Jonathan Nelson

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Nov. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Linqto, a leading digital trading platform for private market securities, today announced the latest speaker lineup for the next quarterly Global Investor Conference (GIC). Scheduled for the 8th and 9th of December, the theme of the conference is 2020: Reflections, Learnings, & Inspiration for 2021.

December's Global Investor Conference features some of the brightest minds who will discuss trends in early-stage pre-IPO companies… Show more

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Nov. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Linqto, a leading digital trading platform for private market securities, today announced the latest speaker lineup for the next quarterly Global Investor Conference (GIC). Scheduled for the 8th and 9th of December, the theme of the conference is 2020: Reflections, Learnings, & Inspiration for 2021.

December's Global Investor Conference features some of the brightest minds who will discuss trends in early-stage pre-IPO companies, economic factors affecting digital assets, and blockchain technologies. Among more than 50 speakers, the following will be featured on December 8 Show less

2018 has shaped up to be quite a volatile year for the cryptocurrency markets. Part of the reason is the lack of clear guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators around the world. And yet investors continue to pour money in this emerging asset class.

The webinar focuses on:
- The state of security token offerings in the United States and overseas
- How the crypto regulatory landscape in the United States compares with the rest of the world
-… Show more

2018 has shaped up to be quite a volatile year for the cryptocurrency markets. Part of the reason is the lack of clear guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators around the world. And yet investors continue to pour money in this emerging asset class.

The webinar focuses on:
- The state of security token offerings in the United States and overseas
- How the crypto regulatory landscape in the United States compares with the rest of the world
- Upcoming catalysts to monitor in the crypto ecosystem
- 2019 crypto predictions
- Rise of crypto venture funds providing liquidity to investors Show less

Angel Rising is a key foundational platform guiding the rapidly emerging angel investment phenomenon in the Middle East. Angel Rising 2018, held on March 24, 2018, focused on ‘Investing in MENA — Finding MENA’s Competitive Edge on the Global Stage’ and convened global and local thought leaders taking a deep-dive into the investment landscape.

The networking group Hackers/Founders is drawing on its experience helping startups go global.

Startups looking for more capital have no shortage of options beyond traditional venture funds, thanks to the proliferation of seed funds, crowdfunding and even ICOs.

Soon they may also turn to a new tokenized venture fund called Hack Fund, from the people behind the networking group Hackers/Founders. The group five years ago began helping companies expand internationally and was… Show more

The networking group Hackers/Founders is drawing on its experience helping startups go global.

Startups looking for more capital have no shortage of options beyond traditional venture funds, thanks to the proliferation of seed funds, crowdfunding and even ICOs.

Soon they may also turn to a new tokenized venture fund called Hack Fund, from the people behind the networking group Hackers/Founders. The group five years ago began helping companies expand internationally and was compensated in stock. Hackers/Founders then turned that into four funds. Show less

" ... [Hackers and Founders] … provides practical support to help … [young people] ... get their companies going. Hackers / Founders also has its own cooperative, which allows a handful of start-ups to share space, get ongoing advice and contact and develop relationships with potential venture capital funds."

A Dashboard and Policy Scorecard for a Shared Agenda of Prosperity and Opportunity

"Founders and inventors are forming guild-like support networks both on and off the Web. Hackers/Founders, started as a cooperative in Silicon Valley in 2008, now counts more than 200,00 members ... The maker-movement of the past decade ... and growing interest ... in small-batch ventures signals a return to startups that value quality and patience over scale and speed."

"Jonathan Nelson, the CEO of Hackers/Founders, a network of global tech founders based in Silicon Valley, says that the venture capital model considers a profitable company that has employees and is growing steadily year over year to be a failure because it is not growing fast enough.“

TECH-ILA: Innovation, “al Estilo Jalisco”

Con el objetivo de discutir sobre el ecosistema tecnológico y emprendedor, así como las oportunidades de inversión en Jalisco, ProMéxico San Francisco y Centro Jalisco organizaron el evento TECH-ILA: Innovation, “al Estilo Jalisco” en las oficinas de Google en el Silicon Valley como parte del festival MEXAM 2017.

Durante el panel se habló sobre el desarrollo del ecosistema de inversión y emprendedurismo en México, destacando que… Show more

TECH-ILA: Innovation, “al Estilo Jalisco”

Con el objetivo de discutir sobre el ecosistema tecnológico y emprendedor, así como las oportunidades de inversión en Jalisco, ProMéxico San Francisco y Centro Jalisco organizaron el evento TECH-ILA: Innovation, “al Estilo Jalisco” en las oficinas de Google en el Silicon Valley como parte del festival MEXAM 2017.

Durante el panel se habló sobre el desarrollo del ecosistema de inversión y emprendedurismo en México, destacando que actualmente los fundadores mexicanos están resolviendo problemas reales, con impacto global.

Bismark Lepe, fundador de Wizeline, comentó que existe una precepción errónea de la gente al considerar que en México no hay oportunidades para desarrollar tecnología y que es un país que continúa rezagado, pues hoy en día muchas startups del Silicon Valley tienen su equipo de ingeniería en Guadalajara, ciudad considerada el epicentro tecnológico de México. Destacó que él regresó a México a expandir su empresa porque cree en Guadalajara y el país, vio oportunidades basadas en precios accesibles y competitivos, así como potencial del talento mexicano en el sector tecnológico.

Por su parte, Jonathan Nelson, CEO de Hackers/Founders mencionó su gran asombro del desarrollo tecnológico que existe en el estado de Jalisco y que gracias a eso, el último hackathon que organizó contó con alrededor de 600 equipos de desarrolladores de softwares trabajando en proyectos de diferentes startups.

El mexicano Paco Solsona, director de Google Developers para Latinoamérica, comentó que Google está trabajando con Hackers/Founders y StartupGDL para llevar a cabo el modelo de la aceleradora Google Launchpad en Guadalajara. Dicho programa busca startups en una etapa temprana con el fin de ayudarles a establecer contacto con mentores e inversionistas. Show less

El grupo Hackers / Founders implementó su Angel Investor Summit en México. Contó con 14 ponencias y charlas impartidas por especialistas internacionales, que durante dos días colaboraron para desarrollar el ecosistema de emprendimiento nacional.'

“Los inversionistas ángel pueden cambiar el ecosistema del emprendimiento” empezó Mak Gutierrez, director de Hackers / Founders México. “Esta aún no es la norma en México, pero una empresa puede llegar más lejos y más rápido con un ángel”… Show more

El grupo Hackers / Founders implementó su Angel Investor Summit en México. Contó con 14 ponencias y charlas impartidas por especialistas internacionales, que durante dos días colaboraron para desarrollar el ecosistema de emprendimiento nacional.'

“Los inversionistas ángel pueden cambiar el ecosistema del emprendimiento” empezó Mak Gutierrez, director de Hackers / Founders México. “Esta aún no es la norma en México, pero una empresa puede llegar más lejos y más rápido con un ángel”. También llamados padrinos de inversión, estos ángeles son individuos que invierten una cantidad significativa de capital para una startup, a cambio de participación accionaria en la misma. La cumbre Angel Investor Summit 2016, fue una reunión de dos días en la que especialistas internacionales impartieron charlas y ponencias con el propósito de desarrollar habilidades en potenciales ángeles.

Presidida por Gutiérrez y Jonathan Nelson, fundador de Hackers / Founders, este evento abordó temas relacionados con la innovación y su inversión, desde el panorama general en América Latina y Silicon Valley, hasta puntos legales y fiscales o recomendaciones de intervención temprana, alianzas y reducción de riesgo. El grupo H/ F, fundado en 2008, es una aceleradora y cooperativa de crecimiento para empresas. Se basa en la idea de que el emprendedor es quien debe educar inversionistas a que invertir es una buena idea desde el punto de vista monetario, siempre y cuando presente una propuestas cautivadoras.

Es la segunda vez que esta cumbre se lleva a cabo en México, y la primera vez en la capital. H / F buscan hacer de esto algo cíclico, en donde puedan siempre desarrollar nuevas habilidades en los asistentes, con nuevas pláticas y expertos año con año. En esta ocasión, hubo 14 exponentes, con un promedio de cuatro asistentes por conferencista, lo que buscaba generar una mejor rotación y una retroalimentación personal más fructífera. Hubo hasta diez espacios abiertos para consultoría y networking. Show less

Gil “4x Entrepreneur, 100x Angel, 5x Unicorns” Penchina shares unique insights on how savvy investors actualize liquidity at the H/F Liquidity Conference.

“如果你在一家大公司工作了10年，然后被解雇了，你的技术很有可能早就落后了。”硅谷社交网络Hackers/Founders CEO乔纳森·纳尔逊（Jonathan Nelson）说，他的公司专门为创业公司的开发者组织聚会，“我知道那些被裁的工程师都已经四五十岁了，他们有的人通过培训学会了移动应用开发或大数据技术——还有的人则当起了Uber专车司机。”

Country Analysis: Mexico
Fundación Ecología y Desarrollo

Office of the Multilateral Investment Fund

TECHNICAL NOTE Nº - IDB-TN-1152

1.2 Economic and Social overview
Mexico has the second-largest economy in Latin America and is a major oil exporter. According to 2014 data by the World Bank, agriculture accounted for 3.5% of the GDP, while industry and services accounted for 33.8% and 62.7% of the GDP, respectively. After several economic reforms and the signature of… Show more

Country Analysis: Mexico
Fundación Ecología y Desarrollo

Office of the Multilateral Investment Fund

TECHNICAL NOTE Nº - IDB-TN-1152

1.2 Economic and Social overview
Mexico has the second-largest economy in Latin America and is a major oil exporter. According to 2014 data by the World Bank, agriculture accounted for 3.5% of the GDP, while industry and services accounted for 33.8% and 62.7% of the GDP, respectively. After several economic reforms and the signature of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), effective in January 1994, the economy has experienced stable economic growth. The NAFTA was a one-of-its-kind treaty, as never before has a free trade agreement been established between countries with such different levels of development. The backbone of the agreement was to eliminate most tariffs on products traded between the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The agreement helped improveintraregional trade between the three countries, but has fallen short of generating the jobs and the deeper regional economic integration its advocates promised decades ago.

...

4.2.2 Specialized intermediaries & physical spacesMexico has a rich ecosystem of specialized intermediaries and physical spaces in both the social entrepreneurship and social innovation arena. Even though most of them are not more than 5 years old in the country, the level of collaboration between players is significant. Two key players are Ashoka and New Ventures, creating a lot of awareness, energy and resources across the public andprivate sectors and academia. CO_Plataforma is increasingly an important actor bringing to Mexican soil successful international intermediaries such as Makesense, Socialab Mexico, SVX and Sistema B. Regional ecosystem are also flourishing in Jalisco, Yucatan, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Guadalajara was also selected by Silicon Valleys’ Hackers/Founders to support 10 high-tech entrepreneurs every financial year. Show less

Fostering innovation and entrepreneurship are critical to sustainable growth and competitiveness in the globalized economy of the 21st Century. This is especially true in Latin America and other emerging markets. The region has a number of well-known innovation hubs—Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, Santiago, to name a few—but Latin America generally lags behind other regions in global measures of innovation capacity. How can this be turned around? How can industry, educational systems, and… Show more

Fostering innovation and entrepreneurship are critical to sustainable growth and competitiveness in the globalized economy of the 21st Century. This is especially true in Latin America and other emerging markets. The region has a number of well-known innovation hubs—Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, Santiago, to name a few—but Latin America generally lags behind other regions in global measures of innovation capacity. How can this be turned around? How can industry, educational systems, and governments better collaborate to improve the climate for innovation and entrepreneurial success? What are the needs, challenges, and obstacles that innovators face in different Latin American contexts? How can innovation “ecosystems” blossom and what ingredients have been lacking thus far? Show less

"Contributing to the supportive community ... are collaborative networks [including] ... the yearly weekend and monthly Hackers and Founders events."

I feel like I am slowly becoming a cyborg, a la Tony Stark. That's all kinds of awesome.

Hackers/Founders, an accelerator and global community of technology founders, is, in collaboration with Women 2.0, a global community of women tech founders, announcing the launch of a $20 million fund to invest in early-stage tech startups. Hackers/Founders startups will continue to be selected through a process that removes references to gender, name, age, race, or educational affiliation in order to minimize bias, while Women 2.0 will significantly increase the number of women founders… Show more

Hackers/Founders, an accelerator and global community of technology founders, is, in collaboration with Women 2.0, a global community of women tech founders, announcing the launch of a $20 million fund to invest in early-stage tech startups. Hackers/Founders startups will continue to be selected through a process that removes references to gender, name, age, race, or educational affiliation in order to minimize bias, while Women 2.0 will significantly increase the number of women founders applying to the program. Show less

Providing free legal assistance for innovators in all 50 states

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is announcing that its Patent Pro Bono Program, which provides free legal assistance to under-resourced inventors in securing patent protection for their inventions, will now extend to all 50 states. The Pro Bono Program joins the growing range of initiatives that make the USPTO’s services more available to a broader range of entrepreneurs. These initiatives include discounted… Show more

Providing free legal assistance for innovators in all 50 states

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is announcing that its Patent Pro Bono Program, which provides free legal assistance to under-resourced inventors in securing patent protection for their inventions, will now extend to all 50 states. The Pro Bono Program joins the growing range of initiatives that make the USPTO’s services more available to a broader range of entrepreneurs. These initiatives include discounted fees for small and micro entities, the Pro Se Assistance Program for inventors who file patent applications without the assistance of a patent attorney, and the opening of USPTO regional offices. Show less

"Women control 60% of household spending, and heavily influence 95% of household spending," said CEO Jonathan Nelson in a statement. “What can we do to help address gender bias in the innovation capital of the world?”

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street NE
Washington, DC 20549-1090

Re: Request for Public Comments on SEC Regulatory Initiatives under the
JOBS Act Relating to Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended by JOBS Act Title V- Private Company Flexibility and Growth, Title
VI – Capital Expansion, and Title III – Crowdfunding

To the Securities and Exchange Commission:

This letter is submitted on behalf of Hackers/Founders in… Show more

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street NE
Washington, DC 20549-1090

Re: Request for Public Comments on SEC Regulatory Initiatives under the
JOBS Act Relating to Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended by JOBS Act Title V- Private Company Flexibility and Growth, Title
VI – Capital Expansion, and Title III – Crowdfunding

To the Securities and Exchange Commission:

This letter is submitted on behalf of Hackers/Founders in regard to the
rules the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) is required
to adopt pursuant to the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the
“JOBS Act”). This letter is submitted in response to the Commission’s request
for public comments relating to the JOBS Act rulemaking.

The comments outlined in this letter represent the views of
Hackers/Founders. Hackers/Founders would like to take this opportunity to
thank the Commission for this opportunity to comment on the JOBS Act
provisions set forth in Titles V and VI, and Section 303 of Title III, relating to
registration of a class of securities under Section 12(g) of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (“Exchange Act”). Show less

"Gainesville and the local entrepreneurial ecosystem are exploding ... Some examples [of organizations] ... include... Hackers and Founders."

Over the last decade or so, venture capital (VC) has been adapting in response to its own “extinction event”. The collapse of the Dotcom Boom in 2000/01 brought to an end a period of extreme abundance. The amount of fundraising through 1998/99 peaked at levels unlike anything that came before, and – despite rumblings of a bubble at present – have not been seen since. Much of the capital deployed during the Dotcom Boom disappeared, taken down by collapsing businesses. While there are plenty of… Show more

Over the last decade or so, venture capital (VC) has been adapting in response to its own “extinction event”. The collapse of the Dotcom Boom in 2000/01 brought to an end a period of extreme abundance. The amount of fundraising through 1998/99 peaked at levels unlike anything that came before, and – despite rumblings of a bubble at present – have not been seen since. Much of the capital deployed during the Dotcom Boom disappeared, taken down by collapsing businesses. While there are plenty of stories about companies with questionable (and sometimes non-existent) business models, much of the money in this period was lost due to the high levels of interdependence between companies. The Tech economy became, in effect, a house of cards. Yet, from this era emerged Tech giants like Amazon, which survived by rapid adaptation, and Google, which survived by staying private until 2004... Show less

'Spearheaded by John Duhring, Cogswell College’s Education Technology Specialist, five entrepreneurs from the Turkey-based Sabanci University’s “SUCool” Pre-Incubator Program, very recently visited the Cogswell College campus and also visited Stanford University, IDEO, and the Institute for the Future; such top Silicon Valley-based companies as Google, Skype, Flipboard, and Eventbrite; financiers and incubators including StartX, the Founder Institute, Hackers/Founders, and Hanhai Investments… Show more

'Spearheaded by John Duhring, Cogswell College’s Education Technology Specialist, five entrepreneurs from the Turkey-based Sabanci University’s “SUCool” Pre-Incubator Program, very recently visited the Cogswell College campus and also visited Stanford University, IDEO, and the Institute for the Future; such top Silicon Valley-based companies as Google, Skype, Flipboard, and Eventbrite; financiers and incubators including StartX, the Founder Institute, Hackers/Founders, and Hanhai Investments, and start-ups including Good Eggs, gThrive, NVT and Diya TV.' Show less

Jonathan Nelson is the founder of Hackers & Founders, the largest community of early startups in Silicon Valley with 100,000+ members in 57 cities and 27 countries. As the man at the center of such a large entrepreneurial group, he has his ear to the ground when it comes to issues impacting the startup world. In 2012, worried that the proposed regulations that were intended to combat online copyright infringement and online trafficking in counterfeit goods would kill thousands of internet… Show more

Jonathan Nelson is the founder of Hackers & Founders, the largest community of early startups in Silicon Valley with 100,000+ members in 57 cities and 27 countries. As the man at the center of such a large entrepreneurial group, he has his ear to the ground when it comes to issues impacting the startup world. In 2012, worried that the proposed regulations that were intended to combat online copyright infringement and online trafficking in counterfeit goods would kill thousands of internet startups, he organized the SOPA PIPA Protest in San Francisco.

Today, Jonathan is keeping his eye out for the FCC ’s draft language on Net Neutrality. While he says it’s too early for real concern, as the language has not been released yet for review, today’s march on Washington to “Save the Internet” is not an unreasonable response to a serious perceived threat.

“A lot of people are really upset about this issue. People are going to get up and protest if you are going to break the Internet as we know it.” Show less

Jonathan Nelson likens the Silicon Valley organization he started, Hackers and Founders, to something he remembers from childhood, when his family moved to the small town of Anoka, Minn., from Central America. (His parents worked for a nongovernmental organization.) The Nelsons received a welcome basket with information about the community, including where the local supermarket, hardware store, post office and auto mechanic were located.

“It said, ‘Welcome to Anoka, Minnesota,’” Mr… Show more

Jonathan Nelson likens the Silicon Valley organization he started, Hackers and Founders, to something he remembers from childhood, when his family moved to the small town of Anoka, Minn., from Central America. (His parents worked for a nongovernmental organization.) The Nelsons received a welcome basket with information about the community, including where the local supermarket, hardware store, post office and auto mechanic were located.

“It said, ‘Welcome to Anoka, Minnesota,’” Mr. Nelson said. “It was lovely, and I thought that everybody did that in the U.S. And then years later, I’m having a meet-up in a bar with other hackers, working on my start-up ideas, and there are all these amazing entrepreneurs from all over the world visiting Silicon Valley, coming up to me to ask: ‘Where is Silicon Valley? Where do I go?’ And I thought, who in the world is here for these people? Why isn’t there a welcome basket for them? So I just decided to become that.” Show less

I guess we learned a long time ago that in Silicon Valley appearances often give you little to go on.

The company working out of Mom’s garage? The next Fortune 500 firm. The guy in cutoffs and bare feet? Founder and CEO. The startup with the goofy name? The developer of technology that will change the world.

So, why shouldn’t one of the valley’s key startup accelerants be a 6-foot-6, bearded, bear of a man who is the son of missionaries and who was working as an ER nurse when he… Show more

I guess we learned a long time ago that in Silicon Valley appearances often give you little to go on.

The company working out of Mom’s garage? The next Fortune 500 firm. The guy in cutoffs and bare feet? Founder and CEO. The startup with the goofy name? The developer of technology that will change the world.

So, why shouldn’t one of the valley’s key startup accelerants be a 6-foot-6, bearded, bear of a man who is the son of missionaries and who was working as an ER nurse when he started his tech incubator in a Sunnyvale tavern. In a land where a company’s creation story is almost as important as its business plan, Jonathan Nelson has a doozy.

Yes, he’s the bearded bear. He’s also the founder, with his wife, of the Co-op incubator, a spinoff of the informal Hackers/Founders meetups he hosted in Bay Area bars.

“This wasn’t supposed to be a business,” Nelson, 40, says. “It was mostly me hanging out in a bar with nerds forming startups. We’ve kind of bolted a business plan onto it.”

Without really trying to, Nelson — who with his wife, Laura, have nurtured 19 startups in the past few years — has built something of the people’s incubator. It all started when Nelson, a self-described hacker, came up with an idea for a financial news aggregation site. He’d spend three nights a week at El Camino Hospital and four nights a week coding. His passion for his project started to drive his wife nuts.

“I was interested, but he needed to be around people who were more like him,” Laura, 47, says. “So, we decided he would start a meetup group, with encouragement from me.”

Nelson turned to Meetup.com, the website designed to bring people together in the real world, and invited those with startup ideas to St. John’s Bar & Grill in Sunnyvale. “The first one was four dudes in a bar,” Jonathan Nelson says. “The next one was eight dudes in a bar, dudes being a gender neutral.” Show less

"The vast majority of flourishing digital technologies come from Silicon Valley, the product of more than 60 years of ... private capital ... It amasses the largest portion of the world's venture capital and its geographic area where many meetups take place such as Hackers and Founders..."

Back in 2008, Jonathan Nelson was working as an ER nurse and tinkering on code at home in his spare time. As someone who wasn’t a full-time engineer, he had a hankering to get out of the house and rub elbows with other techies. So he organized a casual meetup at a local bar, inviting other programmers toying with the idea of getting into the startup world to trade stories and talk shop over a beer or two. He called the group exactly what it was: Hackers/Founders.

Quite a bit has changed… Show more

Back in 2008, Jonathan Nelson was working as an ER nurse and tinkering on code at home in his spare time. As someone who wasn’t a full-time engineer, he had a hankering to get out of the house and rub elbows with other techies. So he organized a casual meetup at a local bar, inviting other programmers toying with the idea of getting into the startup world to trade stories and talk shop over a beer or two. He called the group exactly what it was: Hackers/Founders.

Quite a bit has changed since then. In the past four years, Hackers/Founders has grown into a full-on movement, boasting thousands of members that take over entire event spaces at their regular networking events. Nelson’s nursing days are now behind him, and he is working full-time on all things H/F, which most recently spawned its own legitimate startup incubator program called Co-op with support from the likes of investors including Greylock, Andreessen Horowitz, Floodgate, Mohr Davidow, Kapor Capital, Felicis Ventures, O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures, CMEA, WinFunding, and SV Angel. Show less

Welcome to Silicon Valley, the paradise that nerds and hackers built.

The Startup Legal Garage is an innovative program in which law students provide legal work for early stage Tech and BioTech startups. The work is supervised for free by outside law firms, while the professors teach accompanying doctrinal and skills classes. The program has worked with dozens of supervising attorneys and law students, who provided legal work for startup companies. Startup Legal Garage companies have come through the program’s partnerships with numerous incubators including Y… Show more

The Startup Legal Garage is an innovative program in which law students provide legal work for early stage Tech and BioTech startups. The work is supervised for free by outside law firms, while the professors teach accompanying doctrinal and skills classes. The program has worked with dozens of supervising attorneys and law students, who provided legal work for startup companies. Startup Legal Garage companies have come through the program’s partnerships with numerous incubators including Y Combinator, Stanford Business School, QB3 (the incubator for UCSF, UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Cruz), Hackers/Founders, Women 2.0, and Black Founders. Show less