Author Archives: Preccelerator™

Preccelerator Program Demo Day

Clear your calendar – It’s going down!

The Preccelerator ® Program Virtual Demo Day kicks off on March 25th @ 3:30 pm, and you’re invited to take part in the festivities.

Preccelerator cohort companies are early stage, and we work hand in hand with them throughout their term to know their market and users, foster their leadership skills, build and test their product, avoid legal pitfalls, ensure the defensibility of their products, acquire users and partnerships and prepare them for the fundraising process. Now it’s time to showcase their efforts.

Company Line-Up

Bevz is a convenience store technology and services platform that helps local, independent retailers grow their business, connect with top brands, and deliver anything at their store to their customers in 45 minutes. Bevz covers Southern California but will soon cover all of California, with plans to go national this year.

With 35 years of alcohol industry and convenience store operations experience, coupled with innovative technology, we built and launched unique partnerships with the biggest brands in the world, and are solving the toughest industry problems. Bevz is the only company that built our technology and business model from the ground up to support local convenience stores across the nation.

Visit Bevz at bevz.com

BlockForms is a platform built for Employee Benefit Insurance Brokers to transform the process of managing multiple insurance provider applications for their clients. BlockForms delivers an intuitive, reliable product that improves client engagement and employee performance by streamlining data collection and forms management. The encrypted, cloud-based application allows service teams to invite clients to complete simplified forms, automatically map responses to multiple insurance provider forms, edit forms, obtain electronic signatures, and send fully executed forms to insurance providers in one secure application. Simply put, BlockForms makes it fast and easy to sign-up customers, collect client data, and apply for coverage across multiple insurance providers.

Visit https://blockforms.co/

Breakthru microbreaks are restorative and self-paced, yet fast, flexible, and on-demand. They help people context shift, focus, and create, replacing former office rituals like midday walks to combat sedentary behavior. It’s proven that small moments of movement throughout the day have measurable well-being impact. Breakthru is a solution that has been in development for three years, with 2.5 million of research dollars coming from strategic partners. Its roll out is designed as not just an individual betterment tool but focused on the well-being of the group. At its core is the belief that people adopt healthier habits and thrive with support and accountability to a community. To encourage remote collaboration, Breakthru is designed to be shared in a meeting or given as a gift by a friend, colleague, or trusted leader within an organization. People take better care of themselves when they take care of each other, and we’re proud that we have a product that is useful to enterprise and employees today, as they navigate a new work landscape.

Featuring

CHACHO VALADEZ of Backstage Capital

Principal
Detroit

Chacho Valadez is a Principal at Backstage Capital and Chief of Staff to Founder and Managing Partner, Arlan Hamilton. Chacho went from helping retail customers in a Detroit Sprint store, to a Twitter connection and side projects with Arlan, to a full-time role at the firm working towards the mission of growing representation in tech. He has experience with running day-to-day operations at SMBs, business development, and sales. The son of a US immigrant, Chacho has a strong desire to highlight diversity, especially amongst the Latinx entrepreneur community. Chacho has been featured in Quartz, Inc, and Business Insider.

SA&M Preccelerator® Invites You To Attend Executive Conversations for Change

Executive Conversations for Change
Advancing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Goals Within Business Organizations

When it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion, successful businesses want to do the right thing—the question is how. We have assembled a panel of experts to share how DEI programs have made a difference in their corporate cultures. Please join us for a lively discussion, along with other executives working to implement effective and sustainable programs, to learn how to put DEI into action within your company today—to create the bright, inclusive future we’d all like to see.

About this Event Series:

This is the first event in a series of occasional online discussions featuring speakers with expertise across a broad spectrum of the economy, all with the common theme of identifying ways in which business leaders can advance goals of diversity, equity and inclusion within their organizations.

Wednesday, February 10th, 2021
4:00PM – 5:30PM

Featuring

Event Partners

Click here to RSVP for Executive Conversations for Change

Preccelerator® U Presents: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to IP

An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Intellectual Property

Kevin DeBré, Chair of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transactions practice and Heather Antoine, Chair of the Trademark and Brand Protection practice at Stubbs Alderton & Markiles will give an interactive overview of copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets.

In addition, other important key topics will include:

What should an entrepreneur consider when choosing a name for their venture?
What are Terms of Service and Privacy Policies and why are they important?
How should an entrepreneur respond when a potential investor asks if they have any intellectual property?
Do you need a lawyer to obtain a trademark or file a patent application?
Should you try to patent your idea?
Are NDAs (nondisclosure agreements) necessary and what if somebody refuses to sign one?
What are some key takeaways about IP entrepreneurs should keep in mind?

Tuesday, February 9th, 2021
12:00PM – 1:30PM

Featuring

Preccelerator® U Presents: An Entrepreneur's Guide to IP image

Kevin D. DeBré

Kevin D. DeBré is the chair of the Intellectual Property & Technology Transactions Practice Group at Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP. As a business lawyer, Kevin structures and negotiates technology commercialization deals and IP license agreements. As an intellectual property lawyer (and a registered patent attorney), Kevin designs and helps clients implement effective strategies for aligning intellectual property protection efforts with a company’s business objectives. Entrepreneurs and innovators rely on Kevin for guidance when using intellectual property to build their businesses. Kevin has been a “tech lawyer” since the mid-90’s when he was an attorney for a top Silicon Valley law firm and handled technology deals for “startups” such as Cisco Systems, Broadcom and GeoCities. Today, Kevin represents companies of all sizes – from pre-formation to middle market – and a broad spectrum of industries – from AI to VR. Kevin was named 2020 Attorney of the Year for Los Angeles in the area of Technology Law by U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers. Kevin received his J.D. from Hastings College of the Law and his B.S. degree from the University of California, Davis.

Heather Antoine

Heather Antoine is a Partner and Chair of the Firm’s Trademark & Brand Protection practice and Co-Chair of the Privacy & Data Security practice group. Heather Antoine’s practice focuses on protecting a company’s intellectual property; a fundamental feature of every business. Her practice includes trademark clearance and selection, domestic and foreign trademark prosecution, enforcement, proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), licensing, trade secret protection, copyright, rights of publicity, domain names disputes, and general client counseling. Heather Antoine believes in supporting companies at each stage – from due diligence when choosing a name, to ongoing brand management, to ensuring portfolios are safeguarded and ready for sale. Heather serves as Chair of the California Lawyers Association Intellectual Property Section. Heather frequently speaks and writes about IP, Internet, tech, and privacy issues. She has been quoted in publications such as the Los Angeles Times and CNBC. Heather has been recognized by her peers for excellence in her practice, having been selected as Southern California Super Lawyers Rising Star® multiple times.

Investor 360: Monthly Investor Roundtable Interview with Mike Shapiro of Major League Baseball

Join us to listen to Mike Shapiro of Major League Baseball (MLB) speak about the MLB’s investment thesis, current investment climate, startup advice and more. Company founders will have the opportunity to ask the investor questions at the end of the webinar.

Investor 360: Monthly Investor Roundtable Interview

Featuring Mike Shapiro of Major League Baseball (MLB)

Wednesday, January 20th, 2021

12:00 – 1:15 pm

About Mike Shapiro

Mike Shapiro is the Director of Innovation and Venture Investing at Major League Baseball. His role at MLB includes sourcing and executing on venture investments in business across a number of strategic areas including broadcast technologies, data analytics, marketing technology and ticketing. In addition, Mike looks to identify innovative businesses for MLB’s 30 ball clubs to work with across areas such as player performance, in-stadium hospitality and fan engagement. Mike received a B.S. in Finance and M.A. in International Business from the University of Florida. He also received an MBA from Columbia Business School.

About the Organizer of Investor 360

Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP is a business law firm with robust corporate, public securities, mergers and acquisitions, entertainment, intellectual property, brand protection and business litigation practice groups focusing on the representation of, among others, venture backed emerging growth companies, middle market public companies, large technology companies, entertainment and digital media companies, investors, venture capital funds, investment bankers and underwriters. The firm’s clients represent the full spectrum of Southern California business with a concentration in the technology, entertainment, videogame, apparel and medical device sectors. Our mission is to provide technically excellent legal services in a consistent, highly-responsive and service-oriented manner with an entrepreneurial and practical business perspective. These principles are the hallmarks of our Firm.

Preccelerator® U Webinar: Finding Product Market Fit w/ Bryce Henley

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Finding Product Market Fit and Total Addressable Market for Your Company/Product

Brand strategist Bryce Henley walks through what it means to define a market positioning, understanding the white space in the market, and the thought process necessary to land on how your product fits within the market (or if it does!). He’ll cover what a good fit is, what a bad fit is, and the steps to take when exploring a new company, a product launch, or something in between.

Tuesday, January 12th, 2021
12:00PM – 1:30PM

Presented by:

Bryce Henley, Director of Client Strategy, Hawke Media

About Bryce:

Bryce’s background is rooted in influencer marketing, social media activations, and in the data and analysis possible within that space. His time at Hawke has been spent refining his understanding of the market – digital or otherwise – to empower his clients to make the biggest difference in their respective categories.

His strength lies in communication; from copywriting, tagline ideation, syntax, and into creatively aligned messaging, he’s primarily interested in embodying a brand voice through carefully crafted language and witty turn of phrase.

To view other Preccelerator U events, visit https://preccelerator.com/events/

Preccelerator Webinar: Pitch Decks That Make an Impact w/ Lisa Tsou

We talk about “the deck” constantly in the startup funding process, but what really is a deck, and why is it such a key piece of the fundraising process? Most importantly, what really makes a powerful and effective deck that can really deliver an impact with investors?

In this workshop, we’ll be covering both the basics (“What is a deck?”, “When is it used?”. “What goes into a deck?”) and the deeper questions of what investors are really thinking about as they skim the decks they receive and what separates the decks that make the cut with investors from the ones that that get a quick dispatch into the “No” pile.

Topics that will be covered include:

• The essentials: What is a deck? When is it used? What goes into a deck?,

• How investors think about decks, and what they expect from a deck,

• The structure of a successful deck, and the fundamental issues that a deck needs to address,

• Common mistakes startups make in their decks, and

• What are the keys to a successful deck that most startups miss.

Tuesday, December 8th, 2020
12:00PM – 1:30PM

Presented by:

Lisa Tsou, founder of The Winning Pitch

About Lisa:

Lisa Tsou is the founder of The Winning Pitch, a private consulting practice which advises startup companies on growth strategy and funding so they can reach the next level.

She is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs with the tools to raise the money they need and grow so they can realize their dreams!

Besides working with private clients, Lisa serves as a board member and judge at Women Founders Network (WFN), as well as running the coaching program at WFN. Since 2013, Women Founders Network alumnae have raised over $100 million.

Lisa also serves as a mentor at accelerator programs including Techstars Los Angeles and the SAM Preccelerator, and as a coach to conferences including Allbright’s Pitch Day with HSBC and Salesforce’s Dreampitch events, preparing founders to pitch to an all-star panels of investors, including Mark Cuban, Chris Sacca and will.i.am.

Lisa also speaks regularly on issues related to startups, tech and women in business. She has been a featured speaker at events including Talk Tech at UC Irvine, The West Hollywood Women’s Leadership Conference, The SoGal Summit, The USC Graduate Women in Business Summit, The Recurring Revenue Conference and Bruin Entrepreneurs, and has been featured in The Huffington Post, Business Rockstars, Women 2.0, the Standing Out podcast, GenHERation and StartupNation.

Lisa is a graduate of Stanford University and Columbia University School of Law and received her MBA from the Marshall School of Business at USC with Beta Gamma Sigma honors. She is a member of both the New York State and California bars.

Investor 360: Monthly Investor Roundtable Interview With Michael Tam Of Craft Ventures

Join us to listen to Michael Tam of Craft Ventures speak about Craft’s program, investment thesis, current investment climate, startup advice and more. Company founders will have the opportunity to ask the investor questions at the end of the webinar.

Investor 360: Monthly Investor Roundtable Interviews

Featuring Michael Tam of Craft Ventures

Wednesday, November 18th, 2020

12:00 – 1:15 pm

About Michael Tam

Michael is a principal at Craft on the investment team, based in Los Angeles. Prior to joining Craft, he was an investor at Crosscut, where he led investments and participated on the boards of consumer and enterprise companies. As an operator, Michael managed Uber’s business in Southern California markets and launched L., a direct to consumer brand acquired by Procter & Gamble. Michael began his career in venture at Bullpen Capital. Previously, he worked at BofA Merrill Lynch’s tech investment banking group and began his career at PwC.

Michael serves on the investment committee of the USC Marshall Fund, which invests in startups in the Southern California tech ecosystem.

About Craft Ventures

Building great companies is a craft that takes skill, tenacity and focus. The craft of entrepreneurship provides the namesake for their firm.

The partners at Craft have all built successful companies as former Founder/CEOs. They know that the entrepreneurial journey is a long and arduous one, because they have lived it themselves. This gives them a deep respect for founders and genuine empathy for their inevitable ups and downs.

Before founding Craft, they also participated in many other entrepreneurial journeys as angel investors. They invested in some of our generation’s most iconic companies including Affirm, Airbnb, Eventbrite, Facebook, Houzz, Slack, SpaceX, Tesla, Trulia, Twilio, Twitter, Uber, and Warby Parker.

About the Organizer of Investor 360

SA&M Preccelerator® Program Announces Investment In Bevz

LOS ANGELES, October 27, 2020 (Newswire.com) – Preccelerator® Program, a Santa Monica, California-based early-stage startup accelerator, announced today it has invested in Bevz. Bevz is a convenience store delivered to your door concept, offering everything you can find at a liquor store, delivered in 45 minutes or less. Bevz offers easy-to-use software designed for non-technical store owners, plus the simplest user experience for consumers, that bring stores, brands, and distributors into the eCommerce world together.

“Bevz was built by retailers, for retailers,” said Victor Grayr, Founder & CEO of Bevz. “We focus relentlessly on retailers, giving them the technology, support, and marketing to better connect with their customers and deliver thousands of different products from their store. With Bevz, local liquor stores can stay relevant and compete against big box chains, while offering consumers the next level of convenience.”

Bevz covers everywhere from Santa Barbara down to San Clemente, and Pasadena to Palm Springs, and will soon expand to San Diego and the Bay area, eventually going national. With more than 30 years of experience in alcohol sales and convenience store operations, coupled with innovative technology, Bevz has already seen strong traction and created unique partnerships with retailers, suppliers (ranging from small companies like El Silencio to large companies like Anheuser-Busch), and wholesalers (like Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits and Young’s market).

“Bevz is truly a disruptive technology for independently owned convenience and liquor stores; we are very excited that Bevz will help an outdated industry come into the 21st Century of e-commerce,” said Len Lanzi, Managing Director of the Preccelerator® Program.

About the Preccelerator® Program.
Founded in 2012, the Preccelerator® is a novel platform offered to select start-up companies out of the Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP Santa Monica office that provides initial capital, interim office space, sophisticated legal services, education, networking, mentorship and $500,000 in usable perks from Google Cloud for Startups, Amazon Web Services, and HubSpot among others, with the objective of helping grow a founder’s idea from business concept to funded startup. The program also retains more than 100 active strategic mentors providing free office hours and discounted services, and provides over 75-plus educational workshops and networking events each year. The Program expanded in 2017 to accept a greater number of companies in more formalized classes, depending upon where the companies are in their evolutionary growth, and expanded benefits, including cash investment, to accepted companies.

About Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP is a Southern California-based business law firm with robust corporate, public securities, mergers and acquisitions, entertainment, intellectual property and business litigation practice groups focusing on the representation of, among others, venture-backed emerging growth companies, middle-market public companies, large technology companies, entertainment and digital media companies, investors, venture capital funds, investment bankers and underwriters. The firm’s mission is to provide technically excellent legal services in a consistent, highly-responsive and service-oriented manner with an entrepreneurial and practical business perspective.

Contact:
Heidi Hubbeling
Chief Marketing Officer,
Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
hhubbeling@stubbsalderton.com
310-746-9803

Preccelerator® U Presents: Financial Modeling & Fundraising with Mark Wald

Mark Wald, owner of Supporting Strategies Santa Monica, will deliver this casual talk and combine it with a Q&A.

To attract professional investor capital, you need to be in control of your financials and projections.

Every entrepreneur looking to expand their business should join us for this workshop by one of the leading financial accounting firms in town, Supporting Strategies Santa Monica. Over a 90-minute workshop you can expect to get a glimpse into the following.

Financial Modeling & Fundraising for Startups

Raising money? To understand the value of what they are getting, investors want to maximize their return and minimize their risk. You need to demonstrate to investors that you understand business and your business model, that you know how to make money, and that you can be trusted to deliver results. Learn how to build and understand your financial model so you can demonstrate credibility by presenting it to investors and win their confidence in you.

KPIs and How to Use Them

A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively an organization is achieving key business objectives. Learn how to identify and track the most important KPIs for your business, and why it is important.

Tuesday, November 10th, 2020
12:00PM – 1:30PM

Presented by:

Mark Wald, owner of Supporting Strategies Santa Monica

About Mark:

Mark is an innovative problem solver who values simplicity, efficiency, and collaboration between people and organizations. Raised in the heart of Silicon Valley by a family of engineers, Mark has an intuitive curiosity and innate ability to understand and enhance disruptive business models. Since earning a BA in Economics from UCLA he has developed an extensive background in accounting, reporting, complex financial modeling, data analytics, and computer programming across a myriad of businesses and industries.

Mark actively volunteers his time as a mentor and advisor to entrepreneurs, is a USC and UCLA guest lecturer on the subject of financial modeling for start-ups, owns and operates a business providing finance and accounting resources and leadership to startups and small businesses, and is cofounder of a SaaS company offering cloud-based financial modeling tools for early stage entrepreneurs.

Register here for Preccelerator® U: Financial Modeling & Fundraising with Mark Wald

Preccelerator® U Presents: Networking for Capital with Len Lanzi

On October 27, 2020 from 12:00-1:30 pm, Preccelerator® U Presents: “Networking for Capital” with Len Lanzi, Managing Director of the Preccelerator® Program

“Networking for Capital”

This session will focus on techniques and ways to network in the VC and Angel Community. We will interact and share best practices on business development and promoting your start-up.

We will explore the different natural networks we have individually and build a personal action plan for you to use to build your network.

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

12:00-1:30 pm

Zoom Seminar

About Len Lanzi

LEN LANZI, Managing Director, Preccelerator® Program

Leonard M. Lanzi has over 30 years of organization management and fund development experience. He has been serving as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Venture Association since 2007. In his capacity at LAVA, Len works with the LAVA board of directors to direct the strategic plan and organize educational and informational programs within the venture funded startup ecosystem in the greater Los Angeles region.

Len brings a well-rounded knowledge from such diverse human service organizations as the Community Kitchen of Santa Barbara, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Junior Achievement of Southern California and the Boy Scouts of America.

Leonard graduated from the University of Rochester with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He has professional certification from Pepperdine University on Private Capital Markets. He is an active member of the Rotary Club of Santa Monica where he served on its Board of Directors as VP Programs. Leonard also serves as Board Chair for Meals on Wheels West, as a director for Rotarians for Family Health and AIDS Prevention, Board Treasurer for the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Governors for StartOut, a nationwide entrepreneurial organization for the LGBT community.