How to Build a Winning Startup

​Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham once said in his startup class at Stanford that building a startup is unnatural like skiing. Your natural impulse is to lean back, but leaning back on the skis and you fly down the hill out of control all the time. In building a startup, you have to similarly suppress your impulse and follow a mental checklist. 

​Hear from Ross Fubini, Managing Partner, XYZ Venture Capital on the checklist for early stage startups. In a fireside chat, we will discuss the process for founding a company, building a winning team, focusing on an idea and how founders decide to pour their blood into the effort of driving a company into existence.

​XYZ Capital was the first investor for multiple billion dollar companies, including Anduril, Verkada and New Front Insurance. Ross is featured on the Forbes Midas Seed List 2022. Ross is also a co-founder and Partner at Village Global. He currently serves as an advisor to Kapor Capital, Palantir Technology, Facebook Causes, and other early stage technology companies.

​Previously, Ross was a successful entrepreneur who co-founded and grew CubeTree, which was acquired by SuccessFactors in 2010. He holds a B.S. in engineering and art from Carnegie Mellon University.

​The fireside chat will be moderated by Kshitij Parashar (CMU MSTV ‘21), co-founder of Brick.AI.

​Rundown: 40 minutes of prepared moderator questions followed by 20 minutes of audience Q&A

​Who should attend: Aspiring founders, early stage startup founders and employees, CMU alums who wish to build their entrepreneurial network