Meet the Insiders: Startup Alley Edition, Venture Capital
New for 2013, Meet the Insiders is an opportunity to participate in vital discussions on the innovations and developments in the world of film across varying topics. Moderators will start by introducing and getting to know the Insider for the first 10 minutes, but the next 20 are an open forum where the audience is able to ask questions, discuss trends, connect with the film community, and gain insight and understanding of the industry from the insiders at the forefront of their respective fields.
Venture Capitalists
This session, geared towards investors and entrepreneurs, gives the audience access to top investors with an interest in the entertainment space. Moderated by Kevin Iwashina, managing partner of Preferred Ventures, the first half of this session will feature William Hsu, founding and managing partner of LA-based accelerator MuckerLab, and will center on his experience working with early stage media companies in the overall technology ecosystem in Los Angeles. Tim Chang, managing director of The Mayfield Fund, will then offer his perspective on what Silicon Valley-based VC firms are looking for from the entertainment world.
Check out other Startup Alley programming here: http://sxsw.com/film/startup-alley
Presenters
Kevin Iwashina is a Managing Partner of Preferred Content, a film production, sales and finance advisory company.
Founded in January 2010, Preferred Content (PC) is one of the premiere brokers of North American distribution rights for both fictional and non-fictional filmed entertainment content. Additionally, PC is a leading supplier of independent movies with a specialization in low budget genre and documentary features.
Recent PC productions include David Gelb’s feature documentary, JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI, distributed in North America by Magnolia Pictures, Nicholas McCarthy’s THE PACT, released in the US and Canada by IFC Films and Xavier Gen's THE DIVIDE, distributed in North America by Anchor Bay. Other PC sales and financing projects include the 2011 Toronto Midnight Selection THE DAY, the 2012 Sundance competition films THE END OF LOVE directed by Mark Webber and Ira Sachs’ KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, and the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award winner ANY DAY NOW.
In addition to his responsibilities at PC, Iwashina is the Managing Partner of Preferred Ventures, a digital media venture fund launched with Chris Kelly, the former Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook, and Ed Ojdana, the founder of FreeCreditReport.com. Iwashina also holds the title of Managing Director of City Room Creative, an entertainment marketing and creative editorial agency. Lastly, he is partnered with Christine Vachon in Killer Digital, a production company focused in creating original content for digital platforms.
Prior to founding PC and his suite of affiliated companies, Iwashina spent 10 years at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where he was a talent agent, specializing in film packaging, financing and distribution. Individual projects for which he has arranged distribution and financing include Richard Kelly's DONNIE DARKO, Zach Braff's GARDEN STATE, Paul Haggis' Academy Award winning CRASH and the Peabody Award winning documentary NANKING. Clients Iwashina has represented include Italian filmmaker Gabriele Muccino, French filmmaker Patrice Chereau, European actors Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci and Emmanuelle Seigner, independent films icons John Waters and Christine Vachon as well as Netflix and the former Vice Chairman of AOL, Ted Leonsis.
Iwashina holds a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in French Language and Culture from U.C.L.A. He is active in the non-profit and political sectors and currently serves as the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) and is a Member of the Board of Directors of the International Documentary Association (IDA). He began his career in the mailroom at the United Talent Agency (UTA).
Tim is a proven investor who has been named to the Forbes Midas List of Top Tech Investors. He is a trilingual global technology executive who has lived in Japan and has a decade of investing experience. He invests in early-stage companies that leverage the drivers of mobile, social, and SaaS/adtech and is passionate about the quantified self movement and how gamification is being applied to business. He co- leads Mayfield’s China investments and some of his companies include AdChina, Lashou and PCH International. Some of his notable investments include ngMoco (acquired by DeNA), Playdom (acquired by Disney) and Iridigm (acquired by Qualcomm). His current investments include Badgeville, Basis, Branchout, Healthtap, Lumos Labs, MOAT and Zirtual. He holds an MBA from Stanford University, an MS and BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and plays guitar in two bands.
William is currently founder and managing partner of MuckerLab, a startup accelerator based in Los Angeles. Prior to MuckerLab, William was the SVP and Chief Product Officer of AT&T Interactive. As a 23-year old, he was the founder and EVP of Product Development for BuildPoint – the leader in providing bidding management & marketplace services to the commercial construction industry. William helped the company grow to over 250 employees and raised over $50M in venture capital. The company was acquired in 2004. In between, William has led product teams at eBay, Green Dot (GDOT), and Spot Runner. William has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the Terman School of Engineering at Stanford University and a MBA from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.
Sunday, March 10
