Round Zero History

Dion Lim, Manish Mehta, Nayan Patel, Munjal Shah, and Nirav Tolia founded Round Zero in June of 1997. The creation of Round Zero was somewhat inadvertent and serendipitous. These five Silicon Valley professionals came from diverse backgrounds but shared common interests in entrepreneurship and technology. Their work schedules precluded spending time with those outside of their respective companies, so they planned a special social evening at Il Fornaio restaurant in Palo Alto. At this first meeting, the five gathered together around a round table and discussed and debated the technology trends of the day. This first table came to be known as Table One.

That first meeting inspired the co-founders to build upon their initial encounter. They knew that they had enjoyed a unique experience - an experience that somehow differed from other events they had attended in the Valley. While their meeting wasn't a purely social event like some of the Silicon Valley networking functions, it also didn't seem impersonal like some of the speaker-oriented events. The experience they had shared actually fell somewhere in between these two formats: it offered both social and intellectual benefits by creating an intimate forum for the exchange of entrepreneurial ideas.

Originally entitled "Incubator," Round Zero continued with informal dinners at Il Fornaio. The fledgling group used small tables to promote intimacy and researched topics to promote active discussion. After Table One, there was a table two, three, four, and five. In the meanwhile, Table One became the planning group and the administrators for organization. Early on, the guest list grew through invites to friends and before long, attendance had grown from five to fifteen. Bolstered by early optimism and the dream of a true organization, the founders planned for the incorporation and formalization of their group.

Several weeks were spent drawing up guidelines for the organization as well as a mission statement and member profile. Since the web address for incubator.com was already taken, the search for a new name began. After several long nights of discussion and much consternation, candidates like "Inforum" and "Stimula" were bested by "Round Zero," a reference to the seed stage of a company prior to round one financing. With much celebration and generous support from legal firm Brobeck, Phleger, and Harrison, Round Zero was incorporated in September of 1997.

By then Round Zero had outgrown Il Fornaio, and the monthly events were switched to a private room at the Stanford Park Hotel. By virtue of the new venue, it became necessary to build a more professional structure for the events. Events were now planned to incorporate a social hour followed by dinner at a round table of five randomly seated attendees - a structure that attempted to replicate the initial structure of Table One.

A few months after the switch to Stanford Park Hotel, Table One refined the format of events. The topic of the month would be centered on a Round Zero "blurb" - original content written by the group for the group. Attendees would be expected to review the content blurb, read a few related articles, and arrive at the meeting ready to actively participate. Each table would produce a few high points of discussion that would be collected by facilitators, aggregated, and formulated into a Key Learnings report for the membership.

Based on the success of the new structure, Round Zero broadened its purpose to include both the exchange of entrepreneurial experiences (its traditional focus) and the discussion of technology trends.

Former Table One Members

Josh Becker, Ben Fuller, Ron Rappaport, Jared Slosberg, Leonard Speiser, Dan Sroka

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