and I thank you for a well conceived and well run forum yesterday.
From this point, the onus is on us to taker advantage of the many contacts. Thanks for your professionalism.
"
CEO, HardMetrics, Inc.
"Mike, I just wanted to say thank you. I must say we did not know what to expect. Your event was impressive, as were the attendees. I also want you to know we are thankful to your partners.... With our company in such an early stage, we did not expect the double digit investor interest we received. I must also mention, that even when we were waiting for a cab outside the Yale Club (in the rain), we received interest from the principal in an investment firm who did not even attend your event. The fact we went and were prepared demonstrates how important what you do is. All the best...
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President, SEFAO Enterprises
"Hi Mike, Responding to your request for the contacts we made at the Yale Club who expressed interest in iTDi, here they are:1. Musa Yenni, Yenni 2. Ish Dugal, Spacevest 3. Lawrence Grumer, Boston Entrepreneurs Network & Technology Associates and Alliances 4. Garry Gyselen, Arglen 5. Adele Hepburn, Youth Enhancement Systems 6. Stefan Kang, FA Technology 7. Alan Kelley, Milestone 8. William Podd, Landmark 9. Kalman Renov, Beechwood 10. Einat Steklov, Platinum 11. John Stone, Foundation 12. Alan Benaim, NY Angels. We have had preliminary discussions already with Musa, Ish, Allan, William, Alan, and I think John. Truly a good experience for us! Trust you are having a good Thanksgiving weekend!
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President, iTDi
"A great forum - Mike, I want to thank you for a great day yesterday, Gary and I met some interesting people who showed interest in our venture. I could never have met these people in any other way. It was well run and I learnt a great deal from just watching the presentations. I would recommend this a vehicle to any other firm wishing to raise money. I am looking forward to getting the list of investors so that I can contact people I could not talk to directly. Thanks again
"
President, Radical-Systems.
"Thanks Bryan. I've followed-up with everyone and we have some good interest from several groups including Ellen Sandles from the Tri-State Private Investors Network, Kalman Renov at Beachwood Ventures and John Riley from Alliance Capital. The conference has proven to be an excellent event for us. Best regards,
"
President and CFO, GeneEx, Inc.
"Frank, As you requested when we met at the Private Equity Forum in New York on Nov 16th, I am sending you a package containing Dyansys private placement details. I am sorry I was not able to send it eletronically. I have sent a package to the West Orange address… I am swamped by the follow up to the Forum. I have more than 25 responses specifically interested in Dyansys. Mike tells me that this is way above average for presenting companies at the Forum. (From Investor Surveys) I am on my way to Europe and India.… Email is the best since I carry a Blackberry and I can get back to you very quickly. I will follow up with you after you have had a week to look at the package.
"
President, DyAnsys
"Mike - Many thanks for an excellent Forum and an excellent time. I made some great connections and met really good people. I'll keep you posted as my follow up conversations proceed-- hopefully one of them leads to the funding of MyHound.com! Be well, Mike-- thanks again.
"
President, MyHound
"Dear Mike, Thank you very much for this very helpful e-mail. Your consideration and attentiveness, both during the event and this follow-up are very much appreciated. We will definitely follow your advice in contacting the various parties who expressed interest in S3. We also are pleased to see that three of the attendees listed us on their surveys. You asked which people expressed interest in S3 during our discussions at the forum. Here is a run-down of those companies……… Any assistance you are able to provide is appreciated… Thanks again for helping us get the most of the Forum. And, congratulations on putting together such a successful and well-run event.
"
CEO, School Skills Success
"Hi Mike, It was good to see you again and I appreciate the opportunity that your event opened for us. Thank you. We did get a lot of interest and are corresponding with some funds from the event. It was well run and organized. I would like to start working with you on the funds that you qualify as a fit with Signalink. What are our next steps together? I am looking forward to working with you.
"
CEO, Signalink Technologies
"Dear Mike, It was a pleasure meeting you at the Yale Club. The forum was the first major event I've participated as part of my fund-rising efforts and I was impressed with its quality. Thank you and the whole team for an outstanding performance. Thank you for the tips and suggestions. These are really valuable. I've contacted the investors who expressed an interest in our company, and currently I'm following up with them to learn about the next steps. Here is the list…….
"
President, Anian-HSM
"Bryan/Mike, Thank you very much for letting me participate in last weeks Starlight NYC event. You and your team did a terrific job in pulling together an extremely qualified audience as well as an environment to land a wide range of potential partners. Please pass along to your team members a big "thank you" from the Spencer Trask and Mad Croc team.
"
Founder/Chairman, Mad Croc Brands, Inc.
"Hey Mike, That was a very well structured event on Thursday, I'm glad I had the chance to go. Met some very interesting people, and we'll see how everything as far as investments pan out. Thanks!
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CEO, Solar Cool Technologies
"Mike, Thank you for the great event and the excellent follow up. I can learn something from you. You are really brilliant at follow up. I was impressed by the way you kept track of me over a few years. I was grateful for that. I was blown away by the number of people you were able to get to the meeting. Now I am speechless with your follow up. You have done a great job of getting people like me up to bat. That's what I viewed this as. I saw my 10 minute presentation as a "teaser" trying to get people to come after me for a lengthier discussion and follow up. I got about 15 people to approach me after my talk. I don't know if that is low ,high or par for the course. Obviously the activities after the forum are paramount. I will go at this thing with a vengeance. I look forward to your continued help and support as I move forward. I will definitely keep you informed of progress. Thank you
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President, DyAnsys
"Great program. Real help for those ready to go for it. We have had good contact with your team plus other we met at the PEF. Thank you for the opportunity to bring Trinity Exploration to meet so many good investors. I was able to make contacts with many other people that I could possibly work with and I can refer to others.
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Owner, Atlantic Business Finance
"Thank you so much for everything. Connell Construction & Development have some wonderful leads & possible funding arrangements. Your event was not only an outstanding way to network with the right players, but a educational experience that has a greater value than one can describe.
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Owner, Connell Construction & Development
"Private Equity XIV was one of the most productive fundraising events in which I ever participated. The presentations and conversations with other participants during the event were extremely instructive, concrete, condensed, down-to-business. I learned a lot just by observing, and we certainly got a great exposure! To top it all, the quality and the number of responses from VCs and angel investors that we received was absolutely stunning - dozens of interested angels and over 50 venture capitalists. We would need to spend the next couple of weeks just doing follow-ups. What a great problem to have!
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COO, Fotki
"Thank you for yesterday's event. It was a great forum and we made a lot of solid contacts. It was also very well run."
President, CoolSpine
"I just wanted to let you know how thrilled both Power Tube, Inc. and I are with the tremendous results from your (NYC) conference. Every detail was planned to perfection. The location and venue were outstanding. The format worked very well in terms of facilitating discussions between potential investors and the presenting companies. The results for Power Tube specifically far exceeded my most optimistic expectations. It was a pleasure to work with you and your team on a personal and professional level. I look forward to working with you again in this forum."
Vice President, Equity Capital Markets, JPMorgan
"Everyone was asking for a more detailed business plan so that's what we did. The following companies from the investment community wanted follow up...William Podd at Landmark Capital; Joe Heller at Nextlevel VP's; Lawrence Loeb, private investor; William Crusoe at Centre Capital Advisors, Peter Holden, Global Asia Partners, Murray Dalziel, MRC Capital, John Boeheim, Trinet. My next step will be a letter and a non disclosure agreement and then a formal business plan if they want one..."
President, Molecular Electronics Corp.
"Thanks for having Jay and me as your guests yesterday. It was an outstanding event, and a fine effort on behalf of you and your staff. Our hearty congratulations. Our attendance was certainly success and fully worthwhile. I look forward to hearing news of future events, and then hopefully will be in a position to formally present. Thanks again."
Executive VP, Chief Marketing Officer, ON Networks, Inc.
"Bryan, I want to express my gratitude for your hard work and diligence in putting Dominion Lasercom, Inc. before potential investors. Over the past five years we have spent some $80,000 in retainers to professionals with the hopes of funding, but you have been the only one successful in doing so. And being that this is an especially difficult time for the telecom industry because of the collapse of so many of the industry leaders, it has made your efforts that much more appreciated. Thanks again for your help."
Co-Founder, Dominion Lasercom Inc.
"The Private Equity Forum in October 2002 gave us a fantastic opportunity to
network with prospective investors and partners. We have made contacts with
several investors through connections made at the forum. We are so pleased
with the results that we would like to have presence in all your future
events as well."
Chief Financial Officer, IntegriNautics Corporation
"I want to thank you and Bryan for for your efforts culminating in what looks to be a very positive set of meetings yesterday for ARC.
We are, of course, already following up on our new contacts.As I mentioned yesterday, I never did manage to connect with Mark Holman. Please send me his contact information so I can follow up with him as well.
Again I want to thank you and Bryan for a job well done."
President, Advanced Reconnaissance Corp.
"Really great to speak with you yesterday.Thanks for the list of names of individuals who expressed interest in learning more about Dragonfly Media. I'll follow up and keep you posted.
Below, please find the names of people I spoke with, along with comments on the nature of their possible interest. Again, I'll keep you informed if anything comes of these discussions. Dragonfly's 2004 business plan is being finalized in the coming weeks; I'll be reaching out now to people to confirm that they would be interested in receiving the plan and hearing from Dragonfly in December or January.
With gratitude for your exceptional support and good will...Thank you for the time and energy you put into making today a great one for all involved. I was very impressed and satisfied."
Director, Dragonfly Media
"I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on the top notch event that you organized at the Yale Club recently. As a featured presenter, I was given a unique opportunity to present our Company and its investment potential before a distinguished group of high quality investors. Nowadays, acquiring this kind of exposure would entail six months of plodding phone work or the hiring of a trained executive at a six figure salary, all with no guarantee of success.
Already, our company, Multimedia has been successful in obtaining some preliminary funding commitments as a result of presenting at your Private Equity 2003 - National Venture Forum. Furthermore, we are in advanced discussions with several other quality investors that we spoke with at your conference. The most impressive aspect of all the people we spoke with was their intense focus and desire to learn more about our company.
It is rare in our day and age that results exceed promises made in solicitations, but your conference certainly qualifies as an exception. I was most impressed by your team’s attention to punctuality, its perfect execution of an elegantly served lunch and by the organized program which included excellently delivered presentations by companies with unique products and breakout periods which provided us with the forum to meet with individual investors.
Please accept our best wishes and our sincere appreciation for having given us this opportunity."
President, Multimedia Tutorial Services
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