Announcing FCT3

September 4, 2014
Foundation Capital

It was 30 years ago this week that I arrived in Silicon Valley to start my first job out of school. Over those years, I’ve been fortunate enough to have helped build two exciting startup companies with two great CEOs, Reed Hastings and Mark Gainey. As a VC, I’ve advised companies that started out with a simple idea, and are household names today. For example, I spent five years helping Dan Rosenweig and his team at Chegg build a company oriented to helping young people save money to pay for their education.

I meet brilliant minds at work, there’s no doubt. But the minds that truly amaze me are the ones I meet at home everyday. I have three teenage daughters, and they have a way of looking at the world that often leaves me astonished.

I expect to have a similar reaction when I listen to the teens who will be visiting our office in Menlo Park to talk about tech at our FCT3 event on October 2nd. We have invited students from several Silicon Valley high schools to talk about how they relate to tech — and its role in their future. We care about what they think — and we want to hear what they have to say.

It isn’t a contest. It isn’t the Tech Bee. It’s just a platform to share ideas, viewpoints and to talk about trends, and to imagine the future –together.

This isn’t new for us at Foundation Capital. We believe in mentoring young people. I founded the Young Entrepreneurs Program in 2010 as a way to bring young graduate students participate in the process of identifying exciting new startups. Now, we’re going a step farther. And I’m very excited about it.

Here’s the formal press release:

FOUNDATION CAPITAL TO BRING TEENS TOGETHER TO TALK TECH AT FCT3 EVENT

October event to feature students talking technology with industry leaders from Netflix and Instagram

Menlo Park, CA – September 3, 2014 – On October 2, 2014, Foundation Capital, a leading Venture Capital firm in Menlo Park, will host its second Teen Tech Talk, or FCT3. The event gathers students from Silicon Valley high schools together to talk about how they view and use technology, what trends they see fading and rising, and their own vision for the future of different industries.

At the event, students will hear from leaders at companies they admire such as Netflix and Instagram, and will have the opportunity to “pitch” their ideas to a panel of media and investors about their views on the future of technology and the innovation they hope to drive. Students can choose to discuss any trend that matters to them, whether it’s communication, entertainment, healthcare, or technology.

Foundation Capital has been investing in young startups and young leaders for more than 18 years. Its Young Entrepreneurs Program helps build relationships between graduate students and top schools and startups in order to pave the way for brilliant careers. Schools represented in the 2014 Young Entrepreneurs Program include Stanford, Harvard, MIT, University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, University of Chicago, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, and Berkeley.

“Foundation Capital is deeply committed and passionate about supporting education and the next generation of innovators. I founded the Young Entrepreneurs Program to bring young grad students into the venture capital process and help them to help us source new ideas.” said Paul Holland, General Partner at Foundation Capital. “As the father of teenagers, I was inspired to create an event with the primary goal of listening to what young people have to say.”

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Thursday Oct 2, 2014

Time: 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Location: Foundation Capital, 250 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park

For more information: https://www.eventfarm.com/FCT3

About Foundation Capital

Foundation Capital is dedicated to the proposition that one entrepreneur’s idea, with the right support, can become a business that changes the world. Foundation Capital has helped companies like Atheros create the mobile Internet, EnerNOC invent the energy demand response market, and Netflix revolutionize media distribution and consumption, among many others. Foundation Capital is currently invested in more than 80 high-growth ventures in the areas of consumer, information technology, software, semiconductors, and clean technology including BoardVantage, Chegg, Coverity, Lending Club, Simply Hired, Sunrun, and Venafi. Foundation Capital’s twenty-two IPOs include Control4, Envestnet, Financial Engines, Netflix, NetZero, MobileIron, TubeMogul, Responsys and Silver Spring Networks. For more information, visit https://www.foundationcapital.com.