VIRTUAL Startup Investing 101 with Samaar Haider

Overview of Late-stage VC and Growth Equity: Series B and Beyond

Samaar will explain how raising capital from institutional investors works from Series B and onward as your business grows. He'll discuss what the process looks like, what kinds of investors are out there, what investors are looking for, and how this all changes over the course of a startup's lifetime and growth plan.

VIRTUAL Startup Investing 101

Startup Investing 101 is an educational program for individuals who have the financial capacity to invest $5,000+ in a startup at the pre-seed or seed stage.

Each month, attendees learn something new about startup investing, meet fellow funders and founders, listen to pitches, and have the opportunity to invest directly into a startup.

The Startup Ladies is a leader in helping founders secure PRE-SEED funding. Pre-seed money is the first “round” of funding typically sourced from friends, family, accelerators and some angel investors. Pre-seed money allows the founder and her team to achieve defined benchmarks. Examples of key milestones and expenses include hiring key staff, developing and testing a product or service, gaining traction by accruing emails and followers and/or acquiring customers. Reaching the milestones helps the founder secure additional funding in later rounds so the company can continue to scale.

Unless a founder is independently wealthy, she can operate for only a limited time with her own savings. Securing pre-seed capital is extremely difficult for founders without access to networks of affluent people conditioned to write checks for risky ventures. This problem is even greater for entrepreneurs who are women.

In 2019, women received less than 3% of the $136.5 billion invested into U.S. startups, despite the fact that their companies yielded higher ROIs than their male counterparts.

To read more about how PRE-SEED funding helps women succeed click here.

AGENDA

​12:00 pm - Welcome

12:05 pm - Presentation

12:45 pm - Pitches from Startup Ladies members and Q&A

1:30 pm - Wrap up

BIO OF SAMAAR HAIDER

Samaar Haider is the Director of M&A at Sylva, a startup company currently in stealth mode focused on building online communities. Prior to Sylva, Samaar spent four years at CPP Investments, a ~$400 billion investment fund where he worked on the Thematic Investing team and focused on late-stage venture capital and growth equity investments across enterprise software, autotech, and eCommerce. He helped lead deals in companies such as Uber, Waymo, Snowflake, ChargePoint, Lulu’s Fashion Lounge, Fabric, Netskope, and many more.

Prior to CPP investments, Samaar worked in private equity at Onex Partners, a $46 billion Toronto-based private equity firm, and in investment banking at BMO Capital Markets. Samaar holds an Honors Business Administration degree (with Distinction, Ivey Scholar) from the Ivey Business School at Western University in Ontario, Canada. Samaar grew up in Alberta, Canada (close to the Canadian Rockies) and is an avid skier and hiker.

TICKETS

*Please Note: this event is open to Members and special guests only. Members and special guests will receive a calendar invitation with a Zoom link.

Not an Investor Member yet but interested in attending? We would love to meet you! Please send us an email introducing yourself so that we can give your more information about getting involved: Info@TheStartupLadies.org.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSIVITY

We believe that diversity and inclusivity make our startup culture more fun, experienced, and intellectually stimulating.  Anyone (including men) are invited to participate in ALL Startup Ladies educational programming, events, and membership.

The Startup Ladies strive to uphold the highest ethical standards of inclusiveness and respect. In the event of a violation of these standards, we reserve the right to ask you to leave an event or to terminate your membership.