Monetization Strategies for Startups

Great idea, but how will it make money?

In conjunction with VentureArchetypes, we are pleased to present the next session in our series of startup strategy events. This event is tailored for companies seeking optimal and innovative ways of monetizing their web businesses and honing their revenue models.

Our panel is comprised of highly-successful Internet entrepreneurs and top-tier venture capitalists who will share their insights and experience.

There is no charge to attend, but this series is by invite-only and for startup founders only. Space is limited. Please contact Christian Sepulveda (chris@pivotallabs.com) to be added to the guest list.

Our panel will explore innovative ways of monetizing a web business, including:

• Ad-Supported vs. Subscription-Based vs. Sponsorship vs. "Freemium" models
• When (and how) to switch from using an ad network to selling ads directly
• Best practices in mining value from user-generated data
• Revenue model and traffic expectations when pitching investors

This event will offer our guests practical insight, advice, and Q&A on these important topics. The moderated panel (bios below) will be accompanied by informal socializing among founder-level startup peers.

Light appetizers, beer and wine will be served.

March 20, 2008
6:00-6:30 PM - Cocktails and Networking
6:30-7:30 PM - Panel Discussion
7:30-9:00 PM - Networking
Location: Pivotal Labs

This event is by invite only, and limited to founders and senior management of startups and investors. Invitees are allowed to bring 1 guest.

Panelists

Ken Gullicksen is a partner with Morgenthaler Ventures, a 39-year old venture capital and buyout fund with $2.5B under management. Ken has 18 years of experience in Silicon Valley's high-technology industry as CEO, business strategist, marketing/engineering director and venture capitalist. He sits on the board of imeem and is an investor in SNOCAP.

Peter Rip is a General Partner at Crosslink Capital, a multi-stage venture firm in San Francisco with $1.4B under management. His board seats include Riya and Radar Networks. He writes the blog EarlyStageVC.

Katherine Barr is a partner with Mohr Davidow Ventures, with $1.4B under management. At MDV, Katherine focuses on Internet-enabled companies. Previously, she was with Vantage Partners, helping tech companies negotiate and manage customer, supplier, and partner relationships. Before that, she was a Product Development Manager at HSA, an education startup in Boston.

Nate Pagel is CEO of podaddies, a video ad network for publishers, podcasters, and social networks. Previously, he was with MongoMusic (acquired by Microsoft) and Human Code (acquired by Sapient), and has been extensively involved in online video for more than ten years.

Alex Le is a co-founder/CTO of Serious Business Inc, the creators of Friends for Sale (a Facebook app with over 600,000 daily users). He was previously a software engineer at Powerset and at YellowPages.com, where he led the transition of one of the largest Ruby on Rails deployments on the internet.