About the event
An Insider’s Guide to Seed Fundraising is for early-stage, pre-seed startup founders who are looking to raise their first round of seed funding and launch the next unicorn. If you’ve got a business plan and are ready to shop your big idea with investors, this event is for you. Join AWS startup experts (many of whom are former founders) in sessions covering the fundamentals of seed funding to crafting a captivating fundraising narrative. Throughout the day, these experts will discuss tested strategies and share insider knowledge they wish they’d known sooner—helping you chart the path to that first round.
Who Should Attend?
Pre-seed startup founders and entrepreneurs will benefit from the sessions, which range from intro (100 level) to intermediate (200 level).
Why Attend?
Learn tested strategies and fundraising tips from our team of AWS startup experts. Many of the session leaders are former successful startup founders – they’ve been in your seat. Join to gain the insider knowledge they wish they’d known sooner. We’re here to help you chart the path to that first round of funding.
Agenda
9:00 AM – 9:15 AM PT | The Fundamentals of Seed Funding
Speaker: Brad Holden – AWS Startup Business Development Manager
VCs invest in less than 1% of startups they meet. To put yourself in the running takes more than a good idea—it takes a great appeal and the fundamentals to back up your pitch. Get a head start by understanding the basic concepts of seed funding, including the different types of seed rounds, the different types of investors you can target, how investors evaluate ideas, and what makes a startup stand out. Learn what it takes to run a successful seed round and how to prospect the right investors, at the right time, to beat the odds.
9:15 AM – 9:45 AM PT | Understanding the Other Side of the Table
Moderator: Brad Holden- AWS Startup Business Development Manager
Panel: Anne Dwane – Co-Founder & Partner, Village Global, Hiten Shah – Co-Founder & CEO, FYI and Paige Doherty – Developer Success Engineer, WorkOS
Join our panel of investors as we pull back the curtain and ask the tough—often unanswered— fundraising questions. Get into the mind of an investor so you can see what they take into consideration and how they ultimately choose where to pledge capital. Hear how they make decisions, their incentives, and how to “play the game”. You’ll learn about the investments they’ve made, the ones they passed on, and the type of investments they want to make in the future. Walk away with a clear understanding of how to formulate, present, and validate your key value proposition.
9:45 AM – 10:30 AM PT | Building an Effective Fundraising Strategy
Speaker: Mike Wilner, AWS Startup Business Development Manager
Time is money for startups, which makes fundraising agility imperative; and, it starts with a good strategy. We’ll dive deep on how to develop a fundraising strategy by working backwards from investor tendencies, so you can present your startup in a way that resonates with investors and can result in putting your round together as quickly as possible. You’ll learn how to build an investor pipeline, how to create a practical framework that creates authentic investor competition, and the methods that have helped founders raise a seed round in under a month.
10:30 AM – 10:40 AM PT | Break
10:40 AM – 11:25 AM PT | Crafting Your Fundraising Narrative
Speaker: Jackie De La Rosa Kennedy, AWS Startup Business Development Manager
Learn how to craft a compelling fundraising narrative that can captivate investors and create a sense of urgency for your round. We’ll dive into the purpose of a fundraising narrative, how to get started, what it should (and shouldn’t) include, and how to successfully pitch investors by mapping their litany of questions back to your narrative. Learn what to anticipate, how to react, and what you can do to come away from pitches feeling confident.
11:25 AM – 11:55 AM PT | Hindsight is 20/20: Fundraising Tips I Wish I Had Known
Moderator: To be announced
Speaker: Cynthia Plotch – Co-Founder at Stix
Hear from a founder who successfully raised capital and what they wish they could tell their former selves. We’ll dive into the strategies that worked, the big wins, the big mistakes, and the behind-the-scenes matters founders should be prepared for.
11:55 AM – 12:00 PM PT | Wrap-up and Thank You’s
