Cool Yule, Cool Jazz, and a Baby Reindeer Too!

Patty Barrier and Cathi Hatch at Cool Yule

On Thursday, ZINO Society's annual Cool Yule Holiday Party was a memorable evening.  The theme this year was:  Unleash Your Inner Vixen (and Blitzen)!  First, we were in the "coolest" of showrooms at the new Barrier Mercedes of Bellevue.  Shiny red and black Mercedes automobiles were the backdrop for an evening of fun and frivolity.  Thank you to our dear friends and annual sponsors at Barrier Motors, Patty & Jimmy Barrier, Michael Vena, Kjell Schei and Lisa Hess!
 

Baby Rogue the Reindeer with Elf Handlers

Glasses were clinking, saxophones swaying and bold brush strokes of an artist at work were some of the sounds of this year's Cool Yule Holiday Party.  We welcomed Jazz Canvas as part of the evening's entertainment which blended live jazz musicians with live unrehearsed art in motion. The artist literally painted to the feeling of the music on a huge canvas that was raffled off at the end of the party.  Pike Brewing Company, O Wines, DeLille Cellars, Dineen Vineyards, Martinez & Martinez, Woodhouse Wine Estates and Sozo Planet while Ray's Boathouse & Catering provided the hors d'oeuvres.

We toasted one another and another successful year of angel investing, entrepreneurism and connecting having just surpassed $19 million in angel investing amongst our ZINO Society Seattle investor group.  For sipping and toasting, featured winemakers and beverages included

Cathi Hatch with Monte Regier of Sozo Friends.

Rogue (aka Blitzen), the baby reindeer was on hand with his two "elf" handlers for photo ops and was a real hit with everyone (except perhaps Pepper Payne, the Papipoo who was attending with mom Patti Payne, whom I am sure thought Rogue was just another big puppy).

Mary Holmes oversaw the entire event and made it a family affair convincing her husband, Jerry to pour wine and daughter Jacqueline who was there with friends to sell raffle tickets and hang up coats. 

Mary & Jerry Holmes

Christine Gilbert, our resident songster, along with assistance from creative mind, Jamee Nunnelee, developed the ZINO Society version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" now known as "The Twelve Days of ZINO" with apologies to English composer, Frederic Austin, which was performed with enthusiasm by the following ZINO Society cast of members including staff team, coaches, sponsors, investors, entrepreneurs and winemakers. We all donned reindeer antlers and gave it our best.  The vocal standout was definitely Christine, who had the "five wine rings" part and sounded like an opera singer.  Here are the lyrics:

On the First Day of Christmas, my ZINO gave to me: (All)

A year full of Opportunity!  (All)

Cathi Hatch and Gregg Bennett

On the Third Day of Christmas, my ZINO gave to me:
Three Nametag Ribbons (Cathi Hatch)

Two Mercedes Benz (Mary Holmes)

And a Year full of Opportunity

On the Sixth Day of Christmas, my ZINO gave to me:

Six Friends Connecting (Patty Barrier)
Fiiiiive Wiiii-iiine Riiiings (Christine Gilbert)
Four Passport Cards (Jamee Nunnelee)
Three Nametag Ribbons (Cathi Hatch)
Two Mercedes Benz (Mary Holmes)
And a Year full of Opportunity! (All)

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, my ZINO gave to me:  (All)
Ten Wineries Pouring (Andrew Martinez)
Nine Elevator Pitches (John Faccone)
Eight Investors Investing (Gregg Bennett)
Seven Funds a-funding (Kate DesRosier)
Six Friends Connecting (Patty Barrier)
Fiiiiive Wiiii-iiine Riiiings (Christine Gilbert)
Four Passport Cards (Jamee Nunnelee)
Three Nametag Ribbons (Cathi Hatch)
Two Mercedes Benz (Mary Holmes)
And a Year full of Opportunity! (All)

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, my ZINO gave to me: (All)
Twelve Coaches Coaching (Chuck Roxin)
Eleven Angel Investors (Brian Vowinkel)
Ten Wineries Pouring (Andrew Martinez)
Nine Elevator Pitches (John Faccone)
Eight Investors Investing (Gregg Bennett)
Seven Funds a-funding (Kate DesRosier)
Six Friends Connecting (Patty Barrier)
Fiiiiive Wiii-iiiine Riiiiings (Christine Gilbert)
Four Passport Cards (Jamee Nunnelee)
Three Nametag Ribbons (Cathi Hatch)
Two Mercedes Benz (Mary Holmes)
And a Year full of Opportunity! (All)

We all got our "Blitzen" on and a great time was had by all!

Welcoming Kate DesRosier to ZINO Society Team!

Kate DesRosier, ZINO Society Dealflow & Operations Manager

I am so pleased to welcome Kate DesRosier to the ZINO Society team as our new Dealflow and Operations Manager!  Kate was selected after an extensive and laborious search of many qualified candidates.  Kate will be working directly with all the entrepreneurs and our ZINO Society Screening and Coaching Boards overseeing our entire dealflow processes.

Kate has worked with entrepreneurs and startup companies for the past several years, most recently in the university technology transfer space at UW’s Center for Commercialization. Kate holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from UW and a master’s in Counseling Psychology from Arizona State University. She has a background in mental health counseling, makeup artistry and social development research; widely varying fields that add up to a wealth of experience. She enjoys being immersed in the energy and creativity of the startup world and supporting entrepreneurs toward their goals.

In Kate’s spare time she volunteers with several non-profits that serve underprivileged and marginalized youth. She is involved with Ruby Room, a volunteer-run prom dress boutique that offers formal wear free of charge to Greater Puget Sound teenagers who qualify for the free and reduced lunch program at school. She is also a member of the scholarship application review committee for Seattle Pride Foundation, an organization that supports the educational goals of LGBTQ youth and young adults.

Welcome to ZINO Society Kate! 

This ZINO team is Kick A__!

ZINO Team Christine Gilbert, Mary Holmes, Cathi Hatch,
Kristie Lanum, Jamee Nunnelee

This coming Tuesday is our biggest ZINO Society event of the year, ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum.  The ZINO Society team has been working VERY hard to get all the details ready so that everyone attending has a wonderful time!

Kristie Lanum, our Chief Dealflow Officer, has managed the overall task list for ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum for our entire team and has worked specifically with all of our presenting entrepreneurs, most of which are now new ZINOpreneur Members for the upcoming year.  Kristie has overseen the screening and coaching processes and worked with our incredible list of coaches to ensure that each entrepreneur presenting on Tuesday will be the best that they can be in sharing a concise and compelling pitch.  This is akin to herding cats since there are so many people involved, but Kristie has done it with her usual aplomb and grace.

Mary Holmes, our Chief Marketing Officer, has recruited and communicated with over eighteen (18) panelists who will participate in three separate expert panels providing input and advice to entrepreneurs and investors.  Each panel should be fascinating including a Hospitality, Food, & Travel Panel, a VC & Angel Panel to provide input to our Back-of-the-Napkin presenting companies and a Due Diligence LIVE! Panel to ask questions of the six (6) fund finalists who will be selected by the ZINO Angel fund investors.  Mary has also worked to attract sponsors, develop new branding elements for ZZIF, overseen the press relationships and worked directly with our Co-Presentor, Puget Sound Business Journal, to produce a two-page ad coming out in today's issue.

Jamee Nunnelee, our VP of Membership, has communicated with ZINO Society members to get them the information they need to attend ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum and invited many of our friends and membership prospects to join us as well.  She is offering a rebate on ZINO Society membership for those new members that join by the end of September.  Jamee has also worked to attract specific ZZIF sponsors and arranged for some of our Wine Professional Members to pour their wines at the Networking Reception at the end of the day.

Christine Gilbert, our Events Director, has worked tirelessly to design and produce our blast emails to notify everyone of the details of ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum, design and produce the agenda and event program, taken reservations, answered endless questions, produced name tags, and panelist tent cards, arranged for prizes for fund finalists and ZINO Zenith Award winners, worked with MOHAI to arrange all the event details and the caterer to provide sustenance so we can all make it through the entire day with appropriate food, beverages and snacks to keep up our energy.

Please come see what we do!  I think you will be impressed with the quality of the entrepreneur pitches, the panelists, the food and wine, and all the details that make this a first-class event!  And then please do tell me what you think.

And the ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum Winners are . . .

After a full day of watching and interacting with presenting entrepreneurs and demo table entrepreneurs at ZINO Zillionaire Investment Forum on Wednesday, we adjourned downstairs to the Bell Harbor Conference Center International Promenade for the "Spiels and Suds" segment of the ZZIF agenda featuring entrepreneur demo tables and beer from Pike Brewing Company and K & L Distributors followed by the Awards and Wine Reception featuring eight wineries.  Featured wineries included Woodward Canyon Winery, DeLille Cellars, Lachini Vineyards, Sparkman Cellars, San Juan Vineyards, 428 Wines, Cave B Winery and Pepper Bridge Winery.

Coaches Dave Watt, Skip Walter, Vin Ricci

At the Awards and Wine Reception, the first awards presented were to the ZZIF Coaches who worked with the entrepreneurs to ensure that their presentations would be concise and compelling.  Executive Vice President, Kristie Lanum, and I presented Coaches' Awards for "Winningest Coach" to Vin Ricci, "Special Teams Coach" to Dave Watts and Jackson Weaver (tie) and "Rookie of the Year Coach" to Skip Walter.

Craig Rominger, NanoICE for Best Investment
David Makuen for Best Presenter

The next awards presented were the ZINO Zenith Awards which were voted on by all the ZZIF attendees for Best Presentation to David Makuen of BuiltBurger and Best Investment Opportunity to Craig Rominger of NanoICE, Inc. 

ZZIF Fund Finalists Kevin Veon, Adam Stein, Keith McCall,
Ken Childress, Max Lyon, Craign Rominger

And the final ZZIF awards presented were the ZINO Zillionaire Fund Finalists Awards selected by the fund investors to Kevin Veon of Banshee Bungee, Max Lyon of FiatLux Imaging, Adam Stein of IMOS, Keith McCall of Enroute Systems, Ken Childress of Harbor Wing Technologies, and Craig Rominger of NanoIce, Inc.  The fund investors will now complete due diligence within the next month on the finalist companies with the goal of awarding the $100,000 fund split between the two best investment opportunities they select.

The Screening and Coaching Process for Entrepreneurs

This past week, we welcomed our new intern, Kayla Villnow to ZINO Society.  Kayla is a second year MBA candidate at the Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington, with a concentration on corporate strategy.  She is already making herself invaluable as she works directly with ZINO Society COO, Rob Brown, to support and facilitate the entrepreneur processes for ZINO Society.  In the photo above, she is reviewing and compiling the green screening evaluation sheets which the screeners and coaches fill out during our monthly screening meetings.  These sheets provide valuable feedback and suggestions to the entrepreneurs to help them make their brief presentations more understandable and compelling, which is one of the most important support services we can offer.

Yesterday, our screeners and coaches met to view the entrepreneur presentations live that made it through the first electronic screening round for our upcoming ZINO Life Investment Forum.    Each of the entrepreneurs had seven minutes to present followed by two minutes of question and answer and input.  See photos of some of the screeners and coaches above and as they diligently fill out the green evaluation sheets.

Taking into consideration all the feedback and input we receive from the screeners and coaches, we ultimately choose who to feature at our investment meetings and forums and then line up those entrepreneurs with individual coaches who will help them polish and finesse their presentations so they can be most effective in getting their messages across.  It is interesting to note that though most entrepreneurs think they do not need or want coaching, but since we insist on it, almost every entrepreneur comes back to us saying that their coaching was invaluable to them in making their message stronger and clearer.  It is Kayla’s role to match up entrepreneurs with coaches to ensure that each presenting ZINOpreneur has that important support.

On the day of the event, each presenting ZINOpreneur will have a special ribbon on his or her nametag showing that they are presenting so that potential investors can easily connect with them.  Following the event, Kayla will once again communicate to the entrepreneurs sharing any input from the event attendees and sharing any contact information for those members or guests who expressed interest in any specific investment opportunities.

Our ZINO Society screeners and coaches deserve huge kudos for the important service they provide these entrepreneurs!    

ZINO Green Portland a Success!

The ZINO Society team is figuratively walking on air since the successful inaugural ZINO Green Portland event on Wednesday this week!  The entire staff handled hundreds of details with good humor and expertise in order to produce such a stellar event.  We were so pleased to work with our major and venue sponsor, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt and were amazed at the attention to detail and service that Michelle Martin, their event representative provided to us.  My good friend, Don Krahmer, (3^rd photo above)of Schwabe facilitated a dealflow flight of entrepreneurs and drew the winning name for the 2 airline tickets door prize offered by our supporting sponsor, Alaska Airlines.  Presenting entrepreneur, Craig Rominger of Nano Ice USA was the big winner of the tickets!

There were many people who helped make ZINO Green Portland a reality.  In addition to Schwabe and Alaska Airlines, our other invaluable sponsors were Oracle, Portland Business Journal, McKinstry and Stoel Rives.  I am also especially appreciative of our ZINO Green Portland Advisory Committee members and my friends and co-chairs, Douglas Bouland and Cindy Tortorici, who brought the group together to provide advice and input to me and the rest of the ZINO Society management team about the appropriate entry into Portland.   

Ray King, Founder & CEO of AboutUs participated in a fireside chat about his experience as a serial entrepreneur and shared some of his best advice with the entrepreneurs in the room.  Ray is pictured above in 4^th photo along with his wife, ZINO Green Portland Advisory Committee member, Deneen King, and ZINO Society VP of Business Development, Mary Holmes.

There were 14 entrepreneurs who each presented 5 minute overviews of their businesses and shared their traction to date, market pipelines, financial projections and any important information for potential investors to consider.  Big kudos are definitely in order for the ZINO Green Screeners and Coaches who worked so hard to assist the entrepreneurs in making the most clear and concise presentations.

The winners of the ZINO Zenith Awards for best investment opportunities as selected by the event attendees were Peter Jay Klauser of Eco Carpet Inc., Craig Rominger of Nano Ice USA, and Burt Hamner of Hydrovolts.  See top photo above of each with their “green” ZINO Zenith award trophies.  To help investors in the room learn more about the ZINO Zenith Award winners, they then participated in a Due Diligence LIVE! Q&A segment with expert panelists (shown from left to right in 2^nd photos above) Drew Bernard, angel investor, Darius Hartwell, Shareholder, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, Chris Ulum of Plas2Fuel Corporation, Byron McCann of Ascent Partners, and Bruce Sanchez of Oracle.

Following the business session, everyone had a final opportunity to talk with individual entrepreneurs and enjoy hors d’oeuvres and beverages together.  Featured winemakers were Dave Hanson of ArborBrook Vineyards and Emily Stoller Smith of Solena Estate.

Thank you to everyone who attended, was involved and helped make ZINO Green Portland an inaugural event of which we can all be very proud!  And now we can still look forward to ZINO Green Seattle this coming week on March 4^th at the McKinstry offices in Seattle!

Save the Planet! ZINO Green is coming! Companies selected.

Last Thursday at Davis Wright Tremaine for the second ZINO Green screening session, the ZINO Society Screening and Coaching Board reviewed another group of 8 companies vying for a space at our upcoming ZINO Green Investment Forum scheduled this year for the first time to be held in both Portland and Seattle.  ZINO Society COO Rob Brown welcomed a new Screening and Coaching Board member to the team – Bob Nowlin.  Each entrepreneur had 5 minutes to pitch their company and 5 minutes for questions and comments from the screeners.  After the screening session and reviewing the input from all the screeners, each of the selected companies was assigned two individual coaches to help the entrepreneur perfect his or her pitch for the upcoming forums.  We are happy to announce the following companies as the ones selected to make 5 minute pitches at both ZINO Green Portland on February 24^th and ZINO Green Seattle on March 4^th:

 AmeriStar Solar Tracker

BioXcelerator Technologies, Inc.

Building Runner

Canvas Solutions, Inc.

Eco Carpet Inc.

EMME

Environmental Energy & Engineering Co.

G.R. Green Building Products Inc.

Hydrovolts, Inc.

KersTech Vehicle Systems

Lagotek Corporation

sengWare

Virticus

Zebigo.com

To register to attend, click here for Portland and here for Seattle.

ZINO Society new Members and Coaches

A warm welcome to new ZINO Society Roundtable member, Bill Prater, in the top photo along with guest Barbara Whatley and in lower photo from left to right new Roundtable member and Coach, Skip Walter, along with veteran Coaches, Jackson Weaver and Dave Van Patten.  Our members and those that also take time to coach are so important to the success of our ZINOpreneur Members!  Thank you!