Friday Coffee Meet Up Podcast

How long have you been working on your idea? Or looking for that next disruptive investment? Better still, how do you perfect your skill in doing all that? How do you lock-down your idea, your technology, your business or even your approach to investments? Consider this: the key stems from a very practical understanding how the abstract world (where disruptive innovations come from in the first place) actually works. Amazingly, it is something we were never accurately taught. Hard to believe right? But change that…and we change everything. So take a step into both the past and future. Come to a talk that will change the way you understand the world forever – something that will actually make you smarter. How cool would that be?

Winston is the founder of a discipline called Concept Modeling, which is at the root of all other disciplines – but don’t let the word “discipline” scare you. This talk will be very practical and may just be the key to your success going forward. He is the author of an award (Visionary Award) winning new book, Concerning the Nature and Structure of Concept. Reviewers have called his book (thus his work) “brimming with insights,” “intellectually fun,” “a startling fresh perspective on our world.” NY Times has called him “the guru of concept modeling.”

With past and present clients that include Warner Bros., Dreamworks, NBC/U, Interscope, Relativity and many others, Winston works on films, TV Shows, technologies, businesses and management models for executives. How cool is Bug Bunny? Very. With dozens of movies, technologies under his belt, his presentations are unique, insightful, informative, and yes, fun — he even concept modeled baseball. Love that! As Winston always says: “Let’s rock this thing!”

Biography:

As featured in the New York Times, and Deadline.com, Winston is the creator and founder of Concept Modeling, and author of his coming award (Visionary Award) winning book, Concerning The Nature And Structure Of Concept. His concept modeling helps studios and companies perfect films, ideas, technologies, science or businesses. It is considered revolutionary (truly, no cliché) by more and more professionals. The NY Times called Winston the “guru of Concept Modeling.”

Based on a discovery made on Feb. 6, 1989, -- a massive eureka moment as described in his book-- Winston developed a unique practice of deconstructing ideas based on deep insights on how the abstract world actually works or doesn’t – his past and present clients include Warner Bros., Dreamworks, NBC/U, Interscope, Relativity and many others.

His work may just represent a revolutionary advancement that launches you and your successful idea or investment, right here, right now. As Winston is fond of saying: ‘Let’s rock this thing!”

Twitter: @conceptmodeling

Website: www.conceptmodeling.com

Book Purchase link: (Limited copies till Jan, 2020)

http://conceptmodeling.com/book-and-products

Email: [email protected]

Deadline.com Article:

If Bugs Bunny Met Immanuel Kant, It Would Be In Winston Perez’s New Book On ‘Concept’

http://deadline.com/2017/11/winston-j-perez-book-bugs-bunny-immanuel-kant-concept-model-1202216514/

NY Times Article:

Forget the Pitch, What’s the Concept?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/business/26steal.html?_r=0

How long have you been working on your idea? Or looking for that next disruptive investment? Better still, how do you perfect your skill in doing all that? How do you lock-down your idea, your technology, your business or even your approach to investments? Consider this: the key stems from a very practical understanding how the abstract world (where disruptive innovations come from in the first place) actually works. Amazingly, it is something we were never accurately taught. Hard to believe right? But change that…and we change everything. So take a step into both the past and future. Come to a talk that will change the way you understand the world forever – something that will actually make you smarter. How cool would that be?

Winston is the founder of a discipline called Concept Modeling, which is at the root of all other disciplines – but don’t let the word “discipline” scare you. This talk will be very practical and may just be the key to your success going forward. He is the author of an award (Visionary Award) winning new book, Concerning the Nature and Structure of Concept. Reviewers have called his book (thus his work) “brimming with insights,” “intellectually fun,” “a startling fresh perspective on our world.” NY Times has called him “the guru of concept modeling.”

With past and present clients that include Warner Bros., Dreamworks, NBC/U, Interscope, Relativity and many others, Winston works on films, TV Shows, technologies, businesses and management models for executives. How cool is Bug Bunny? Very. With dozens of movies, technologies under his belt, his presentations are unique, insightful, informative, and yes, fun — he even concept modeled baseball. Love that! As Winston always says: “Let’s rock this thing!”

Biography:

As featured in the New York Times, and Deadline.com, Winston is the creator and founder of Concept Modeling, and author of his coming award (Visionary Award) winning book, Concerning The Nature And Structure Of Concept. His concept modeling helps studios and companies perfect films, ideas, technologies, science or businesses. It is considered revolutionary (truly, no cliché) by more and more professionals. The NY Times called Winston the “guru of Concept Modeling.”

Based on a discovery made on Feb. 6, 1989, -- a massive eureka moment as described in his book-- Winston developed a unique practice of deconstructing ideas based on deep insights on how the abstract world actually works or doesn’t – his past and present clients include Warner Bros., Dreamworks, NBC/U, Interscope, Relativity and many others.

His work may just represent a revolutionary advancement that launches you and your successful idea or investment, right here, right now. As Winston is fond of saying: ‘Let’s rock this thing!”

Twitter: @conceptmodeling

Website: www.conceptmodeling.com

Book Purchase link: (Limited copies till Jan, 2020)

http://conceptmodeling.com/book-and-products

Email: [email protected]

Deadline.com Article:

If Bugs Bunny Met Immanuel Kant, It Would Be In Winston Perez’s New Book On ‘Concept’

http://deadline.com/2017/11/winston-j-perez-book-bugs-bunny-immanuel-kant-concept-model-1202216514/

NY Times Article:

Forget the Pitch, What’s the Concept?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/business/26steal.html?_r=0

The story and strategy on how founder Edward Bullard took an idea in his head to a fully working product amongst countless obstacles, through leveraging the product and earning a one million dollar investment.

Biography

Edward Bullard is a four time entrepreneur, DJ, and film maker. He is the CEO & Founder of Bacpak, a DJ booking app that allows you to book a DJ in 5 minutes, much like Uber. Edward has deep hands-on experience in building digital and brick & mortar ideas with minimal to no preset structure to solid products ready to launch. From starting his first business at 16 mowing lawns to opening a brick & mortar bar and launching digital apps, Edward has over a 15 years of struggles and success to share.

Instagram:

@djpurplelove

@bacpak.app

www.bacpak.app

The story and strategy on how founder Edward Bullard took an idea in his head to a fully working product amongst countless obstacles, through leveraging the product and earning a one million dollar investment.

Biography

Edward Bullard is a four time entrepreneur, DJ, and film maker. He is the CEO & Founder of Bacpak, a DJ booking app that allows you to book a DJ in 5 minutes, much like Uber. Edward has deep hands-on experience in building digital and brick & mortar ideas with minimal to no preset structure to solid products ready to launch. From starting his first business at 16 mowing lawns to opening a brick & mortar bar and launching digital apps, Edward has over a 15 years of struggles and success to share.

Instagram:

@djpurplelove

@bacpak.app

www.bacpak.app

Boards are an inevitable part of the startup journey. Your decisions in the early stages of your startup around your cap table and your board structure will persist and have implications throughout the life of your company.

Chang Xu will share her experience from sitting on and observing a number of startup boards as well as give advice for how you can set up your board for success. She will dive into topics such as:

-- What does a board do?

-- What is it useful for and what is it not?

-- What rights do they have?

-- When do you form a board and is it ever too early?

-- What are the benefits vs. tradeoffs?

-- Should you give an investor a board seat and how do you choose your first investor board member?

-- How do boards evolve over more rounds of financing?

-- How does your relationship with your board change?

-- How do your rights with respect to your board change?

-- What are the features of a well-functioning board vs. a dysfunctional board?

-- What precipitates the latter and how do you avoid it?

Bio

Chang Xu is a venture partner at Basis Set Ventures, a $140M seed fund that invests in AI and the future of work. She previously spent three years at Upfront Ventures, the oldest and largest SoCal-based early stage venture capital firm with $2B in AUM. Prior to joining Upfront, she was a founder and an operator. She was the first Product Manager at the Minerva Project. She co-founded and was the COO of Onion Math, an ed-tech startup in China that has raised $90M to-date. She started her career at BCG where she advised clients across technology, retail, healthcare and private equity. She holds an MBA and AB in Applied Math and Computer Science, both from Harvard.

Twitter personal https://twitter.com/_changxu

Twitter official https://twitter.com/BasisSet

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/changx/

Medium https://medium.com/@changxu

Website https://basisset.ventures

Boards are an inevitable part of the startup journey. Your decisions in the early stages of your startup around your cap table and your board structure will persist and have implications throughout the life of your company.

Chang Xu will share her experience from sitting on and observing a number of startup boards as well as give advice for how you can set up your board for success. She will dive into topics such as:

-- What does a board do?

-- What is it useful for and what is it not?

-- What rights do they have?

-- When do you form a board and is it ever too early?

-- What are the benefits vs. tradeoffs?

-- Should you give an investor a board seat and how do you choose your first investor board member?

-- How do boards evolve over more rounds of financing?

-- How does your relationship with your board change?

-- How do your rights with respect to your board change?

-- What are the features of a well-functioning board vs. a dysfunctional board?

-- What precipitates the latter and how do you avoid it?

Bio

Chang Xu is a venture partner at Basis Set Ventures, a $140M seed fund that invests in AI and the future of work. She previously spent three years at Upfront Ventures, the oldest and largest SoCal-based early stage venture capital firm with $2B in AUM. Prior to joining Upfront, she was a founder and an operator. She was the first Product Manager at the Minerva Project. She co-founded and was the COO of Onion Math, an ed-tech startup in China that has raised $90M to-date. She started her career at BCG where she advised clients across technology, retail, healthcare and private equity. She holds an MBA and AB in Applied Math and Computer Science, both from Harvard.

Twitter personal https://twitter.com/_changxu

Twitter official https://twitter.com/BasisSet

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/changx/

Medium https://medium.com/@changxu

Website https://basisset.ventures

Coachability in its simplest form means that an individual is receptive to feedback and will act to improve their performance in response to constructive criticism. For founders coachability is a critical quality as they are rapidly learning beyond their past experience and the founding team is a key part of an investor’s evaluation of their start-up’s likelihood of success. A coachable founder has a willingness to learn and the ability to change for the better, positively impacting themselves, their employees, and their investors while driving success for their business. Being labeled “uncoachable” in contrast comes with the assumption that an individual will not adapt to changing needs and circumstances in their business and is unable to recognize and act on personal growth areas. Who would you rather invest in? We’ll discuss ways to cultivate a growth mindset and demonstrate coachability for the benefit of the founder and their start-up.

Biography

Helen McBride, PhD is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at Caltech, focusing on life science start-ups. Previously, she was at Amgen for 13 years in roles of increasing responsibility across research and translational sciences. After joining Amgen’s Discovery Research organization as senior scientist and principal scientist leading target discovery in the Inflammation space, she moved to the Discovery Toxicology group to focus on the application of imaging to drug safety and the development of improved cell models for predictive and investigational toxicology. Her last role at Amgen was as Director, Biosimilars Research where she was responsible for functional and nonclinical pharmacology assessment within the Biosimilar Business Unit, contributing to the approval of 3 biosimilar medicines and the regulatory submission of 3 more, spanning multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, inflammation and hematology. Helen now assists Caltech and JPL founders with multiple aspects of life science start-up creation including ideation, value proposition, and fundraising.

Helen received her BS degree from Texas A&M University. She earned her PhD in Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah and performed her postdoctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology focusing on neuro-developmental biology and biophysics prior to joining industry. She is an author of over 30 publications spanning diverse topics including imaging, molecular, developmental and cell biology, immunology, and oncology.

Coachability in its simplest form means that an individual is receptive to feedback and will act to improve their performance in response to constructive criticism. For founders coachability is a critical quality as they are rapidly learning beyond their past experience and the founding team is a key part of an investor’s evaluation of their start-up’s likelihood of success. A coachable founder has a willingness to learn and the ability to change for the better, positively impacting themselves, their employees, and their investors while driving success for their business. Being labeled “uncoachable” in contrast comes with the assumption that an individual will not adapt to changing needs and circumstances in their business and is unable to recognize and act on personal growth areas. Who would you rather invest in? We’ll discuss ways to cultivate a growth mindset and demonstrate coachability for the benefit of the founder and their start-up.

Biography

Helen McBride, PhD is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at Caltech, focusing on life science start-ups. Previously, she was at Amgen for 13 years in roles of increasing responsibility across research and translational sciences. After joining Amgen’s Discovery Research organization as senior scientist and principal scientist leading target discovery in the Inflammation space, she moved to the Discovery Toxicology group to focus on the application of imaging to drug safety and the development of improved cell models for predictive and investigational toxicology. Her last role at Amgen was as Director, Biosimilars Research where she was responsible for functional and nonclinical pharmacology assessment within the Biosimilar Business Unit, contributing to the approval of 3 biosimilar medicines and the regulatory submission of 3 more, spanning multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, inflammation and hematology. Helen now assists Caltech and JPL founders with multiple aspects of life science start-up creation including ideation, value proposition, and fundraising.

Helen received her BS degree from Texas A&M University. She earned her PhD in Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah and performed her postdoctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology focusing on neuro-developmental biology and biophysics prior to joining industry. She is an author of over 30 publications spanning diverse topics including imaging, molecular, developmental and cell biology, immunology, and oncology.

Stender has been an angel investor for over 25 years and has invested in over 100 startups.

While he usually talks about his portfolio strategy and his diligence process, we've asked him to talk about mistakes.

While he says his biggest mistakes are picking the wrong horse or the wrong jockey....we've convinced him to talk about the things he's done wrong over the years.

Stender has been an angel investor for over 25 years and has invested in over 100 startups.

While he usually talks about his portfolio strategy and his diligence process, we've asked him to talk about mistakes.

While he says his biggest mistakes are picking the wrong horse or the wrong jockey....we've convinced him to talk about the things he's done wrong over the years.