Speaking at Green LAVA (Los Angeles Venture Association)

http://www.lava.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=124842&orgId=lav

Next Green LAVA Meeting: June 15, 2012  7-9am

Register Here

 LAVA Members  attend free;

$35 for non-LAVA members and guests.

Century Plaza Towers

2029 Century Park East

Level D, Conference Room A (map)

May Program Features:

Featured presentations: Jeff Milanette, Executive Director of PortTech Los Angles

Thomas Pham, Founder, RideShare2.0 - serial entrepreneur and 2012 Cleantech Open Semifinalist

Ron Pretlac - CEO GreenTech Motors Corp and the Large Air Gap Electric Ring (LAGER) Motor

Kerry Bonner - Program Manager, Center for International Development

This month's GreenLAVA meeting will look closer at PortTech Los Angeles - a clean tech commercialization center and incubator progam in San Pedro that is focused on Energy, the Environment, Security and Logistics. PortTechLA is backed by the City of Los Angeles, the Port of LA and local Chambers of Commerce.

RideShare2.0 is a real-time commuter crowd sourced transit system. Rideshare is building a safe and efficient social transportation network that will save commuters time and money.  Founder Thomas Pham will share his experience with starting up another company, some insights into the local resources available to entrepreneurs and RideShare's story.

Former professional hockey player, corporate sales manager Ron Pretlac found his true calling in building companies and creating value with products and services employing innovative technology.  Ron will present his lessons learned about building and operating technology start-ups, team building and his latest venture - GreenTech Motors – and the revolutionary LAGER electric motor (originally developed by Boeing aerospace engineers). 

Kerry L. Bonner, GEEP Project Manager of the Center of International Trade Development at El Camino College, will update on the California Cleantech Company Road Show Trade Mission to China and the upcoming Hong Kong Association of SoCal/U.S. Department of Commerce/SBA Joint Seminar & Networking Mixer - June 21 in Irvine.

All attendees must register in advance.  SIG events are free to LAVA members; all others are $35.

Of course, we'll have the usual assortment of announcements and introductions and a great networking opportunity. Green LAVA is a Strategic Interest Group of the Los Angeles Venture Association focused on opportunities and challenges coincident with the design, development and deployment of sustainable products, services and businesses. Green LAVA is generously supported by Marcum, LLP.

Green LAVA's purpose:

Mission: 

To promote intelligent investment in So Cal Clean Tech ventures via strategic information, networking events, and private/public collaboration.

Constituencies:

Identify the key constituencies LAVA wants to attract; e.g. existing green resources, entrepreneurs, investors, government officials, policymakers, utilities, media, etc.

Goals:  

Capture and share information and network points via our blog to Green LAVA members and general non-members with broad-based content.

Events & Resources: 

To include: Blog/Webinars, Partnership events, LAVA breakfasts.

For more information, please contact:

Mike Miller, Chair of Green LAVA
Director, CFO 911 Solutions
E-mail: mmiller@cfo911solutions.com

5/24 Rideshare Going to Round 2 Cleantech Open

WESTERN REGION 2012 Round 1 Results

CONGRATULATIONS! Hello Thomas, Congratulations to you and your team! You have made it through the first round of judging and are invited to embark on the next phase of your journey in the Cleantech Open accelerator as a 2012 Semifinalist in the Western Region. As a 2012 semifinalist team, you will have access to a full range of programs and events to support the development of a viable and sustainable cleantech business. Mentor support Feedback from the judges after each judging round Participation in the Cleantech Open Academy, training webinars and business clinics A remarkable software offer from Autodesk Opportunity to showcase at regional and national events Your chance to win part of the $1 million total prize purse Lifelong membership in the alumni network To take advantage of these benefits and start the program, please follow these steps. Note there are some time critical action items so be sure to read through everything and "act now"! First: -       Bookmark your Cleantech Open Dashboard - you'll be using it a lot! -       Make sure you have a minimum of 2 team members, including yourself, signed up -       Go to your Dashboard and pay the participation fee of $475 for each of your participating team members (minimum of 2) -       Say "yes" to our Release Form It is important to get all of the above steps done by Tuesday, June 5th. Next: Click on this link to view how to register for the Academy and about your opportunity to attend and showcase at the National Conference: https://bw100.infusionsoft.com/app/form/semifinalist-landing-page Please note June 6th is the deadline for registering for an academy, the conference and your hotel reservations. You will be receiving an email to inform you about the when the feedback from the judges will be available. We look forward to meeting all of you in the coming months. As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at www.cleantechopen.com/questionbusinesscompetition. Warm regards, Erik Steeb Western Region Director Dates to Keep in Mind When participating in the Cleantech Open please remember that it's a significant opportunity to learn, to network, to meet investors and to gain attention. We provide numerous opportunities to get you in front of potential investors in your company, to exhibit and to meet experts. But you must participate in order to gain that value. Put these dates in your calendar TODAY. You must adhere to deadlines and attend events in order to participate and graduate from this program. June 5 - finalize your team members and pay your participation fees National Conference, June 21st   Sign up to exhibit by June 10th (Recommended) Special hotel pricing available until June 6th Sign up for one of the National Academies (Mandatory) West Coast - June 22nd - 24th Special hotel pricing available until June 6th East Coast - June 28 and 29 Special hotel pricing available until June 8th National Webinars - July 10th through August 28th (Mandatory) Special Topics Seminars - July 10th through August 28th  (Highly Recommended) Regional Clinics - August 7th, 14th, and 21st depending on region (Mandatory) Business Competition deadline, September 12  (Mandatory) Semifinalist Judging and Regional awards, October 9th-12th (date depending on region)(Mandatory) Global Forum - Including Investor Forum and Awards Gala, November 8th & 9th (Mandatory for Finalists - Recommended for Semifinalists) Some Key Contacts in the Western Region Cleantech Open Gint Federas - Western Region Mentor Chair - gfederas@cleantechopen.com Karl Palsgaard - Western Region Operations Director - kpalsgaard@cleantechopen.com Erik Steeb - Western Region Director - esteeb@cleantechopen.com

Mission Driven The Cleantech Open runs the world's largest cleantech accelerator. Our mission is to find, fund and foster entrepreneurs with big ideas that address today's most urgent energy, environmental and economic challenges. Since 2006, through its one-of-a-kind annual accelerator and competition, the Cleantech Open has helped 581 companies bring their ideas to fruition. These alumni have since raised $660M. Fueled by a network of more than 1,500 volunteers, the Cleantech Open unites the best ideas with the resources they need to bring cleantech solutions to market.

CLEANTECH OPEN 888.989.OPEN www.cleantechopen.org ©2012 Cleantech Open. The Cleantech Open, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public benefit corporation.

5/23 - Rideshare Attending GBB

We are going to Green Business Basecamp:

---

From: Carrie Norton <info@greenbusinessbasecamp.com>
To: tpham@rideshare.us.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8:42 AM
Subject: Breaking News about Green Business BASE CAMP — Open this now!

MAY 2012 Applicant Selection Announcement Dear Thomas , We are thrilled to share the news that you have been selected from among an extremely competitive pool of applicants to participate in the Green Business BASE CAMP inaugural workshop. We can’t wait to meet you and for you to meet one another. We have created an amazingly current and compelling curriculum just for you, featuring great tools, fantastic knowledge, and an expert network with experience to guide you through your journey. We look forward to welcoming you to Los Angeles to take part in what promises to be four days of intense, exciting work and play. What we have in store for you and your peers is nothing short of amazing, so be prepared to be inspired, challenged, and encouraged in a way that will transform your path to success! Please pay your $850 registration fee, here: Register for BASE CAMP And if you need hotel accommodations, we have arranged for special rates which you can access here: Discounted Hotel Rates for BASE CAMP Stay tuned for more details. The Green Business BASE CAMP team Meanwhile, here are a few of the expert mentors, guides, instructors and judges who will be in your company: Paul Hawken Environmentalist Entrepreneur Author Joel Makower Chairman & Executive Editor Greenbiz Group, Inc. Kirsten Tobey Cofounder & Chief Innovation Officer Revolution Foods Morgan Clendaniel Editor Fast Co.Exist Rachel Sheinbein Partner Energy & Materials, CMEA Andrew Beebe Chief Commercial Officer Suntech

4/26 Greenstart = Greenstop

We received the unfortunate news today that we were not accepted into the 3rd Greenstart Incubator class.

“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.”

 ~ Mary Anne Radmacher

On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 4:42 PM, Daniel Goldfarb <daniel@greenstart.com> wrote:

Thomas,

First off, I’d like to thank you for using your entrepreneurial talents to address the energy challenge. This is the pressing challenge of our time and only disruptive innovation brought about by entrepreneurs like yourself can solve it. Also, thank you for the interesting and passionate presentation.

Greenstart’s mission is to help tilt the scale in favor of startups at the intersection of cleantech + IT, but we are only able to offer our services to a small number of companies. Unfortunately, due to a large and highly qualified applicant pool we cannot offer you a spot in our 3^rd program. 

But we still want to help you, because we know starting a company is hard. We have compiled lists of resources and readings that we advise all startups at your stage to utilize. If you have any questions about the below resources don’t hesitate. The Cleantech Mixer is an immediate opportunity worth checking out to showcase your product and vision to about 200 attendees in the cleantech space including VCs, media and experts.

Resources:

Investor’s Circle, vator.tv, iStart, AngelList, Toniic international impact investors network,Greentech Academy, Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster, Venture Greenhouse, Berkeley Startup Cluster, Environmental Business Cluster, Green Business Basecamp 

Readings:

avc.com, bothsidesofthetable.com, steveblank.com, feld.com/wp/

Also, if your company gains some further traction, reaches an important milestone or changes tack, we’d love to take another look in September for our Fall program.

Best of luck,

Daniel

P.S. We wanted to share some inspiring words from Justin Rosenstein’s January 20th TechCrunch post "Do Great Things":

"Don’t lose the fire you started with. If you’re going to devote the best years of your life to your work, have enough love for yourself and the world around you to work on something that matters to you deeply. Something that’s beating out of your chest and compels you to throw yourself at it completely. No one knows whether you and your teammates will realize your audacious visions, but in order to do great things, we must attempt great things.”

--

DANIEL GOLDFARB

310.927.4248

daniel@greenstart.com

@greenstart

@danielgoldfarb

Apply Now

4/25 Meeting with Professor R. Jay (Jayakrishnan) and Jaeyoung Jung

Dr. Jay, the Professor of Civil & Engineering at UC Irvine's Institute of Transporation reached out to me after reading and article at http://startupfounder.info/startups-in-l-rideshare-2-0/. 

He wanted to share his notes and research over the last decade with High-coverage point-to-point (HCPPT) solution.  In addition, he introduced me to his current PhD student, Jaeyoung Jung to show me their current works and to see how we both can benefit by finding a way to fix traffic and replac fixed route transit systems with rides using spare seats or what he referred to as P8, ie, Point to Point Personal Passenger Pooled Public Private Para Transport.  

His research was amazing and covered Orange County extensively.  OC suffers from density issues for short term commuters, but OC is a good test market for long distance commuters as most travel into LA County for work.  Ridesharing for short distance commuters can be addressed with rideshare, but incentives work best with longer distance commuters which we plan to address first.

He liked the roll-out strategy we have in place along with our business model which he agrees is the best model for success.  We both envision the future to be on-demand pods, but 1-step at a time is needed to get there...when Google releases their driverless cars.  

I also indicated to him the roadblocks we encountered with creating a public rideshare system:

- Insurance

- Liability

- Regulation

- Change in behavior

- Marketing

4/24 10th Founders Showcase

And the winner is @itembase.  For a summary, see http://fi.co/posts/575 @founding

It was an exciting event with several great speakers:

1) Kevin Hartz of Eventbrite interviewed by Michael Copeland

@founding @kevinhartz @mvc @eventbrite 3rd company #Xoom#mentors @davemclure reason success 2006 3cofounders culture

2) Dan Shapiro being interviewed by Dylan Twyney
@dylan20 @ontela #danshapiro @ @founding advice Why VC money: want 10x, 90% margins, grab market share.

@nardopolo @founding terrific speech #vision #Cleantech reminds me of #Shark nathan fillion 3 MM build 6 prototypehttp://pic.twitter.com/CKn0e8tW

3) Mark Frohnmayer - Arcimoto 3 wheeled car of the future "yes, you can rideshare in this vehicle"

And meeting Adeo Ressi (pictured with Amanda Schwoegler and Jeanine Jacobson at FI):

4/23 Founder Mentor Review

I made it through the first cut of the mentor review at FI.
We lost another 7 Founders today.  From a class size of 40, we're currently at 27.

Mentors Reviewing:
- Walter O'Brien
- Dale Fox
- Lindsey Goodman
- Tom Marchesello
- Mark Landay

Pitch Version 1:

PROBLEM
We help drivers GET PAID while commuting to work by using our application to sell their Open Seats to passengers at Park & Rides.
MARKET
Public transportation is a $54 B industry with over 120 MM daily commuters.
Rideshare makes money by connecting those commuters and charge a 5% reservation fee on an average fare of $7.
SECRET SAUCE
The secret sauce is our crowdsourced vanpool/carpool timetable which gives passenger the flexibility they want in their schedule.
TEAM
I'm a software architect with over 16 years of experience.
We currently have an MVP in private beta testing.
CONCLUSION
We are looking to raise $500K in seed funding so we can build a team and put an end to traffic and pollution.




PITCH VERSION 2:
Frustrated being stuck in traffic and wishing you could zoom by in that carpool lane?
Now imagine if you can be in the carpool lane and get paid for it.
We help drivers GET PAID while commuting to work by using our application to sell their Open Seats to passengers at Park & Rides.

Public transportation is a $54 B industry with over 120 MM daily commuters.
Rideshare makes money by connecting those commuters and charge a 5% reservation fee on an average fare of $7.
The secret sauce is our crowdsourced vanpool/carpool timetable which gives passenger the flexibility they want in their schedule.
I'm a software architect with over 16 years of experience.
We currently have an MVP in private beta testing.
We are looking to raise $500K in seed funding so we can build a team and put an end to traffic and pollution.