Entrepreneurship Central

Validating Your Value Proposition & Establish the Right Organizational Culture

November 5, 2009 | Posted by ahoward

The Summer@Highland 2009 curriculum included a series of complimentary forums to discuss and address key aspects of the early company creation process. Founders Pano Anthos and Dan McCall discussed strategies and tactics for further validating and honing a business model - what approaches they took for doing so, what worked and what didn't.

Hangout Industries is dedicated to creating the most fun, social, accessible, and viral experiences available online. Prior to being President and CEO of Hangout Industries, Pano served as the President and CEO of Pantero since its inception in April 2003, until it was sold to Progress Software in June 2006. Prior to that, he served as President and CEO of EcoNovo, where he was initially a consultant to the company, providing strategic sales and marketing counsel. Before his tenure at EcoNovo, Pano was a co-founder of ClearCross (previously Syntra), where, over 18 years, he built the company to the leading position in the global commerce space.

Virtual Computer, Inc. is redefining PC lifecycle management by making it as easy to manage a thousand PCs as it is to manage one. Prior to joining Virtual Computer, Dan was a co-founder and General Manager at Guardent, a leading managed security services provider. After Guardent’s acquisition by VeriSign in 2004, Dan led strategic planning for a number of internal business units as VeriSign’s Vice President of Corporate Development. Previously, Dan was Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at i-Cube and at Shiva Corporation, where he also ran product management and helped introduce Shiva’s first VPN technology. Dan started his career in 1983 as a software engineer writing compilers for Wang Laboratories and later as an engineering manager at Encore Computer.