Zero Stage Capital is a private equity firm that invests in small capitalization private and public companies in our areas of expertise: IT & telecommunications, life sciences, energy and homeland security technologies. We provide exit-focused strategic, management and operational guidance with the appropriate level of inflection capital to unlock value in stalled, underperforming companies that have the potential to be great companies.

Mr. Kelley has led investments in, been a director of, or advised more than 80 venture-backed companies since 1981 when he founded Zero Stage Capital. He brings extensive experience in the process of managing a venture capital firm and developing discipline and best practices around evaluating opportunities and managing portfolios. As an investor, he is a generalist with significant experience and interest in diverse industries such as biometric technologies, life sciences, energy, hardware, software and telecommunications. Mr. Kelley�s investments have yielded an IRR of 46% and a multiple of 2.3.

Mr. Kelley was a founder and Executive Committee member of the MIT Enterprise Forum. He had a leading role in organizing and capitalizing the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation, a quasi-public enterprise, which for the past 25 years has invested in new high-technology ventures in Massachusetts. Earlier in his career, he held various operating positions in Ciba-Geigy Corporation, The Gillette Company and Standby Systems, Inc.

Mr. Kelley�s investment experience has spanned a broad spectrum of corporate maturity and risk/reward profiles, ranging from seed-stage start-ups in high technology to structuring investments in established operating companies. As Chairman, he provides seasoned practicality and perspective on the art and discipline of structuring investments, conducting due diligence, selecting and communicating with investors, sourcing funds for deals, and driving exit strategies. Mr. Kelley earned a BA from Harvard College and an MBA from Northeastern University.

Ralph E. Grabowski, marketingVP
[email protected]

In thirty-seven years of Front End Marketing, Ralph Grabowski has helped launch new products, new companies, and more than seven new fields; which have grown to become worth over ten Billion dollars and resulted in gainful employment for many thousands of his fellow engineers.  He practices as a VP of Marketing for startups or Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Marketing Consultant, and as a temporary executive.  Ralph specializes in Front End Marketing leadership; the fact-gathering, analytical Marketing process to steer the enterprise.  He has practiced in more than fifty technologies. 

Ralph invented the Marketing/Engineering Investment Ratio(tm) as a new metric to guide the Marketing budget for technology-based enterprises.  He writes about Marketing, teaches Marketing, and researches the impact of Marketing on success; delivering more than one hundred published papers, invited presentations, and courses taught for universities, institutions, and professional societies.  He co-founded the world's first IEEE Robotics Chapter, co-founded MIT's entrepreneurship program, co-founded Technology Capital Network (TCN) at MIT, co-founded the North Shore Technology Council (NSTC), and co-founded the MIT Sloan School of Management graduate course "Starting And Running A High Tech Company."  He served the IEEE as Chapter Chairman of both the IEEE Robotics and Automation (RA) and Microwave Theory & Techniques (MTT) Chapters. 

Mr. Grabowski taught or Mentored four teams who won MIT's $100K Entrepreneurship Competition Grand Prize and, as a contestant, was the winner of the Fall $1K Biotechnology category in the 2006-2007 MIT $100K Competition.  He has a BSEE from MIT, class of 1963, with thesis in image processing.

Douglas Kahn, Chairman and CEO, Ahura Scientific
[email protected]

Ahura Scientific, Inc. develops rugged, handheld optical systems for identification and authentication of chemical substances. The company�s flagship product, FirstDefender, is used by federal agencies, hazmat teams and military organizations across the globe for instant identification of liquid explosives, white powders or other suspect materials.  Ahura recently introduced TruScan, a handheld system designed for pharmaceutical and industrial manufacturing operations which enables rapid, accurate raw material inspection.  The company has been recognized with many awards for innovation and industrial design including a 2006 R&D 100 Award recognizing the top 100 most technically significant products of the year and a 2006 IDEA Award from the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA).  Additional awards have been received from Red Herring, Frost & Sullivan, Law Enforcement Magazine and the World Economic Forum. 

Moderator:

Fausto Molinet, President, Matrix Internationale

Fausto Molinet is one of the founders of the Boston Entrepreneurs� Network and President of Matrix Internationale, a business strategy and market research consulting company. He is a senior member of the IEEE and has an MS in software engineering. He is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the USAF where he managed programs such as the Airborne Warning and Control System and the Minimum Essential Emergency Communications System.