Taking on the 800-Pound Gorilla

You have a great idea. You’ve found a real user pain point and your solution will solve it. Sounds like you’ve got a real winner here! But wait… It seems there is someone else already doing it. And they are much bigger/more well-funded/more well-known than you are. OK, forget it. Back to the drawing board.

Haven’t we all gone through this line of thinking at some point?

Well, with some experience we know how flawed this thinking is. But let’s talk to some veterans who have not just taken on any company, they are competing head to head with some giants out there and are winning. JP Werlin – founder of Pipeline Deals, Matt Oppenheimer – CEO of Remitly and Jesse Proudman – founder of Bluebox will talk about why they decided to go after their respective competitors, share some of the battle scars they got and learnings they got through this experience.

SPEAKERS

JP Werlin – JP co-founded Pipeline Deals in 2006 and continues to lead this rapdily growing company in Pacific Northwest. He is a seasoned entrepreneur who enjoys creating and leading teams of great people. JP’s domain expertise is crafting online marketing and demand generation strategies for both B2B and B2C businesses including Overstock.com, JR.com, EMS.com and other Internet Retailer Top 100 brands.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jpwerlin/

Jesse Proudman – Proudman created Blue Box Group in his college dorm room, and for the past 11 years, he has been involved in every aspect of the company’s operations and rapid growth. In June of 2015, IBM acquired Blue Box for its private cloud product line, making it front and center in IBM Cloud’s strategy. Proudman is GeekWire’s 2014 Young Entrepreneur of the Year and a member of the 2013 class of Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He also was a regional semifinalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseproudman/

Matt Oppenheimer – Matt co-founded Remitly in 2011 to transform the $588 Billion global remittance industry. They have raised over $60 Million in funding from industry leaders such as Stripes Group, DFJ, DN Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Founders’ Co-op, QED Investors, and Trilogy Partnership. Before starting Remitly, he was head of mobile and internet banking initiatives for Barclays Bank Kenya based out of Nairobi. Prior to that, he worked for the Barclays Corporate Bank in London. http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattoppenheimer/

NOTE: Space will be limited. Please RSVP! Thank you.