Networking Evening: How to Get Stuff for Free

Entrepreneurial Networking and Tips on “Getting Stuff for Free”

IEEE Boston Entrepreneurs’ Network invites you to an evening of networking with fellow entrepreneurs and a talk by Venkat Kolluri, CEO of Chitika Inc., who will speak as a successful entrepreneurs who bootstrapped his company on “Getting Stuff for Free” on Wednesday evening, April 18, 2011 from 6:30 PM – 9 PM. The event will take place at the NERD – Microsoft, New England Research Development Center One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142 - 11th Floor Commons room, and the charge is free for ENET members and $10 for all other attendees, with a light dinner and soft drinks included, catered by Off the Vine caterers.

The night will be mainly for networking with a talk from Venkat Kolluri on the theme of the evening - successes, failures, strategies and lessons learned in “Getting Stuff for Free” to build your startup company up from nothing when you have little or no cash capital. Venkat’s ideas will include getting supplies, equipment and services, coaching, mentoring, business and strategic advice, leads, contacts, customers and more, when you start out with little or nothing to build your company into something substantial.

Our featured speaker knows exactly how to get that done. While most associate a startup with investors and outside funding, Venkat, along with co-founder Alden DoRosario, has successfully built his company from the ground up. Today, Chitika is a multi-million dollar, privately owned, revenue generating mega-engine with offices in the U.S. and India. Since its inception in 2003, Chitika Inc. has quickly become a leader in the Search, Local and Mobile sectors, catering a staggering 4 billion strategically targeted ads each month, to a network of over 120,000 websites. Over the years, Chitika has been recognized with several industry awards including; Red Herring Global Top 100, AlwaysOn Northeast Top 100, the Silicon India Top 100, MITX Technology Awards Finalist, and the DPAC Award Finalist for Best Mobile Advertising Network Innovation, among others.

As CEO, Venkat oversees all of Chitika's operations and is responsible for setting the strategy and vision. Prior to opening the doors of Chitika, Venkat led the Partner Services group in the Database Marketing & Analytics division at Upromise as a Principle Analyst. Earlier in his career Venkat was a Principle Technology Architect for Lycos where he led network-wide CRM and Marketing Automation programs. Venkat has been a featured speaker at industry conferences around the globe including; SMX, Red Herring, TieCon East, Affiliate Summit, AlwaysOn, AdTech, SES, and ILMWest. Venkat is an active Charter Member of TiE Boston and was honored as TiE Star Award recipient in November 2011. On behalf of Chitika, he also received the Tie Crystal Award for a Charter Member who has built his company from the ground up. A native of Hyderabad, India, Venkat holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University and a PhD in Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh.

The meeting moderator and organizer is Robert Adelson, business and tax attorney and partner at the Boston law firm of Engel & Schultz LLP(www.engelschultz.com ). Rob has been an attorney for over 30 years specialized in business, tax, stock and options, employment, contracts, financings and intellectual property. Rob began his legal career as an associate at major New York law firms Dewey Ballantine and later Weil Gotshal & Manges, before returning home to Boston in 1985 where he has since been a partner in small and medium sized firms before joining his present firm in 2004. Robrepresents entrepreneurs, start-ups and small companies, independent contractors and employees and executives. His main practice areas are: Business formation, allocation of equity and angel and VC finance; Commercial contracts, licensing, alliances; Executive employment, stock, options and severance; Trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets; M&A. Rob is a frequent speaker on business law topics and author of numerous articles published in Boston Business Journal, Mass High Tech and other publications. Rob is also Chairman of IEEE Boston Entrepreneurs’ Networkand Board member of the 128 Innovation Capital Group. He holds degrees from Boston University, B.A., summa cum laude, Northwestern University (Chicago), J.D., Law Review, and New York University, LL.M. in Taxation.

For more information or to register for this event, go to www.boston-enet.orgor call the meeting organizer and moderator, Robert Adelson, at 617-951-9980 ext. 205 or [email protected]For more information about guest speaker Venkat Kolluri, visit www.chitika.com or follow him on Twitter @VenkatKolluri