Blank @ Boston – Raising Your First Round of Capital
We’re excited to be at Babson’s Boston for our next event, Raising Your First Round of Capital! Venture Capital firms are raising new funds at alarming rates and the media makes it seem like it is a breeze for early stage start ups to raise millions of dollars at unicorn valuations. Uber… SnapChat… AirBnB… oh my! But how easy is it?
Join us and the Boston startup community on Thursday, October 13 as we explore the ins and outs of the fundraising process. During this intimate panel featuring experienced investors and entrepreneurs we will give you the inside scoop on what it really takes to raise capital for your startup. From the initial pitch to the final board meeting to the long awaited term sheet, you will leave the event with a clear outline (and perhaps some funny stories) of how to raise capital.
The panel will be moderated by Shabnam Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, KleverKids. Panelists include:
Jamie Goldstein – Founder, Pillar
Jamie is the Founder of Pillar, a new venture capital firm that is a collaboration with 16 of Boston’s most important tech company CEOs including TripAdvisor, DraftKings, Wayfair, Acquia, Demandware, Rapid7 and Actifio. He served as General Partner at North Bridge Venture Partners where he led investments at Actifio, Plexxi, Layer3TV, O3B Networks, AppIQ and Cognio. He was a co-founder of PureSpeech, a speech recognition and natural language company acquired by Voice Control Systems and subsequently sold to Nuance. Jamie was President of the Board of the New England Venture Capital Association, sits on the Visiting Committee of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at MIT and is Vice Chairman of Match Education. He received his BS at MIT in Electrical Engineering and MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
Greg Gomer – Co-founder, VENTUREAPP
Greg is a cofounder of VENTUREAPP – an on demand support platform for startups. Previously he was a cofounder at Streetwise Media, a digital media and events company that owns and operates online tech publications in Austin, Boston, Chicago and DC. In 2012, Streetwise produced the fastest growing online news properties in Boston – BostInno, and Washington DC. The company was acquired by American City Business Journals, a subsidiary of Advance Publications which owns Conde Nast, Reddit and other media holdings. Prior to Streetwise, Greg worked as a systems analyst at Fidelity Investments and is a graduate of Babson College with majors in entrepreneurship and information technology. He is heavily involved in the startup community and is a current advisor to VC firm Flybridge Capital.
Justin Robinson – Co-Founder & VP, Expansion, Drizly
Justin Robinson is the Vice President of Expansion and co-founder of Drizly. He and Nick Rellas founded Drizly in 2012 and the pair rapidly grew their business to become the leading technology company transforming the way consumers buy alcohol online. His role at Drizly has evolved from the first delivery driver to running market expansion around North America. Justin was responsible for launching the first 20 markets in the US and Canada and is now focused on strategic initiatives for the company, finding ways to leverage technology to make the beverage alcohol industry smarter and more efficient. An Arizona native, Justin holds a B.S. in Finance from Boston College and lives in Boston, Massachusetts. You’ll find him drinking Negra Modelo or Ron Zacapa.
See you at Babson’s Boston campus on Thursday, October 13! Registration starts at 5:30pm, event starts at 6pm.