Elena Gusakova is the Founder of Astra Global, a global business development company. Prior to her career in business development, Elena spent eight years working as an M&A lawyer at private equity funds, leading cross border deals with the total deal amount exceeding $600M. She has a deep understanding of investment processes, investors' main concerns, and is an experienced negotiator. Elena holds EMBA from Columbia and London Business Schools.
Victoria Yampolsky, CFA is the Founder and President of The Startup Station, an education and advisory platform focused on modeling and valuing early-stage ventures. 1,000+ founders have taken its courses and The Startup Statin's clients raised more than $50M in financing. Prior to founding The Startup Station, Victoria worked for Deutsche Bank Research and Capgemini. Victoria holds BS in Computer Science from Cornell University and MBA from Columbia Business School.
In the course of the webinar, we will discuss:
When do you need to start fundraising and from whom?
How to fund yourself in the beginning? How much money do you need to start a company?
What are the VC's incentives and interests? Why and when will they start pushing you very hard? What tactics can you employ to get leverage?
The truth about the company's valuation: a negotiating tool, a financial fact, or a wild guess?
Which terms are important to negotiate to retain control? Which terms could be a dealbreaker?
Key strategies in creating and managing a board of directors.
Top five reasons why you may lose control of your company.
What to do if your position as a founder is threatened.
Agenda:
11.00 a.m. - 11.30 a.m. EST (5 - 5.30 p.m. CET) Opening remarks, Astra Global and The Startup Station.
11.30 a.m. - 11.50 a.m. EST (5.30 - 6.00 p.m. CET) Talk about the specific strategies you can use to make sure you can retain your control and at the same time maintain a good relationship with investors