Growth Capital Conference – a place where entrepreneurs meet prospective funders – takes place once again Thursday, July 30 at the Olympic Collection from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Growth Capital Conference has been a mainstay of the LA startup scene for several years now. Collectively, millions of dollars have been raised at GCC by quite a few entrepreneurs for a wide variety of deals.
This will be the 57th conference held. The morning starts with a hearty breakfast, followed by presentations by several experts in the fields of angel investing and venture capital.
These experts will give advice on how to pitch a deal, mistakes to avoid and current trends in deal-making. This is followed by several presentations made by entrepreneurs seeking capital for their companies.
After each presentation, the funding experts critique the
presentations they just heard. The advice is intended as constructive criticism.
Rarely if ever do funders immediately reach for their checkbooks; more typically, if a presentation has gone well, it leads to subsequent meetings where the discussions become more serious.
Many times, deals that get funded include outside investors invited by GCC panelists to participate. So an entrepreneur who succeeds at generating sufficient excitement at GCC is potentially connecting with even more investors who are not necessarily in the room the day of the presentation. A lot of networking takes place among funding groups.
This conference’s expert panel includes:
1) Alan B. Spatz, an attorney with TroyGould who specializes in corporate and securities laws;
2) Greg Cullen, Managing Director of Harvard Investment Group, which mostly does real estate and early stage deals;
3) Chris Hill, a VP with Siemer & Associates, whose specialty is private equity, transactional, and corporate development in the digital media, ad-tech and ecommerce industries. Hill also represents Wavemaker, a VC firm;
4) Terry Kay, Chairman of the Pasadena Angels, with a specialty in leading and managing organizations, identifying world class performers, and helping entrepreneurs identify and break free from the self-defeating patterns that constrain them from realizing their full potential/higher self;
5) Jeffrey Lapin, President of Tech Coast Angels – Los Angeles, who has made 20 start up investments in the past three years; and
6) Jo Anne Miller, Managing Director, Golden Seeds, a nation-wide angel network that invests in women-backed businesses across all sectors.
Anyone who would like to attend – and entrepreneurs with deals they’d like to present – are invited to sign up at Growth Capital’s website, www.gcc2000.org. Parking is available for $5 in the parking garage below the Olympic Collection at the NW corner of Olympic and Sawtelle.
The Growth Capital Conference is organized by David Newman and Dr. Kathleen Vinson.
