What Founder.University Students Learned in July 2017 Class:

Day 1

Founder Pitches & Perfecting your Presentation

Moderator: Jason Calacanis

Founder University will kick off with each founder getting 2 minutes to pitch their startup to the panel, then receiving feedback for making it better. 

Go to Market Strategy & Growth

Speaker: Casey Winters, Greylock Partners

Learn what it really takes to scale your company, and what techniques work best for sales and growth.

LUNCH
 

Eliminating Dealbreakers

Speaker: Clara Brenner, Urban Innovation Fund

Avoid common pitfalls of the fundraising process. Learn how to deal with setbacks and how to move forward through tough times. Be knowledgeable about how a down round or a messy cap table could impact you, and what to do about it to be prepared. 

Team & Culture

Speaker: David HasselL & Shane Metcalf, 15Five

How to build a strong, ethical company culture and amazing team. Learn how to build the foundation for mission, values and leadership.

Key Metrics & Assumptions in prep for VC meetings

Speaker: Andrew Farah from Density

Before spending time, energy and money on fundraising, make sure you are in a strong spot to do so. What assumptions are you making about your business, and how will you get there? Walk through the real metrics of companies that have raised their Series A, as well as some examples of companies who failed to do so.

5 keys to negotiating a term sheeT & Panel Discussion

WSGR’s Rachel Proffitt with Shanna Tellerman of Modsy, Vanessa Larco of NEA & Jessica Scorpio, co-founder Getaround 

This discussion covers the most important elements of a Series A term sheet to prepare founders for the negotiation phase.

DAY 2
 

Proactive M&A & M&A Panel Discussion

Speaker: Rishi Garg, Mayfield
Panel: Ilene Chau, JP Morgan, Donna Petkanics, WSGR & Rishi Garg, Mayfield Fund

We’ll start with laying out the basics around M&A. For many founders - even seasoned, serial founders - M&A is a black box process. We’ll uncover what you need to know about M&A. Then, move into a Panel discussion around M&A and what founders should expect along the journey.

Founder Pitches & Perfecting your Presentation

Moderator: Jason Calacanis

Founder University will kick off with each founder getting 2 minutes to pitch their startup to the panel, then receiving feedback for making it better. 

LUNCH

Metrics & Operating plans

Speaker: Mar Hershenson, Pear.vc

The Art of the Pitch

Speaker: Aaron Holm, Blokable

Review some near perfect pitch decks. What makes the deck and story so compelling? Learn in this session how to perfect your story and put together the best deck possible to gain interest.

Optimizing Sales Pipeline & Customer Stories

Whitney Sales, The Sales Method

Who qualifies in ‘17?

Speaker: Adam Nelson, Social Capital

How do you go from an angel or seed round (or maybe even bootstrapping) to a Series A? Learn about where your business needs to be before considering a Series A, and the metrics needed to pull it off.