We're in the last lap of editing our research study on best practices of private equity and venture capital investors in originating new investments, which has a particular focus on use of social media.  We plan to publish this in a major private equity journal.

If you would like to review a copy of the 12,000-word report, please contact us.  We would greatly value your feedback.

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"As more research providers emerge to analyze the public markets (there are now over 3,500 research providers in our database), one gap in the market are research providers for the private markets.  David Teten, founder of the expert network Evalueserve Circle of Experts (formerly Nitron Circle of Experts), is moving into this space.  His new firm . . . will provide origination tools and other analytics to private equity firms.  Teten's exit from expert networks was well timed in retrospect, and his new focus on private equity looks opportune."

You can read the post here.  (Thank you to Sandy Bragg for reaching out to us.)

Evalueserve, a global research firm and the acquirer of my former company (Circle of Experts), provided supporting research and analytics in the initial phases of this study. We also thank Yujin Chung and Neha Kumar (Wharton 2010), research associates who provided invaluable support, and interns Corentin Roux dit Buisson, Dan Clark, Nitin Gupta, and Nikhil Iyer .

A highlight from the HBR article:

We've found that late-stage tech investors with geographically diverse portfolios are consistently among the best performers and have continued to attract large limited partner commitments, even during the challenging period since 2007. Almost all such players have been able to raise at least as much cash as they could previously. By contrast, the funds with traditional origination programs, focused on local networks, have had difficulty; most haven't raised new capital since late 2005.

Read the whole thing.

For more data from the study, see the slides below:

Download this presentation.

Download this presentation.

Within private equity, these groups are often called "portfolio operations", sometimes "portfolio resources groups", or what Riverside Company calls its Toolkit. At larger funds, "operations" may be distinguished from governance, talent selection, pre-investment involvement, or even strategy, partly because "operations" is a term that management may infer to mean backseat driving.

By definition, these groups focus on improving the operations of the existing portfolio, not on diligencing potential deals or on deal structuring. Just a few of the many major private equity funds that have well-developed private equity operations groups: 3i (Business Leaders Network); Cerberus; Irving Place Capital; Bain Capital; TPG; General Atlantic; and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.

A Bain study found that "as much as 80% of private equity returns [going forward] will come from real performance improvement, rather than [ ] financial structuring." According to a 2006 KPMG study of 100 private equity exits (below), 48% of the value-add during private equity ownership came through organic revenue growth, as opposed to capital structure changes and multiple arbitrage.

Source of Gains in Private Equity-Backed Companies

I see six major reasons why limited partners now expect that private equity funds will have a formal operating strategy, minimally an operating partner and/or a formal portfolio resources group. I should mention my thinking throughout this blog post and especially in the list of factors below is shaped by a number of presentations I've seen by Jon Weber, who has run portfolio resources groups at three major private equity funds.

1) Global economic crisis. Particularly in 2008-09, most portfolio companies required operating changes to survive. In most cases, the existing management teams were hired for their ability to grow revenues, not their ability to restructure. The funds had to supplement and/or replace the existing teams.

2) Commoditization of financial engineering. The classic question Michael Jensen asked is: if leveraging is so wonderful, why don't companies do it themselves instead of waiting for an LBO fund to buy them out? Since Jensen first began researching this area, larger companies increasingly chose to lever themselves, and there has been a massive boom in the private equity industry---thousands of funds all of whom can offer leverage. It has become much harder for a private equity fund to make high returns simply by borrowing some money and taking advantage of the interest tax shield.

3) Investors seek differentiation. Building a formal portfolio resources group has been a way that private equity investors can differentiate themselves and ease the capital-raising process.

4) Maturing private equity industry. According to the Parthenon Group, the larger size and greater complexity of funds has led to greater role specialization. As one investor said to me, "We've moved from the 'great man' to the 'great team' model."

5) Risk mitigation. The deal team tends to have a strong incentive to do a deal, and then move on to the next deal. An operational perspective adds a counter-balance to the deal team.

6) Strategy driven. Certain strategies -- deep value investing, turnarounds, mid-market focus, and industry-specialized funds -- require a hands-on approach.

I remember speaking at a Capital Roundtable Private Equity Portfolio Operations conference back in June 2008, and I was struck at the number of attendees who commented publicly on how they felt like "second-class citizens" at their funds, both in status and in compensation. However, when I spoke at the IIR PE Ops conference in October 2009, in the midst of cleanup from the economic crisis, the mood of the operating professionals was much more buoyant (despite the challenges they faced in their portfolio.) On a relative basis, they knew that their professional contribution had become much more apparent at their firms.

We have not yet seen a similar boom in portfolio resources teams in the venture capital industry, but it's coming. I recently had a conversation with Chris Farmer about this, which sharpened my thinking considerably (he is the coauthor of my forthcoming study on "Best Practices in PE/VC Deal Origination"). According to the NVCA and PWC Moneytree, the average VC round has doubled in the last 12 years with the growth of the industry (from $4m to $8m). At the same time, the cost of starting a company and proving concept with a new product has declined dramatically in many sectors.

Some such as Marc Andreessen argue that costs have dropped as much as 100x over the last couple of decades since the current venture capital model was created. As a result, many innovative venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are creating new fund models from Andreessen-Horowitz to Betaworks to Founders Collective and Floodgate. Fred Wilson wrote, "The venture capital asset class does not scale . . . . I think 'back to the future' is the answer to most of the venture capital asset class problems. Less capital in the asset class, smaller fund sizes, smaller partnerships, smaller deals, and smaller exits. The math works as long as you don't put too many zeros on the end of the numbers you are working with."

A corollary of Fred's point is that the small number of portfolio companies which do hit hypergrowth need more support. Chris and I think that one logical new model is: seed a large number of companies with quite modest amounts of capital. Then, double down with follow-on rounds on those concepts that do take off. For those companies that experience rapid growth, it makes sense for a fund to bring extra support, since those companies can't hire good people fast enough to do everything they need to do. In addition, a portfolio resources group can share learnings across the portfolio. This is much easier in venture than in private equity, because VC funds are much more likely to specialize in tightly defined industries. In addition, the portfolio companies are smaller and so it's easier for a VC to shape their growth according to the fund's beliefs in best practices.

In the case of companies that do not reach hyper growth, the companies will have raised modest amounts of capital and can be sold for much smaller amounts while still resulting in a win for entrepreneur and VC alike. Of course, failing to provide a follow-on investment is a signal that can hurt the company, but that has always been a part of the business and we are confident that models will evolve to minimize the negative effects.

Here are some models of VCs Chris and I identified which are building out portfolio resources groups:

- Andreesen Horowitz has said very explicitly that their model is to be able to invest at a wide range of capital levels in the 10-20 companies per year which have true potential to scale. They have built out a small value augmentation group: Ronny Conway (point person on business development for the portfolio) and several recruiters (1 for college-level talent, and 1 for experienced talent).

- Insight has the "Insight Onsite team" which is particularly focused on sales, SEO, and SEM.

- Accel has a Venture Development group and firms like Oak Investment Partners and Bessemer have Operating Partners to lend added support to companies. Charles River Ventures had a similar approach during the bubble.

- Bessemer also has a Designer in residence (showing the increasing importance of design for internet companies, e.g., Mint.com).

- Highland Capital Partners, Union Square, and numerous others have "Thought Summits" with noteable guest speakers. These events usually are organized by portfolio functional role, e.g., a portfolio CTO summit, portfolio CEO summit, etc.

- As I mentioned above, Union Square Ventures announced that they are hiring a General Manager of their portfolio.

- There has been a boom in accelerators: Boostphase (Atlanta, GA); Bootup Labs (Vancouver, BC); Capitalfactory.com (Austin, TX); Charles River Ventures QuickStart (Boston, MA); DreamIT Ventures (Philadelphia, PA); Iaccelerator.org (Bangalore, India); Launchboxdigital.com (Washington, DC); Nextstart.org (Greenville, SC); seedcamp (London, UK); Shotputventures.com (Atlanta, GA); SeedStart (New York); Summer @ Highland (Lexington, MA and Menlo Park, CA); Techstars.org (Boston (MA), Boulder, CO, and Seattle, WA; The Difference Engine(Sunderland, UK); Y Combinator (Mountain View, CA); and Y Europe (Vienna, Austria). For more information on how to build a replica of Y Combinator, read Jed Christiansen. For a comparative listing and more background, see Readwriteweb and Dan Veltri. TechStars recently released very positive data on the success of their incubated companies.

This approach differs from the incubator and acceletor trend (e.g., cmgi, antFactory) of a decade ago. That model was often criticized for selection bias: the less-competent entrepreneurs found the incubators more attractive. In addition, too much of the core competency of the company was driven by the incubator instead of in the company itself, creating ambiguity in attribution of value between the two entities. The new model looks more like the VC as consigliere instead of a bacteria splitting off new progeny.

I've had a front-row seat to this phenomenon, since I've done a lot of work in the past with portfolio resources groups at some of the major private equity funds. I've presented in the past on "Finding New Deals and Improving Portfolio Company Valuations by Working with Operating Executives," which covers some of the structural options private equity funds have in working with their portfolio.

When Peter Drucker died, his obituaries were so laudatory I thought that I really should become familiar with his work.  So I've been reading through some of his major books.  It's striking how well-written and timeless they are.

I just finished his classic "Innovation and Entrepreneurship".  For my purposes in working with funds to identify attractive investments, the most interesting and pertinent part of the book is his exploration of how to identify entrepreneurial white space.  He writes that systematic innovation means monitoring seven sources for innovative opportunity. The first four lie within the enterprise; they are essentially symptoms:

1. The unexpected- The unexpected success, failure or outside event.

2. The incongruity- between reality as it actually is and reality as it is assumed to be or as it "ought to be."

3. Innovation based on process need

4. Changes in industry structure or market structure that catch everyone unawares.

The second set of sources for innovative opportunity involve changes outside the enterprise or industry:

5. Demographics-- population changes

6. Changes in perception, mood and meaning

7. New knowledge, both scientific and nonscientific.

The lines between these seven sources are blurred and they often overlap, nevertheless each area requires separate analysis. FastZone.com writes (paraphrasing and updating Drucker):

"First source: The Unexpected. Look to see if a particular product or service has been in greater or lesser demand than anticipated. If so, ask, Why? What would it mean to us if we exploited the unexpected success? What would we have to do to convert it into an opportunity? Set aside time to discuss unexpected success or failures. Do it for your clients, too.

Second source: The Incongruity. A discrepancy between what is and what should be. An example of this is given in Drucker's trademark book noted above. In the early 1980s a midwest securities firm did not assume that people invested to get rich and to play the market. Small business people and successful professionals who had modest spending habits were approached in respect to investment opportunities, to preserve their wealth not to trade. They took the bait. Eventually, money market funds were invented for this type of investor. The big securities firms thought all investors wanted to trade. They didn't. Do you have any misperceptions about who your best customers might be?

How does one find incongruities? Listen for customer complaints. These indicate that what the supplier or producer values is different from what the consumer values. They indicate an opportunity for an innovation that is specific and has a good chance of success.

Third source: Process Need. This one is task focused rather than situation focused. A process is perfected or redesigned or a weak link replaced. For example, a motel that was short on help and was having problems keeping up with the laundry simply installed the washer and dryer in the room behind the receptionist desk. That way, in her or his spare time, the reservations clerk could do the sheets and towels.

Fourth source: Industry and Market Structure Change. An obvious example is deregulation. Watch for rapid growth of an industry. If an industry grows significantly faster than the economy or population, structural problems will occur and changes are certain. Also, when technologies converge, change is certain.

Fifth source: Demographics. Changes in population, age structure, educational status, income. Discover these in the census findings at your public library or online.

Sixth source: Changes in Perception, Meaning, Mood. For example, today there is a trend called "downaging." No longer do we see people who are 50 as 50. We see them as 45. We see those who are 70 as 65 or younger. Think of Raquel Welch. How old is she? The cosmetic and medical industries have changed the way we regard age and the way we look. What products and services would address this change in perception?

Seventh source: New Knowledge. It has been said that in the information age, we will need a college education every three years to keep pace with all the new knowledge. That, of course, is impossible for all but bionic brains, but we can stay informed in our respective areas of endeavors, and get together with associates and friends from differing backgrounds to exchange ideas."

The book is highly focused on the entrepreneur's point of view. However, Drucker's concluding chapter consists almost entirely of a warning of the various ways in which the government can make it far more difficult for entrepreneurs to succeed. Unfortunately, his warnings are clearly not being heeded.

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Courtesy of Craig Franklin, a Cornell MBA, following is a summary of an interview with Steve Schwarzman, CEO of private equity firm The Blackstone Group. 

LPs looking for more money back from illiquid assets, some nice exits.

Blackstone plans to IPO 8 companies and sell another 5 Strong growth in Asia - China @10% due to economic stimulus, India at 7-8% range, Indonesia and Australia growing, Japan also growing (growth @ 1-2%), and Latin America (commodities driven which are linked to exports to China).

U.S. at about 3.5% or more in Q4. Slowest growth is in Europe.

Banks are challenged b/c they are fending off defaults from consumer, mortgage, credit card, etc. Reasonable to expect growth at muted rates.

$3-$5B range. Leverage at 4-6x EBITDA down from as high as 11x, equity contributions of 30-40%. So sizeable equity checks required for a $4-$5B deals.

Opportunities in the US and Asia, less in Europe. Industries is function of pricing available. Too early to be playing the large scale cyclical businesses.

Resources are interesting but must be careful. Huge cyclical rebound in resources because people use them as a hedge against weakness in paper money. Gold, hard resources, oil are used as offsets.

Standard view of commercial real estate is that the refinancing necessary won't be available. Prices have decreased and there is bound to be difficulty in those areas. Rates have dropped to finance real estate. Many owners will not have enough equity to refinance.

Opportunities for investors.

Changes on Wall Street

Major players no longer exist and remaining banks are making more money.

Need a major relook at capital ratios.

Pretty clear that those boom years led to excess. Impact of rating agencies on subprime loans, that was way overdone. Affected American consumer who over borrowed, real estate was overleveraged. PE was paying too much money for businesses as were strategics. Global coordination so Fed policy also helped this and a regulatory regime could not cope with modern types of securities. System needs to be redesigned.

US Economy needs stimulus, most will be coming in this year. Beaten up US consumer and it will take a while for the consumer to rehabilitate their balance sheet. Stimulus is filling that void. Selective with who you invest in. Just bought Busch amusement parks. Great time to be buying assets that have been hit by lack of consumer spending and at a good price.

China has wealth to stimulate their economy, countries that touch China should have a very good economic future. Look at who China touches, very powerful long term growth engine that will shortly be converted to a more consumer focused economy. Generally, the developing world is now 34% of the global economy so keep a close tab on opportunities abroad.

The Harvard Business School Club of Connecticut

invites you to a Panel Discussion on

It's the People:

Improving Private Equity Portfolio Company Valuations by
Working with Operating Executives

Bush-Holley Historic Site
39 Strickland Road, Cos Cob, CT

Nov. 19, 2009

 
6:00pm-7:00pm: meet our speakers
7:00pm-8:20pm: presentation
8:20-9:00pm: post-event conversation

Featuring :
Robert Berner, Partner, CVC Capital

Pat Hedley, Senior Vice President, General Atlantic

David Teten, CEO, Teten Advisors

Jon Weber, Head, Portfolio Operations Group, Goldman Sachs Special Situations Group (SSG)

A sneak preview of the discussion is available here: "How Operating Executives Can Work with Private Equity."

Click here to register: HBS/ Harvard Alumni & 1 Guest: $40 per person
All Other - General Admission: $50 per person

This event will sell out; we have limited space.  Please register early.

One randomly selected guest will win a copy of  The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online.  

Please note this event is off the record. 

DISCUSSION TOPICS 

This presentation is geared both to institutional investors who want to ensure that the right senior talent are leading their portfolio companies, and to operating executives who are interested in working with private equity and VC portfolio companies. Our panelists will discuss:

- Common engagement models private equity and venture capital firms use to tap operating executives: Expert networks, senior advisor networks, executives in residence, board memberships, and deal executives.

- Advantages and disadvantages of each model

- Why operational expertise is now far more important for private equity portfolio companies.

- How you can use online networks and other "Web 2.0" internet technologies to increase your pool of potential employees. 

Robert Berner, Partner of CVC Capital

Robert joined CVC in New York in March, 2007 from Ripplewood Holdings, where he was the Managing Director for the past five years. Prior to Ripplewood, Rob worked at Charterhouse and Morgan Stanley. Rob holds an MBA from J .L Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

Pat Hedley, Senior Vice President, General Atlantic

Pat Hedley is Senior Vice President with General Atlantic having joined the firm in 1987. As a member of General Atlantic's Resources Group, she assists the firm's global portfolio companies with a broad range of operational issues including human capital management (executive management and board search, equity programs, talent capture and external provider relationship management) and marketing (branding, PR and IR). In addition, she is responsible for General Atlantic's global marketing and communications activities. Ms. Hedley has worked in this role since January 2000.

Ms. Hedley joined General Atlantic in 1987 as an Associate, became a Principal in 1990 and worked as an investment professional until 1996. She focused on investment prospecting activities and worked closely with several portfolio companies assisting with their growth strategies including helping evaluate and pursue m&a opportunities and regional expansion. Prior to General Atlantic, Ms. Hedley worked as Director of Information Technology for MediVision, a healthcare startup funded by Bain Capital. Previously, she had been an Associate Consultant with Bain & Company.

Ms. Hedley holds an AB in Computer Science and Government from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She is on the board of Reach the World, a non-profit connecting inner-city students with world travelers through technology.

David Teten, CEO, Teten Advisors

David Teten is CEO of Teten Advisors, which specializes in advising private equity and venture capital funds on accelerating deal flow, portfolio company executive optimization and recruiting, and due diligence. In 2009, he will release the results of the first study of best practices in venture capital and private equity deal origination, based on interviews with over 125 professional investors, his work with a range of institutional investor clients, and research he conducted in writing his book, The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online.  The deal origination study will be published in the Journal of Private Equity (an Institutional Investor publication). 

David was most recently a Managing Director with Evalueserve, a global research and analytics company. Founded in 2000, Evalueserve has over 2,500 employees.  David was previously Founder and CEO of Circle of Experts, an investment research firm acquired by Evalueserve, and  formerly Founder and CEO of Teten Recruiting, an executive recruiting firm acquired by Accolo, #42 on the 2007 Inc. 500 list. He was also formerly Founder and CEO of an investment bank focusing on serving the internet domain name asset class, which he built to 450 customers. He worked with Bear Stearns' Investment Banking division as a member of their technology/defense mergers and acquisitions team, and was a strategy consultant with Mars & Co. David holds a Harvard MBA and a Yale BA, both with honors.

Jon Weber, Head, Portfolio Operations Group, Goldman Sachs Special Situations Group

Mr. Weber heads Portfolio Operations within the Special Situations Group (SSG) at Goldman Sachs. He and his team conduct operational portfolio oversight and manage value enhancement initiatives for more than 50 businesses in which SSG is an influential equity investor in the Americas and EMEA. Previously, Mr. Weber was the senior finance and operations executive for Carl Icahn responsible for operational oversight of companies in which Mr. Icahn had a significant interest. In that capacity, Mr. Weber served as President of Icahn Enterprises, L.P. (NYSE-IEP), CEO of Philip Services Corporation and Viskase Companies, and as a board member of American Railcar Industries, National Energy Group, WestPoint International and XO Communications. Earlier in his career, Mr. Weber was Managing Director heading corporate and investment banking for JP Morgan Chase in Sao Paulo and a Principal in the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley in New York. Mr. Weber began his career as a corporate lawyer at Weil Gotshal & Manges following his graduation cum laude from Harvard Law School. He also holds an MBA and Bachelor's degrees from Babson College. Mr. Weber is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Association of Corporate Directors.

I hope you'll be able to join us for the event below:

"Private Equity and Venture Capital Deal Origination - Best Practices"

Audax Group and Teten Advisors, LLC

Sponsored by the Financial Executives Networking Group New York Chapter

When: Thursday, 11/5/2009
5:30 PM to 8:30 PM

Where: Lee Hecht Harrison
200 Park Avenue (MetLife Building)
26th Floor, 212-557-0009

Private equity firms, venture capital providers, and hedge funds all face the same problem: creating deal flow and finding suitable investment candidates. This can become more complicated in a weak economy, with too many potential funders chasing too few attractive deals. However, those with a record of success at deal origination tend to find good investments in any economy, based on extensive research and ability to acquire and interpret relevant information. That said, identifying the best candidates is only half of the solution: becoming a target company’s preferred investor requires an equal expenditure of time and energy, often with an uncertain outcome.

The FENG New York has invited two experts in the field to discuss best practices of deal origination, based on their considerable research and practical experience. The meeting addresses issues specific to the private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds sectors, but which also may be applicable to other industries. A preview of the presentation slides from panelist David Teten can be found at http://teten.com/deals.

The criteria to join the Financial Executives Networking Group are a minimum of 20 years working experience; a senior title in a financial capacity; and income of $150,000 in the most recent or relevant position. However, all are welcome to attend the meeting.

David Teten is CEO of Teten Advisors (Teten.com), which specializes in advising private equity and venture capital funds on accelerating deal flow, portfolio company executive optimization and recruiting, and due diligence. In 2009, he will release the results of the first study of best practices in venture capital and private equity deal origination, based on interviews with over 125 professional investors, his work with a range of institutional investor clients, and research he conducted in writing his book, The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online.  David was most recently a Managing Director with Evalueserve, a global research and analytics company. Among Evalueserve's 1,100 clients are 6 of the top 10 investment banking entities and 10 of the top 15 strategy consulting firms. David was previously Founder and CEO of Circle of Experts, an investment research firm acquired by Evalueserve.  David was formerly Founder and CEO of an investment bank focusing on serving the internet domain name asset class, which he built to 450 customers. He worked with Bear Stearns' Investment Banking division as a member of their technology/defense mergers and acquisitions team, and was a strategy consultant with Mars & Co. David holds a Harvard MBA and a Yale BA, both with honors.

Edward Feuerstein is a Principal in Business Development at the Audax Group, which provides investment capital to small cap and lower-middle market companies. Audax focuses on private and public companies with a history of cash flow stability and consistent revenue growth, and on a consolidated basis manages over $4 billion of capital through a variety of financial instruments. Deal origination occurs through proprietary introductions as well as participation in broad auctions. Typically it retains existing management teams, with the intent of building the company and strengthening market positions. Audax Private Equity is currently investing out of its third private equity fund, which has over $1 billion of capital provided by limited partners and investment professionals. Audax Mezzanine invests primarily in subordinated debt and junior securities, and usually aims to be the sole or lead investor. Audax invests across a wide range of industries and transaction types, including leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, divestitures, spin-offs, and roll-outs. Previously, Edward worked as an Analyst at Wasserstein Perella & Co.

To attend this event please RSVP to The FENG New York at fengnyc(@)gmail.com, providing your name, preferred email address, and telephone number. A charitable contribution of $20 (payable at the door) is requested, which is dedicated to clerical and overhead expenses of the chapter and headquarters. If you register and your plans change, please provide notification. If it is necessary to leave before 7:30 we kindly request that you sit in the back of the room so as to not disrupt the speakers. Please turn off cell phones before the presentations begin.

Doors open at 5:30, and each speaker will have the floor for about 30 minutes from 6:00 to 7:00. The Q&A session goes until 7:30, followed by general networking until 8:30. The speakers will stay until conclusion of the networking session. The dress code is business casual.

Directions

• From 45th Street entrance walk up one flight to 2nd floor to reception.
• From 42nd Street entrance walk through Grand Central Terminal, take escalators up two flights to 2nd Floor reception.
• Please also check into the meeting on the 26^th floor.

 

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I'm visiting Southern California October 5-8, and I hope that some of you will be able to attend one of my presentations there.  I'll be discussing the results of my research project on "Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds' Best Practices in Deal Origination".  A preview of my slides is here.

I'll be speaking in three semi-public events (scheduled so far):

_______________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, Oct. 6: noon-1:30 pm (presenting at 12:30pm approximately), boxed lunch and refreshments provided

CFA Society of Los Angeles ( www.cfala.org )

2 California Plaza / ETC Room, 350 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90071

RSVP: CFA event.

_______________________________________________________________________

Wednesday, Oct. 7: 8:00am-11am (presenting at 8:30am, approximately), breakfast included

Keiretsu Forum ( http://www.keiretsuforum.com , large network of angel investors)

RSVP: Keiretsu event.

Beverly Hills Country Club, 3084 Motor Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064-4746

_______________________________________________________________________

Wednesday, Oct. 7: 6:30-9pm (presenting at 7:30pm)

Harvard Business School Association of Southern California ( www.hbsasc.org )

RSVP: HBSASC event

Luxe Hotel, 11461 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049

I hope to see you there!

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I hope that some of you can join us for a panel discussion sponsored by the Women's Association of Venture & Equity, on Wednesday, September 30 in New York.  I'll be discussing the results of my research on best practices in deal origination.  Please note this is only open to women.

"Deal Sourcing in a Down Market"

A panel of experienced private equity investors and advisors will discuss strategies and best practices for finding deals in a tough market.

Event Chair:
Yue Guan, Palladium Equity Partners

Moderator:
Djena Graves Lennix, ICV Partners

Panel:
Robert Landis, Partner, Origination - Riverside Company
David Teten, CEO - Teten Advisors, LLC
Robert Hall, Senior Advisor - Centerview Partners
Gretchen Perkins, VP of Business Development - Huron Capital Partners

Location:

New York Marriott East Side
525 Lexington Avenue (and 49th Street)
New York, NY 10017-1226

Click here for directions

Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Time: 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Agenda:

6:00 pm to 6:30 pm - Registration
6:30 pm to 7:30 pm - Panel Discussion
7:30 pm to 8:30 pm - Reception & Networking

Cost:

$80 for WAVE members;
$95 for non-members

How to register:
The audience is limited to women in PE - GPs, LPs, intermediaries, placement agents, and advisors.  Advance registration is required. All registrations are screened.

Contact Danielle Fraser, WAVE Administrator at fraser@theacademygroup.com or call 877-928-3606.