Events
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.
