Hamburg Startup Founder 101

Investors are pissed off with decks right now. This is because founders are creating AI slop. Learn how to create the perfect deck with Shaun Gold from OpenVC and Mercedes Bankston from Loyal VC. Then, for sixty seconds, you pitch. Everyone else in the room learns from your mistake so they do not have to make it themselves. Any stage counts, including an idea you have never said out loud. Register now and bring it.

❯ Featured Mentors:

• Shaun Gold (Chief Evangelist, OpenVC)
• Mercedes Bankston (Venture Partner, Loyal VC)

❯ What You'll Learn:

• How to create an excellent deck
• How to avoid the AI slop
• How to open a pitch so the room knows what you do in one sentence;
• The structure investors and mentors expect, in the order they expect it;
• How to talk about traction when you have none;
• The mistake most founders make at this stage, and the fix;
• How to take feedback in the room without arguing with it.

❯ Who Should Attend:

• Founders preparing to pitch investors, mentors, or an accelerator;
• Founders not getting anywhere with VCs
• Idea-stage founders who have never pitched to strangers;
• Anyone who has pitched and could not tell why it did not land;
• People who want to learn by watching others get honest feedback.

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❯❯ This is a live, interactive online event, so be sure to RSVP at https://fi.co/e/407499/meetup to receive the Zoom URL to join us live!

❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/e/406838/meetup to get your link and join us live!

❯ What You'll Learn:

• Which market signals show who your best customers are, and when it's time to pivot
• How to use product analytics to see how customers actually use what you've built
• Which metrics matter at your stage, and which ones can wait
• How to make infrastructure decisions that support growth without adding complexity you don't need yet
• A simple diagnostic to find out whether your biggest problem is the market, the product or the tech

❯ Featured Speaker:

• Carlos Ignacio Sanabria - Partnership Manager @ Designli: Carlos is the Partnerships Manager at Designli, where he helps SaaS founders turn product ideas into clear development strategies and scalable roadmaps. He works with startups at every stage, from early concepts to live products that need stronger execution, better development operations, or a path back on track. Originally from Venezuela and now based in Mexico City, Carlos has worked across the US, UK, Australia, and Latin America, collaborating closely with founders, accelerators, and startup communities.

About Designli: Designli helps you build software people actually pay for, plugging SaaS experts into your team with a system that's helped 200+ companies build and scale.
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❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/e/406838/meetup to get your link and join us live!

❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/e/407532/meetup to get your link and join us live!

❯ What We’ll Cover:

• Mac’s path from Baltimore software engineer and two-time founder to building one of the most community-driven funds in venture
• How he raised a $10M Fund I on Twitter with 194 LPs and $10K minimums, and what emerging managers can borrow from that playbook
• Finding “rare breed” founders outside the big tech hubs, and why overlooked markets and legacy industries are full of opportunity
• What he looks for in a pre-seed check, and why customer acquisition matters more than having the best product
• Lessons from building the first state-backed pre-seed fund for underrepresented founders, and from testifying before Congress on access to capital
• Raising Fund II in a reset market, including the Series A gap, AI-or-nothing capital, and his advice for emerging managers building enduring firms

❯ Who Should Attend:

• Emerging managers raising Fund I or Fund II, especially those building an LP base from scratch
• Pre-seed founders building outside major tech hubs or in overlooked industries
• Angels and accredited investors interested in backing emerging funds
• Ecosystem leaders and economic development organizations working to expand access to capital in their regions

-> About Venture Trailblazers: Venture Trailblazers is an exclusive event series that educates and connects operators and investors across the global Founder Institute, VC Lab, and FI Venture Network communities. Each edition spotlights a leading voice from the ecosystem in a candid conversation on what’s driving the next wave of innovation in venture capital.
-> About VC Lab: VC Lab is the leading venture capital accelerator worldwide for new and emerging managers. 900+ funds have successfully completed the program, building ethical and enduring venture capital firms around the world. The program provides all the tools needed to launch a fund and close on capital in six months or less. Managers participate in weekly fund-building sprints, receive tactical advice from experienced domain experts, and join a collaborative, global community of peers. VC Lab also develops essential fundraising skills and offers access to Decile Hub, the trusted venture platform for VCs to generate top decile returns. .

❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/e/407532/meetup to get your link and join us live!

When you are the whole team, every lead you don't qualify and every customer email you answer at 11pm comes out of the hours you should spend building. You can't hire yet. An AI agent can take one of those jobs now. In this live session, Seth Ward, Founder & CEO of 4142, builds an AI agent from start to finish: connected to a real model, doing a single real job like qualifying a lead or drafting a follow-up, and deployed where it actually runs. No slides, and questions are open throughout. Register now and leave with a clear plan for your first AI hire.

❯ What You'll Learn:

• How to pick the one job in your company an AI agent should take on first;
• How to turn that job into instructions an agent can actually follow;
• How to connect the agent to a real AI model and give it the information it needs;
• How to deploy it somewhere it runs on its own, beyond a demo;
• How to repeat the same build for sales, support and follow-ups as your company grows.

❯ Featured Speaker:

• Seth Ward - Founder & CEO @ 4142, an AI foundry behind Squidgy, Handled, YEAA and FanatIQ. Through Squidgy, his team lets entrepreneurs and small businesses describe a task in plain English and turn it into an AI agent with no code. In 1995 he co-founded i, one of the first web marketing agencies, and went on to work with Vodafone, AOL and News International before serving as CEO of Pynk. Based in London, he runs live AI agent build sessions for founders, including at Nomad Cruise and Bansko Nomad Fest.

❯ Who Should Attend:

• Aspiring founders who want to see what an AI agent can do inside a real business;
• Solo founders handling sales, support and admin on their own;
• Professionals with deep industry expertise planning the move from employee to entrepreneur;
• Anyone curious about AI who wants to build with it, not just read about it.

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❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/e/407649/meetup to get your link and join us live!