Venture Capital Panel and Pitch Night

Our Sponsor:

Small Planet builds inspired apps and websites for global brands and innovative startups. Our multi-platform technical experience, deep understanding of UX design, and proven acquisition and retention methods help create beautiful, engaging user experiences. Contact carly.deiter@smallplanet.com to find out more.

We have some amazing speakers that will be sharing tactics and strategies for startups and raising money.

Panelists:

1. Joshua Siegel – General Partner of Acronym Venture Capital

Joshua Siegel is the General Partner of Acronym Venture Capital, and oversees the day to day activities and operations including evaluating early stage technology companies seeking funding, assisting current portfolio companies with development and interaction with LPs, attracting LP capital, and developing Acronym’s professional network. Joshua has extensive experience and connections in technology, real estate, luxury lifestyle brands, digital media, and consumer products. Joshua was formerly the General Partner of Rubicon Venture Capital, a top performing US VC, Director of Market Intelligence at Citicorp Debt Capital Markets, Manager Eastern European Banking Systems at Citibank and was with the Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC). In 2007, he became an active angel investor with interests in software and technology. Joshua holds a BA degree from Boston University, a MBA from Georgetown University and a Degree in Gastronomy from ICE in New York. Joshua, was born and raised in New York, attended Horace Mann, but recently moved to the Palm Beach area. He has invested into such companies as Daily Harvest, Super Coffee, Nylas, Superhuman, Todaytix, LISNR, Unikrn, Domio, NexHealth and Easyship to name a few.

Acronym Venture Capital invests into unconventional funding rounds in NYC and Rising Markets with a preference for first time and diverse founders. We are an opportunistic fund investing into Late Seed and Series A rounds of Enterprise SaaS (Fintech, hospitality tech, PropTech, Workflow Tech and E-commerce infrastructure) and Omni-channel consumer brands that have achieved at least $1m in ARR.

2. Chris Eng – Investor at Sands Capital Ventures

Chris is an investor at Sands Capital Ventures where he focuses on investments in the AI/ML, cybersecurity, and IT infrastructure sectors. Prior to Sands Capital, Chris worked as a Business Operations Manager at Merlon Intelligence, a machine learning startup helping financial institutions to prevent financial crime. He also has previous experience as a product manager and consultant at Promontory Financial Group. Chris received his MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and has a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

3. Emily Bestwick – Program and Investment Officer at ECMC Foundation

Emily Bestwick supports Education Innovation Ventures, ECMC Foundation’s Program-Related Investment portfolio, with a specific emphasis on linking the Foundation’s impact investment activity with its focus on improving student success. Prior to joining ECMC Foundation, Emily was an associate at Prudential Financial, where she gained experience as part of the Finance Leadership Development Program in financial reporting, forecasting, and capital management. Emily has experience making impact investments in education and workforce development through her leadership of UCLA Anderson’s impact investing fund, Anderson Venture Impact Partners. She’s committed to leveraging capital for improving equitable outcomes among learners and jobseekers.

Emily holds an MBA with concentrations in social impact and entrepreneurship from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and a BA in finance from Lehigh University.