There’s been much talk about fundraising for women lead companies.  There are number of great investors, angel networks, and VCs supporting women startups, but the road is still a difficult one.  This is going to be a frank discussion (no social media) on what its really like for women to be fundraising out there and how to get around the challenges.  We are having CEOs who are fundraising, completed their angel round, and later stage rounds, along with a woman VC.  If you want to know what really goes on in a board room, this is the talk.  No filters.  But also no cameras and cell phones.

 

Kathleen Utecht – Investment Professional, Comcast Ventures

“It is the innovators who carry mankind forward.”  Young and old; male and female; higher education and none; I’ve watched founders grow rough ideas into businesses which create and define new industries.  The common denominator: drive, hard-work, and constant evolution to shatter the status quo.”

At Comcast Ventures

Kathleen sources and identifies new investment opportunities, conducts diligence on potential investments and works closely with Comcast Ventures’ portfolio companies. 

Before Comcast Ventures

Prior to joining Comcast Ventures, Kathleen worked in venture capital for Core Innovation Capital and WVP Ventures.  Prior to her venture roles, Kathleen invested in and led Green Rock Entertainment, the start-up toy/game manufacturing company whose main product was Cahootie.  She won Ernst & Young’s Winning Women award for its success. Before her operational adventure, Kathleen was an investment banker in the financial services group of Raymond James and a graduate of General Electric Capital’s Financial Management Program.

Tania Yuki – CEO, Shareablee

Lydia Loizides, CEO, GGGRIT

Lydia is Founder & CEO of GGGrit. Imagine GGGrit as the eHarmony for a woman’s career life. GGGrit is a white label platform that scientifically curates compatible connections to peers, career experts and curriculum helping women grow their career capital. GGGrit’s customers are organizations and companies that are serious about using science and technology to scale women’s leadership in the workplace. We help our customers activate curated connections, personalize the development of leadership skills and grow long-term career capital for women– at scale. 

Prior, Lydia served as VP, Corporate Planning at Canoe Ventures, a joint venture founded by the six largest cable operators in the U.S. Prior to Canoe, she served as VP, Interactive Media at Paradigm Talent Agency responsible for digital business development working with sister divisions including motion picture, TV, and music. As VP/Director of Technology & Media Engagement Analytics at Interpublic Group, she lead a team of data and research analysts and software developers focused on the extension of proprietary research platforms that merged traditional and digital cross-platform media analytics for IPG clients. Previously, she spent over five years in investment and consumer research and analytics with Ziff Brothers Investments and Jupiter Research, specializing in technology, media and telecomm. She began her career in product management with VSystems, now Esker, and nCompass Labs, now Microsoft.

She serves as 2nd Vice President, Governor& Chair of the Advanced Media Committee of National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY. She has been published in industry leading academic journals and trade periodicals and has served as Adjunct Lecturer, Center for Design, Digital Arts and Film at NYU. 

Happy hour to follow at 5pm

 

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Friday speaker series brings key thought leaders, investors, executives in an intimate fireside chat format conversational approach to giving entrepreneurs access to trends, ideas, process within large organizations and better understand how things work.

Imagine you had a meeting with these angels and access to ask anything.  The audience is kept small to allow for that engagement. More hard to reach guys are brought each Friday for real conversations.  Come learn about what you can’t “google” to stay updated on what the market wants and share a beer.