/ About this event
Inside the First Round with Antler, Khosla Ventures & Floodgate
Raising your first institutional round comes with a lot of questions.
How early is too early to approach VCs? What actually gets an investor interested at pre-seed or seed? How much traction do you need? What should your deck show? And what are the mistakes that can kill a fundraise before it really gets started?
Join Startup Grind during SF Tech Week for a candid AMA with investors from Antler, Khosla Ventures and Floodgate, focused entirely on raising at the pre-seed and seed stage.
No long presentations. No generic fundraising advice. This is an opportunity for founders to ask investors directly how they evaluate early-stage companies and what actually happens on the other side of the table.
Built for founders raising now, preparing to raise, or trying to understand what they need to prove before starting their next round.
Speakers
Rio Hodges — Partner, Antler Rio is a Partner at Antler US, investing in and supporting founders at the earliest stages. Previously, he worked across growth strategy and innovation at frog, as well as growth equity and early-stage venture capital.
Alice Brooks — Partner, Khosla Ventures Alice invests in deep tech and sustainability at Khosla Ventures, across areas including climate, robotics and hardware. She previously founded and led STEM education company Roominate through its acquisition and worked at Nest. She holds engineering degrees from MIT and Stanford and an MBA from Harvard.
Mike Heller — Partner, Floodgate Mike invests in founders building for an AI-driven future. Previously, he helped pioneer product-led sales at Dropbox and was Clearbit’s first business hire, helping drive 40x revenue growth before its eventual acquisition by HubSpot. He has also advised 30+ seed-stage startups on finding their path to product-market fit.
AJ Thomas — Founder of The Troublemaker Lab and Founder & General Partner of Good Trouble Ventures AJ coaches executives, builds AI-powered leadership tools, and invests in founders who lead with conviction. Previously at Google X / Alphabet, AJ led change management and org design across some of tech's most complex transformations. She curates the Future of Work Summit at Human+Tech Week, authored A Kid's Book About Teams, and advises Share Ventures. Her philosophy: use your own life as the prototype.
We’ll cover: What investors look for at pre-seed vs. seed When you’re actually ready to raise How much traction matters — and when it doesn’t What makes a founder and market stand out Decks, storytelling and positioning Valuation, round size and dilution How to approach and build relationships with VCs Common fundraising mistakes What gets you from a first meeting to a term sheet
Then we’ll open it up for questions from the room — AMA style.
Sponsors Stripe is a global financial infrastructure platform that helps businesses accept payments, facilitate multi-party payouts, manage revenue, and scale worldwide. Stripe’s software and APIs power payments, subscriptions, billing, fraud prevention, and global commerce, helping businesses grow faster and operate more efficiently around the world.
Justworks is a technology company that levels the playing field for all small businesses. Through our software and as a partner, we help our customers take care of their teams, streamline their operations, and navigate the complex aspects of managing a workforce with confidence.
Wells Fargo - Whether the goal is global expansion, streamlined banking operations, or effective risk management, Wells Fargo’s Technology Banking Group brings the experience to help explore what’s possible - and the resources to help make it real. We offer the insight, infrastructure, and strategic support to help technology companies scale with confidence, from early stage through maturity. More than a bank, we serve as an enduring partner - delivering guidance that helps transform bold ideas into lasting success.
Refunds are not possible for this event. If you cannot make it, we can invite you to a future SG event.
This event is a part of #SFTechWeek—a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem. Learn more at www.tech-week.com
