Michael Travis to Co-Moderate May 13 Meeting of WPI Venture Forum

Meeting to Focus on Building Executive Teams at Start-up Companies

Michael Travis, Principal of executive search firm Travis & Company, will co-moderate the May 13, 2008 meeting of the WPI Venture Forum.  Travis will be joined by Co-Moderator Shelley Dropkin, President of Dropkin Consulting.

The meeting, entitled “Building Your Start-up Team”, will focus on the common issues entrepreneurs face as they build executive teams for their companies. For first time entrepreneurs, building the team can be a daunting enterprise.  How do you attract, identify and keep top talent?  When should you add key positions, and when should you fire executives who aren’t working out?  And how will investors be evaluating you?

Keynote speakers Tom Crotty and Vic Odryna will address these questions from the perspectives of an investor and an entrepreneur.

Tom Crotty is General Partner at Battery Ventures, a leading venture capital firm that focuses on technology investments. Tom has extensive experience investing in communications and e-commerce companies. He has worked with dozens of entrepreneurs and their management teams in his more than 20 years in venture capital.

Vic Odryna is a serial entrepreneur who is co-Founder and CEO of ZeeVee, a start-up that is bridging the last fifty feet between the computer and the HDTVs in the home. Vic was also Founder of PixelVision, a pioneer in flat-panel monitors, President & CEO of Inceptor, a search marketing company, and has been a key marketing executive at other companies. 

The evening’s case will be presented by Sunil Bhatia, Founder, President & CEO of Invesra, a technology-enabled services company that provides retirement planning and investment management services to individuals for the management of their retirement assets. Invesra’s services are marketed through employers, banks and bank platforms, affinity groups and membership organizations.

The WPI Venture Forum meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 13, 2008, at the Campus Center - Odeum Room, on the WPI campus in Worcester, MA. Registration and networking begin at 5:30 p.m. and the meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Registration cost is $15 individual, annual, and lifetime members; and $25 nonmembers. Pre-registration is available online at http://www.wpiventureforum.org/Programs/Registration/.