Agenda
April 20th
Never Too Early for BCV: Breakfast & Networking Event
Invite Only – RSVP Required – RSVP Does Not Guarantee Entry
Audience Choice: What's Your Risk Archetype? How to Turn Risk into Your Startup Superpower @ Roundtable #4
Using our Risk Archetype quiz, founders can and have discovered what kind of risk taker they are, and how that affects everything from fundraising to building a team and critical decisions when growing their business. Founders will leave with a blueprint on how to take their specific Risk Archetype and turn it into their superpower.
Audience Choice: What You Need in a Lead Seed Investor. Spoiler Alert: It's More Than Money @ Roundtable #2
Ishan Sachdev, whose venture capital firm exclusively leads seed rounds, will discuss how founders can find the right lead investor for early funding rounds…and why investor/founder fit matters.
Audience Choice: How Founders Can Prepare for Successful Exits at Any Stage @ Roundtable #1
In this session, F-Prime Capital’s Managing Partner David Jegen, who has experienced 11 different acquisitions from multiple perspectives: as a founder, an investor, and a Board member, will break down the different types of startup acquisitions, what leverage startups have, and the important points to push on that will help maximize success and employee happiness in the long run.
Audience Choice: Assembling the Perfect Founding Team: Insights and Strategies for Non Technical Founders
Building a strong founding team is essential for the success of any startup, and finding the right technical co-founder can be a particularly daunting task for non-technical founders. In this presentation, we will explore the importance of assembling a diverse and well-balanced founding team and share best practices for finding and working with the right technical co-founder. We will also address common challenges that non-technical founders may encounter when building their founding team and offer practical strategies for overcoming them.
Audience Choice: How to Leverage PR to Get in Front of Investors @ Roundtable #4
This session will provide an edtech case study example (from school teacher to Chelsea Clinton & Serena Williams-backed) as well as a “roll-your-sleeves-up” roundtable discussion to help founders better craft their stories and understand how to engage media.
How to Recruit for your Startup @ Roundtable #1
Ideas are important, but your startup’s success ultimately hinges on building a world class team to execute. Founders need to think about building out an employment brand from the early days of the company, which will help drive recruiting. When you should hire an inhouse recruiter and how to leverage & evaluate external recruiting firms? Why recruiting is more like marketing and how to build up your online presence to build up awareness of your company? Creating a best in class interview process for a positive candidate experience and why this matters? And more!
Audience Choice: Navigating Entrepreneurship as an Underrepresented Founder @ Roundtable #3
This interactive discussion is geared towards young founders and underrepresented groups in entrepreneurship. I will create a space for sharing challenges and addressing them as a group. Founders will walk away from this session with new connections with like-minded entrepreneurs who can help one another succeed.
How to Win with Product-led Growth (PLG)
Learn the growth tactics behind today’s top performing startups and how to apply PLG for efficient growth.
How to Raise Outside of SV in a Down Market
Silicon Valley’s funding market tends to be more immune to macroeconomic conditions than elsewhere in the world. So how do you raise outside the Valley bubble? General Catalyst’s Mark Crane has ample experience on both the founder and VC side from all over Europe, as well as a firm understanding of the funding landscape in the northeastern U.S., so he’ll give practical advice on how to stay alive and thrive.
How to Build a Disruptive Brand and What It Means for Your Business
Sharing examples from some of the most disruptive and category defining brands of the last 10 years, hear from brand strategy and design agency Koto on how to leverage the power of branding to win the hearts and minds of your audience. See how businesses that operate at the intersection of product and brand differentiate themselves from the competition, produce memorable product experiences and create lasting cultural impact that translates into business success.
How to Raise a Series A with Headwinds Against You
The Series A round is a massive milestone in a startup’s life, and it can also be one of the most challenging to put together when overall economic conditions aren’t favorable. Kleiner Perkins’ Josh Coyne knows how a big round comes together, having previously invested in Figma, UIPath and Rippling, and he’ll share tips on how to make it happen.
Audience Choice: Extracting the Most Value from Your "Value-Add" Investors
Whether you call it “Platform,” “Portfolio Impact,” or any number of clever euphemisms; it is undeniable that we’re living in the age of value-add VCs. In recent years, many firms have heavily invested in the Platform function to grow the firm’s network and help their investments succeed. Yet, the wide range of team structures and focuses leaves founders struggling to determine how to appropriately engage with Platform — and about what. Amber Quiñones, Head of Platform & Operations at BBG Ventures, will demystify this function for founders and clarify how to best leverage the various forms of VC Platform to assemble an operational SWAT team that will unlock more value from your value-add investors.
Be a Great Mentor, Find a Great Mentor @ Roundtable #2
Most people are convinced mentors are important, but only about a third of us have one. There’s a gap between the mentoring we want, and the mentoring we have, and yet there’s no shortage of mentoring programs, including at many startup accelerators. How do we address the gap? Bring your questions for Lisa Frusztajer from The Capital Network to chat through practical steps you can take today to find and sustain mentorship that will take your goals to the next level.
Audience Choice: How Founders Can Prepare for Successful Exits at Any Stage @ Roundtable #1
In this session, F-Prime Capital’s Managing Partner David Jegen, who has experienced 11 different acquisitions from multiple perspectives: as a founder, an investor, and a Board member, will break down the different types of startup acquisitions, what leverage startups have, and the important points to push on that will help maximize success and employee happiness in the long run.
Early Stage Startups: Employment and Benefits @ Roundtable #3
Join us in discussing challenges that early stage startups face when issuing equity and engaging with employees, consultants and service providers.
Audience Choice: What's Your Risk Archetype? How to Turn Risk into Your Startup Superpower @ Roundtable #4
Using our Risk Archetype quiz, founders can and have discovered what kind of risk taker they are, and how that affects everything from fundraising to building a team and critical decisions when growing their business. Founders will leave with a blueprint on how to take their specific Risk Archetype and turn it into their superpower.
Networking Break
How to Turn Research Into a Business
A lot of startups are incubated in the lab, but how exactly do they make the leap from research project to commercialized business? SOSV General Partner and IndieBio CTO Pae Wu can tell you how, thanks to her experience managing her firm’s portfolio, as well as her multiple roles overseeing high-tech R&D and moonshot development projects.
How to Find Product-Market Fit
Everyone in startupland wants one thing: Product-market fit. Greylock’s David Thacker has experience building and scaling some of the most popular products in the world at Google and LinkedIn, and also has extensive experience building in a downturn, so he’s the perfect person to help you find product-market fit now when you need it most.
Creating an Investor Relations Plan: Best Practices for Early Stage Startups @ Roundtable #2
Learn how to raise non-traditional funding by building strong investor relationships. We’ll explore the basics of investor relations and how it’s different from PR, the different types of investors, and how to communicate with each one effectively. You’ll also learn how to determine if your startup qualifies as an impact investment and how to tell your company story to attract impact investors.
Audience Choice: How to Leverage PR to Get in Front of Investors @ Roundtable #3
This session will provide an edtech case study example (from school teacher to Chelsea Clinton & Serena Williams-backed) as well as a “roll-your-sleeves-up” roundtable discussion to help founders better craft their stories and understand how to engage media.
Lessons Learned from Silicon Valley
In this session, hear from veteran early-stage investor Ajay Agarwal, who has partnered with software founders at the earliest stages and worked with them on their journeys from 0 to 100s of millions in ARR. Having lived and worked in Silicon Valley and been an investor in many scaled software companies such as Sendgrid, Clari, Gainsight, FourKites, 6Sense, and Bloomreach, Ajay will share some of the lessons learned from those experiences and how they can be applied to younger companies.
Networking Break
Audience Choice: What You Need in a Lead Seed Investor. Spoiler Alert: It's More Than Money @ Roundtable #2
Ishan Sachdev, whose venture capital firm exclusively leads seed rounds, will discuss how founders can find the right lead investor for early funding rounds…and why investor/founder fit matters.
Audience Choice: Creating a Successful Pilot Program — How to Prove Product Value and Win your N’th Customer
An excellent pilot program eliminates initial barriers to customer growth, like license costs and change management. Creating an ideal pilot (i) engages customers in the crucial introductory phase that makes success and future partnership possible, (ii) builds confidence and rapport with decision-makers, and (iii) delivers financial proof-of-concept. In his presentation, Ned will describe how to create and deliver a pilot program that can grow your technology business.
How to Recruit for your Startup @ Roundtable #1
Ideas are important, but your startup’s success ultimately hinges on building a world class team to execute. Founders need to think about building out an employment brand from the early days of the company, which will help drive recruiting. When you should hire an inhouse recruiter and how to leverage & evaluate external recruiting firms? Why recruiting is more like marketing and how to build up your online presence to build up awareness of your company? Creating a best in class interview process for a positive candidate experience and why this matters? And more!
Audience Choice: Navigating Entrepreneurship as an Underrepresented Founder @ Roundtable #3
This interactive discussion is geared towards young founders and underrepresented groups in entrepreneurship. I will create a space for sharing challenges and addressing them as a group. Founders will walk away from this session with new connections with like-minded entrepreneurs who can help one another succeed.
How To Turn Your Startup into a Social Star
From building your audience to creating viral content that moves your business forward, Redpoint’s Josh Machiz and Rashad Assir will tell you how to capitalize on the multiplier effects of genuine online communities. Rashad has experience building his own following, as well as Redpoint’s own TikTok presence, while Josh has helped Redpoint portfolio companies develop their founder and company brands.
How to Tell Your TAM
Dayna Grayson from Construct Capital invests in the rebuilding of the most foundational and broken industries of our economy. Industries such as manufacturing and logistics among others that formed in an analog world have been neglected by advanced technology. Dayna will talk about how, beyond the idea, founders can pitch investors on their TAM, including how they will wedge into the market and how they will eventually disrupt it.
Audience Choice: What a Unicorn Knows: Set Your Company Up for Success by Leveraging Lean at the Earliest Stages
The most successful startups have one thing in common: they set themselves up for large-scale operational success at the earliest stages, some before even having a product. But how can founders look that far ahead, in a turbulent market, and predict their future business model? The answer is SCALE – a five-principle Lean framework that enables any company to accelerate its ability to grow. Survival of the leanest requires hopeful unicorns to examine, identify and remove the various forms of waste impeding the free flow of value to customers, none of which involve layoffs or knee-jerk cost-cutting. In this session, Pablo will draw on his 25 years as an operator to explain how early-stage startups should leverage Lean Principles to set themselves up for success.
Finding a Founder-Friendly Investor: Tips for Early Stage Startups
The goal of the session is to help founders find an investor who is not only willing to provide funding but also has the expertise and resources to help them grow and succeed. They will gain insights into what qualities and characteristics to look for in an investor, such as their track record of working with startups and their willingness to provide mentorship and guidance.
The Ins and Outs of Seed Funding @ Roundtable #1
Join us in discussing challenges the different types of early stage fundings, including convertible notes, Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) and Series Seed financing rounds.
Access to Capital in an Unprecedented Market
Building a startup during periods of economic uncertainty can pose difficulty in access to funding. How can founders evaluate the potential for market disruption, and what strategies can be used to identify opportunities for growth and innovation? Join our distinguished speakers from Capital Connect by J.P. Morgan and Latham & Watkins as they bring their institutional knowledge and broad perspectives to discuss key takeaways for entrepreneurs at every stage in their fundraising journey.
Where Unicorn Ideas Come From
Good startup ideas have patterns, and 90% of ideas that James Currier of NFX sees at the pre-seed/seed stage are not going to lead to large exits. From his experience as a VC as well as a five-time founder, he can explain how to recognize platform shifts and capitalize when something is newly possible; how to identify fast-moving markets where TAM is not large, but increasing; how to de-risk your idea, and much more.
Creating an Investor Relations Plan: Best Practices for Early Stage Startups @ Roundtable #1
Learn how to raise non-traditional funding by building strong investor relationships. We’ll explore the basics of investor relations and how it’s different from PR, the different types of investors, and how to communicate with each one effectively. You’ll also learn how to determine if your startup qualifies as an impact investment and how to tell your company story to attract impact investors.
Networking Break
State of the Northeast Seed Market
As Managing Director of Techstars Boston and Iowa, Kerty Levy has a unique vantage point when it comes to the state of entrepreneurship and startup funding in the Northeast. She’ll provide a look at the early stage landscape as it stands, how ongoing economic turmoil could shift the scene, and how you can prepare.
Found podcast Live
Found tells the stories behind the startups, with each episode exploring the peaks and pits of starting a company. In this live recording, hosts Darrell Etherington and Becca Szkutak will be joined by serial-founder-turned-VC Russ Wilcox. Wilcox founded E Ink, which commercialized electronic paper displays and was acquired by Amazon in 2009. Currently he’s a partner at Pillar VC.
How Product Marketing Fundamentals Fuel an Early-Stage GTM Strategy
Building Ventures Partner Heather Widman draws on more than 15 years of experience leading product, marketing, and product marketing functions for tech companies to advise startups on GTM strategy. During this session, Heather will share the product marketing assets and activities that are non-negotiable for early-stage startups and share the best practices for using these as tools for a successful launch.
Where Unicorn Ideas Come From
Fresh off the breakout stage, join this roundtable with your follow-up questions for serial founder and NFX General Partner James Currier.
Bringing Outsider Perspectives to Industries Ruled by Insiders
Join Ginny Miller, a Partner at 1Sharpe Ventures to discuss lessons learned from investing in technology and innovation in real estate, construction, and old school industries.
How to Think About Accelerators and Incubators
Founders often hear they should get involved with an incubator or accelerator, but when is the “right” time for early-stage founders to apply to these types of startup support ecosystems, and how can they best engage if accepted? In this talk, Harvard Innovation Labs Executive Director Matt Segneri will cover everything from the types of incubators and accelerators available to early-stage founders, to what startups should consider before applying, and tips for getting the most out of these ecosystems.
Audience Choice: Why Lack of Community is the Not-So-Secret Enemy of Early-Stage Founders
For early-stage founders focused on building the best product, gathering necessary market data, and gaining the finances they need, it may seem less important to actively and deliberately seek out community. Our more than 4,000 early-stage startups launched provide case studies of how intentional community development can sustain founders working to accomplish big things. So, how should you: 1. Build your startup community from scratch 2. Recognize the value of community in each stage of your company’s growth 3. Know how to identify key players in your field and attract them into your circle 4. Learn how to form relationships with people who will provide value beyond what they ask for in return
So You Think You Can Pitch?
So you think you can pitch? Founders selected to take part in this session will have five minutes to wow a panel of judges including leading VCs, who will then provide feedback.
Your Deck Sucks – The Pitch that Raised $18 Million in the Current Climate
In this session, you will learn a new way to share your message with VCs in order to maintain the story and allow you to retain control of the fundraising process. Jacqueline successfully raised $21 million without ever sending a deck to a single investor. Come hear a unique way to share your vision in your own words that will have investors clamoring to give you money in this economy.
Closing Reception
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