​Making it to Partner: It's the grand prize in the VC career sweepstakes. It's how you get economic upside in the form of carry, greater influence on closing deals, and street cred on those cold e-mails when reaching out to founders.

​Very few investment professionals make it all the way to partner, but we have a panel of VCs who have done it by getting promoted through the ranks. Hear how they did it and what advice they have for standing out and earning their firms' trust to sit at the big kid table.

​New to VC is an educational series for a group of relatively new investors who want to be exposed to the best venture and startup thinking. Each event is attended by accredited investors and non-partner VCs that skew intentionally, but not exclusively, toward underrepresented backgrounds.

​Speakers:

​Kelley Mak, General Partner at Work-Bench

​Kelley is a General Partner at Work-Bench, where he focuses on investments in areas including security, cloud and developer tools. Prior to Work-Bench, Kelley covered the security market as an industry analyst at Forrester Research. Kelley also leads corporate engagement at Work-Bench, where he is the key point for the firm's relationship with forward-thinking technology executives across the Fortune 1000 and web-scale organizations. He works closely with these leaders on enterprise technology trends transforming data and analytics, infrastructure, security, and the future of work. Kelley is a graduate of Boston College with a B.S. in Physics and Philosophy.

​Danielle Lay, Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA)

Danielle Lay joined NEA in 2017. As a Partner based in New York, she is focused on consumer, social, and commerce infrastructure companies. She is an active investor and/or serves on the board of Burrow, Fizz, Goody, Patreon, and Prime, among other companies. She is also a member of NEA’s Asia investing team. Prior to joining NEA, she was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs covering fintech. She graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in economics, business institutions, and Chinese.

​Sam Toole, Partner at Primary Venture Partners

​Sam is a Partner at Primary, where he spearheads new enterprise and healthcare investments. The Nantucket native and Hamilton alum was previously the GM of Physician Marketplace for Nomad Health, where he helped lead the company’s sales team from seed through a Series B. Sam’s entrepreneurial career started as the founder of ACK Surf, a surf school on the island of Nantucket, then continued with the creation of a DTC lifestyle clothing brand. Outside of work, Sam enjoys golfing, surfing, and snowboarding, and he hopes to one day live by the beach again.

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Sponsors:

​​Haymaker is a public relations firm based in New York, which works with the most exciting high-growth companies operating in the U.S., including Oatly, G2, Gympass, and Pipedrive.  

​​Cooley LLP — Our lawyers advise venture capital firms, corporate VCs, growth equity firms, family offices and high-growth companies on 1,700+ private financings each year. We understand all angles and offer support at all stages of investment. Our integrated, cross-disciplinary team can take you from fund formation to investment to exit, partnering with your internal resources to guarantee seamless collaboration and offering the specialty platform you need to support your portfolio companies.

KPMG — Whether you are looking to reach new heights, embrace technology, plan for an exit, or manage the transition of wealth or your business to the next generation, KPMG Private Enterprise advisers can help you drive your business forward through each stage of the business journey. Your success is our legacy.

​This is event is hosted by nextNYC. To learn more about nextNYC and/or sign up for their newsletter, visit http://next.nyc