Int’l Startup Rockstar Permjot Valia Joining Nov. 8 ‘Community Chemistry’ Panel

Permjot Valia is a British entrepreneur and angel investor who is often described as "something of a rockstar in the international startup community." Permjot will be a panelist next Friday joining our own Indianapolis-based startup rockstars Chris Baggott and Kristian Andersen for a discussion on "The Chemistry of a Community Where Companies Grow."

Permjot started angel investing after having served as sales and marketing director for Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Services in London. Having organized the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year competition for 2004, Permjot was able to learn first hand what it took to be a successful startup and the problems they encounter along the way. Permjot regularly mentors companies and he has now invested in more than 35 startups in three countries around the world.

After leaving Ernst & Young, Permjot founded Help with Sales. This business, which Permjot is still active in, helps companies with their commercialization approach and strategy. Permjot has helped companies manage their sales strategy through critically approaching their sales pitch and approach. Permjot has found that in most cases companies have failed to align their offering with a client need.

Permjot co-founded a fund management business called Flight & Partners Ltd which now has around $20 million pounds under management. The fund, which started in early 2008, currently invests in distressed situations. In 2010, following his work at seedcamp.com, Permjot was nominated as one of the "Best Mentors to Startups" in Europe by Techcrunch.

Permjot is the co-founder of Mindful Scientific, a company solving the problem of diagnosing brain injury, and founder of MentorCamp.ca, an organization that runs competitions to bring together the best mentors in the world to help companies experience explosive growth. He also sits on the boards of some great companies including www.curingresin.com and www.wooshii.com.

Permjot gained a degree in Economics with Honours from the University of Leeds in 1993. In 2000 he obtained his MBA from the Open University. Permjot lives in London and spends about a week a month in Canada.

More About New Economy New Rules, November 8th

The Chemistry of a Community Where Companies Grow

Featuring Chris Baggott, Co-founder and CEO of Compendium & Co-founder of ExactTarget; Kristian Andersen, Founder of KA+A; and Permjot Valia, Founder of MentorCamp.ca and Co-Founder of London-based fund manager Flight and Partners

Chris Baggott	Kristian Andersen	Permjot Valia

Communities have personalities or identities like people. They can be positive or negative. They can be supportive or destructive. And like people, communities can believe in themselves to great achievement, or play zero sum games to ill effect.

1. What makes up the chemistry of communities where companies grow? 
2. Which ingredients are essential and what can be done to acquire missing ingredients?
3. How can individuals and companies contribute to a positive chemistry?