Online Event
Investor Q&A: Ask Questions, Get Real Answers
Get real insights from top investors to navigate fundraising and startup growth.
Date
Feb 27, 2025
Time
02:00 pm - 03:00 pm
Address
Online Event
Join our live, interactive Investor Q&A session designed exclusively for early-stage founders navigating the fundraising journey. Whether you're actively raising funds or planning for future rounds, this is your chance to get real insights from experienced investors. Mariane Bekker (Founders Bay), June W. Choi (Serval Ventures), Kristopher Floyd (Founders Bay), and Jeni Chang (Founder Institute) will answer your questions about startup funding, investor evaluation, and fundraising strategies—all in a friendly, judgment-free environment. Come ready to ask, learn, and grow!
What You'll Learn:
- How investors evaluate startups and what they look for.
- How investors evaluate startups and what they look for.
- Best ways to approach investors and make your startup stand out.
Featured Speakers:
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Mariane Bekker - Managing Partner @ Founders Bay - She is a tech executive with over a decade of experience in building high-performing engineering teams at leading startups like New Relic and Mindbody. She is currently leading the charge through Founders Bay, a premier venture studio for AI startups in the Bay Area, where she connects a community of 45,000 founders and VCs through events, virtual workshops, and fundraising resources.
She also leads Women Founders Bay, one of the largest communities of female tech entrepreneurs in the Bay Area, providing vital resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities to empower women founders.
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June W. Choi - Founding Managing Partner @ Serval Ventures - Serval focuses on data-intensive emerging technologies (AI, healthtech, climatetech, data, blockchain, cyber, infrastructure, XR, etc) and promising under-represented founders that are building transformative solutions to critical problems
June advises startups and teaches entrepreneurship. She helps accelerates transformative tech globally, improving deal flow and impact, with their first portfolio exit in 2018. Previously, June led a consulting firm specializing in strategy, operations, diversity, succession planning, and investment strategy.
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Kristopher Floyd - General Partner @ Founders Bay - He is a seasoned entrepreneur who transitioned from Marine Corps officer to multi-time founder. A former GTM expert at Darwinian Ventures and mentor at 500 Global, he has guided startups through product-market fit, fundraising, and scalable growth.
On the corporate side, he has led R&D productization and strategy teams, helping Fortune 500s anticipate disruption. He challenges leaders to embrace innovation and his insights have been featured at WEF Davos and CES Las Vegas.
Now a general partner and emerging fund manager, Kristopher invests in frontier tech, backing founders who are redefining industries. As a key figure in The Founders Bay ecosystem, he helps founders navigate market shifts, harness transformative technologies, and build category-defining businesses.
- Jeni Chang - Managing Director @ Founder Institute - She's passionate about decreasing the 92% startup failure rate. "We're barely scratching the surface at uncovering the deeper drivers of human motivation & visceral reactions. Why we think, feel and act the way we do, when we do - fueling the choices we make both consciously (and unconsciously)." Jeni is currently focused on the intersection of behavioral psychology and physiology. Especially in the age of AI, what happens when we channel that into accelerating growth? Her journey has been unconventional. She's a geneticist by education and behavioral psych in tow, mgmt consultant for Fortune 500 companies, was tricked into startups, helps founders build stronger businesses, moved over to the dark side as an investor and is now shooting for the moon on a new project.
Hosted by Founder Institute San Francisco
Learn more about the SF program. Meet the SF Directors! Jeni & Saro
Apply to our upcoming SF Spring cohort ➡️ https://fi.co/apply/san_francisco
Additional Resources:
Find more Startup Events, learn about Funding Benchmarks and Milestones, or visit our Insights Blog for more startup tips.
About the FI Venture Network
The FI Venture Network is an exclusive network of investors actively funding pre-seed and seed-stage startups before anyone else. Learn more by visiting the FI Venture Network page.
About Founder Institute:
The Founder Institute is the world’s most proven network to turn ideas into fundable startups, and startups into global businesses. Since 2009, our structured accelerator programs have helped over 7,000 entrepreneurs raise over $1.75BN in funding. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 100 countries, our mission is to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build impactful technology companies worldwide.
About Founders Bay:
Founders Bay is a membership community of 30,000 founders and VCs coming together to grow their startups through curated weekly events, expert-led virtual workshops, and educational resources. Proudly women-owned and operated by Mariane Bekker, we are dedicated to empowering a diverse and inclusive startup ecosystem. Subscribe to our newsletter. Become a Founders Bay VIP and get access to all our upcoming events for free — including this one! Here’s 50% off your membership: 👉Become a Member Now
🔥 New: Our new fund invests in frontier and AI technology. Want to join as an LP? Apply now to co-invest with us!
Speakers
Platinum Partners
Local Partners
Google
Linkedin
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The Founder Institute is the world’s most proven network to turn ideas into fundable startups, and startups into global businesses. Since 2009, our structured accelerator programs have helped over 7,500 entrepreneurs raise over $1.85BN in funding. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 100 countries, our mission is to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build impactful technology companies worldwide.
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