http://www.vast.com
Vast.com invites you to a lecture held on Wednesday, October 11th at VETS
Place: Visa Elektrotehnicka Skola, Vojvode Stepe 283, sala 106
Time: October 11th 2006, 13h
Topic: STARTUP SCHOOL
Speaker: Kevin Laws
Speaker's Biography: Kevin Laws is a Chief Operating Officer at Vast.com, a company
with 25 employees in Belgrade. He was previously a Vice President, and Product
Manager at Epinions.com (IPO in 2004 as Shopping.com, bought by EBay in 2005 for
$600 million), and was a Venture Capital investor in startups for 5 years in
between. He started as a software engineer for Computer Sciences Corporation in
Germany over 15 years ago, and worked as a strategy consultant with Booz-Allen &
Hamilton for media & entertainment companies for 5 years as well. He also lectured
economics to freshmen MBA students at MIT and taught the New Venture Finance course
to MBA students at San Francisco State University. Mr. Laws has a degree in
Computer Science from Dickinson College, a Master's Degree in International
Relations from Boston University, and an MBA from MIT.
Summary: The lecture focuses on the real life experience of what takes a new
graduate to make it in a fast-moving venture startup company. The first year or two
out of school, graduates actually continue with their education, they don't end it
with the school end. In startups, graduates will learn how to take the technical
and practical knowledge from school and apply it to building real businesses.
Startups are special - accelerated world where everything happens much more quickly.
However, there are some very important lessons students should keep in mind if they
consider working in a startup. Given the experiences Vast.com has had building a top
team in Belgrade, the issues we face with every new graduate are similar. This
speech prepares graduates for what kind of expectations they will face in a startup,
and how that is different from what many think when they begin.