Founders Breakfast & VC Panel: Raising Capital in the Age of AI

​Join us for breakfast and a conversation with leading early stage investors as they share what’s shaping their investment decisions today. This panel will explore:

• ​The sectors and business models they are actively backing

• ​The signals they look for when evaluating AI start ups

• ​How founders can position their companies to stand out

• ​What drives conviction in a startup’s current potential and future defensibility

​This intimate event is for founders building in AI and approval is required. Location is in a private, enclosed terrace in Midtown.

​Come learn, network, and share what you're building with a room of fellow entrepreneurs. 👋

​Event Agenda
🥐 Breakfast & Networking - 9AM
🧠 Panel and Q&A - 9:30 - 10:15AM
🤝 Networking - 10:15 - 11AM

Our panel includes:

Laura Chau is Partner at Canaan, where she has been investing in consumer software and commerce tech companies for the last decade. Some of the companies she sits on the board of include Clutch, Ollie, MSCHF, Arcade, Solvely, and Nagish. Laura was one of the first employees at Kabam, one of Canaan’s portfolio companies that was acquired by Netmarble in 2017. She has also worked at Branch Metrics and Greenhouse in sales and marketing functions, in addition to working closely with Marie Kondo, the author of The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, to help launch her venture-backed e-commerce business.  Laura holds a B.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.  

​Kelley Mak is a General Partner at Work-Bench, where he focuses on investments in areas in security and cloud-native infrastructure. Kelley also leads corporate engagement at Work-Bench, where he is a key point for the firm's relationships with forward-thinking technology executives across the Fortune 1000 and enterprise early adopters. He works closely with these leaders on enterprise technology trends transforming data and analytics, infrastructure, security, and the future of work. Prior to Work-Bench, Kelley covered the security market as an industry analyst at Forrester Research. Kelley is a graduate of Boston College with a B.S. in Physics and Philosophy.

​​About Stifel Bank

​​Stifel Financial (NYSE: SF) is a global investment bank, wealth management, and commercial banking institution with $400B+ in AUM. Stifel Bank offers venture and fund banking solutions, including 100% free banking for fund clients, fully insured liquid ICS accounts (up to $250MM FDIC coverage), capital call and management company lines of credit, and venture lending.

​​Learn more at https://bankwithstifel.com/venture-banking/

​​By attending this event, I agree that photographs, video, and/or audio recordings may be taken of the attendees, which Stifel Bank and its affiliates will own and may use hereafter in any electronic or print distribution, or by other means (including social media) for any purpose.