Our mission at Grid110 is to connect you with the resources and connections you need to succeed. Join us for Funding Pathways, a monthly event series that connects startups with industry leaders who share their knowledge on various financing methods. Whether you are self-funding your business or looking to chase down investment funding from angel investors or venture capitalists, join us to explore various avenues for how founders and startups can find the financial resources required to grow their businesses.
This month's speakers:
Najva Sol is currently Head of Product + Marketing at Calm Company Fund, where she's leading the charge on building, launching, and iterating products that align with the mission of supporting sustainable, profitable tech-enabled founders. At Calm Fund, her work includes overseeing Founder Summit, an invite-only community of 300+ founders, and developing Trailhead, a new way to apply for funding at your own pace.
Elianne Rodriguez is a serial entrepreneur with 15 years of experience in small businesses, education and tech. Elianne believes entrepreneurship and technology are great disruptors to build accessible and equitable ecosystems. Elianne fosters community and designs culturally competent programming to connect diverse talent to opportunities that reflect the intersectionality of Los Angeles across racial, socioeconomic, gender, education, sexuality, and immigration status. Elianne is currently LEEAF's Technical Assistance Director at CalStateLA, a Managing Partner at LIST Ventures and a Strategic Advisor for the LA SBDC Network where she supports tech startups, small businesses and community projects at large.
Sherman Williams is an early-stage venture investor at AIN Ventures a seed-stage focused venture fund. His investment areas include dual-use technology and veteran-led startups. Sherman is also the VC-in-Residence at Techstars LA. Prior to becoming an early-stage investor, Sherman gathered six years of financial transaction experience as a Healthcare Technology M&A Investment Banker. Sherman started his career as a Naval Intelligence Officer. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy.