10:50AM-11:35AM
-First-Hand Panel: What's Your Moat? Defensibility in the Age of AI
We're bringing together VCs who are actively writing checks in the AI era and asking them to do something rare: be honest about what they're actually underwriting.
Panelists:
Adrianna Samaniego, Cherryrock Capital
Michelle Kwok, Draper
Megan Maloney, Dria Ventures
Moderator:
Brian Hollins, Collide Capital

‍-Off-Hand Wellness: Tea Ceremony at The Loft, Japan Village
A guided tea ceremony experience hosted at The Loft inside Industry City's Japan Village. Intentionally calm and analog, no agenda, no pitch, no performance. This is a mindful alternative for founders who want to decompress and calm the noise of the day.
‍
-Hands-On Workshop: The Story Before the Slide - Crafting Your Fundraising Narrative
‍Most founders build their deck before they've figured out their story — and investors feel it instantly. Ritesh brings a brand strategist's lens (Wieden+Kennedy, Ford Foundation, NYT) to the pitch: what makes a narrative stick, how to write toward emotion without losing credibility, and how to make the "why this founder" question land before anyone asks it.
Led by: 
Ritesh Gupta, Useful School

‍

11:45AM-12:25PM
-First-Hand Workshop: Investor State of Mind 
It's not a secret that investors don't judge founders on merit alone. Familiarity, implicit bias, and the unwritten rules of venture capital shape who gets taken seriously and who gets funded. This candid, practical workshop equips founders to understand VC psychology (how investors really think), translate their strengths and traction into powerful signals of credibility and trust, and navigate their next investor interaction without compromising who they are. This workshop is designed for early-stage founders seeking venture capital (especially first-time overlooked founders).
Led by: 
Emmanuel Brown, Churchspace

-Off-Hand Wellness: Tea Ceremony at The Loft, Japan Village
A guided tea ceremony experience hosted at The Loft inside Industry City's Japan Village. Intentionally calm and analog, no agenda, no pitch, no performance. This is a mindful alternative for founders who want to decompress and calm the noise of the day.

-Hands-On Workshop: Pitch It Forward- Build Relationships Before You Need Them
Allison built Scroobious because fundraising is broken at the relationship layer. This workshop teaches founders how to build real investor relationships before they're in a room asking for money — using her platform data and her own experience raising $11M while navigating bias as a founder.
Led by: 
Allison Byers, Scroobius



12:30PM-2PM Lunch Break


‍
2:00PM-2:30PM
-First-Hand Panel: Are You Fundable? What Traction Actually Means for B2B, Consumer, and Hardware Founders
Most fundraising advice — and most pitch decks — are built around one kind of company. Founders end up translating their numbers into a language that doesn't fit their business, and investors end up confused or dismissive because the signal isn't landing.This panel goes sector by sector, with investors who specialize in each for founders to leave knowing exactly what benchmarks to hit — and what to stop apologizing for.
Panelists: Katie Cella, Koru Capital, Sydney Couval, NewBound Venture Capital
Led by: 
Yasmin Cruz Ferrine, Visible Hands
‍
-Off-Hand Wellness: Trialing Co-Founder Fit
In this session The Mills Mirror will demo The Co-Founder Trial/Sprint. The platform provides a 14-day two-way interview mediated by an automated platform that sends questions every other day, intakes founder experience and profiles under stress, then outputs the fit possibility.
Led by: 
Alterrell Mills, The Mills Mirror

-Hands-On Workshop: Your Financials Are Part of the Pitch
Most early-stage founders either have no financials or have messy ones they're embarrassed to share. Both kill deals. Pilot runs this as a practical working session — walking founders through exactly what investors want to see at pre-seed and seed, and helping them build or clean up their own numbers live.
Led by: 
Neha Banik, Pilot

‍