Happy Hour with Refinery VC

​Join us at Onward HQ for a casual, founder-focused happy hour with Refinery Ventures. We’ll kick things off with light drinks, snacks, and networking before diving into an open Q&A session with Patrick Gilligan and Peter Schmidt.

​Refinery Ventures is a Midwest-based VC firm led by former founders, CEOs, and operators who invest from seed through hypergrowth. They focus on more than just capital—offering hands-on support with forecasting, scalable operations, and leadership development to help startups grow with precision and purpose.

​Peter Schmidt brings deep experience from both venture and private equity. He previously served as an Investor at Rev1 Ventures, where he led due diligence efforts and capital deployment strategy. Before that, Peter was an Associate at Brixey & Meyer Capital, focusing on lower-middle market private equity investments across manufacturing, healthcare, and business services. He also spent several years in leveraged finance at Fifth Third Bank. Patrick Gilligan, Associate at Refinery, brings a technical and financial background from his time managing over $200M in private market investments at Fifth Third Bank.