Startup Grind X - BCS Chapter Hosts Ray Rothrock, Forbes Midas List Venture Capitalist & RedSeal CEO

Name: Startup Grind X - BCS Chapter Hosts Ray Rothrock, Forbes Midas List Venture Capitalist & RedSeal CEO
Start: 2019-09-19T18:30:00-05:00
End: 2019-09-19T20:00:00-05:00
Location: The Aurora Room at The Stella Hotel

Sep 19, 2019, 11:30 PM – Sep 20, 2019, 1:00 AM

Bryan-College Station

Startup Grind X - BCS Chapter hosts at least six Fireside Chats annually, from August - May each year. Founded in 2014 as a Startup Grind U Chapter at Texas A&M University, Startup Grind X is a spinout from campus to the greater Bryan-College Station community. Our single purpose is to bring startup founders to Brazos County so that town and gown can connect with the world of entrepreneurship.

In-person event

About this event

Meet Forbes Midas List Venture Capitalist Ray Rothrock, CEO of RedSeal in San Jose, CA and founding general partner of Venrock, interviewed by Grant Weston.
Ray is a graduate of Texas A&M University, MIT and Harvard University. The former Startup Aggieland Entrepreneur-in-Residence also sits on Roku's Board of Directors and served three times as a "shark" for Shark Frenzy. Ray Rothrock is currently CEO and Chairman of RedSeal
Ray has three decades of business leadership--investing in, advising and leading many of the technology and cybersecurity companies that form the fabric of today’s networks. He is partner emeritus at Venrock, the VC arm of the Rockefeller family's efforts, and the CEO and chairman of RedSeal, which provides critical cyber and business insights via its cyber risk modeling platform to more than 50 government agencies and hundreds of commercial enterprises. 
During his 25-year career at Venrock, Rothrock led both the Internet and energy investment programs as a member of the Venrock management committee and invested in dozens of early-stage technology companies. His cybersecurity investments included Check Point Software, Vontu, PGP, PCube, Imperva, CloudFlare, Appthority, and Shape Security. Rothrock’s track record resulted in his being listed twice on the Forbes Midas List. A leader in the venture industry, he was elected by his peers as chairman of the National Venture Capital Association for 2012-13.
Rothrock currently serves on the boards of several organizations, including the U.S. Department of Energy GAIN (Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear) Executive Advisory Board, the DOE Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee, the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, and he’s the chairman of Transatomic Power. He also sits on the boards of the BreakThrough Institute, UTIMCO, Massachusetts of Institute of Technology (MIT), Check Point Software Technology, Roku, Inc., and several private companies including Team8, Shape Security, CTERA, Unbounded Tech, and Tri Alpha Energy.
Rothrock is author of the critically-acclaimed book Digital Resilience: Is Your Company Ready for the Next Cyber Threat (Harper Collins, Apr. 2018) and has published several industry papers and articles with publications including The Hill, MIT Sloan Business Review, Axios Codebook, and U.S. Army’s Cyber Defense Review Journal.
Rothrock holds a BS in Nuclear Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from Texas A&M University, a MS in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M University, Distinguished Alumnus of the MIT Nuclear Science and Engineering Department, and Distinguished Member of Tau Beta Pi. He is a Member of the Corporation for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology serving on several Visiting Committees.

Check out what happened

Speaker

Ray Rothrock

RedSeal

CEO

When

September 19 – 20, 2019
11:30 PM – 1:00 AM UTC

Where

The Aurora Room at The Stella Hotel
4100 Lake Atlas Drive
Bryan, 77807

Agenda

11:30 PM

Fireside Chat

Join Startup Grind X - BCS Chapter for a free Fireside Chat with Forbes Midas List Venture Capitalist Ray Rothrock, CEO of RedSeal in San Jose, CA and partner emeritus of Venrock. Ray is a partner emeritus of Venrock. He was at Venrock for 25 years. Some of his thoughts about venture capital, innovation, and entrepreneurship are in this recent interview, American Dreams. He initiated 53 investments mostly in technology and recently in energy and provided support for scores of others. The firm made initial investments in about 350 companies in that same 25 year period. Evolving with the market for venture investments from the late 1980s until today, he led Venrock’s entrance into the Internet with the investment in Spyglass in 1991, the exclusive licensee of MOSAIC browser technology from the University of Illinois. As the Internet lay open new opportunities for entrepreneurs and thus new investment frontiers, he led the firm into computer and network security leading an investment Check Point Software Technology (NASDAQ: CHKP), advertising technology with an investment in DoubleClick, ecommerce with FogDog, web-hosting and ISP with DIGEX and an original SaaS company, USinternetworking. With a wide variety of investment experiences including materials and energy, in 2004 he began to assemble a team to consider investments in energy. He continues to invest in Internet security technology companies, the latest being Shape Security. His resulting track record put him on the Forbes Midas List in 2012 and 2013. Prior to Venrock he was at Sun Microsystems where he led the marketing programs for the design automation markets and was a founder of its Catalyst program in 1984. He was in two other startups in northern California which didn’t turn out as well as Sun. Prior to moving to California in 1981, Ray was a nuclear engineer and earned his professional engineering license. He spent several years in the nuclear power business particularly as the nuclear transient safety engineer for Yankee Atomic Electric for the Yankee Rowe Plant in Rowe, Massachusetts. There was a short stint at Exxon Nuclear in their fuel business but as everyone knows, the nuclear industry began to decline in the early 80s. Inspired by an article in a 1981 issue of National Geographic talking about the Silicon Valley, he moved to California in search of start-up experience. His formal education is in nuclear engineering with a BSNE (summa cum laude) from Texas A&M Univeristy and SM from the M.I.T. and ultimately an MBA (with distinction) from the Harvard Business School. He recently was recognized by his alma mater, Texas A&M, as a Distinguished Engineer. And also at MIT for his contributions to the Nuclear Science and Engineering department where he served on its Visiting Committee for a decade. Ray’s interest beyond building companies through capital investment and direct involvement is largely focused on education and the performing arts. He has served on numerous boards including a recent trustee of the Texas A&M Foundation, Association of Former Students of Texas A&M, Portola Valley Schools Foundation, and the Woodside Priory School Board. He was the Chair of the National Venture Capital Association from 2012-2013. An original "shark" for Startup Aggieland's annual Shark Frenzy experience at Texas A&M University, a demo day modeled after the popular ABC-TV Show, Ray also has participated Startup Aggieland's annual VCs & VIPs Private Dinner at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Libary & Conference Center. Ray has hosted members of Startup Grind X - BCS Chapter for dinner during our annual trip to Startup Grind Global Conference in California. He also is a mentor for Accelerate Aggieland.