Funders & Founders Night by AltaIR Capital: The New Shape of Early Stage
The rules of early-stage venture are changing. How are investors and founders adapting?
The venture market in the US and Europe looks very different from two years ago. Capital is flowing differently. Investor expectations are shifting. And founders are rethinking how they build, grow their companies, as well as how they raise capital.
At Funders & Founders Night, we're bringing both sides of the table into one room to explore what this new reality means for early-stage startups.
From the investor's side: What are funds backing today and what have they stopped backing? How have investment theses, valuations and expectations for early-stage companies changed? And what makes a startup stand out in today's market?
Igor Ryabenkiy — Founder & Managing Partner, AltaIR Capital
Pedro Santos Vieira — Partner, 500 Global
Alexander Korchevskiy — Partner, I2BF Global Ventures
Alex Zhuravlev — Founder and Managing Partner, Mento VC.
Moderated by Alisa Korneeva, Co-founder & CEO, Digitalista; Creator of GTM Singularity, an online conference exploring the future of GTM.
How should founders read the shift? Igor Ryabenkiy, Founder & Managing Partner of AltaIR Capital, brings the investors' conclusions to the founder's side of the table: what VCs' new expectations mean in practice, and how founders should adapt the way they build, grow and raise.
From the founder's side: Building a company in a changing environment requires to rethink some old playbooks. Three founders share the decisions they've made to keep growing, from navigating new market realities to rethinking their approach to product, fundraising and growth.
Josh Sirota — Founder & CEO, Eragon. Building an AI operating system for enterprise software, Eragon raised a $12M seed round at a $100M post-money valuation.
Anastasia Denisova — Co-founder & CEO, AIcelerate, a revenue execution infrastructure company. In just six months of US operations, AIcelerate has landed Fortune 100 clients and grown 200%.
Stan Suchkov — Co-founder & CEO, Evolve, the intelligence layer for workforce capability that sits across existing HRIS and LMS. Evolve has been deployed by 100+ enterprises worldwide, with 2.9M+ learners trained globally.
Where both sides meet: Every round starts with an introduction. Yuri Rabinovich, the founder of VNTR, an entrepreneur and super-connector who has made 4,000+ introductions and held 1,000+ events, will share what he sees about how founders and investors find each other today.
Schedule
6:30 PM — Doors open
7:00 PM — Investor panel
7:45 PM — Reading the shift: How founders should adapt the way they build, grow and raise
7:55 PM — Founder talks
8:25 PM — Where both sides of the market meet
8:35 PM — Reception and networking
10:00 PM — Close
Who should join?
Venture investors and LPs: Hear how peers are navigating the changing venture landscape, share perspectives on what's working, and rethink established approaches to early-stage investing.
Founders: Understand how investor expectations are changing and what that means for your company's strategy, fundraising and next stage of growth.
Angels and the broader startup ecosystem: Get beyond market headlines and into the decisions shaping the next generation of early-stage companies.
Expect a curated mix of investors, LPs, angels and founders from the AltaIR Capital portfolio, AltaLab community and wider startup ecosystem — bringing different perspectives on the challenges and opportunities shaping early-stage venture.
Hosted by AltaIR Capital at 2056 Clubhouse by VNTR.
AltaIR Capital is a global early-stage venture capital firm with 400+ portfolio companies and more than 10 unicorns backed early, including Miro, Deel, PandaDoc, Turing, Fundamental, Mesh and many more. AltaIR also runs AltaLab, its founder program for early-stage AI companies.
VNTR is the leading global investor community: 5,000+ vetted VCs, angels, family offices, and crypto funds across 40+ countries and 40+ city chapters. Through 200+ events a year, 500+ introductions a month, and the VNTR OS platform, members build the relationships that move capital — and invest smarter because of them.