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Splash Keynotes

Vator innovation series

Splash Keynotes by Bambi Francisco Roizen

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Stubhub's Jeff Fluhr: Nearly running out of money

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 17, 2012 | Comments

9381

Co-founder and former CEO shares lessons on building Stubhub before its successful exit to eBay

Stories about near-death experiences... OK that's too dramatic. Stories about successful companies that survived by making tough decisions after having a couple months of cash to keep going are always inspiring. They motivate us entrepreneurs. Pandora's Tim Westergren's keynote about maxing out 12 credit cards and not paying employees for a couple years is probably the topmost example of a ...

Box's Aaron Levie: Pivoting from consumer to enterprise

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, April 5, 2012 | Comments

9380

Lessons from building Box from a college idea, to a 'spork,' to a multi-million-dollar business

"Do you have any coffee?" Aaron Levie, the indefatigable co-founder and CEO of Box, asked me around 6 pm on the evening of Splash SF in February. If you know Levie, this question is quite comical given that the college-drop-out-turned start-up extraordinaire always seems to have just chugged half a dozen Red Bulls and a pot of coffee. Levie, who ...

First-time entrepreneur, Ben McKean's fundraising tips

by Kristin Karaoglu, March 31, 2012 | Comments

9058

Savored CEO and founder on navigating the VC landscape

Ben McKean, CEO and founder of Savored, shared his lessons about raising venture financing at Venture Shift, hosted by Vator and Bullpen. He shares four key aspects to fundraising: Momentum, Market Size, Management team, Money. Watch McKean's presentation. (Editor's note: Vator and Bullpen will be holding its next Venture Shift event on July 26, 2012 in San Francisco.)

Turntable's Billy Chasen: Starting over with $400,000

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 21, 2012 | Comments

9056

Raising money went from rejection, craziness to a lot easier...

I hear so many start-ups unwilling to make a drastic change to their operations, even if they're running out of money. They seem so hell bent on making their original idea succeed, they forget the saying: Fail fast. Or maybe, they just want to keep their cushy salaries until they ultimately die. But one start-up that made the brave move ...

Barry Silbert on the value of second markets

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 16, 2012 | Comments

9055

SecondMarket CEO and founder on why the public markets are broken

Barry Silbert, CEO and founder of SecondMarket, opened up his keynote presentation at Vator and BullPen's Venture Shift NY event with a CNBC video of commentators talking about the Flash Crash on May 6, 2010, when the Dow fell 1000 points (about 9%), and then recovered in a few minutes. Who wants their stock to deal with that kind of ...

Mark Suster video: The bubble bursts in 2012, '13

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 13, 2012 | Comments

9057

Partner at GRP shares bold proclamation at Bullpen and Vator's Venture Shift NY

Mark Suster, prolific blogger and partner at GRP, is not one to mince words. At Vator and Bullpen's Venture Shift event in New York last November, where Suster gave a keynote, his point was essentially: I'm not funding you. And, 2012 (maybe 2013) will be an ugly year as funds dry up. In 2012 or maybe 2013, "fund flows slow down," he ...

Jim Lanzone's lessons starting, running media companies

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, November 12, 2011 | Comments

8272

CBS Interactive president shares his thoughts on entrepreneur lessons and the future of media

Jim Lanzone, President of CBS Interactive and former CEO of Clicker (which was acquired by CBS), was one of the keynotes at Vator Splash SF. Jim was introduced by Redpoint Ventures' Geoff Yang, who was on the board of Clicker. Watch the keynote interview to learn more about Jim's lessons as an entrepreneur, his lessons leading Ask.com, selling his startup Clicker ...

HomeAway's Brian Sharples on building a startup

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, October 24, 2011 | Comments

8276

CEO and founder gives tips on leadership, fundraising, and management for startups

Vator Splash is one of the few events entrepreneurs can hear from seasoned and veteran entrepreneurs who've built successful businesses. In our September event, we were lucky enough to have Brian Sharples, CEO and founder of HomeAway, give a keynote. Watch Brian for his motivating and inspirational speech on fundraising, leadership, management and building companies to last. Woody Marshall, partner ...

Peter Thiel: To be contrarian... is just to think

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, August 29, 2011 | Comments

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Venture Shift keynote on out-of-the-box investment philosophies

Here's the video of Peter Thiel, founder of Clarium Capital and Founders Fund. Thiel, well known as the first investor in Facebook, took the stage at the first-ever VentureShift, delivering yet another one of his thought-provoking keynote speeches. "The contrarian thing is not to be with the crowd, or fashionably against the crowd, but to think,” said Thiel. For a ...

Next phase of local is more Amazon than Google

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, June 29, 2011 | Comments

7202

ReachLocal CEO Zorik Gordon shares lessons and the future of local at Splash LA

Zorik Gordon, CEO and co-founder of ReachLocal, gave one of the keynote speeches at Splash LA. Zorik started ReachLocal with three other partners in Encino seven years ago. Today, it is a publicly-traded entity with 1500 employees. In its most recent quarter, ReachLocal, which helps local businesses with their marketing and advertising, generated $84 million in sales, up 32% from ...

Shawn Colo, Demand Media co-founder, at Splash LA

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, June 28, 2011 | Comments

7113

Keynote about lessons learned as a first-time entrepreneur and the future of media

Shawn Colo had an idea six years ago and decided to leave his private equity job, partner with Richard Rosenblatt and raise several hundred million dollars to prove it out. It worked. Demand Media, the company Shawn co-founded, went public this year at a $1 billion valuation. At Splash LA, Shawn joined us as one of our keynotes, sharing his ...

How Pandora survived on 12 maxed credit cards

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, March 14, 2011 | Comments

6029

Founder Tim Westergren explains Pandora's first five years -- a tale of sheer will

When people, or I should say, when I, talk about successful pivots, I typically refer to Pandora as a great example. As you can imagine, therefore, it was an honor to have Tim Westergren, founder and CSO of Pandora, share his story and hear this inspiring tale of sheer determination, straight from the founder. When I asked Tim at the ...

ngmoco's Neil Young's advice: Burn your boats

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 28, 2011 | Comments

6024

Must-see video of Neil Young, CEO and founder of ngmoco, sharing lessons at Vator Splash

(Caution: This video contains some profanity. But it's one of the most entertaining keynotes ever. Be sure to go to 7:40 as that is when the speech gets going and the laughs start kicking in.) Most entrepreneurs who've had success under their belt know what it feels like to question their purpose and to ponder "what-if" scenarios. But it's in ...

Mike Hudack on how Blip.tv got its start

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, February 21, 2011 | Comments

5814

Closing a deal with a handshake at the urinals shows just how personal investing is

Mike Hudack is CEO and co-founder of Blip.tv, a next-generation TV network with 140 million monthly video views and 30 million viewers. During his keynote at Vator Splash NY, he shared his experience building Blip.tv and raising the initial funds. One of the more unique stories Mike shared is the time he was raising Blip.tv's initial $500,000 in seed funding ...

Vator Videos Top Picks

YouTube's $100M bet is about viewership, not return

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Stubhub's Jeff Fluhr: Nearly running out of money

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August Capital, Morgenthaler check out Favo.rs

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What AmEx start-up initiative is seeking to fund

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SendGrid CEO sees 10x growth in emails in two years

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Start-ups need teams that can run fast, and change

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Foundation Capital's plan to find the next Zuckerberg

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