/ About this event
Raised & Acquired: Building for Strategic Optionality
For technology founders today, the path from startup to scale is rarely linear.
Markets move quickly. Capital shifts. New technologies reshape industries. Strategic relationships can unlock customers, capital, and distribution—but they can also shape a company’s future options. And sometimes, long before a founder expects it, two very different paths emerge at once: raise the next round and keep building, or take a serious acquisition offer.
So how do you build and finance a company today without knowing which opportunity will matter most tomorrow? How much should you raise—and from whom? What makes a company truly defensible? When does a strategic relationship evolve from partnership to investment to acquisition? And when both capital and an exit are available, how do you decide?
How do you make the decisions today that give you more options—not fewer—tomorrow?
Raised & Acquired brings together an extraordinary group of people who have sat on very different sides of these decisions:
* A founder who has recently been through an acquisition: what actually drives a deal, what the buyer valued, and how a founder decides when to sell. * A venture-backed founder building for the long term: how to raise, compete, and build while preserving strategic options. * Leading investors: what gets funded, what makes a company defensible, and how financing decisions can expand—or constrain—future options. * A strategic corporate leader: how large technology companies evaluate partnerships, investments, and acquisitions—and what makes them move.
Moderator: Helen Li — CEO, Omnibay Panelists: Jiantao Jiao — Director of AI & Distinguished Scientist, NVIDIA; Professor, UC Berkeley Cliff Crosland — CEO & Co-Founder, Scanner (backed by Sequoia Capital) Michael Jones — VP, Key Accounts & Partnerships, Samsung Device Solutions Americas Jacques-Alexandre Gerber — Co-Founder & Managing Partner, AXIAL Partners & Aptic Partners Charles Elkan — Venture Partner, Fellows Fund; Professor, UC San Diego
