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Thursday, May 24th, 2012

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Updates and News from our recent Monthly Events:

San Francisco, November 1, 2011 Breakfast Event -

On November 1, ACG held a breakfast panel discussion featuring founders of three leading Bay Area gourmet food businesses - Blue Bottle Coffee, Kara's Cupcakes and La Boulange. The topic: "How to Differentiate High-end Food Products and Succeed in a Challenging Economy". The speakers included James Freeman from Blue Bottle, Kara Lind of her namesake cupcake company and Pascal Rigo of La Boulange.

John Mack, a management consultant and ACG member in San Francisco, moderated the panel. The questions explored the genesis of the three companies, the strategic and operational challenges that they each faced during launch and during the ongoing economic downturn, how they have addressed those challenges, where they are seeing new sources of growth, and how they are funding their growth plans. Audience questions focused on the role of private equity in providing expansion capital, strategic options for driving growth, and best practices for tackling operational challenges. The theme of this event complements other food-themed events that ACG has planned for this month and quarter. Click here for a copy of the panel flyer.

San Francisco, October 20, 2011 Lunch Event -

The San Francisco Chapter hosted a panel discussion on the current status of the IPO market (or lack of an IPO market).

Background on the Panel

Protiviti provides and IPO Readiness service assisting companies from as early as two to three years before a S-1 filing, helping round out management, put in place back-office infrastructure with respect to compliance, financial reporting and all other systems and procedures private companies will require the day they go effective. Protiviti assisted LinkedIn with its 2011 filing, as well as a host of other companies.

Key Take Aways

· Plan ahead , as much as 2 or 3 years, and identify all areas for review
· Have experienced advisors: a CFO with prior going-public experience, as well as established law firm and underwriters
· Get the auditors on board early and try to spend the time and money to have financials, even previously audited financial, re-scrutinized
· Don’t worry about being ‘on file’ too long, that is no longer viewed as a negative
· The aim is to be ready and able to pull off an IPO when a new IPO ‘window’ opens
· In September 2011 there was not one single IPO. Through October 20, 2011, there have been 2 IPOs.
· The IPO window is currently very tight or effectively closed. There is lots of pent up demand.
· Monitor the VIX Index (or the ‘fear index’ -- Chicago Options: ^VIX; in the past, the IPO Window opens up when the VIX is below 25. It is currently at 32.

Oakland. October 13, 2011 East Bay Event -
TOPIC: "Re-Shoring: Is Manufacturing Coming Back to the United States?"
We had a really enjoyable panel discussion last night on the trends associated with manufacturing and re-shoring. Our moderator, Matt Brennan from Industrial Growth Partners, provided a presentation deck that provides an overlay of the state of global manufacturing today (click here to access a copy of the deck). Our panelists provided a very enlightening corporate management perspective on their efforts to create and distribute products made in America and the state of the manufacturing workplace in this current economy. The Trikke Tech team had some really cool Trikkes at the demo, which many attendees gave a try! Click here for the demo video.

San Francisco. Sept 21 Lunch Event –

TOPIC: "TechSF 2011 and Beyond: Will the High Level of Tech Startup-Focused Activity in SOMA Continue? What Does It Mean For the Greater Economy?"

On Sept 21st ACG members and guests learned that the Tech Scene is hot in San Francisco right now. During a one hour panel presentation, the moderator, Jon Rubens, led a thoughtful and informative discussion highlighting why San Francisco is such an attractive place for high tech startups. The diverse panel had representation from a prominent SF-based tech company (Tom O'Brien of Eventbrite), a veteran tech investor (Jed Katz of Javelin Venture Partners), and a tech event sponsor (Myles Weissleder of SF NewTech).

Even though San Francisco's recent decision to provide payroll tax relief for some prominent tech residents has gotten all the publicity, it seems the real story behind the City's tech success is something else: simply put the City works for tech startups. Low cost incubator space is available. There is a great climate of tech collaboration amongst startup entrepreneurs. Employees can live in the City and not need a car to get to work. San Francisco is a central location for attracting great employees from throughout the Bay Area. The City is a great work environment in general with lots of amenities within walking distance of the workplace.

San Francisco. September 13th Breakfast Event
Topic: "The Next Generation of Cloud Computing and How it Affects your Business"
Two interesting white papers on Cloud Computing from Frederic Kerester, President & Founder of Okta, Inc. Click here and here for more information.

San Francisco. August 18th Lunch Event
Topic: China Outbound Direct Investment: Getting your Piece of the $60BB China Pie"
Hanson Li, Managing Director of the Hina Group spoke with a panel of three about China's $60BB outbound direct investment in the United States. Hanson has agreed to share his overview presentation deck. Click here to learn more about China's Outbound Direct Investments.

San Francisco. August 27^th Global Opportunities Community Event.
Topic: "Are You Ready to do Business in China....?"

Dr. Guo-Liang Yu, CEO of Epitomics, a panelist at the GOC Event was interviewed by the San Francisco Business Journal. Lindsey Riddell of the SF Business Journal was invited to attend. Lindsey was very impressed with Dr. Yu and arranged a follow-on interview, which is good since the company is thinking about a possible IPO in 2012. Click here to read more about the interview

2009 News Releases

SAN FRANCISCO, December 24, 2009
ACG SF Members Donate Generously to The San Francisco Food Bank During this Holiday Season

SAN FRANCISCO, December 14, 2009
Phil Estes Honored with 2009 Jack Bertges Award for Outstanding Community Service

2011 Community Service Awards

Congratulations to Bob Garrett!
2011 Winner
ACG SF Chapter Community Service Award

Each year, the San Francisco Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth recognizes an outstanding Chapter Member for his or her involvement in and contributions to the non-profit community. Nominees for the award come from fellow Chapter Members. The award is based on demonstrated positive impact, tenure, commitment of time and resources, ability to generate additional community participation and level and nature of personal involvement. Click here for the entire story..

Welcome New Members!

New Members for February 2012!

Gary Chang
Director of Business Development
Commonwealth Foreign Exchange

John Cu
Partner
Hanson Bridgett LLP

Tim King
Market President
U.S. Bank

Imran Kureshy
Managing Director
The Capital Solutions Group

Mark Stevens
Senior Vice President
Wells Fargo Bank

Stephen Wolfe
Principal
Mainsail Partners