Tag Archives: 2019 Bend Venture Conference

2019 Bend Venture Conference: The Next Big Thing

Speaker Tore Steen

2019 Bend Venture Conference Speaker: Tore Steen

CEO & Co-Founder, CrowdStreet

The Next Big Thing: When Finance and Technology Collide

Tore co-founded CrowdStreet in 2014 on a mission to democratize access to commercial real estate investing. He has deep internet and software industry experience in strategy, business development, sales, and marketing for both publicly traded and private companies.

Prior to CrowdStreet, Tore helped take Janrain from early-stage growth phases to a leadership position in the social identity space. He has also held senior leadership roles as the Vice President of Business and Corporate Development at WebTrends and Director of Business Development at EarthLink.

Tore earned a Master of Business Administration from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Notre Dame.

Shamir Karkal Speaker

2019 Bend Venture Conference Speaker: Shamir Karkal

Co-Founder, Simple Bank

The Next Big Thing: When Finance and Technology Collide

A true FinTech pioneer, Shamir Karkal played a crucial part in building the infrastructure that would pave the way for online banking. In 2009, he co-founded Simple, the first bank of its kind in the United States, and later headed the Open Platform at BBVA.

Shamir was drawn to serve smaller companies, co-founding Sila in 2018 with the goal of empowering financial innovations.

Shamir studied physics and computer science at Bangalore University and is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. He lives with his family in Portland, Oregon, and enjoys jiu-jitsu, long-range target shooting, and studying history whenever possible.

BVC Matt Compton

2019 Bend Venture Conference Speaker: Matt Compton

General Partner, Oregon Venture Fund

The Next Big Thing: When Finance and Technology Collide

Matt has been an active startup investor and advisor in Oregon for the past decade. Previously, he held various product, partnership, and marketing leadership roles at Yahoo! during their rapid growth period from 2002 to 2007. In 2008, he moved back to Oregon and began investing with the Oregon Angel Fund, leading our investment in Jama Software. He has been a venture-backed CEO and, most recently, was COO of Simple Financial where he led its growth to 350 employees.

Matt has served on the boards of several early and growth stage companies including Jama and Simple Financial and is currently on the board of REI.  He received a dual BA in Economics and International Relations from Claremont McKenna College and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

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2019 Bend Venture Conference: Growing Fast

Speaker Robert PEase

2019 Bend Venture Conference Speaker: Robert Pease

Managing Director, Cascade Seed Fund

What They Don’t Tell You: Lessons Learned From Growing Fast

Robert Pease is Managing Director of Cascade Seed Fund, an early stage investment fund focused technology and consumer products companies in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, as well as Fund Manager and Venture Partner to the predecessor Cascade Angels Funds. His background includes being a founder, CEO, and go-to-market executive at six venture-backed startups where he has seen success, failure, and everything in between. He began his career as a management consultant with Accenture based in Washington, DC. Pease holds a BBA in Finance from the University of Georgia and an MBA from the University of Tennessee.  He has the privilege of living in Bend, Oregon with his amazing wife and two daughters.

Speaker Kelly

2019 Bend Venture Conference Speaker: Kelly Oriard

Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Slumberkins

What They Don’t Tell You: Lessons Learned From Growing Fast

Kelly Oriard is the co-CEO and co-Founder of Slumberkins, a Direct-to-Consumer, e-commerce, children’s brand on a mission to promote emotional wellness and provide tools to help raise caring, confident, and resilient children. The brand is refreshing the plush toy industry, and resonating with parents that find community on social media platforms and seek out modern, new, and intentional products to bring into their homes. Slumberkins is on the forefront of brand building online as they expand into children’s entertainment by bringing the characters to life in a preschool television series produced by the Jim Henson Company.

Speaker Callie Christensen

2019 Bend Venture Conference Speaker: Callie Christensen

Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Slumberkins

What They Don’t Tell You: Lessons Learned From Growing Fast

Callie Christensen is the co-CEO and co-Founder of Slumberkins, a Direct-to-Consumer, e-commerce children’s brand on a mission to promote emotional wellness and provide tools to help raise caring, confident, and resilient children. The brand is refreshing the plush toy industry, and resonating with parents that find community on social media platforms and seek out modern, new, and intentional products to bring into their homes. Slumberkins is on the forefront of brand building online as they expand into children’s entertainment by bringing the characters to life in a preschool television series produced by the Jim Henson Company.

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2019 Bend Venture Conference: Investing in Uncertain Times

BVC Speaker Bruce Abrams

2019 Bend Venture Conference Speaker: Matt Abrams

General Partner, Seven Peaks Ventures

Winter is Coming: Startups & Investing in Uncertain Times

Matt is a General Partner with Seven Peaks Ventures with primary focus areas and expertise in: Enterprise Data & Analytics; Artificial (AI) & Machine Intelligence; and Information + Data Trust, Integrity and Security.

He also focuses heavily on Augmented Reality (AR), Blockchain and Quantum technologies and spends a significant amount of time within the healthcare sector.  Matt also serves as an Innovation strategy & technology advisor to Enterprise, Governmental and Healthcare organizations. In addition, he currently serves on the board of Northwestern’s Master’s of Science in Analytics (MSiA) program as well as the Cyber Security Analysis Center (CSAC), an organization partnering with a network of academic institutions and select private sector entities focused on helping solve the threats faced by rural and underfunded critical infrastructure organizations.

Speaker Bruce Cleveland

2019 Bend Venture Conference Speaker: Bruce Cleveland

 Founding Partner Wildcat Venture Partners

Winter is Coming: Startups & Investing in Uncertain Times

Bruce Cleveland is a Founding Partner at Wildcat where he focuses on early-stage software startups that enable digital transformation across business, government, and education markets. Bruce enjoys working with companies that use technology and data to increase revenue and decrease costs. He is interested in growing entrepreneurial hubs outside of Silicon Valley, with a particular focus on the Pacific Northwest. Bruce also is committed to sharing his knowledge and experience through the Traction Gap Framework®, which helps entrepreneurs navigate the critical go-to-market period between initial product release (IPR) and reaching minimal viable traction (MVT). Previously, he founded GreenFig, held senior executive roles with companies such as Apple, AT&T, Oracle and Siebel Systems. Bruce’s last operational role was as a member of the founding executive team of Siebel Systems, where he served as senior vice president and general manager of Marketing and Products. In this role, Forbes and IDC credited him with creating the most effective B2B alliance program in the software industry.

Speaker Luke Kanies

2019 Bend Venture Conference Speaker: Luke Kanies

Founder and Executive Chair, Puppet

Winter is Coming: Startups & Investing in Uncertain Times

Founder and former CEO of Puppet, Luke started the company because he figured he’d be better off failing to start a software company than successfully getting an MBA. He grew it to 500 people and more than $50m in revenue, helping to start the DevOps movement along the way. Since stepping down from Puppet, he has been researching and writing at http://lukekanies.com/ about tools, venture capital, and crypto.

Speaker Patricia Moss

2019 Bend Venture Conference Speaker: Patricia Moss
Former CEO, Vice Chairman, Cascades Bancorp, Bank of the Cascades

Winter is Coming: Startups & Investing in Uncertain Times

Patricia served as CEO of Cascade Bancorp and Bank of the Cascades from 1998 to 2012, previous to that time she served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.

She currently serves as a board member of First Interstate Bank Systems, (FIBK), MDU Resources (MDU) and as a trustee to funds under the Aquila Group of Funds. She currently serves on the Oregon Investment Council and recently served on the Oregon Growth Board.    She has served on several public boards and one private company board, ranging from banking, mutual funds, natural resources, health care, utilities and construction as well as multiple non-profit boards.

Patricia’s active involvement in local organizations is evidence of her strong commitment to community leadership.  She has served as a board member or chairman for Central Oregon Community College, St. Charles Medical Center, Bend Chamber of Commerce, Greater Bend Rotary, United Way, and Central Oregon Regional Advisory Board for Higher Education, Oregon State University Advisory Board, Oregon Ethics in Business and participated in several other community roles and fundraising campaigns.

She and her husband, Greg, have been fortunate to live and raise their family in Bend, OR for more than 40 years; they are outdoors enthusiasts and cyclists.

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