Events

Scaling With Soul

When: Monday, March 18, 2025 
Time: 6:00pm - 7:00 p.m. 
Where: SJSU Student Union Theater 
Register here

Speaker: Sharon K. Gillenwater, author of “Scaling With Soul: How I Built and Sold a $25 Million Tech Company Without Being an A**hole.” 

Speaker's Bio:

At age 43, Sharon founded Boardroom Insiders, Inc., her third startup. She ran the company for 14 years before selling it in 2022 in a $25 million cash deal.  Sharon has over two decades of entrepreneurial experience that includes both successes and spectacular failures. The conversation with Sharon will cover VC funding vs. bootstrapping, tips for finding key investors/partners/vendors/employees, managing your mindset as an entrepreneur, how to build a company to sell and more! Bring your questions as most of the session will be devoted to Q&A. This is a rare opportunity to dive deep with someone who has been there, done that.

The Next Big Entrepreneurial Opportunities

When: Monday, February 10, 2025 
Time: 6:00pm - 7:00 p.m. 
Where: SJSU Student Union Theater 
Register here

Speaker: Ashmeet Sidana, Founder & Managing Partner of Engineering Capital, a seed stage Venture Capital fund. 

Speaker's Bio:

Ashmeet is the Founder and Chief Engineer of Engineering Capital. Investing before traditional venture firms, Engineering Capital specializes in leading seed rounds in software companies with a technical insight. Ashmeet’s experience includes running venture capital funds and leadership positions helping build the industry leading products VMware ESX Server and Silicon Graphics WebFORCE. 

Ashmeet came to venture from VMware, where he ran product management for their flagship product - ESX Server. His successful investments include Azure (IPO AZRE), Rubrik (IPO RBRK), SignalFx, acquired by Splunk, Tubi.tv, acquired by FOX, AirGap, acquired by ZScaler, Robust Intelligence acquired by Cisco etc. He serves on the Board of Directors of Evinced, Nexla, Tapistro and WideField. His other investments include Asimily, CtrlStack, Kentik, Kognitos, Menlo Security, vFunction, and Xano – in all of which he was the seed investor.

Ashmeet received an MBA from Wharton with Honors, MS in Computer Science from Stanford University, and a BS in Computer Science summa cum laude from the University of Southern California. In his spare-time he can be found planning his second trip to Mt. Everest.

Responsible Innovation in AI

When: Friday, November 15, 2024 
Time: 8:00am - 1:00 p.m. 
Where: SJSU Student Union Theater 
Register here

Press:
• ABC7 News – SJSU conference hosts industry experts to share ideas about responsible AI use in education
• KCBS Radio – Audacy Conversations: Tune In for a deep dive into artificial intelligence (AI Conference coverage starts at 28:34)
• Siliconeer – Responsible Innovation in AI – SJSU Hosts AI Talks

Innovation in Entrepreneurship

When: Monday, October 14, 2024 
Time: 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. 
Where: SJSU Student Union Theater 
Register here 

Speaker: Vinita Gupta, Founder, CEO, Author

Speaker's Bio 

Vinita Gupta is a Silicon Valley Startup CEO, Entrepreneur, Writer/Journalist, and Bridge Champion. She co-founded Digital Link Corporation and was the Chairperson and CEO for almost 20 years — from inception to retirement. Silicon India magazine credited Vinita for being the first woman of Indian origin to take her company public in the US. She is a Bridge Champion with three National Titles. Vinita received her Bachelor of Engineering in Electronic and Communications from IIT Roorkee, India and her Master in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. She was awarded two US Patents in the field of telecommunications. Vinita is also a critical observer of how we raise girls so they become confident dreamers, and aspire to reach their full potential. She has two daughters. She serves on boards of Palo Alto Medical Foundation; Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, The Stanford Center for Asian Health Research and Education, and Council of Trustee - TiE Silicon Valley. 

Entrepreneurship & Innovation in Silicon Valley

When: Monday, September 16, 2024
Time: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. 
Where: SJSU Student Union Theater
Register here

Speaker: Ed Oates, '68 Math, co-founder of Oracle 

SVCE Events - Spring 2024

Investing in Student Startups 

When: Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Time: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. 
Where: SJSU Student Union Theater
Register here

Speakers: 

Alex Zorychta, Managing Partner, Not Yet Ventures 
Mercedes Bankston, Program Director, Founder Institute 
Steve Bennet, Managing Director, Bodega Partners & Adjunct Professor, Lucas College of Business 

Speakers' Bios: 

Alex Zorychta is the founder and Managing Partner of Not Yet Ventures, a firm that helps earliest stage startups get to product-market fit and secure funding from top tier accelerators like YC. He has over 12 years of experience in discovering and mentoring high potential university entrepreneurs across the US, with 15 of them getting funded by YC/Techstars so far. Before Not Yet Ventures, Alex worked at AWS Startups, where he designed and deployed a highly efficient curation system to find and support university startups at 200 universities across the US. He also taught entrepreneurship at the UVA McIntire School of Commerce and served as Assistant Director for Technology Entrepreneurship at the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science. While there, he developed a method of finding great student entrepreneurs that led to a 4x increase in graduating viable startups and led UVA to win 2nd, 1st, 1st, and 1st in consecutive years of the ACC entrepreneurship competition. Alex is passionate about the future of education, which he believes is rooted in entrepreneurship and creativity. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Creative Education Foundation.

Mercedes Bankston is Program Director - London and Silicon Valley - at the Founder Institute, the world's premier idea-stage accelerator and start-up launch program. She is also a Venture Capital Advisor at Loyal VC in the UK. She has lived and worked in multiple countries, gaining unique insights into diverse global and socio-economic business climates. She has earned accolades such as the LinkedIn “Top Entrepreneurship Development Voice” Award and the Global Start-up Leadership Award. She has helped to launch hundreds of startups in the US, EU, and the UK and has served as a mentor to over 3,000 pitches annually. Her expertise extends across critical sectors such as healthcare, education, and fintech. 

Steve Bennet is founder and managing director of Bodega Partners and is an active participant in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem as start-up CFO, Angel Investor, and Professor. Over the past 25 years, he has been CFO, investor, and/or board member of over 100 technology start-ups, primarily in the software, Internet, and mobile sectors. He has taught entrepreneurial finance since 1995 and is currently adjunct faculty at San Jose State University. Previously, he was a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley. His focus is on experiential education and has developed new courses at SJSU, including the Entrepreneurship Lab (ELAB), Venture Lab (VLAB), Startup Founders and Funders, and the Silicon Valley Experience. At SJSU he has also been on the Steering Committee for the Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship, Patent Review Board, Dean’s Advisory Board and Chairman of the Spartan Angel Fund. He has also been a long time member of the UCLA Venture Capital Fund. Prior to and concurrent with Bodega, Steve was a Founding Partner at True Global Ventures, Partner at CrossCoin Ventures, Venture Partner at Outlook Ventures, Board Member of Sand Hill Angels, Partner at Menlo Incubator and held various financial and management positions at Bay Logics, Digital Microwave, and Arthur Andersen. Steve earned an undergraduate degree in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA. He blogs at www.professorvc.com and tweets @ProfessorVC.

Entrepreneurship for the Social Good

When: Monday, March 18, 2024
Time: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. 
Where: SJSU Student Union Theater
Register here

Speakers: 

Lata Krishnan, Founder, American India Foundation, Investor, & Entrepreneur, in conversation with     

Anita Manwani, President, TiE Silicon Valley & Founder reLIMS.

Speakers' Bios:

Lata Krishnan is an experienced Board Director skilled in advising companies and founders in building and scaling enterprises. She is a member of both public and private Boards, most notably the Stanford Healthcare Board (SHC), the governing body for Stanford Hospital and the School of Medicine. Lata is the Founder, former President, and current Co-Chair of the American India Foundation, she also serves on the Board of the Accion Opportunity Fund and is a Fellow of the American Leadership Forum. Lata is also a Senior Advisory Board Member of the London School of Economics, South Asia Centre. Lata also started her own Family Office, Shah Capital Partners and as Managing Partner takes an active role in identifying and investing in high-growth opportunities and inspiring founders from the technology, life sciences and social impact worlds. Her interest in story telling through the arts resulted in taking on the role of the Executive Producer of "Fremont" which was recently awarded the John Cassavetes Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

 
Anita Manwani is President of TiE Silicon Valley; Founder reLIMS, a laboratory automation software company; and a former executive at HP/Agilent and NASA. She is committed to healthcare, education and access. She is a founding trustee of Ashoka University, an MIT venture The Graduate School for the Science of Teaching and Learning.  Anita  serves on several for profit and non-profit boards and has been recognized among top 80 women nationally as “Technology All Star”;  YWCA TWIN award for executive leadership and impact; and among the Top 100 Women of Influence in Silicon Valley.  She is an avid golfer, open terrain hiker and enjoys cooking.

10 Lessons Learned to Grow from $0 to $100M ARR

When: Monday, February 19, 2024
Time: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. 
Where: SJSU Student Union Theater
Register here

Speaker: Alfonso de la Nuez, Cofounder & ex-CEO, UserZoom, Startup Advisor, Investor, & Author. 

Speaker's Bio

Alfonso de la Nuez is the Co-Founder and ex-CEO of UserZoom, the UX (user experience) Insights company that helps businesses gather and manage the insights they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences. Under his leadership, UserZoom grew from a bootstrapped firm out of Spain in 2007 into a $100m ARR, global organization with Fortune 100 customers across all industries. The company raised a total of $150m from multiple Silicon Valley investors. In 2022, UserZoom was acquired by top software investment firm, Thoma Bravo, for $810m, and in 2023 it was merged with UserTesting.

Alfonso began his career in Spain in the mid 1990s working in technology, where he gained his first experience in digital marketing, website design, usability testing and UX research. 

He is currently an advisor, investor and Board member working with tech startups, and a featured speaker at industry events, where he helps inspire the next generation of Entrepreneurs, UX professionals and Product Managers. He’s written a book called ‘The Digital Experience Company’ (published in August 2022), and he’s been granted three technology patents by the USPTO.

Alfonso holds a BA in International Business from San Jose State University, where he also played Div I Varsity Basketball after getting an athletic scholarship. An avid basketball player and Motorsports fan, he lives in Los Gatos, CA, with his wife, son and daughter.