WHO: LA-based women and non-binary founders looking to raise capital in 2023
WHAT: Our most popular startup readiness program, now back IRL!
WHY: Workshops, network, and 1-1 mentorship with top VCs
WHERE: Biosciences LA
WHEN: 1/26/23 12:00 pm
COST: Free thanks to our partners at Orrick
GRAB A SPOT: Register here.
Full details
We’re thrilled to bring our most impactful program for women founders to LA next month! More than 300 founders have participated in Graham & Walker Founder Days in the past 5 years, and they’ve collectively gone on to raise upwards of $100 million.
Founder Day is a half day of high-impact, high-substance programming designed to help early-stage founders* meaningfully move their businesses forward.
You’ll get fundraising best practices – updated for this environment – with G&W’s Fundraising Masterclass, led by our founder and Managing Director, Leslie Feinzaig.
Our partners at Orrick will lead a discussion entitled: Structure your Startup for Success: A Legal Perspective followed by 1:1 opportunities with lawyers from Orrick’s team.
Select founders will be invited to participate in office hours, where they’ll meet 1-1 with an outstanding slate of mentors – investors, legal experts, technical mentors, marketing powerhouses and more. Learn more about the mentors here.
Register for G&W LA Founder Day here
***Register by January 20th to allow for the best matching opportunity for mentor 1:1s***
There are limited seats, and to ensure a good experience for all, please only register if you are sure to attend. This event is for female founders of venture-scalable companies. If you do not meet these criteria, but you are interested in connecting with our G&W community, we encourage you to join us for our happy hour and VC & founder panel! RSVP here
When: Thursday, January 26th
Location: BioscienceLA
Founder Day: 12-4 pm
Note: light snacks and coffee will be provided.
$100 free thanks to the generous support of our partners at Orrick
Happy Hour and VC & Founder Panel: 4-7 pm
Note: appetizers and beverages will be provided
* By registering for Founder Day, you will automatically be able to attend the happy hour and VC & founder panel and do not need to register for G&W Women in Startups, which will be open to the public.
– Team G&W
Mentors
Andrew Kahn, Head of Crush Ventures
Leen Kawas, Managing General Partner, Propel Bio Partners
Naseem Sayani, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Emmeline Ventures
Odile Roujol, Founding Partner, Fab Co-Creation Studio Ventures
Rob Ryan, Relationship Capitalist/Founder, GrowthHax
Robyn Ward, CEO, FounderForward
Ban Kawas, Senior Research Scientist, Reinforcement Learning, Meta
Britt Danneman, Partner, Alpha Edison
Jocelyn Florence, Partner, Parallel Brands
Learn more about the mentors here
About our speakers:
Leslie Feinzaig is the founder and Managing Director of Graham & Walker, an early stage venture capital fund and community on a mission to reshape the Nasdaq by investing in tech companies founded and led by women. In 5 years, she turned a 25-person Facebook group into the most prominent and tightly engaged community for women-founded startups and aligned investors in America, and raised a venture capital fund to invest in (and with) the best of them. Born and raised in Costa Rica, Leslie was named one of Forbes Magazine’s Most Powerful Women from Central America, Worth Magazine’s Worthy 100, Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40, and Seattle Magazine’s Most Influential People. Leslie serves on the Boards of the Washington Technology Industry Association, the Girl Scouts of Western Washington, and the HBS Equity and Entrepreneurship Initiative Alumni Advisory Board. She has a Bachelor’s degree from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a contributing writer for Fortune, Fast Company, and Techcrunch.
Sarah Schaedler is a partner in the San Francisco office and global co-chair of the Technology Transactions Group at Orrick. Sarah’s practice focuses on structuring and negotiating the intellectual property aspects of complex corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, business divestitures and commercial transactions where software and technology are the principal assets. Sarah routinely advises on carve-outs and business separation transactions and helps clients with structuring and implementing their intellectual property and technology separation roadmap, and helps investors and companies in financings and minority investments. Sarah has counseled several companies in their preparation for an investment or acquisition and understands the issues a buyer is focused on in the context of intellectual property matters. She regularly helps companies implement remediation steps around their intellectual property assets to help them to a successful closing.
Caroline Cherkassky is a partner with Orrick’s global Technology Companies Group. She advises emerging and high growth companies throughout their lifecycle, as well as venture funds and other investors, across a variety of industries. Her practice focuses on venture financings and corporate governance matters, and the general day-to-day legal needs of startups. She has also counseled companies on M&A, securities and technology transactions matters. Caroline is based in the Santa Monica office and is deeply involved in the LA venture ecosystem, serving as a board member and president of the Los Angeles Venture Association.
Women in Startups Panelists
Anna Barber, Partner, M13 Venture Fund
Beatriz Acevedo, CEO + Co-Founder, SUMA Wealth
Clara Siegel, CEO, Dance Church
Robyn Ward, CEO, FounderForward
Zhenni Liu, Partner, MaC Venture Capital
Grace Kangdani, Senior Vice President, Bank of America’s Technology Industry Group (Moderator)
Learn more about our speakers here
Thank you to our partners at Orrick for making this event possible.
Orrick is a tech-focused, full-service law firm passionate about guiding the success of early ventures. Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is longstanding. We exceed large law firm averages at the partner and associate levels, in every category. Through our extensive client portfolio, deal volume, and relationships in the tech and venture ecosystem, we provide commercial and legal insight to each client’s strategy. We have industry-leading experience advising companies across the corporate lifecycle, representing more than 3,000 emerging tech companies on venture financings, commercial agreements and strategic transactions, IP, M&A, and more. With this breadth, we have the skill set and bench strength to support tech companies across the world.
