With one week to go until The Next Web USA Conference, the TNW Events team is undeniably excited. Not least because we’ll be bringing together hundreds of tech influencers, 50 early-stage startups and 38 awesome speakers, all under one roof on the corner of Wall Street.
With two tracks at this year’s conference, there is almost certainly something to satisfy even the most hard-to-please individual. Our Main Stage will feature keynote talks from some of techs greatest thinkers (and doers), while our Unplugged Stage provides up-close and personal conversations with our panelists – as well as the chance for three startups to take to the stage and quiz the partners at Y Combinator.
If you’re yet to buy your pass for #TNWUSA on December 10th in New York, you can do so here. Otherwise, check out full details of our panels below!
New (marketing) rules for a new economy
With marketplaces and sharing economy companies driving value at incredible speeds to its users and shareholders, the rules of marketing have changed. What does it take to grow and gain trust in these new economies?
Kristin Hodgson, Director of Communications at Meetup, will lead a panel of experts including David Manela, Chief Revenue Officer at Fiverr (the world’s largest marketplace for creative and professional services), Lauren Sherman, Head of Marketing at Shyp (the shipping and packaging mobile application), and Umang Dua, the COO and Co-Founder of Handy (the on-demand home cleaning and repair service).
On: Venture Capital
Join Evan Nisselson (LDV Capital), Jeff Lieberman (Insight Venture Partners), Jalak Jobanputra (FuturePerfect Ventures) and Joshua Siegel (Rubicon Venture Capital) as they discuss what makes a VC enthusiastic when looking at a company, which business models can be identified as great growth engines, as well as key lessons from previous investments in growing startups.
Building a social following: the fine line between business and culture
Matt Navarra, The Next Web’s very own social media director, will lead a panel on build your following online. Their focus will be on dealing with the fine line between business and culture in online social spaces. Matt will be joined by Victor van der Wijk, Director of KLM’s esteemed digital marketing team; Nicole Brown, Director of marketing and communications at CrowdCentric; and Jort Possel, Global Social Media Director at Accenture.
On: Seed Investment
Learn great lessons from the worst pitches. Ryan Feit (SeedInvest), Ellie Wheeler (Greycroft), Marvin Liao (500 Startups) and Charlie O’Donnell (Brooklyn Bridge Ventures) present the perfect examples of how startups have got it wrong with their pitch decks in the past, in order to show you how to get it right.
Each panelist will present three of the worst slides they’ve seen in pitch decks, highlighting exactly what could have been done to avoid these common mistakes.
Y Combinator: Open Office Hours
Kevin and Aaron are both partners at Y Combinator, the renowned US startup accelerator that has funded over 500 startups including Scribd, reddit, Airbnb and Dropbox. Kevin is also the co-founder of Wufoo, which was acquired by SurveyMonkey in 2011, and Aaron is the co-founder of Tutorspree, which was funded by Y Combinator in the same year.
Three startups will be selected to participate in Open Office Hours: a chance to discuss anything from acquiring investment to improving your product.
On: FinTech
David Rose, founder of New York Angels, is no stranger to FinTech. An Associate Founder of Singularity University, the post-graduate program in accelerating technologies, David also founded and chairs its Finance, Entrepreneurship and Economics track. He’ll be joined by Greg Neufeld – the Founding Partner of ValueStream Labs, a venture investment and development company focused on Financial Services startups – and Leigh Drogen, founder of Estimize, the crowdsourced earning forecaster.
Together, they’ll be discussing the future of FinTech and the transformations it will trigger for financial services.
More information regardingoOur schedule, speaker bios and attending individuals and startups can all be found on our conference page.
Limited tickets for The Next Web USA Conference on December 1oth in NYC are still available. Click here to purchase yours.
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