Get the Information You Need to Raise Venture Capital
Join Hyde Park Angels at 1871 on Wednesday, June 8 from 6:00 pm — 8:00 pm to learn from the seasoned entrepreneurs and investors behind heading up the Midwest’s biggest startups and venture firms, including Avant, CME Ventures, Drive Capital, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and Rithmio. Hear how these Chicago tech heavyweights worked together to raise capital rounds that ended in success for founders and investors alike.
Description: We are pulling back the curtain on the investment cycle to teach you the in’s and out’s of raising a round. Hear from successful entrepreneurs and investors who have seen every kind of early-stage investment to learn:
· The differences between funding stages (seed, Series A, etc.)
· What are the key deal points to negotiate
· How convertible debt stacks up against equity
· Who the right investors are and how to find them
· The timeline for the investment cycle
· How to “read” a venture capitalist
· The mechanics of closing a round (deal leads, legal best practices, board seats, etc.)
Panelists:
Al Goldstein, CEO of Avant
Al Goldstein serves as the Chief Executive Officer at Avant Credit Corporation and also served as its Executive Chairman. He is the Founding Partner of Pangea Equity Partners. Previously, he served as the President of Internet Services Division of Cash America International Inc., from August 16, 2007 to October 1, 2008 and was responsible for its Internet based operations and the services that directly support these operations. He was formerly Director at Enova International Inc. and served as a Director of Cash America International Inc., from April 2009 to May 23, 2013. He was Named ’40 under 40’ by Chicago Business Magazine and holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Illinois in 2002.
Rumi Morales, Executive Director, CME Ventures
Rumi Morales is executive director of the CME Group’s Strategic Investment, which takes minority stakes in emerging technology companies. She joined CME in 2010 working in the futures company’s international corporate development and finance division, where she managed global business partnerships.
She is a co-founder and board member of CME’s Women’s Initiative Network.
Before joining CME, Morales was a vice president at Goldman Sachs in New York and Hong Kong and a principal at private investment firms in New York, London and Kuala Lumpur. Morales graduated from Wellesley College and received her MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business.
Nick Solaro, Partner, Drive Capital
Nick Solaro is a venture capitalist, mobile industry executive, and entrepreneur. Nick is currently a partner at Drive Capital, a technology venture capital firm. Prior to Drive, Nick helped lead global Android business development at Google. He managed Android’s strategic silicon, OEM, and mobile carrier partnerships globally. Nick co-founded Android Auto and built the Open Automotive Alliance from the ground up.
Before Google, Nick was co-founder of PetWave.com, an online veterinary health start up based in San Francisco. He was also an investor at Technology Crossover Ventures and an Equity Research Analyst at Goldman Sachs where he covered large cap enterprise technology companies including Apple, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, EMC, Sun, and Dell.
Guy Turner, Partner, Hyde Park Venture Partners
Guy Turner is a big fan of fast growth, entrepreneurs who know how to make that happen and helping them as much as possible. He blogs on topics venture and startup at vcwithme.co. Guy co-founded Hyde Park Venture Partners in 2011 from Boston Consulting Group where he focused on corporate strategy across a variety of industries; he started his investing career as an Associate and then actively investing Member of Hyde Park Angels in 2009. Guy has led investments in numerous B2B software companies and is a Board Member at Geofeedia, InContext Solutions and Persio; he is also a Board Observer at TempoIQ and manages HPVP’s investments in Farmlogs, Zipnosis and Stratos Card.
Guy spent his early career as a mechanical engineer with Raytheon and General Electric and holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Chicago Booth. Guy is also a Siebel Scholar, Kauffman Fellow and a co-inventor on two US Patents.
Adam Tilton, Co-Founder & CEO, Rithmio
Adam Tilton, mechanical science and engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois, has five years of experience in the development of algorithms and software tools for signal processing and control applications. Tilton has a strong background in computer science and has been the driving force behind Rithmio. In 2014, Tilton won the Cozad New Venture Competition and was an Illinois Innovation Prize finalist. Tilton put his Ph.D on hold to run Rithmio full-time as the co-founder and CEO.