Come for a fun night of learning, mingling, food and swag!  Microsoft Bing will be on-site at Venture Cafe with a special visit from Duane Forrester, Bing's SEO expert and author of two books: How To Make Money With Your Blog and Turn Clicks Into Customers. Shasta Ventures' Jacob Mullins (investors in Mint.com), will kickoff the evening by talking with startups about how to become fundable.

Visit the swag table to obtain your own Bing startup love kit  (neat gadgets inside) and learn about Microsoft Bing's startup program from Bing Senior Program Manager Betsy Aoki.

  5-6 p.m:  Jacob Mullins of Shasta Ventures talks with startups about being fundable

  6-8 p.m:  Mingle with Duane Forrester, Microsoft Bing and Jacob Mullins, Shasta Ventures to ask your questions, gain answers over food and drink

Duane Forrester, Microsoft Bing

Duane Forrester is a Sr. Product Manager with Bing’s Webmaster Program.  

Previously, he was an inhouse SEM running the SEO program for MSN in the US & 

Americas. He's also the founding co-chair of SEMPO's In-House SEM Committee, was 

formerly on the Board of Directors for SEMPO and is the author of two books: How 

To Make Money With Your Blog & Turn Clicks Into Customers.

Duane was a moderator at www.searchengineforums.com and maintains his own blog at 

www.theonlinemarketingguy.com. When writing for Search Engine Land, Duane's main 

focus was on in-house search marketing, both what it took to manage it, and who 

folks were in the industry.

Jacob Mullins, Shasta Ventures

Jacob joined Shasta Ventures in the summer of 2011 bringing with him a wealth of 

experience from many sides of the modern day startup industry. Before Shasta, 

Jacob joined Microsoft to help design and launch the BizSpark program, Microsoft’s 

first initiative tailored specifically for early-stage startups.

As US program lead, his focus was working with all constituents of the startup 

ecosystem, from early-stage incubators, investors, service providers, and more, to 

help align mutual interests for the startup’s success. At the time of his leaving, 

BizSpark had over 35,000 members in over 100 countries. Prior to Microsoft, Jacob 

was the “business guy” at VentureBeat.com leading all non-editorial efforts 

including revenue generation, advertising relationships and strategic partnerships 

with companies like The New York Times and IDG. During college, Jacob co-founded a 

nutraceutical company with significant international operations in South Africa. 

As CEO, he led this startup to become a publicly traded-OTC company that 

manufactured and distributed three product lines: a dietary supplement, gum, and 

energy drink, in retail, online, and direct marketing channels.

Jacob is the co-founder and Chairman of the Beverly Mullins Memorial Scholarship, 

a scholarship at UC Berkeley that offers financial assistance to non-traditional 

aged single parents who are defying all obstacles in the pursuit of education. 

Jacob has a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University.