Investing Early On! VC Panel @USC

We are excited to host our next meetup on Jan 10th @ USC in partnership with Startup Grind. The program will include a panel of early-stage investors: Quake Capital, Plug and Play, Wonder Ventures, Big Block Ventures & the new USC Venture Fund!

When: Thursday, Jan 10, 2019
Doors Open: 6:00pm | Talk Starts: 6:30pm
Where: University of Southern California (USC)

Panelists:
Michael Rivera - Managing Director @ USC Marshall Venture Fund
Trevor Wilkins - Principal @ Quake Capital (LA)
Abha Nath - Investment Associate @ Wonder Ventures
Alex Mojtahedi - Managing Director @ Plug and Play
Jared Kash - Managing Director @ Big Block Ventures
Moderator: Yair Vardi - Co-Founder & Partner @ Fusion LA

More about the speakers:
Michael Rivera - Managing Director, USC Marshall Venture Fund
The USC Marshall Fund invests and receives equity in ventures led by USC students, alumni, faculty, and staff. Furthermore, Michael is the Executive Director of the Founder Central initiative @USC Marshall School of Business. Michael works to create and disseminate knowledge about the most important early decisions faced by founders and the other people who help build startups. Leveraging Professor Noam Wasserman’s books (The Founder’s Dilemmas & Life is a Startup), research, and coursework, Michael oversees the development of an online learning experience, angel investor and founder bootcamps, postdoctoral fellows, faculty recruitment, and related projects.
https://www.marshall.usc.edu/departments/lloyd-greif-center-entrepreneurial-studies/major-initiatives/usc-marshall-venture-fund

Abha Nath - Investment Associate at Wonder Ventures
Abha started her career at the Disney Accelerator, where she helped identify and source new investment opportunities for the Walt Disney Company’s core businesses. In 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 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 USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
https://wondervc.com/

Alex Mojtahedi - Managing Director at Plug and Play in Southern California. Plug and Play is the most active venture capital firm in the United States. Alex is working to not only oversee and run the operations, but build the core team, expand the corporate network, and form new strategic partnerships in the region. He is leading the startup technical due diligence process to evaluate pre-seed, seed & series A investment decisions at Plug and Play Los Angeles.
https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/

Jared Kash - Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Big Block Ventures, investing in technologies disrupting the world of content, across the media, entertainment, sports, and fashion industries. As the corporate venture capital arm of Big Block Media, the award-winning production creative studio for brands including ESPN, Adidas, Volkswagen, HBO and more, Jared drives innovation alongside a team of brand strategists and entertainment executives. At the forefront of Israel’s startup nation, Jared advises some of the most disruptive technologies, accelerators, and entrepreneurship programs in Tel Aviv.
http://bigblockla.com/

Trevor Wilkins - Principal @ Quake Capital https://www.quakecapital.com/

Yair Vardi - Co-Founder & Partner, Fusion LA, the first accelerator for Israeli start-ups in Los Angeles. Fusion LA’s vision is to support a long-term bridge of innovation between the LA & Israeli tech ecosystems.
Fusion LA has invested in 20 Israeli-led start-ups.
http://fusionlabs.la/

Co-Host:
Startup Grind USC is our school’s chapter of the largest independent innovation and entrepreneurship organization in the world, and our mission is to improve on USC’s vibrant entrepreneurship scene in any way possible. https://www.startupgrind.com/university-of-southern-california