Speaker information will be posted on a regular basis. Please visit this page again for periodic updates. For any immediate questions, please contact Linsey Dyson, program manager, (919) 549-7500 or ldyson@cednc.org.
Entrepreneur '04 is aimed at showing the budding entrepreneur The good, The bad and The ugly of starting a new entrepreneurial business. Therefore, in addition to over 20 panels on different aspects of starting a company, Entrepreneur '04 is offering Case Studies with specific entrepreneurs who have started or have helped start a company. These entrepreneurs will be there to tell their story.
Case Study #1:
Vietri -- Doug Vaughn, President
Discover how Business Leader’s 2003 Entrebizneur of the Year turned a vacation to Italy into a multi-million dollar, thriving business. Doug Vaughn, President of Vietri, will shed light on the Hillsborough success story – the largest importer of handcrafted Italian products. Learn about the smart moves, partnerships and…yes, mistakes, that Vietri made in the last 20 years – allowing them to become the nationally regarded creator of unique Italian artistic wares sold exclusively at fine national retailers such as Neiman Marcus as well as with local venues such as A Southern Season.
Case Study #2:
Plaxo -- Todd Masonis, Founder & Vice-President of Products
Come hear Todd Masonis, visiting from the bay area, share the Plaxo founding story how they got their idea, and how they successfully faced the challenges of raising money and hiring the right people. In addition to sharing key management duties with Plaxo co-founder Cameron Ring and Vice-President of Engineering Rikk Carey, Masonis is Plaxo's lead user interface designer and Windows programmer. As co-founder of Plaxo, Masonis has appeared on CNBC's morning investors show Squawk Box and has spoken at technology industry events for the Software & Information Industry Association and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others. Prior to founding Plaxo, Masonis was co-founder of two start-ups, netElement and Natient Technologies. He also served as a systems developer with e-steam, Inc. Masonis received a Bachelor of Science in Symbolic Systems with a concentration in Computation Linguistics from Stanford University.
With nearly 3 million members and 1 billion connected contacts, Plaxo keeps people connected by securely updating and maintaining the information in one’s address book. Plaxo, a privately held start-up located in Mountain View, CA, was founded by the co-founder of Napster and two Stanford engineers including Todd Masonis. They have raised $20 million from some of the most successful firms in the industry including Sequoia Capital, Globespan, Cisco Systems, Yahoo!, Netscape, and Amazon. CBS MarketWatch has featured Plaxo and compared their startup story to that of Google and Yahoo.
Case Study #3:
Sports Endeavors, Inc. -- Brendan Moylan, Founder, Chief Operating Officer
Come hear about the fabled Eurosport story which includes starting in their basement, a meteoric growth period, poor business decisions that left the company on the verge of extinction, stabilization through the introduction of professional management and a refocus on its core competencies that has allowed it to take a dominant position within its sector. Incorporated in April of 1984, Sports Endeavors, Inc. was born from a business project idea that soccer player Mike Moylan had while he was in high school. Today, Mike Moylan is President/CEO of Sports Endeavors while his brother Brendan is the Chief Operating Officer.
Headquartered in Hillsborough, Sports Endeavors Inc.'s mission is to be the world's leading authentic grassroots soccer and lacrosse company, building strong relationships in a vibrant, creative, and ethical environment - to inform, inspire, and innovate. Their properties include Eurosport catalog (Soccer.com) and Great Atlantic Lacrosse Company catalog (Lacrosse.com). The company has experienced strong growth -- the Eurosport catalog alone has an annual circulation of 11 million and does business in all 50 states. Having received national recognition ranging from Good Morning America to Saturday Night Live, Sports Endeavors has also developed a strong work culture and has received numerous awards for its corporate citizenship and has been noted as one of the best places to work in the Triangle.
Case Study #4:
Ultimus -- Marco Fregenal, COO and President
Founded in 1994, Cary-based Ultimus is an innovative pioneer in business process management and workflow automation. In under a decade, Ultimus has become a global company with over 1000 customers in over 60 countries with a history of delivering consistent profitability. Its remarkable growth has garnered national recognition such as being included in the Inc 500 ranking of fastest growing private companies. Marco Fregenal, President & COO of Ultimus, will provide an inside look at how Ultimus grew from just an idea into a thriving commercial software success. He will be sharing their strategies and the smart moves they made in the areas of technology, marketing, sales, partnerships, and financingand shed light on mistakes and important lessons learned along the way.
Fregenal joined the Ultimus team in February of 2001, prior to which he served as President, CFO and COO of HowStuffWorks.com, the leading e-learning and reference Web site on the Internet with more than 1.9 million unique visitors per month. Before his tenure with HowStuffWorks.com, he served as COO of PAGENET Brazil, the world's largest provider of wireless messaging and information , with more than ten million subscribers. As the President and COO of Ultimus, Fregenal oversees the company's day-to-day operations and drives sales and services throughout the Americas. Fregenal speaks fluent English, Portuguese and Spanish. Fregenal holds an MBA from Monmouth University and a B.S. in Economics from Rutgers University.
Following is a partial list of Entrepreneur '04 speakers: