Virginia Club of New York: Fundraising 101

Fundraising for a startup can be an intimidating prospect. Between learning the lingo to the legal aspects—not to mention approaching investors—it’s easy to make mistakes or fall into an arrangement that may not be suited to your long-term goals as a founder.

Whether you’re considering fundraising down the line or are ready to jump in, this is the event for you! Join us for a panel discussion with an investor, a startup lawyer, and a founder from our Hoo community that will cover the following topics:

• Stages of funding: pre-seed, seed, angel, series A...where do we begin?
• Fundraising vs. bootstrapping: Pros and cons and how to choose the right approach for your business
• Investment vehicle overview
• Basic legal considerations before you start to fundraise
• Do's and don'ts for approaching investors

We’ll also have time for breakout groups with the panelist of your choice to allow for individual questions. Don’t miss it!

About the panelists:

Melody Koh (COM ‘07) : A partner at NextView Ventures, Melody has spent her entire career working with technology and Internet startups as an entrepreneur, operator, and investor. Prior to joining NextView, Melody was Head of Product at Blue Apron, helping scale the business through hyper-growth (25x in 3.5 years) and to its IPO, building and leading a 35-person team across Product Management, Product Design, and Analytics/Data Science. Melody was also a venture investor at Time Warner’s strategic VC group and was one of six inaugural members of First Round Capital’s Product Co-op initiative. Melody holds an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Commerce with Distinction from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.

Thomas Codevilla (CLAS ‘07) : Thomas is Partner at SK&S Law Group, where he focuses on data privacy, startup law, commercial contracts, corporate finance, and intellectual property. He began his legal career at a large law firm, refined his client servicing skills in-house as head lawyer at a venture-backed robotics startup, and now specializes in working with businesses to build from the ground up. His favorite clients are passionate entrepreneurs that need a mix of business and legal guidance so he can use his Chartered Financial Analyst® designation. He graduated from the UVA College of Arts & Sciences in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in History with distinction.

Alex Russell (COM ‘16): Alex is the founder of Nothing Special, a pre-launch alcohol alternative brand and media company. He previously worked as an investment banking analyst in the Consumer/Retail M&A team at Lazard in New York. He has an MPhil in Political and Economic Theory from Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a Lenox-Conyngham Scholar, and has a BS in Commerce and BS in Environmental Science from UVA.

You will receive an email with the Zoom link on the day prior to the event. We ask that participants register by 12:00 p.m. on the day of the event.

If you have any questions, email us at uvanyc@uvanyc.org.

About Hoos in Entrepreneurship:

Dedicated to solving business problems, pooling expertise, sharing ideas, and connecting people, Hoos in Entrepreneurship is aimed at providing both practical help and moral support to UVA alumni entrepreneurs. If you run your own business or are working on starting one, this is the group for you.

Have the best experience:

• Recording: These events are being recorded by audio, video, and photographic means. By participating, you grant the University of Virginia the right to use your voice/likeness in any depiction of these events, including sharing on social media. Video is not required to participate in this event.

• Accessibility: The Office of Engagement is committed to providing universal access to all of our events. Please contact uvaclubs@virginia.edu to request disability-related accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accommodations. Please contact us at least seven days prior to the start of this event and include the following information in your request: Full Name, Contact Information, Date of Event, Accommodation Requested.

• Zoom settings: Zoom regularly provides new versions of the Zoom desktop client and mobile app. To have the best experience during our online event, we recommend upgrading to Zoom's most recent version. Learn more on how to update to the latest version of Zoom: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362233-Upgrade-update-to-the-latest-version.

This event is #open to all alumni, parents, and friends.