The Digital Hollywood Experience

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Wednesday, October 17, 2018

9:15 AM - 10:15 AM

Track II: Herscher Hall, 2nd Floor, Room 202

Crowdfunding, ICOs, Start-ups & Angels: Financing the Entertainment and Technology Industries

Dimitry Lensky, Attorney, LKP Global Law, LLP

Kevin Aratari, Head of Business Development, Troika

Muizz Kheraj, Managing Director, FocalPoint Partners LLC

Mark Linao, Principal, Akaktsuki Entertainment Tech Fund

Justin Giddings, CEO & Founder, TheKickstarterGuy.com

Marlon W. Schulman, Founder & CEO, Horror Equity Fund, Inc., Moderator

 

Dimitry Lensky is a Los Angeles-based attorney counseling entrepreneurs, emerging and middle-market companies, funds, and individual investors on a wide range of corporate and intellectual property matters, including venture capital financing, mergers and acquisitions, cross-border transactions, corporate governance, technology transactions, commercial agreements, trademark registration, and product development collaborations. He has experience working with clients in fields such as manufacturing, software, digital media, advertising and gaming. He is fluent in Russian and has worked with many prominent Russian and Ukrainian VC funds and investors, as well as those based in the U.S. and other countries.

Justin Giddings is an award-winning filmmaker who found creative freedom through crowdfunding. After becoming the “go-to guy” for crowdfunding advice, Justin combined his background in marketing with his experience in crowdfunding and launched www.TheKickstarterGuy.com. He regularly teaches at Film Independent, is an official Kickstarter Expert, and travels internationally to speak of film production and financing. To date, he has coached over 100 filmmakers, raised $3.6+ million, and has a 97% success rate.

 

Muizz Kheraj, Managing Director, FocalPoint: Muizz Kheraj joined FocalPoint’s Los Angeles office in 2012 and heads the firm’s Technology practice. He has spent nearly two decades in technology, both as a software engineer and as an experienced advisor, supporting the capital market needs of middle-market entrepreneurs. Prior to joining FocalPoint, Mr. Kheraj built the TMT practice at McGladrey Capital Markets LLC. He has held leadership roles at various tech and digital media startups; and currently holds active board advisory roles within numerous bleeding-edge tech firms. He has led, managed and closed an aggregate of more than $1 billion in transactions in the tech sector. Mr. Kheraj holds an M.B.A. from the USC Marshall School of Business, a M.S. in electrical engineering and a B.S. in aerospace engineering from UCLA.

 

Kevin Aratari, Head of Business Development, Troika: Kevin is passionate about introducing new clients to the opportunities offered by the evolving industry and consistently keeps one eye on the changing landscape to lead both clients and Troika forward into the future. Kevin oversees all of Troika’s sales and marketing functions, crafts our business development strategy, leads our thought-leadership initiatives, and collaborates with Account Directors to service all aspects of our clients’ needs. He began his career in entertainment marketing as a Producer at industry giant Pittard Sullivan, and went on to create the broadcast department at mOcean in Venice Beach, which he led for over 13 years as Managing Director and later CMO.

 

Mark Linao, Principal, Akaktsuki Entertainment Tech Fund: Mark was a senior multi-disciplined Engineer at aerospace and defense firm Raytheon and worked at the Rubicon Project (while it was a startup, pre-IPO) and Amazon. After business school was an Associate at Technicolor Ventures eventually transitioning to Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at Technicolor. Currently, Mark is a Venture Fellow at betaworks and is a Principal at the AET Fund. Mark has spent the last few years advising, mentoring, and supporting several startups. He is a graduate of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) with a BS and MS in Materials Science and Engineering and holds a MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. About Akaktsuki- Akatsuki was founded in 2010 in Japan, and has since developed and distributed variety of mobile and social games. In 2017, it co-developed and distributed “Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle,” which has been published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The company is publicly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

 

Marlon Schulman – Founder, CEO: Horror Equity Fund, Inc.: Marlon W. Schulman’s leadership in creating targeted, revenue-producing communities within the entertainment industry is enhanced by his intuition and passion. As an entrepreneurial producer and attorney, his specialty is the creation of diverse profit-driven entertainment products and services through innovatively conceived integration of proven strategies with new technologies. He has successfully completed numerous and profitable entrepreneurial initiatives, both within major entertainment companies (Bandai Entertainment, Orion Pictures, AECG), as well as in his independent and partnership entities (Wednesday Morning Productions, Realbuzz Studios, Libertas Law Group). Those projects were created to serve de-centralized, under-served, and in certain cases, un-recognized interest groups, resulting in new audiences and on-going revenue centers. His active, strategic stance at the crossroads of new technology, law, business and the creative arts has addressed voids in the marketplace and has led to the establishment of substantial, long-running revenue streams in the entertainment industry. Mr. Schulman has been a contributor and panelist at Digital Hollywood; PitchFest; ScareLA; Nashville Film Con; Comic-Con; NYC Comic Con; Boston University (LA Campus); and numerous other venues. He has written for Brooklyn Law School, , NYLJ, MovieMaker Magazine and others.