Funded Female Founders Women's Summit

Join 200+ founders and active VCs, angels, LPs, funds of funds, allies, and operators for candid conversations on fundraising, leadership, and scaling. Expect tactical, immediately actionable insight spanning early conviction, fundraising strategy, and the road to $1M ARR and beyond.

Tickets are available here.

Use discount code JAMESSG50 for 50% off - Offer ends Feb 15 at midnight

Summer Speakers & Programming:
Fireside Chat

Carina Hong - Founder @ Axiom: Building Mathematical Superintelligence: A conversation with Carina on her journey from math prodigy to founder, raising a $64M seed round for Axiom Math to build self-improving AI systems that push the frontier of machine reasoning.

AI Funded Founders & Mayfield/Divot Honorees in 2025:

Anna Patterson - Founder @ Ceramic AI
Eshani Mehta - COO @ Lumari (YCx25)
Alisha Chowdhury - Founder @ Kiro Money

Early Stage VC / Investors Speakers

Lu Zhang - Founder & Managing Partner @ FusionFund
Rocio Wu Dianoux - Partner @ F-Prime Capital
Bozhena Kulchyckyj - Investor @ Alumni Ventures
Abbie Strabala - Jr. Partner @ Outlander VC
Marina Temkin (Moderator) - Senior Reporter @ TechCrunch

How LPs Choose Venture Funds

Aury Cifuentes - VC @ How Women Invest
Evan Segal - Founder & Managing Partner @ Segal Ventures
Asya (ah see ya) Bradley - LP & Startup VC Lead @ Kinship Ventures
Julie Zinamon - Founder & CEO @ Vataseason

Founder Tracks

Funded Founders Panel - AI founders share how they moved from ideation to $1M ARR by building conviction, shaping a strong narrative, and turning early traction into real momentum, with lessons from those who raised through top accelerators like YC and leading venture funds
Founder Leadership & Scale (Breakout Sessions) Hiring, sales, resilience, and scaling without burnout as the company grows

Investor & Capital Tracks

Angel Investing and Early Signaling - How angels evaluate early conviction, signal strength, and founder readiness
Early-Stage VC Investing Panel - A candid VC-only conversation on how pre-seed and seed investments are underwritten, and how conviction, signal, and traction are evaluated in today’s market.
LPs & Fund of Funds - An in-depth look at how LPs allocate capital, evaluate emerging managers, and decide which funds receive backing and why.

Private Cocktail Reception

An intimate gathering of select growth-stage and Series A+ founders, VCs, LPs, and strategic partners designed for deeper conversations and meaningful relationship building, featuring sushi, caviar, curated bites, and live music.

What You’ll Experience

You’ll experience stage-specific panels spanning ideation through Series A, curated networking intentionally designed for real connection, and clear investor insight into what capital actually underwrites at each stage. All of this takes place in a premium, high-signal environment built for depth and long-term relationship building.

Who Should Attend:

The (FFF Summit) is for early-stage founders and funded founders from ideation through Series A+, alongside the investors, operators, and allies who actively support them. This is a curated, relationship-first gathering focused on real conversations, trusted connections, and long-term collaboration, not pitching or networking theater.

Are you interested in sponsoring? Please contact james.gee@startupgrind.com

Agenda

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Hosted By

James Gee, Global Partnerships Manager

I recently relocated from the UK to Silicon Valley to expand Startup Grind's sales and partnership program, collaborating closely with Derek bringing fresh ideas and forge new connections that will fuel future growth.
I'm also an entrepreneur at heart, launching my own startup in 2015, experiencing the thrilling highs and challenging lows of being a founder firsthand. This unique perspective fuels my excitement for connecting with founders and partners at the 2024 Global Conference. Beyond the world of startups, I am an avid sports fan, whether it's playing or watching a game. If you're in the Bay Area, don't hesitate to reach out - as I’d be thrilled to join you for a game!

Derek Andersen, Chapter Organizer

For the past 15 years Derek has been building communities. He is the co-founder/CEO of Bevy, a SaaS product that helps companies like Salesforce, Atlassian, Google, Snowflake, and Adobe build virtual and in-person communities. Bevy has raised $60M from Accel, Upfront Ventures, and others. He co-founded Startup Grind, a community of 600 Chapters in 125 countries educating, inspiring, and connecting startup people. Since 2012 Startup Grind has hosted 20,000 events. In 2010 he co-founded Commonred which was acquired by Income.com. Derek also previously worked as a product manager at Electronic Arts. He currently lives in Palo Alto CA with his wife and four children.

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Global Partner

Carta (http://www.carta.com/launch?utm_campaign=20240423-nam-general-smb-startup_grind_partnership&utm_medium=social&utm_source=startup_grind)
Carta helps people manage equity, build businesses, and invest in the companies of tomorrow. Carta Launch is the only free cap table product, helping new founders get started. The company is trusted by more than 40,000 companies, over 7,000 funds and SPVs, and over two million equity holders to manage cap tables, compensation, valuations, liquidity, and more. For more information, visit carta.com.

Startup Grind is a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. We host monthly events in more than 600 cities and 125+ countries featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies. Our monthly fireside chat interviews, startup mixers and annual conferences provide ample opportunities to connect with amazing startups and the people behind them, tap into a strong support network, form meaningful connections and gain inspiration for the startup journey ahead. For more information visit StartupGrind.com or follow us on twitter @StartupGrind.

Complete your event RSVP here: https://www.startupgrind.com/events/details/startup-grind-silicon-valley-san-francisco-bay-area-presents-funded-female-founders-womens-summit/.