by Lisa Suennen, Aneesh Chopra and Shwen Gwee
Why Invest in Health Tech? Education, Inspiration, and Funding Advice for (Social) Health Tech Startups. This session is sponsored by Health 2.0 and Boehringer Ingelheim
by Eric Vishria, Erick Schonfeld and Michael Seibel
Nobody likes waiting in line, whether for a party or an exclusive beta invite, unless they can skip it or be the “cool kid” who doles out invites to friends. RockMelt tested this theory when their browser initially launched under the cloak of private beta and allowed users to help their friends “jump the line”. Others have seen similar success like Google+ and Turntable.fm which left people scrambling for invites from friends. But what’s the secret behind building buzz via exclusive access without alienating potential users?
Beta and Alpha testing is becoming increasingly popular as people vie for early adopter status. Panelists from initially exclusive products will discuss the psychology behind exclusive access, the benefits of an invite system, and how gated access helps you attract the right users. This conversation is a must for any startup looking to make a splash at launch.
by Kathryn Minshew, Orian Marx, Seth Blank, Vivek Sharma and Alexandra Cavoulacos
Most startup entrepreneurs, investors and incubators will tell you that two founders are better than one. What they won't tell you is two founders are more likely to try to kill each other - or at least kill their startup. Co-founder disasters are a bit of an industry taboo. We never hear about most of them. Many great entrepreneurs have had to sacrifice a beloved startup to learn valuable life lessons about working with partners. This panel brings together four entrepreneurs who lost their prior startups to infighting but survived to tell their tales in the hope that you can avoid some of their mistakes.
by Michele Polz, Brad Weinberg, John Pugh and Unity Stoakes
Show Me The Money: Where to get funding and what are they interested in? Presentations by VC's, Health Incubators (e.g. Blueprint Health and Startup Health), and other funders. This session is sponsored by Edelman.
by Andy Donner, Jen McCabe, Stead Burwell and Geoffrey Rutledge
Funders vs. Funded... The Rise of Pharma VC's: A discussion with Pharma about their new VC funds. The Funded: A discussion with recently funded health tech startups. This session is sponsored by Edelman.
by Alex Barnett, Jay Lee, Pamela O'Hara, Scott McMullan and Sunir Shah
You're David, they're Goliath. You're a small company, they are industry giants. You're fast and innovative. They move markets. You just wish they would move those markets in your direction!
How do you close that deal? How do you even get them to notice you? The good news is that big companies get big by working with innovative companies like you. The bad news is they also get big by stepping on companies like you.
How do you hold your own against big companies? Who can you trust and how much information can you trust them with? How do you decide which big deals to do and which ones to avoid?
This panel pits together three industry giants, Google, Intuit and American Express with two scrappy startups, BatchBlue and FreshBooks. After many rounds of negotiation, deals have been struck that have been lucrative for each party and a win for their mutual customers. Hear how these start-ups have built great relationships, launched successful partnerships and stayed in the game without being gobbled or squashed.
by Aza Raskin, Matt Harris, Shamir Karkal, Jessica Scorpio and Adam Oliveri
Technology startups are beginning to focus on traditional, regulated industries that until now haven’t seen many startup entrants. But taking on archaic, multi-billion-dollar industries isn’t easy. Startups face a variety of issues, from thorny regulations to apathetic customers demoralized by poor experiences, and competition from name-brand, established competitors. Building a new company in a regulated industry is a daunting task, but it holds the potential to transform an industry and dramatically improve the status quo.