*In-person events have been canceled until further notice.
March 3 Virtual Lunch Plus Networking:
A Nontraditional Funding Approach
There’s a lot to like about the traditional tech financing model of Seed Round -> Series A -> Series B -> Exit/IPO. But SparkToro was not willing to trade lower risk and profitable growth for a higher growth rate pushed by investors that would bring high-risk consequences to their long-term prospects. The company is proving there’s another way to raise money that can be a better bet than the “9 losers for every 1 winner” math of venture investment.
Join Venture Connectors for our next virtual lunch on Wednesday, March 3, to hear a discussion with Rand Fishkin, Co-founder & CEO of Seattle-based SparkToro, moderated by Louisville entrepreneur Demetrius Gray, Co-founder & CEO of WeatherCheck. SparkToro’s nontraditional funding approach makes high quality market research and audience intelligence available to everyone, providing startups with previously impossible-to-get data about any online audience’s attributes, behavior and sources of influence. Click here to register.
Fishkin is a tech entrepreneur, blogger and leader in the field of Search Engine Optimization. In 2004, he co-founded Moz, which started as a blog and an online community where some of the world's first SEO experts shared their research and ideas. He is a frequent keynote speaker for events around the marketing and startup world as well as a best-selling author of “Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World.”
A third-generation entrepreneur and Kentucky native, Gray started WeatherCheck after experience in the finance, roofing and disaster restoration industries helped him realize that key processes were ripe for disruption and automation. Today, WeatherCheck monitors over 4 million properties for hail damage for some of the biggest names in insurance around the world. WeatherCheck was named 2019 Resiliency Innovation Company of the Year by the Insurance Information Institute and was the first Kentucky company admitted into the prestigious Y Combinator, an accelerator that helped build companies like Airbnb and Dropbox.
The program is from noon to 1PM, but please join us early at 11:45 AM or stay after for networking! We'll be using the Zoom meeting format so that all attendees can interact with each other if they wish.
The event is free to Venture Connectors members and $10 for guests. All who have an interest in the startup community are welcome to join us! We hope to see you March 3!
Click here to register. For questions, email us at contact@ventureconnectors.org.
