Jalak Jobanputra: It Can Still Be Challenging for Women to be Heard

Jalak Jobanputra gave me a few minutes interview @SmartMoney Silicon Valley last week.  I asked her to comment on how the ecosystem looks now for women raising funding.  She also gave her perspective on how things are shaping up for European entrepreneurs.  You can check out my interviews with Jalak a couple of years ago Women Startups & Venture Capitalists & European Startups & Venture

Jalak is a venture capitalist with 20 years experience in digital media, enterprise software, communications, broadband infrastructure, healthcare IT, ed tech, mobile and Internet in NYC, Silicon Valley, Boston, India, Africa, Europe. Investments include Outside.in (sold to AOL), TxVia (prepaid card processing platform, sold to Google), Thumbplay (mobile music subscription service), Imagespan (digital media monetization platform), Datasynapse (enterprise grid and cloud computing, sold to Tibco), Viacore (enterprise partner integration, sold to IBM), Demantra (demand chain management, sold to Oracle), Yodlee (online banking), Zinio (magazine ereader). She spearheaded formation of NYCSeed in 2008, seed fund for early stage startups in NYC. Served on its Investment Committee and Venture Advisory Board. Portfolio includes Enterproid, Seatgeek, Magnetic,Ticketfly. Selection committee, mentor and speaker for 2010 Seedstart, NYC’s first accelator bootcamp.  You can follow Jalak on Twitter @jalak

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Chris Yeh: Make Yourself Known to Investors Early

Chris Yeh has been building Internet businesses since 1995. He is the VP Marketing for PBworks, which provides highly vertical collaboration solutions that help businesses work more efficiently and effectively. Its products serve markets such as advertising and marketing agencies, law firms, and education, as well as the broader business market.  Chris is also a General Partner at Wasabi Ventures, a global venture fund, startup incubator, and consulting firm, where he leads the firm’s investment committee.  Previously, he was the first investor in and interim CEO of Ustream.TV, which provides an open and distributable platform for live interactive online video. He also helped start numerous other companies, including Symphoniq Corporation, TargetFirst, and Juno Online Services and FarSight Financial Services (divisions of D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P.). Chris is an active angel investor and advisor to a wide array of startups. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Harvard Business School Technology Alumni Association.  Chris earned two degrees from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was named a Baker Scholar.  You can find Chris on his blog Adventures in Capitalism & on Twitter @chrisyeh

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