Venture with Grace

Alda Leu Dennis is the Managing Partner at Hawktail VC and a Board Partner at Initialized Capital. She has an extensive background in venture capital, previously serving as General Counsel at Founders Fund and as Managing Partner at 137 Ventures. Alda also contributes her expertise as a board member to several innovative companies, including The Mom Project, HomeVision, A-Frame Brands, SkySelect, and Landed. - Building and Managing a Thriving Venture Capital Fund - Strategies for Identifying and Investing in Market-Leading Companies - The Impact of Board Members on Startups #VentureCapital #VCfund #StartupInvesting #Entrepreneurship #Innovation

Danielle Strachman is the Founder and General Partner of 1517 Fund, a venture firm that offers grant, pre-seed, and seed funding to technology startups. With a focus on makers, hackers, and scientists operating outside traditional educational tracks, 1517 Fund champions alternative paths to innovation, encouraging individuals to pursue their passions and learn through hands-on creation of new technologies. Additionally, Danielle was a Founding Team Member and Program Director for the Thiel Fellowship. Joining just a month after the program's inception, she played a crucial role in shaping the fellowship from a nascent idea into a globally recognized initiative that challenges conventional views on education and advances technical innovation. During her tenure, she not only led the design and operations of the Thiel Fellowship but also contributed significantly to building the Thiel Foundation Summit Community, a network of over 1,000 young visionaries. Her work with the Thiel Fellowship and beyond has made significant impacts on supporting young innovators in realizing their entrepreneurial and technological potential. - Supporting Early-Stage Startups - Lessons from the Thiel Fellowship - Opportunities and Challenges of Non-traditional Education Paths #DeepTech #VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #InnovationInEducation #StartupFunding

Kyle Wong is currently the CEO of StartX and was previously the founder & CEO of Pixlee, a UGC and Influencer Marketing company that powers most of the customer stories seen during online shopping. He has worked with some of the world's largest brands, helping them amplify their customer stories and rethink their social commerce strategies. Under his leadership, Pixlee grew to over 100 employees, generated eight digits in recurring revenue, and raised substantial funding from prominent investors. In 2022, Pixlee was acquired by the tech unicorn Emplifi, where Kyle then served as the Chief Strategy Officer, leading their cross-sell and commerce initiatives. Besides his professional roles, Kyle is an active contributor to Forbes & Adweek, writing on topics like community-driven brands, digital marketing, and entrepreneurship. He also dedicates time to mentoring through the Stanford Startup Accelerator (StartX) and the Adweek Executive Mentorship Program and advises and invests in several VC-backed startups. Outside of work, Kyle is an enthusiastic yet self-proclaimed mediocre triathlete and fantasy football player, proudly recalling the time he won his company's Fantasy League. - The Role of UGC in Driving Startup Success - Challenges and Opportunities in the Startup Ecosystem - Navigating Company Acquisition #StartX #StartupAccelerator #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #TechStartups

Michael Houck is the founder of Megaphone and co-founder of Launch house. Launch House is an early stage venture fund for companies building the New Silicon Valley. It began as a membership club built around IRL coliving residencies in LA, NYC, Tulum, Aspen, Miami, and Lisbon. Topics: - Bootstrapping vs. Venture Capital - Strategies for Effective Social Media Growth - Building a Brand Through Storytelling #PersonalBranding #SocialMediaStrategy #ContentCreation #DigitalMarketing #Entrepreneurship

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts the Fintech Leaders podcast, a weekly newsletter & podcast featuring exclusive interviews with unique leaders reshaping the global financial industry. - Emerging Trends in Fintech - Challenges and Opportunities in Seed-Stage Funding - Cross-Border Investments and Collaborations #Fintech #SeedStageInvesting #FinancialInclusion #DigitalBanking #VentureCapital

Eric is the co-founder and CEO of Revere. Revere provides venture capital data and portfolio management solutions to asset allocators. Before starting Revere, Eric was Head of Institutional Capital at AngelList, the world's largest online venture capital investment platform that supports over $10B in assets and has financed over 190 "unicorn" companies. At AngelList, Eric worked closely with investors to curate early-stage fund and deal opportunities. He also developed systematic and data-driven strategies for institutional investors. As a former institutional allocator, Eric was part of the deployment of over $160 million in venture funds and direct co-investments. Notably, he played a key role in establishing the emerging manager investment programs at Top Tier Capital and Northgate Capital, organizations that collectively have more than $15B in AUM. Eric is an acknowledged thought leader in the VC emerging managers ecosystem. - Venture Capital Data Insights - Trends in Asset Allocation - Fundraising Challenges and Opportunities #VentureCapital #EmergingManagers #VCtrends2024 #GlobalVC #LP

Emila Damjanovic is a Partner focused on Investor Relations at Lead Edge Capital. Lead Edge Capital is a $5 billion growth equity firm investing in software, internet, and tech-enabled businesses globally. The firm has invested in a number of major software and internet companies around the world, including Alibaba Group, Arrive Logistics, Asana, Azul Systems, Bazaarvoice, Benchling, Clearscore, Duo Security, Grafana, GrowthZone, Holistiplan, LeanStaffing, LiveView Technologies, Pacemate, Safesend, Signal Sciences, Tempo, Toast, Wise, and YouSign. Lead Edge has invested in more than 100 companies worldwide and has seen over 60 portfolio companies achieve an exit. One of the main drivers of Lead Edge’s success is its unique investor base, a network of 700+ executives, entrepreneurs, and dealmakers who have built and run some of the world’s most successful companies. In addition to providing flexible capital, Lead Edge leverages this global advisory group to connect portfolio companies with the customers, partners, talent, and advisors needed to accelerate growth. - The Role of Investor Relations in Growth Equity - Cultivating Relationships with a Network of Industry Leaders - Building a Strong Investor Relations Team #InvestorRelations #GrowthEquity #LeadEdgeCapital #VentureCapital #TechInvestments

Shomik is a Partner at boldstart and has over 6 years of venture investing in enterprise software. He’s experienced all the highs and lows of the entrepreneurial journey from IPOs and acquisitions to a failed startup. And is uniquely positioned to help pre-product enterprise startups. Prior to boldstart, Shomik worked as a growth stage investor at Top Tier Capital where he invested in companies like CircleCI, Anaplan, Area 1 Security, and Shape Security. His experience ranges from investment banking, to startups, and finally venture capital. He first interacted with startups doing venture debt and then joined a startup as the first employee. From there, he continued to delve deeper in the world of early stage enterprise software and hasn’t looked back since. - Deep Dive into Enterprise Software Trends - Strategies for Early-Stage Investment - Strategies for Successful Scaling in Enterprise Startups #VentureCapital #EnterpriseSoftware #StartupInvesting #VCInsights #TechTrends

Siqi is the founder and CEO of Runway, an a16z funded startup enabling operators to understand their business without needing a degree in finance. As an operator and founder: Siqi was CEO of Sandbox VR (a16z), VP of Product and Growth at Postmates (acquired by Uber), CEO of Hey, Inc (Google-funded, acquired by Postmates), Head of Product at Zynga (IPO 2011), CEO of Serious Business (funded by Lightspeed, acquired by Zynga) Siqi is an investor in nearly a hundred companies like Clubhouse, Amplitude, Pipe, and Italic. Previously, Siqi worked at NASA JPL, where he was the only person to ever receive a Congressional Space Act award while in school, for his contributions to machine vision technology on the Mars Exploration Rovers. - The Role of Financial Literacy in Startup Success - The Future of Work and Technology - Building and Scaling Startups #StartupLife #VentureCapital #TechInnovation #Entrepreneurship #StartupFunding

Alex Edelson is the Founder and General Partner of Slipstream Investors. Before starting Slipstream, he worked at QED Investors, a top fintech-focused venture capital firm with $4.3 billion in assets under management. Alex joined as Nigel Morris's Chief of Staff and became the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel. He previously worked at a fintech startup and spent seven years practicing law. Alex holds a J.D. and B.A. from the University of Michigan. You can learn more about: 1. How LPs evaluate emerging managers 2. How to build a successful VC fund 3. Portfolio construction, thesis building, and fund strategy #LP #limitedpartner #VC #investor #venturecapital