Venture Capital and how to find, approach and work with VC firms

Kirk Westbrook of International Venture Fund/Invencor will be on the investor panel that will help evaluate the company pitches at the 23rd Annual Investors Choice® Venture Capital Conference in Salt Lake City.

D. Kirk B. Westbrook is a co-founder and Managing Director of International Venture Fund (IVF). IVF is a Silicon Valley based venture fund focused on seed and early stage emerging growth investment opportunities in the geographic areas of Hawaii, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, as well as Silicon Valley. Mr. Westbrook is also the President and Chief Financial Officer of invencor, inc., which manages IVF and also assumed management of an existing seed fund associated with incubators in the State of Arizona in 1997, the Arizona Technology Venture Fund (ATVF). ATVF was fully liquidated in 2005. Mr. Westbrook has or previously has held board seats on four of IVF’s portfolio companies.

Mr. Westbrook has been involved with finance for approximately 20 years. In 1989, he accepted a position with Silicon Valley Bank, a nationally recognized debt and equity provider which specializes in serving early stage, pre-profit technology companies, most of which are venture backed. While at Silicon Valley, Mr. Westbrook worked in all of the lending areas of the Bank, as well as managed an extensive portfolio for several years in the Bank’s workout group. His last position was as Vice President in the Bank's National Division, then one of the fastest growing divisions within the Bank, where he actively developed client and venture capital relationships in Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. He departed his post in April 1997 to form invencor, inc. In addition to his management and investment activity with IVF, Mr. Westbrook has also been involved with venture conferences in the states of Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Texas and Utah and is on the board of the non-profit Hawaii Venture Capital Association and a member of the executive committee of HiBEAM, a Hawaii based business accelerator. Mr. Westbrook is a graduate of San Jose State University.