LPL Cohort #2 Presented by Mayer Brown
Lantern Point Labs is hosting its Cohort #2 Community Event — an evening of high-signal panels and live founder pitches in Midtown Manhattan, bringing together investors, operators, and founders across tech, fintech, and enterprise software.
Session 1: VC Investment Trends The conversation will cover where early-stage capital is actually going in the AI era, what traction investors expect before writing a check in 2026, and how founders should think about deploying capital differently than they would have three years ago.
Nick Daley — Senior Associate, Fintech & Enterprise AI at Primary Venture Partners, focused on early-stage investments across fintech, enterprise AI, and go-to-market software.
Sarah Lucas — Managing General Partner at Lucas Venture Group, investing at pre-seed and seed in human health, infrastructure, and intelligence.
Danny Qiao — Senior Associate at Connecticut Innovations, the state's $500M evergreen venture fund, with nearly $10M deployed across 21 early-stage companies.
Celine King '23 (Moderator) — Founder & CEO of GreenIRR, a B2B SaaS platform for fleet emissions compliance; LPL Cohort #1 alum with $1.5M raised.
Session 2: Building Founder Brands in B2B The conversation will cover thought leadership, content strategies, the CEO-as-brand-ambassador playbook, and making technical B2B products compelling to buyers.
Linda Zebian '05 — VP of Communications at Muck Rack and former Executive Director of Corporate Communications at The New York Times, where she guided the paper's transformation into a global digital subscription business.
John Mancini '86 — Partner & Co-Chair of Mayer Brown's Technology & Media Industry Group, he's a nationally recognized IP attorney who advises the world's leading technology and media companies on copyright, trademark, and brand protection.
Danielle Medeiros '99 — Global Head of Industry Tentpole Experiences at LinkedIn, creator of flagship brand programs including B2Believe and JW Insights.
Bill Murphy Jr. '92 — Founder of Life Story Magic and Understandably a daily newsletter with 170,000+ subscribers; his writing on leadership has reached over 300 million readers.
Session 3: Founder Pitches — Lantern Point Labs Cohort #2
(Music Tech) Rob Stevenson '92 & Matt Signore '11 — Co-Founders of ALTER Music
(HR Tech) Dave Foley '99 — Co-Founder & CEO of Vendi
(WealthTech) Britt Bollinger '09 & Taylor Bollinger — Co-Founders of Bespoke
(Alternative Investments) Peter Murrugarra '00 — Co-Founder of Uncorrelated
(Event Tech) Robbie Verna '18 — Founder & CEO of Rallie
(FinTech) Mariana Antaya '23 — Founder & CEO of quantifai * not presenting