Larta University
Introductory Session:
From Passion to Profitability, Strategic Planning For Your Venture

May 16 at the Costa Mesa Hilton and
May 17 at the Santa Monica Doubletree

This introductory session of Larta University features leading entrepreneurs sharing their business stories - the peaks and the valleys - in an interactive panel session. Each entrepreneur will discuss the challenges they faced in taking their concepts and turning them into profits - initial funding, management recruitment, and marketing strategies will be some of the many topics covered. This session serves as a preliminary overview of the topics covered in the Larta University series, and should offer the budding entrepreneur knowledge and advice to make smart strategic planning decisions for funding and fundamentals.

Featured Speakers Include:

Venture Capitalist:
Jeffrey Starr of Mission Ventures
Ted Alexander of Mission Ventures

Panel (moderated by Rohit Shukla, larta CEO):
May 16, Costa Mesa:

Jebb Dykstra, COAX
Malcolm Greene, Transmeridian Capital Services
Joe Lichtenhan, Hybrid Plastics

May 17, Santa Monica:
Azad Madni, Intelligent Systems Technology
Matt Walton, ETeam

Larta University: The Bootcamp for Serious Entrepreneurs
As startup companies try to grow in this turbulent marketplace, targeted guidance on how to bring their company to its fullest potential is invaluable. Beginning on May 16, Larta University will provide such guidance, with targeted workshops that cover all the crucials. This highly-interactive, acclaimed boot camp for serious entrepreneurs will prepare a business for outside investment and give insight into managing a growing company. Each session features a leading venture capitalist, a successful entrepreneur, and a panel of industry experts. The bootcamps are held each month in Orange County and on the Westside.

Larta University workshops cover the most essential areas of focus for growing companies. The fee for each workshop is $99, or $500 for all nine classes. Each workshop is held in both Santa Monica and Costa Mesa.

Future Larta University Workshops

Below is the current schedule on upcoming workshops. Please continue to check the workshop page for updates.

Session #2 (June) - The Business Plan: Balancing Business with Vision
For companies who are in the planning stages of starting their business, a thorough understanding of critical areas of business plan development is vital. This session covers all phases of business plan development: planning for the specific market and the economic context, the value proposition corporate structures, revenue models, and tying all the information into a comprehensive strategy.

Session #3 (July) - The Right Stuff: Building Your Management Force
It's no secret that good management is what has made any successful company what it is and what distinguishes the "doers" from the "also-rans". But how to attract that talent, often with the limited resources startups have, poses one of the toughest challenges for any company. Both the investor and entrepreneur perspective is brought into the session, touching on all crucial aspects of high-level recruitment-where the talent is, what is the right talent, creative compensation, employment law issues, and more.

Session #4 (September) - Protect Your Technology - Law Workshop
Intellectual capital is a company's life blood, and protecting those assets is a complex, multilayered activity. This workshop covers the most crucial legal and business strategies any company should know before exposing their technology to a competitive marketplace -from copyrighting and trademarks, to contract negotiations and strategic alliances.

Session #5 (October) - Partnership Strategies and Strategic Alliances
Companies have managed to prosper immensely from building the right partnerships, where businesses share valuable assets ranging from a customer base to marketing activities, from suppliers and procurement to product development. Effective partnerships, with identifiable activity and relations, distinguishes "vapor" alliances from those of substance. This investor-led workshop covers all phases and challenges of company partnerships, from negotiations to legal challenges, to planning.

Session #6 (November) - Presenting Your Financials and Valuation - Finance Workshop
This workshop covers key points in the company valuation process. Investors discuss market analysis, developing realistic financial assessments, the problems with financial forecasting, budgeting, and more.

Session #7 (January) - Attacking the Market: Marketing and Selling Your Product
A business can fail or flourish depending on how well its product is marketed. Effective marketing is about establishing, building or protecting an organization's reputation through partnerships, the recruiting of talented professionals and effective strategies that make a product stand out. This workshop covers publicity and marketing strategies, from brand placement to consumer contact, to creative alliances.

Session #8 (February) - Breaking it Down: Refining Your Investor Pitch
Investors often hear pitches with too much of the wrong information (or just too much information) and not enough of the essential. This workshop focuses on how to translate complex, broad technology business concepts and plans into succinct messages that intrigue and interest an investor audience. The course will cover how to create the best language for the layman, how to do an elevator pitch, refining of the business plan and more.

Session #9 (March) - Attracting Capital: What Investors Want From You
This workshop covers the broader aspects of a company's efforts in attracting capital, from the pitch, to valuation and sale to cementing a deal. The workshop is led by a panel of investors, with practice pitch sessions performed

Related articles on Larta University

Changing The Course
click here for the full article

Management Construction
Click here for the full article

Other Articles

What Makes a Good Entrepreneurial Leader? Ask Middle Managers
The demands a CEO must meet are changing as fast as the technology marketplace itself, where managers must operate in a highly unpredictable atmosphere in which competitive advantage may dissolve at any time.
click here for the full article from Knowledge@Wharton

LA VOX is provided weekly as a free service to you by larta - the technology alliance for Southern California. LA VOX is made possible by the generous support of: Ernst and Young Akin Gump Technology Ventures Grubb and Ellis Mission Ventures State of California Technology Trade & Commerce Agency

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