The second installment of CSQ’s 2015 Inside the C-Suite series was co-hosted by Cornerstone OnDemand President and CEO Adam Miller at his corporate offices in Santa Monica. With these three floors occupying the fourth, fifth, and sixth levels of The Water Garden building (the fourth floor equipped with a candy store, the fifth an arcade gaming room, and the sixth a yoga, meditation, and kickboxing room), Cornerstone OnDemand curated a choice setting for the evening – the top floor indoor/outdoor balcony overlooking Santa Monica.

What started off as a networking cocktail event over drinks and hors d’oeuvres turned into an intimate night of storytelling from some of Los Angeles’ tech and innovative power players in the room while startup mentors took to the stage to discuss strategies and challenges of creating a new business. As Adam was scheduled to arrive at LAX from a meeting with Seattle-base client Microsoft earlier that day, the room was buzzing with anticipation of his arrival.

Several in attendance addressed the crowd with stories of leadership and personal entrepreneurial journeys.

Chirag Shah, senior director, corporate development and strategic planning at Cornerstone, took part with Adam in the company’s IPO in 2011. Chirag gave an overview of the Cornerstone Innovation Fund, including the Cornerstone Accelerator, and how the company is investing in the next generation of LA tech. Nathan Doctor, CEO, Codewars, shared his background on the startup that is part of the Cornerstone Accelerator and encourages programmers to achieve code mastery through challenge. Reed Shaffner, founder and co-CEO, Workpop, represented another startup participating in the Cornerstone Accelerator. Sean Kelly, co-founder and CEO, HUMAN Healthy Vending, told the story of why he went from studying to be a surgeon to founding a company driven to promote on-the-go healthiness through vending machines. Robin Richards (chairman and CEO, CareerArc and CEO, Internships.com) and Yair Riemer (CMO, CareerArc) offered their shared perspective on CareerArc’s success, and Robin also shed light on his rewarding serial entrepreneurial background.

As the evening reached its finale, Adam arrived from LAX right on cue and took the stage to share detail on his own entrepreneurial journey, including why he decided to launch a tech startup in LA in the late 1990s, the challenges and opportunities this created, and his thoughts on the state of LA’s tech ecosystem.

Title Sponsor City National Bank
Photographers Dennis Coronel, Kamehana Lee
Event Contact Elizabeth Gravier, elizabeth@138.68.244.158