You're invited to an unforgettable dinner with Lux Capital Partner Shahin Farshchi and Polaris General Partner Gary Swart. Enjoy an intimate conversation with Shahin and Gary, curated connections... over a seasonal, locally-sourced meal.
SPECIAL GUESTS
Shahin Farshchi is a Partner on the investing team at Lux Capital, a venture capital firm investing in counter-conventional, early-stage science and tech ventures, with $2.4B AUM. He is passionate about artificial intelligence, robots, space, cars, and engines—pretty much anything you might find in an episode of Star Trek.
He led Lux’s investments in Silicon Clocks (NASDAQ:SLAB), which shrank electronics by baking bulky quartz crystals into silicon chips; SiBeam (NASDAQ:SIMG), which aims to eliminate wires from living rooms by introducing full-HD wireless connectivity; Planet, which is launching the world’s largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites; Plethora, which is rolling out a fleet of robotic machine shops; Nervana (NASDAQ:INTC), the first full-stack platform for machine intelligence and quite a few others.
Previously, Shahin co-founded Vista Integrated Systems, which built wireless vital sign monitors based on a neural interface technology he developed during his PhD at UCLA. Shahin also developed hybrid electric vehicles for GM in Detroit.
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Gary Swart is a general partner at Polaris, investing in technology and healthcare companies. He represents Polaris on the boards of Quantcast, SimplyInsured, FloQast, Falkonry, Faro Health, and Qstream. He also served on the board of CliQr (Cisco). The firm currently has $4+ billion AUM.
Previously, Gary was the CEO of oDesk (now UpWork, NASDAQ;UPWK), the world’s largest online workplace with more than three million clients and twelve million freelancers. Gary guided the company to industry leadership and through a merger with Elance, while serving as a leading voice for the future of work and the emerging online work industry.
Prior to oDesk, Gary was the vice president of worldwide sales for Intellibank. He also served as a business unit executive for IBM’s Rational Software Product Group.
Gary serves as a thought leader on marketplaces, sales leadership and on the rise of the “freelance economy.” He has spoken at the Inc. Leadership Conference, The Economist’s Ideas Economy Panel, SXSW, TechCrunch 50, and at HBS. He’s appeared on TV and radio outlets, including CNBC, BBC, Bloomberg TV, National Public Radio (NPR), Startups Uncensored, and the Fox Business Network.
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We will serve salads and grain bowls.