Startup Workshop: Raising Pre-Seed Funding for your Startup
This workshop is made for Startup Founders who are not Stanford or Ivy League alumni. It shares real world insights from my own experience raising funding for my startups and my peers’ ventures.
Given investor bias toward Elite Schools in venture backed data, this session is tailored for the majority those who didn’t attend Tier 1 schools. As you may have noticed, most of the fundraising advice on LinkedIn and X doesn’t work or is specific to the Elite University Founder Crowd.
We will walk through the fundraising process from ideation, network building, angel investors, VCs, and other pools of capital. Friends & Family Rounds, Pre Seed, Seed, and Series A+. We’ll compare Miami vs NYC vs SF and share some practical tips.
Bring your questions this will be a collaborative 2 Hour Session.
My Bio:
Denis Hiller is an entrepreneur with a track record of scaling Tech Startups from the ground up. He played a key role in building Hotspot Shield, one of the world’s most popular VPNs, which secured a $52M investment from Goldman Sachs and later exited for $295M to WndrCo.
He also co founded Uloop, securing $1.5M in corporate venture capital from Gannett, then a Fortune 500 company. As an angel investor and operator, Denis helped bring ZenCentiv, a next generation Enterprise Sales Compensation Automation SaaS startup, to market.
Beyond tech, Denis worked in the entertainment and music industry, collaborating with game changing acts such as Steve Angello of the Swedish House Mafia. This experience honed his skills in building engaged communities skills he brings to this workshop’s collaborative vibe.
With this entrepreneurial and creative background, Denis founded the Tech + Startups Community, a community of Startup Founders, Venture Capitalists, and Tech Leaders. He is a Tech Conference Organizer and Startup Investor. He has mentored dozens of founders and helped founders raise over $5 Million in Pre-Seed Capital.