The Preccelerator’s Managing Director, Leonard Lanzi, recently joined host Christine Perakis on the “Career Invincibility” podcast. In his featured episode, Len spoke about his professional journey and challenges to becoming the director amidst the pandemic in 2020. He also shares the lessons he learned from his diverse experience in previous roles across various industries.
One key piece of advice Len has followed in his own career and recommends in the workshops he facilitates is capitalizing on your natural network. “Use the network that is close to you,” he said, “Start with family and close friends and branch out. If you went to a university use your alumni association. If you were in clubs or sports, or a fraternity or sorority, use that network to expand.”
SA&M Preccelerator Managing Director Len Lanzi was featured on Startup xyz’s video series, Startup 2.0. In the interview, conducted by Lucas Pols, Len covered topics ranging from the Preccelerator’s investment thesis, mistakes that Len sees commonly in startups, setting realistic expectations, raising a friends & family round, and startup budgeting.
About Startup 2.0
Startup 2.0 is a video series that will feature a new venture capital firm or seasoned entrepreneur covering subjects from raising capital to growth, and everything in between! Join Spark xyz and follow their social channels to stay up-to-date on our newest installments.
About Len Leonard M. Lanzi has over 30 years of organization management and fund development experience. Len has been the Managing Director of the Preccelerator since 2019. He has been serving as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Venture Association since 2007. In his capacity at LAVA, Len works with the LAVA board of directors to direct the strategic plan and organize educational and informational programs within the venture-funded startup ecosystem in the greater Los Angeles region.
Len brings a well-rounded knowledge from such diverse human service organizations as the Community Kitchen of Santa Barbara, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Junior Achievement of Southern California, and the Boy Scouts of America.
About SA&M Preccelerator
The Preccelerator® Program is an accelerator for early-stage startups offered to select companies out of the Santa Monica office of Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP that provides initial capital, sophisticated legal services, interim office space, mentorship, a targeted curriculum, investment strategy counseling and access to a strategic perks portfolio with the objective of helping you grow your idea from business concept to funded startup.
SA&M Preccelerator Program Managing Director, Len Lanzi, and Stubbs Alderton & Markiles’ Partner Kevin DeBré, will be featured at UCLA’s First Friday event on February 7th at 9AM. They will be discussing “Building Companies and the Community: The Preccelerator.” First Friday is an early morning event that provides an opportunity for the campus and local communities to network.
To find out more about the event and to register:
About Len Lanzi
Leonard M. Lanzi has over 30 years of organization management and fund development experience. He has been serving as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Venture Association since 2007. In his capacity at LAVA, Len works with the LAVA board of directors to direct the strategic plan and organize educational and informational programs within the venture-funded startup ecosystem in the greater Los Angeles region.
Len brings a well-rounded knowledge from such diverse human service organizations as the Community Kitchen of Santa Barbara, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Junior Achievement of Southern California and the Boy Scouts of America. To view Len’s full bio, visit here.
About the Kevin DeBré: Kevin leads the Intellectual Property and Technology Transactions Practice at Stubbs Alderton and Markiles, LLP, where he advises entrepreneurs and companies that use intellectual property to build their businesses. Kevin is the personal business attorney for several UCLA faculty members and represents a number of UCLA-founded companies in licensing intellectual property created on campus. He has been recognized by his peers for excellence in his practice, having been selected for Southern California Super Lawyers® for seven years. Kevin is a frequent guest lecturer in undergraduate and graduate-level entrepreneurship courses at UCLA and other universities. To view Kevin’s full bio, visit here.
About First Friday: First Friday is an early morning event that provides an opportunity for the campus and local communities to network. The group encourages you to kick off your day with exciting presentations on topics relevant to intellectual property and entrepreneurship at UCLA. To learn more about First Friday and more of UCLA’s Technology Development Group, click here.
Len Lanzi, former Executive Director of the Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA) Joins Preccelerator team as Managing Director, effective January 1, 2020.
LOS ANGELES, Calif., January 13, 2020 – The Preccelerator® Program, a Santa Monica, California-based early-stage startup accelerator focused on technology and digital media startup companies, announced today that it has hired Len Lanzi, former Executive Director of the Los Angeles Venture Association, as its new Managing Director. The addition of Mr. Lanzi to the Preccelerator team will broaden the network and continue to strengthen its resources and commitment to the Southern California tech community that it has become well known for.
Len said the following in connection with his new opportunity, “I am looking forward to this new challenge as the Managing Director of the Stubbs Alderton and Markiles’ Preccelerator® Program. My world got smaller and bigger at the same time. I will be focusing on specific startups that are part of the Preccelerator® and my contacts and friends remain as relevant or more so in this new role.”
In 2018, Stubbs Alderton & Markiles expanded the Preccelerator office into a new space located at 1316 3rd Street Promenade, which both increased the co-working space for the in-house companies and increased the event space. That same year, the Preccelerator and Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP announced a change in the program, adding an investment of $50,000 into Preccelerator cohort companies.
In 2012 Stubbs Alderton & Markiles launched the first-of-its-kind Preccelerator® Program to provide select start-ups with co-working space, mentorship, sophisticated legal services, curriculum and access to a strategic perks portfolio with the objective of helping grow a founder’s idea from business concept to a funded company. Over the past seven years, 46 diverse companies have graduated the Program, and most have received funding, with over $16M invested in Preccelerator companies in the aggregate.
Scott Alderton, Managing Partner of Stubbs Alderton & Markiles and Chairman of the Preccelerator commented, “I have known Len for nearly 15 years, and worked alongside him on the Board of LAVA as he transformed that organization into the significant force within the technology ecosystem that it is today. The Preccelerator has reached an inflection point where it is now much more than a project of the law firm, it is a business of its own, and a meaningful contributor to the Southern California tech community. When we decided to hire a dedicated leader for the Preccelerator, I couldn’t think of any greater candidate for Managing Director than Len. He was our first and only choice for the job, and we are thrilled to be working with him.”
About Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP
Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP is a Southern California-based business law firm with robust corporate, public securities, mergers and acquisitions, entertainment, intellectual property and business litigation practice groups focusing on the representation of, among others, venture-backed emerging growth companies, middle-market public companies, large technology companies, entertainment, and digital media companies, investors, venture capital funds, investment bankers and underwriters. The firm’s clients represent a broad range of industries with a concentration in the technology, entertainment, videogame, apparel, and medical device sectors. The firm’s mission is to provide technically excellent legal services in a consistent, highly-responsive and service-oriented manner with an entrepreneurial and practical business perspective. These principles are the hallmarks of the firm. For more information, visit https://stubbsalderton.com.
About the Preccelerator® Program
The Preccelerator® is a novel platform offered to select start-up companies out of
the Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP Santa Monica office that provides interim office space, sophisticated legal services, education, networking, mentorship and $500,000 in usable perks from Google Cloud for Startups, Amazon Web Services, and HubSpot among others, with the objective of helping grow a founder’s idea from business concept to funded startup. The program also retains more than 100 active strategic mentors providing free office hours and discounted services, and provides over 75-plus educational workshops and networking events each year. The Program expanded in 2017 to accept a greater number of companies in more formalized classes, depending upon where the companies are in their evolutionary growth and expanded benefits to accepted companies. To view Len’s full bio visit here. To apply to the Preccelerator, visit www.preccelerator.com/application.
On behalf of Stubbs Alderton & Markiles thank you to everyone who attended the "Networking for Capital" event with Executive Director of LAVA, Len Lanzi. To those that were unable to make it, the full video from the event can be viewed below.
For more about the Preccelerator® Program or to subscribe to our mailing list for events, contact Heidi Hubbeling, COO at (310) 746-9803 or
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Len Lanzi, former Executive Director of the Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA) Joins Preccelerator team as Managing Director, effective January 1, 2020.