How to Play the Fundraising Game
Two badass females, a serial entrepreneur (and investor), who has sold two companies, and a private equity investor will teach us how the game is played.
I still remember my first entrepreneurial journey. A massive social innovation event in Chile in 2012, with music and over 10,000 attendees. The main attraction was Al Gore.
When I organized that event, I didn’t know what “an accelerator” meant or the role of angels or venture capital in the ecosystem. Planning the event, I was introduced to people like David Cohen, the CEO of Techstars (who ended up coming to Chile), and Sharon Vosmek, the CEO of Astia (who also came to Chile). Wait, there is one more connection to make. Thanks to Astia I met, Barbara Tallent.
As I was creating my first company, BeVisible Latinx, a social media platform for Latinx, I was invited to pitch at Astia. Barbara Tallent helped me refine my deck. That pitch deck resulted in the largest investment for BeVisible. I since sold a part of the company and started a new one, Wallbreakers (we are launching our AI matching and upskilling platform for software engineers this week!).
I am excited to share, Barbara Tallent, with the world!
How to create an effective pitch
When? Tuesday, May 5th at 5 pm PST, 8 pm EST.
Rsvp: contact@wallbreakers.com to get your zoom invite.
Barbara is the CEO of @TheCompany. She has over 25 years experience in the computer industry where her leadership experience includes being the GM of the Z-Mail division of Network Computing Devices which she sold to Netmanage, being the CEO of Boldfish - enterprise email marketing software which she sold to Siebel, and being the Co-Founder of LiveBinders an educational SaaS company with over 1M registered users.
In her spare time, she volunteers with Astia, a non-profit that helps women get their startups funded. Her focus there is helping with investor pitches. She loves helping people make their pitch to the next level.
Next Up!
Monika Mantilla
When can capital help grow a business
When? Wednesday, May 6th at 4 pm PST, 7 pm EST.
Rsvp: contact@wallbreakers.com to get your zoom invite.
Monika Mantilla has over 25 years of domestic and international company building and investment management experience. She has dedicated the last 20 years of her life to building financial capacity in minority communities and achieving social transformation alongside solid investment returns. Her passion is bringing capital and expanded opportunity to highly promising entrepreneurs and investment managers, all which can bring significant returns to investors and social transformation potential. Monika is also a Member of Pipeline Angels.
Nationally recognized as an innovator in the area of capital, impact and diversity, Monika leads or serves as advisor to several initiatives to grow and expand the small, emerging and diverse institutional money manager category, as well as to channel investments and strategic resources to entrepreneurs in underserved markets. She has spearheaded many industry white papers and two white papers about Latinos in Financial Services and Investment Management that have become a widely recognized industry resource. She is a frequent presenter at national and International forums, and has been invited by the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee to address challenges and trends related to Hispanics in financial services.
Altura Capital is an investment management firm that specializes in emerging managers and the quickly expanding emerging domestic market. Altura provides institutional investors the knowledge and tools to invest with high performing small, entrepreneurial, minority and women owned investment firms and businesses. Altura is the creator of the Altura Emerging Manager Information Platform, through which institutional investors can access analytics, statistical and qualitative data of more than 2,000 emerging money managers across all asset classes.
To seize the opportunities in the growing emerging domestic markets, Monika along with a group of partners and stellar investors launched a $120 million SBIC impact fund, Small Business Community Capital, SBCC. The fund provides $1 to $14 million in debt, mezzanine and equity capital to promising small and mid-sized companies, focusing on women and minority owned firms and entrepreneurs located in LMI communities. SBCC is playing a pivotal role in developing a powerful ecosystem of entrepreneurs, advisors, investors, co-investors, large corporations, trade associations and young talent, all coming together to create impact and harness opportunities in the growing multi-cultural markets.
Monika and the firms she leads have won numerous awards and recognitions for their research, entrepreneurial success and leadership in building financial capacity in minority communities, including the "2010 Hispanic Heritage Award"— the highest honor for Latinos by Latinos — in the business category, the 2015 “Woman of the Year” (New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce), 2010 "Entrepreneur of the Year" (New York State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce), the 2010 "New York City Entrepreneur of the Year" (Latina Style Magazine and Business Series), the 2012 Women of Excellence Award (New York Women Chamber of Commerce), the 2006 "Business Woman of the Year" (New York-Westchester Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s), the 2003 "Excellence in Financial Services" award (Hispanic Magazine).
In multiple years Latino Leaders Magazine has recognized her as one of the 101 Most Influential Leaders in Hispanic U.S.A. and one of the Top 15 Latinos in Finance. In 2011 she was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce as a member of the International Trade Advisory Center (ITAC), a public- private partnership that engages business leaders in formulating U.S. trade policy. She sits on the Board of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, USHCC, where she chairs the Capital Committee, and on the Board of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. She is also a Board Member of LBAN/Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative. She serves on the Capital Advisory Board of the Billion Dollar Roundtable. Ms. Mantilla holds an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York and a J.D. from the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia.