Pitch Perfect: Mastering the Art of the Pitch
Sponsored by Hearst's Level Up Ventures, an early stage investor in Black and/or Latino-led startups, this session will guide you on how to tailor your startup pitches to capture investor interest.
What We’ll Cover:
- Understanding Your Audience: Learn about the different types of investors and what motivates them.
- Aligning with Your Stage: Discover why your pitch strategy should evolve with your startup's growth stage.
- Crafting a Winning Deck: Explore the essential elements that make a pitch deck effective.
- Avoiding Common Pitfalls: Identify common mistakes and how to avoid them.
- Interactive Q&A Session: Get your questions answered by experts in real-time.
Who Should Attend:
All early-stage founders who want to sharpen their pitching skills and enhance their approach to securing funding.
Please note that while Level Up Ventures is dedicated to supporting Black and Latino founders, all founders are welcome to join this informative webinar!
Meet The Hosts
With over 20 years in finance and entrepreneurship, Shashi Srikantan is dedicated to supporting underrepresented founders and closing the funding gap for Black, Latino, and women entrepreneurs. As Managing Director and Head of Ventures at Level Up Ventures, she leads early-stage investments in tech-enabled startups and oversees sourcing, evaluation, and portfolio support. She collaborates closely with Hearst executives and partners to provide strategic guidance, mentorship, and access to Hearst's resources. Shashi actively engages with founders, investors, and organizations committed to providing equitable access to opportunities in the innovation economy.
Kange Kaneene is a professional with experience sourcing, investing in and mentoring early-stage startups. She is currently Venture Partner at Level Up Ventures. As the VP of SAP.iO North and Latin America and Caribbean, she led SAP's startup accelerator program in the region with a team of 7 and managed 69 startups that have resulted in 4 exits and 1 unicorn. 67% of the startups are led by underrepresented individuals and the 69 startups have raised $600M+ in venture capital collectively. Kange is also an active angel investor with a focus on access to opportunity. She is a member of Pipeline Angels and The RainMakers Collective, two private communities that provide capital and mentorship to female entrepreneurs who are creating positive change in the world.
Gary Stewart is an exited serial entrepreneur, investor and educator. In addition to being a venture partner at Level Up Ventures (a Hearst corporate venture capital fund), Gary is the founder of MyCofounder.AI, an AI co-pilot to help founders access world-class business advice and warm intros to funders. Prior to that, he helped to build Telefonica's pre-seed and seed-stage CVC — Wayra — from scratch. At Wayra UK, Gary's portfolio companies raised more than $2 billion. Gary's academic experience includes serving as the inaugural lecturer of entrepreneurship at Yale Law School and as a former associate professor at IE Business School. Gary started his career as a lawyer in NY, London, Madrid and Barcelona. He graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Yale College and was the executive editor of The Yale Law Journal at Yale Law School.