Money, Money, Money - From Projections to Funding

Money is the drumbeat to every startup's existence. This meetup will help you strategize and execute on all things related to money.

From creating projections, modeling and forecasting to raising funding and venture capital through Kickstarter, friends and family, or an angel investor, you will learn everything lean and essential to money for your startup.

RSVPs are open!

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6:30 PM

Arrive for great networking and apps.

7:00 PM

Kathleen Wolff (http://twitter.com/dresscodewatch) will talk about how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter:

First rule of crowdfunding: bring your own crowd "Can't I just write you a check?" The challenges of meeting your crowdfunding goal Take your time! The fallacy of the 30 day success rate Kickstarter is forever (and not always in a good way) First test of leadership: Making it all okay with your family and friends Kathleen Wolff founded TouchDome LLC, a startup for a specialty wrist watch product. In 2013 she conducted a successful Kickstarter campaign for TouchDome. Her background includes staff positions as a television news reporter and anchor at Fox News Channel, ABC News and WABC television. In addition to her on-camera roles, Kathleen has also been behind the scenes as a producer and writer for broadcast news segments on CBS News’ 60 Minutes and National Geographic Explorer. Kathleen specializes in public speaking, writing, communicating complex topics for a lay audience and anticipating consumer behavior. She has visited 23 countries, including Turkey, Russian Federation, India, Greece, Czech Republic and Haiti. Kathleen has a BBA from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

7:20 PM

Serial entrepreneur John Cronin (http://twitter.com/croninplp) will talk about his successes and failures with funding, including:

Lessons learned from various types of financing including SBA loans, seller financing, and friends and family. How to ensure your personal and business goals are aligned with your financing strategy How LEAN Startup principles dovetail with your financing strategy
John Cronin is a serial entrepreneur that has grown multiple technology businesses first as an intrepreneur at Day & Zimmerman, ranked #161 in the Forbes Top Private Companies and then as entrepreneur. His first company, Digital Paper Corporation, was recognized in 1995 as one of Fortune Magazine's Cool Companies-Hot Ideas and ranked 303 on Deloitte Technology Fast 500. Digital Paper grew for five years as a bootstrapped, customer-financed company before raising $24 million in venture capital. It was sold to ePlus a DC based public company. John launched a multi-national spin-off of Digital Paper, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. He used that business to acquire PLP Digital Systems in 2003. John has experience with multiple types of financing including: friends and family, venture capital, seller financing, SBA loans and customer financing.

7:40 PM

Pillsbury Law's Adam Young and Steve Kaplan will talk about obtaining funding and how to position yourself to be well-received by VCs.

7:55 PM

Michelle Hoffman (http://twitter.com/hoffmancfo) will do a live “playback” demo, with an audience member telling their business story that we “play back” as a financial model, plus:

Exactly what investors want to see from an accounting perspective How your startup forecast should tell the business story Ways to determine and measure meaningful analytics Making modeling and projections easy Michelle Hoffman is founder and CEO of Hoffman CFO Consulting. She provides strategic CFO services to some of the DC areas most visible emerging tech companies including several of Inc. 500's fastest growing firms. She was recently named an 'Influential Stealthy Women of #DCTech'. Michelle is a Certified Public Accountant and conducts accounting webinars for government contractors for Women in Public Policy, and provides training for DC area business centers and organizations on a variety of accounting topics including benefits for high tech companies in DC. Hoffman CFO Consulting is a proud sponsor of the DC tech community and events like DC Week and Tech Cocktail.

8:15 PM

Konrad Waliszewski (http://twitter.com/worldventurep) has raised around $2 million in seed funding for the startup Speek, and will discuss how you can too:

How to successfully raise venture capital for your startup Tips for running an efficient fundraising process and closing quickly Discuss how much capital you should raise and under what terms Why you shouldn't worry about the Series A crunch Konrad Waliszewski is the Vice President of Business Development and Finance at Speek (http://speek.com). Prior to Speek, Konrad advised numerous clients – from large, publicly traded companies and investment firms to start-ups – on corporate finance, strategic planning and merger & acquisition projects. He was also an investment banker at GCA Savvian in San Francisco, where he focused on buyouts, private financings and capital market transactions in the technology sector. He also writes about his observations traveling the world and working with local startups, investors and philanthropic organizations on his blog (http://www.worldventureproject.com/).

8:40 PM

Drinks at the Westin afterwards!