AmBAR Press Release November 25, 2008

Russian-Speaking Entrepreneurs From All Over the World Showcase the Best in Start-Ups at the Silicon Valley Open Doors (SVOD 2008) Technology Investment Conference

For Immediate Release

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, November 25, 2008 – Silicon Valley Open Doors (SVOD), the only Silicon Valley annual investment conference that brings together Russian-speaking innovators with the prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms, leading technology, business media and the top US technology companies, successfully concluded on Friday, November 21st at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

The conference was hosted by the American Business Association of Russian-speaking Professionals (AmBAR), the largest non-profit association of Russian-speaking entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, engineers, lawyers and other business professionals headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Almost 300 people came to SVOD this year to share their ideas and develop new partnerships. "SVOD continues to be the leading annual event that brings Russian and Russian-American entrepreneurs together with the Silicon Valley venture capitalists," said Pitch Johnson, the founding partner of Asset Management Company.

During the two-day event more than 45 venture capitalists from such acclaimed firms as Alloy Ventures, Asset Management Company, ATV Capital, Benchmark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, Opus Capital, Draper Investment Company, North Bridge Venture Partners, Storm Ventures, Sofinnova Ventures, and Scale Venture Partners among many others, as well as angel investors, were judging the pre-selected 21 (out of the 60 initially submitted) presentations of the high-tech companies. The Panel of Judges named Unified Color Technologies, LLC, a developer of the next generation digital imagery platform technology, as the most promising innovative company of the year. SEA Medical Systems, Inc., a developer of a sensor system that makes intravenous drug delivery safer for patients, and Imajet Communications, Inc., a developer of a new platform for distributed video communications, were named the first and second runners-up respectively.

One of the things that made the past two SVODs so special is the fact that the newly formed Russian venture capital companies sent several of their representatives across the ocean to get access to the deal flow from the Silicon Valley, including Almaz Capital Partners, ABRT, Russia PartnersManagement, Delta Capital, Intel Capital (Russia) and others.

The SVOD 2008 program also featured seminars and panel discussions by industry experts in information technology, biotech, security, business services, high-tech ventures formation, IP protection, marketing, brand value, talent management and venture capital. The five keynote speakers made this year’s SVOD not only educational, but also interactive and entertaining: Peter Ciurea, Chief Technology Officer, Visa; Esther Dyson, Principal, EDventure Holdings; Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures; Daniel Rosensweig, Operating Principal, Quadrangle Group LLC, formerly COO of Yahoo!, President of CNET Networks, CEO of ZDNet, Inc. and Matt Cohler, General Partner at Benchmark Capital, former VP of Product Management at Facebook and VP & GM at LinkedIn.

"If the SVOD crowd is any indication of the Russian enthusiasm for high-tech and their sense of humor, I can't wait for my trip to Moscow in December!"- said Guy Kawasaki, Managing Partner of Garage Technology Ventures, who presented his new book Reality Check, as well as Alltop Russia, his news aggregator for the FSU countries, launched two weeks before SVOD 2008.

In addition to the 21 companies showcasing their technologies, the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO) presented its $5 billion dollar investment program to advance commercialization of the new technologies in this field.

SVOD’s 2008 sponsors included the above-mentioned RUSNANO, as well as Sughrue Mion PLLC (an IP protection law firm with offices in Washington DC, Menlo Park, CA and Tokyo) and Yandex, Russia’s largest and the world’s second largest Internet search engine.  The fact that SVOD has been able to attract such prestigious sponsors is a testimony to what this conference has become – the single most anticipated event for the Russian-speaking entrepreneurial and investment community both in the FSU countries and in the US.

"This conference is clearly a labor of love for a group of dedicated professionals who care deeply about the Eastern European entrepreneurs. From the value-packed educational panels, to the star-studded key note speakers' line up, to an amazing quantity of venture capitalists, to the venue itself -- Computer History Museum in the heart of the Silicon Valley – this is a not to be missed event for any high tech entrepreneur," said Richard Guha, President of the Marketing Executives Network and Managing Partner at MaxBrandEquity.

“We take it as a vote of confidence that, despite the current economic climate, almost three hundred Russian-speaking entrepreneurs and venture capitalists attended our conference. This year the quality of companies presenting their technologies at SVOD is truly remarkable. It gave the SVOD team enormous pleasure to work with them, as well as all conference participants. After four years in business, SVOD has become a truly recognizable high-tech brand in the Russian-speaking community on a worldwide basis. We look forward to growing it further and celebrating our Fifth Anniversary in 2009.” – said Anna Dvornikova, AmBAR President and CEO of Entana Corp.

For additional information about SVOD please visit the conference website at http://www.svod.org/

AmBAR
AmBAR is Silicon Valley-based non-profit association of high-tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, engineers, lawyers and other business professionals. Started as an organization of technology-minded expatriates from Russia, Ukraine and other FSU countries, AmBAR has grown into a large professional network to include innovators and entrepreneurs of all origin exchanging ideas and business contacts. Today AmBAR’s membership base is well over 2,000 business professionals.

AmBAR’s mission is to facilitate the exchange of ideas and business contacts among technology entrepreneurs, business professionals, and investors. AmBAR is dedicated to accelerating access to capital for innovative projects and developing technology partnerships between the FSU countries and the United States. AmBAR also provides educational programs, seminars and conferences that help entrepreneurs to refine their business plans, advance their product development and marketing efforts.

Contact Information:

Anna Dvornikova
President, AmBAR
555 Bryant Street, Suite 161
Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA
Tel (650) 276 - 0431
advornikova@ambarclub.org
www.ambarclub.org; http://www.svod.org/