Friday Coffee Meet Up Podcast

Brentt's presentation will briefly discuss the alternative assets returns landscape, focusing on market trends within the venture capital asset class and how those trends have affected the early stage fundraising process. Brentt will suggest strategies that may be valuable to early stage Founders as they navigate the current environment, as well as, highlight common reasons why VC don’t invest and talk to common pitch related issues that Founders should be aware of.

Biography: Brentt Baltimore

Based in the Greycroft Los Angeles office, Brentt Baltimore's responsibilities include sourcing, evaluating, and executing venture stage investment opportunities.

Prior to joining Greycroft, Brentt led business development at Operator Inc., a venture stage company in the conversational commerce space and worked on technology commercialization at Numenta Inc., an artificial intelligence research company. Brentt also worked at Detroit Venture Partners, where he led investment diligence and supported portfolio companies. Brentt started his career in investment banking at Credit Suisse in Los Angeles, focusing on leveraged buyouts and debt financing transactions.

Brentt received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA from Claremont McKenna College.

Brentt's presentation will briefly discuss the alternative assets returns landscape, focusing on market trends within the venture capital asset class and how those trends have affected the early stage fundraising process. Brentt will suggest strategies that may be valuable to early stage Founders as they navigate the current environment, as well as, highlight common reasons why VC don’t invest and talk to common pitch related issues that Founders should be aware of.

Biography: Brentt Baltimore

Based in the Greycroft Los Angeles office, Brentt Baltimore's responsibilities include sourcing, evaluating, and executing venture stage investment opportunities.

Prior to joining Greycroft, Brentt led business development at Operator Inc., a venture stage company in the conversational commerce space and worked on technology commercialization at Numenta Inc., an artificial intelligence research company. Brentt also worked at Detroit Venture Partners, where he led investment diligence and supported portfolio companies. Brentt started his career in investment banking at Credit Suisse in Los Angeles, focusing on leveraged buyouts and debt financing transactions.

Brentt received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA from Claremont McKenna College.

Come learn everything about early-stage startups & investing in Los Angeles. Abha Nath will give a brief history on the growth of the Los Angeles tech and venture capital scene and dive into how it has affected the startup ecosystem to date. She will also go over how venture funds evaluate early-stage business opportunities, share best practices around fundraising conversations, and give advice on getting your company in front of an investor.

Bio

Abha Nath started her career at the Disney Accelerator, where she helped identify and source new investment opportunities for the Walt Disney Company’s core businesses. She joined the team as the Disney Accelerator was starting to scale up operations and invest in later-stage companies, including Epic Games, Kahoot!, Brit+Co, and Hoodline. In late 2017, Abha joined the team at Ring. She worked closely with the marketing team to help develop the company’s digital marketing strategy, while also working with the Product team to define GTM strategy for Neighbors, Ring’s consumer-facing social app. Abha was at the company during its acquisition by Amazon in early 2018. Abha received her B.S. in Industrial Systems Engineering from the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California.

https://wondervc.com

twitter.com/abhanath

Come learn everything about early-stage startups & investing in Los Angeles. Abha Nath will give a brief history on the growth of the Los Angeles tech and venture capital scene and dive into how it has affected the startup ecosystem to date. She will also go over how venture funds evaluate early-stage business opportunities, share best practices around fundraising conversations, and give advice on getting your company in front of an investor.

Bio

Abha Nath started her career at the Disney Accelerator, where she helped identify and source new investment opportunities for the Walt Disney Company’s core businesses. She joined the team as the Disney Accelerator was starting to scale up operations and invest in later-stage companies, including Epic Games, Kahoot!, Brit+Co, and Hoodline. In late 2017, Abha joined the team at Ring. She worked closely with the marketing team to help develop the company’s digital marketing strategy, while also working with the Product team to define GTM strategy for Neighbors, Ring’s consumer-facing social app. Abha was at the company during its acquisition by Amazon in early 2018. Abha received her B.S. in Industrial Systems Engineering from the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California.

https://wondervc.com

twitter.com/abhanath

Co-Founder of ARRIVE Hotels and Restaurants and previously early dude at Facebook, Ezra Callahan has spent most of his professiona life at the intersection of company culture and brand development. Hear his experiences helping to lead Facebook's early efforts at cultivating and scaling its corporate culture and the lessons learned from similar efforts in the hospitality world.

Bio

Ezra previously served as the sixth employee and first product manager at Facebook. Following his departure from Facebook, he co-founded Artist & Recreation, a Los Angeles-based real estate and hospitality group, which redeveloped the Regent Theater in downtown Los Angeles into a 1,000-capacity live music venue. He is a graduate of Stanford University.

https://arriveenterprises.com

Co-Founder of ARRIVE Hotels and Restaurants and previously early dude at Facebook, Ezra Callahan has spent most of his professiona life at the intersection of company culture and brand development. Hear his experiences helping to lead Facebook's early efforts at cultivating and scaling its corporate culture and the lessons learned from similar efforts in the hospitality world.

Bio

Ezra previously served as the sixth employee and first product manager at Facebook. Following his departure from Facebook, he co-founded Artist & Recreation, a Los Angeles-based real estate and hospitality group, which redeveloped the Regent Theater in downtown Los Angeles into a 1,000-capacity live music venue. He is a graduate of Stanford University.

https://arriveenterprises.com

The key to success in the hospitality industry is creating a memorable and sharable guest experience. Yet for various reasons, hoteliers don’t spend their time on new, innovative guest initiatives. Those who do often find themselves fast-tracked to the top.

Bio

James Gancos is CEO & Founder of The Guestbook - a rewards and loyalty platform for over 700 independent & boutique brand hotels that utilizes cash back incentives to drive meaningful business results and higher guest engagement. Prior to founding The Guestbook, James held General Manager positions at the W Los Angeles, W Istanbul, and Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas as well as Hotel Manager positions at the Sheraton Seattle and Sheraton Kauai Resort in Hawaii. He also worked for Starwood Hotels as Director of Operations for the North America Division and as a consultant at Ernst & Young. James graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

URL: theguestbook.com/hoteliers

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/theguestbk

#theguestbook #directbookings

The key to success in the hospitality industry is creating a memorable and sharable guest experience. Yet for various reasons, hoteliers don’t spend their time on new, innovative guest initiatives. Those who do often find themselves fast-tracked to the top.

Bio

James Gancos is CEO & Founder of The Guestbook - a rewards and loyalty platform for over 700 independent & boutique brand hotels that utilizes cash back incentives to drive meaningful business results and higher guest engagement. Prior to founding The Guestbook, James held General Manager positions at the W Los Angeles, W Istanbul, and Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas as well as Hotel Manager positions at the Sheraton Seattle and Sheraton Kauai Resort in Hawaii. He also worked for Starwood Hotels as Director of Operations for the North America Division and as a consultant at Ernst & Young. James graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

URL: theguestbook.com/hoteliers

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/theguestbk

theguestbook #directbookings

Come hear how VCs think about investing in early stage companies, how best to connect with VCs, and when you should think about raising. Maaria Bajwa will also present on the different types of VCs and how to find the investors who are best suited to invest in your idea. Lastly, she'll provide some tactical advice on what entrepreneurs should and shouldn't do when trying to raise capital.

Bio

Maaria Bajwa is an early stage investor at Sound Ventures, covering everything from crypto and fintech to B2B SaaS to direct to consumer. Sound Ventures is a $150M early stage venture fund founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary in 2015. Maaria joined the firm over 2 years ago and was previously on the LP side of venture investing, working at a $4B investment advisor called ICG Advisors.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maaria-bajwa-1a970425/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/maariabajwa

Come hear how VCs think about investing in early stage companies, how best to connect with VCs, and when you should think about raising. Maaria Bajwa will also present on the different types of VCs and how to find the investors who are best suited to invest in your idea. Lastly, she'll provide some tactical advice on what entrepreneurs should and shouldn't do when trying to raise capital.

Bio

Maaria Bajwa is an early stage investor at Sound Ventures, covering everything from crypto and fintech to B2B SaaS to direct to consumer. Sound Ventures is a $150M early stage venture fund founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary in 2015. Maaria joined the firm over 2 years ago and was previously on the LP side of venture investing, working at a $4B investment advisor called ICG Advisors.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maaria-bajwa-1a970425/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/maariabajwa