Over the past five years, startups have found it increasingly difficult to sell to the enterprise as buyers have become risk averse and often prefer the safety a mediocre large vendor to best of breed products from innovative startups. What are the key success factors needed to break into the enterprise market as well as alternative strategies for succeeding beyond the traditional enterprise sales model?

Come and join us on a live presentation by Ron Weissman, a partner at Apax Partners, a global private equity leader with $20 Bn under management.

Ron Weissman is a partner and a member of the tech and telecom investment team at Apax, a global leader in private equity. Ron has worked with more than twenty-five young companies since joining Apax in 2000. Prior to Apax, he was head of marketing and corporate development at Verity, and on the team that was named turnaround team of the year by the Turnaround Management Association in 1999 for transforming a failing $50MM market cap company into a highly successful $1.5B market cap powerhouse.

Register online

Date: Wednesday, 11/08/2006
Time: 6:00-6:30pm Reception with appetizers. 6:30-8:00pm Speaker Presentation
Place: Morgan Stanley, 20400 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 350, Cupertino 95014. Note that the building is secured after 5:00pm--enter through the main lobby so that the security guard can let you in.
Registration: $20 per person for WCNC members or members of affiliate clubs and one accompanied guest; $40 for non-member alumni and other guests. The WCNC's standard cancellation policy applies for this event. $10 additional for tickets after 5:00pm Monday, November 6th, if available.

About Ron Weissman
As a partner at Apax, Ron focuses on investing and portfolio development in software, wireless and services. He began the technology part of his career consulting for the US government and managing University computing at Maryland and at Brown. He worked with NeXT Computer for five years, heading European and Corporate Marketing. He later became Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Marketing for Verity. During his tenure there, Verity was growing from under $50 million to over $1.5 billion. In 1999 Verity was named Turnaround of the Year by the Turnaround Management Association. Ron joined Apax in 2000.

A frequent tech and VC conference speaker who has published extensively, Ron was one of three technology leaders profiled in PriceWaterhouseCooper’s 2003–2005 Technology Forecast. Ron serves on the boards of various companies. A Fulbright Scholar, Ron serves as Overseer of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, and is an Associate Trustee at Penn. Ron is also an advisor to business, community and philanthropic organizations including the Entrepreneurs’ Foundation, market research firm BASEX, the Golden State Capital Network, the Venture Capital Roundtable, the executive committee of the Venture Capital Task Force, and is on the Corporate Council of the San Francisco Opera. Ron received his BA, MA, AND Ph.D from UC Berkeley (’78) History / Minor: Quantitative Anthropology. UCB Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. He is irregular lecturer at Haas School of Business.