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High Stakes: Springboard 2000 Comes to HBS
It could have passed for a sorority reunion, as a distinguished group of enthusiastic and motivated women assembled for a group photo. But the membership requirements for this sisterhood were stiff. The 28 entrepreneurs who came to HBS in early November had been chosen from over 300 applicants to pitch their business plans at the Springboard 2000 New England venture-capital forum.
Organizers of Springboard 2000, which is a series of events that debuted with sessions in Silicon Valley and Virginia, have an ambitious goal. "We want to create a new picture for our children of what a Fortune 100 CEO looks like," noted Andrea C. Silbert (MBA '92) , founder and CEO of the Boston-based Center for Women & Enterprise, which coordinated the New England event along with the National Women's Business Council. A study last July by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners indicated that women-owned firms participate in only 9 percent of institutional equity deals, receiving just 2.3 percent of venture-capital dollars. Springboard is working to correct that gender disparity.
HBS Dean Kim B. Clark, speaking at the opening night dinner, affirmed Springboard's mission. "You are part of a development in our culture and our society that is going to change the world," said Clark, who backed up his words with an invitation to hold the event at HBS again next fall.
On the first full day of the forum, the real business began as the entrepreneurs made their tightly orchestrated, ten-minute presentations to a group of some three hundred top investment professionals. Presenters spoke of markets with multibillion-dollar potential, margins over 70 percent, eighteen-month paths to profitability, and, of course, products positioned in that crucial top-right quadrant of the competitive matrix.
At the end of the day, there was cause for celebration among both presenters and funders. One ringing endorsement of Springboard came from Oliver D. Curme (MBA '82), general partner of Battery Ventures. Although Curme admitted he first came to Springboard's steering committee meeting without much enthusiasm, his opinion changed when he began interviewing the entrepreneurs. At that point, he said, "I was sure there were some promising opportunities in this group."
Before the forum was over, presenter Jill Card of IBEX Process Technology had announced a new $2 million financing round led by none other than Battery Ventures.
Further information on upcoming Springboard 2000 events is available at the organization's Web site, www.springboard2000.org.
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