Knowing Your Competition to Set Your Startup Apart
Entrepreneurs’ Network
(Please note capacity is limited so pre-registration is necessary)
For the founder and entrepreneur launching a startup company, it is important understand the market for your products or services, and to understand your competition when you enter that market.
When you are seeking angel or VC investment or trying to recruit co-founders and first employees or contractors, all will be looking for your competitive analysis and how from your knowledge of the market, you can set your startup apart, including the following:
• Knowledge and mastery of the place your company’s products or services fill in your target marketplace;
• What market niche you intend to enter and can dominate
• Your plan for how your company will penetrate the target
• Identity of your chief competitors, both direct competitors and indirect competitors that could be substitutes for your product or service
• The value proposition that you offer that will enable you to overcome the normal tendency for no change
• Strengths of the competition and your plan to overcome those
• Weakness of your competitors and your plan to avoid those same weaknesses
• Barriers to entry you would seek to create to surmount new competition once you gain market traction
Let us hear from three deeply experienced panelists, one of whom is an angel investor, two are entrepreneurs and all three deeply involved in product or service marketing in tech, life science and consumer fields, who will share their knowledge and experience with the ENET audience for this webinar on the critical issue of market mastery, competitive analysis and how to use those to set your company apart. There is much to learn in this important area for your startup to achieve traction and success.
Agenda:
7:00 – 7:10 PM – ENET Chairperson’s announcements
7:10 – 7:25 PM – eMinute Pitch – Up to 3 Startup companies’ presentations
7:25 – 8:10 PM – 3 expert speakers on the night’s topic
8:10 – 8:45 PM – Moderator and Audience Q and A to the speakers
(all times are USA Eastern Daylight time)
Speakers:
Praveen Tailam, Entrepreneur, Investor & Advisor
Praveen Tailam is an entrepreneur, investor, start-up advisor, conference speaker, mentor, and philanthropist with strong connections to TiE. As the trustee of the TiE Global board he handles all aspects of running the organization to help foster entrepreneurship thru it’s chapters, programs and events. TiE Global is an organization that oversees the growth and support of TiE chapters worldwide. Praveen is knowledgeable about trends in business and technology and passionate about strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem. For six years until December 2017, he was the managing director who oversaw the operation of TiE Angels. Praveen continues to serve as an investor, mentor, start-up advisor, entrepreneur and business plan competition judge at various universities and incubators. He engages frequently with investors and industry experts on how to best place intellectual and investment capital. Through his ties with universities and incubators, he offers help and support to promising young entrepreneurs. Additionally, Praveen co-manages multiple dental practices in New Hampshire and Maine in partnership with Aspen Dental, a leading nationwide Dental Service Organization. Praveen founded Redtail Consulting, a Boston area IT consulting practice, in 2006 and managed the business through 2012, and has managed enterprise scale messaging systems for companies in the technology, banking, and insurance sectors, including IBM, Putnam Investments and Wellpoint BCBS. Praveen holds a Masters Degree in Information Systems from Northeastern University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveen-tailam-3b1521/
Alisa de Gaspe Beaubien, Chief Operations Officer @ Groupize, a company she and her husband co-founded. They developed software for people to manage events, meetings, weddings, sporting tournaments and more. Groupize evolved into an online place where corporate travel planners can easily book 10 or more hotel rooms for meetings—and Groupize’s technology makes the experience smoother for participants. Prior to Groupsize, Alicia was Vice President @ DuVine Cycling + Adventure Co., from 2005 to 2013, a company that designs and leads luxury bike trips in the world’s most amazing places – from the rolling hills of Tuscany and storied medieval villages of Provence to the Andean foothills of Argentina’s wine country and the lush vineyards of Sonoma. Prior to that she was vice President @ Yankee Holidays 1994 to 2004, She is a graduate of Endicott College, with Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel, Motel, and Restaurant Management.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisa-de-gaspe-beaubien-0002973/
David Uffer, Partner @ Alira Health
The company is an International advisory firm offering integrated strategy, innovation and execution services, and dedicated to healthcare in areas of pharma, life sciences, med tech, diagnostics and HIT. Prior to Alira, from 2013 to 2017, David was Director, Business Development & Licensing @ Covidien (Medtronic Minimally Invasive Therapies Group), where he worked in the areas of M&A, licensing, distribution, co-development, equity investments, pipeline development. In the prior period 1990 to 2013, David held a series of senior management and marketing positions with the following different well-known life science companies: Hologic, Inc., Bovie Medical Corporation, Integra LifeSciences, Boston Scientific, Abbott Diagnostics (Abbott Laboratories). He holds a B.A. degree from Clark University in International Relations, and an MBA degree from Thunderbird School of Global Management.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-uffer-00a176/
Moderator
Robert A. Adelson, Principal, Business and Tax attorney, Adelson & Associates, LLC. Chair Emeritus, Boston Entrepreneurs’ Network (ENET).
Rob has been an attorney for over 30 years specialized in business, tax, stock and options, employment, contracts, financing, trademarks and intellectual property. Rob began as an associate at major New York City law firms before returning home to Boston in 1985 where he has since been a partner in small and medium sized firms before joining Engel & Schultz LLP where he was a partner from 2004 to 2019. When the senior partners retired, he moved his law practice to his own firm. Rob represents entrepreneurs, start-ups and small companies, independent contractors and employees and executives. 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, plus more than twenty articles since 2016 on executive employment topics published by CEOWorld magazine. He has been named among the “Top 20 Boston Startup Lawyers” by ChubbyBrain.com, a website that provides tools for entrepreneurs. Rob has been on the ENET Board since 2002, was Vice Chair 2005-2009, and ENET Chairman 2009-2019. He was also a Co-Founder and Board member of the 128 Innovation Capital Group (2004 -2015). In 2016, he received the IEEE USA Professional Achievement award for “extreme dedication to the entrepreneurship community.” 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.