Ready Set Raise is a virtual, industry agnostic national startup accelerator, consciously created by and for women and non-binary founders.
Apply by October 3
Ready Set Raise is a virtual, industry agnostic national startup accelerator, consciously created by and for women and non-binary founders.
Apply by October 3We started Ready Set Raise 4 years ago with the mission to bust the gender gap in venture capital. Traditional accelerators don’t work for women founders, but ours does, time and time again. We’ve been in your shoes, and on the investor side too, so we know what founders need to be successful. And with each new cohort, our program gets even better.
This year, we’re innovating in two important ways. First, we’re democratizing access to the curriculum via an intensive pre-Accelerator for 32 companies. Ready Set Raise Cohort 4 will be selected from these pre-Accelerator companies.
Secondly, we’re adding a $50k up-front cash infusion to the existing $100k program value and in-kind services to every company selected to Cohort 4.
The pre-Accelerator will run from November 29 to December 17. Ready Set Raise will run from January 18 to February 25. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The priority application deadline was September 9th, and the final application deadline is October 3.
With over $15M raised by alumni at the pre-seed or seed stages, we are proud that Ready Set Raise has achieved demonstrable results for women founders seeking vc funding. Through our program, we do everything in our power to unlock a real path to success for each and every company in our cohort. We do things differently, from introducing free childcare in our first year, pioneering in pitch translation, whispering to founders through tricky fundraises, and uncovering the real secrets to succeeding with VC. Our graduates see the difference and are more likely to get results.
Apply by October 3We understand the unique challenges that await women and non-binary founders, especially those of marginalized identities. We are here to help. Even if you don’t think your company is qualified or ready for our accelerator, we encourage you to apply. Our program is designed to support a wide variety of founders, including first-time founders.
In our three years running the accelerator, we have learned that companies we are best suited to help fundraise have clarity on their business, their product, and have evidence of demand. This could mean anything from a waitlist, to signed LOIs, to pilot customers, to paying customers.
We specifically look for companies that understand their business model, target customer, and go to market strategy. We want you to use your time with us to fundraise, not to pivot! If you’re in the idea phase of your company or product, we’d be happy to refer you to other suitable programs, or would love to see you apply for the next Cohort!
If you are not selected, we will create an opportunity for you to get feedback from the selection process, and if eligible, you will be added to our Founder Community where you’ll benefit from programming, resources, and support from fellow founders year-round.
As far as you, the founder? Founders who succeed are highly coachable, skilled at interpreting and implementing feedback, and ready to put their full focus on the program.
Applicants must have a woman or non-binary CEO. CEOs are encouraged to bring co-founders to all programming.
With three Cohorts of 8 companies each under our belt, and over $15M raised by alumni at the pre-seed or seed stages, we are proud that Ready Set Raise has achieved demonstrable results specifically for women founders seeking vc funding. In our alumni’s words:
“I would not be in this position today without you. I tried and failed to raise, and now after Ready Set Raise I have more commitments than space in my 1.5M round.”
“Before Ready Set Raise, I was overwhelmed with inbounds from investors, which felt great at first, but I was new to venture; I didn’t know how to build a strategy around fundraising. No one I spoke to during that time seemed to be willing to invest in my pre-seed round despite our demonstrated traction. RSR gave me the coaching, push, and access to experts to help me raise. The accelerator set me up with effective meetings with the right investors, and I was able to get commitments and oversubscribe my $500k round.”
Before Ready Set Raise, I met with investors all across Silicon Valley, attended other ‘women founder programs’, and I tried for months to raise, unsuccessfully. Through Ready Set Raise I *actually* learned to meet with investors, and the accelerator connected us to best-in-class mentors and investors with years of industry experience. Their guidance and coaching helped us close our first fundraising round within weeks of the program’s end.”
There are four main pillars of the accelerator:
In 2021, we’re thrilled to open the content portion of Ready Set Raise to a broader audience and offer a 3 week pre-Accelerator to ~32 of the companies who apply. We’ve realized that we can sustainably give more founders access to the best-in-class curriculum we’ve developed over the last three years, and we will select the final Ready Set Raise Cohort 4 from those founders who participate in the pre-Accelerator.
Here’s a preliminary outline of the pre-Accelerator:
Week 1: Your Business
Week 2: Your Raise
Week 3: Your pitch
In addition, the pre-Accelerator will incorporate select aspects of Ready Set Raise’s ‘secret sauce’:
The following are the terms of participation for Ready Set Raise:
Are these terms negotiable if my company is further along?
The RSR Deal is designed for companies we are best positioned to help fundraise: those with evidence of demand who need access to investor networks and help crafting their pitch to generate momentum in their fundraise. In past Cohorts we have welcomed founders whose fundraising efforts stalled despite having existing investors on their cap table, and have successfully helped them fundraise as well. As such, if founders have raised more than $500k in outside equity funding at the time of offer, they will receive an alternative offer of the all program benefits outlined above and $100k on a post-money safe in exchange for 5% equity.
You and you alone can fundraise for your company. However, we will give you guidance, tools, and coaching to help you through the process. Throughout the program, you will receive direct instruction on how to execute a fundraising process: pitch deck, pitch & investor Q&A, deal terms, building a data room, investor list building & outreach, taking investor meetings, generating momentum in your raise, and more. We close the program with a week of investor meetings where we will put you in front of 150+ investors.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The priority deadline for applications was September 9, and the final application deadline is October 3.
We encourage you to finalize your application before the priority deadline for early consideration.
We honor your time in applying with our thorough review. Each application is read 3-5 times by startup experts and our most mission-aligned investors.
If your application rises to the top after after application review, we will invite you to a virtual interview.
From hundreds of applications, we will select ~32 companies for the pre-Accelerator. The final Ready Set Raise Cohort 4 of 8-10 companies will be selected from those who participate in the pre-Accelerator.
If you are not selected, it doesn’t mean you aren’t building something amazing! It more likely means we don’t believe we are the best vehicle to support you at this stage of your company, and we would hope to see you back in the pool the following year.
Early interviews will be in early October, so you will hear back from us by then if we’d like to interview you early. Additional interviews will be in late October and early November.
We will not send any rejections until we have had the chance to review the entire application pool. Everyone will hear back from us by October 31st at the latest.
In 2021, we expect that the program will be fully virtual, occupying up to 30hrs/week during the program. If conditions permit, we will evaluate the option to return to a blended virtual and in-person program.
Our Investor Showcase features vetted investors from diverse geographies who are known to invest in women and non-binary-founded startups.
In addition to inviting FFA’s vetted investor community, we collaborate with the Cohort to invite your target investors to join us. Over the course of a week, we host a series of intimate investor meetings with live Q&A.
“I would not be in this position today without you. I tried and failed to raise, and now after Ready Set Raise I have more commitments than space in my 1.5M round.”
“Before Ready Set Raise, I was overwhelmed with inbounds from investors. No one I spoke to during that time seemed to be willing to invest in my pre-seed round despite our demonstrated traction. The accelerator set me up with effective meetings with the right investors, and I was able to oversubscribe my $500k round.”
"Leslie and the FFA team helped me secure critical introductions that led to checks written in my round. Thank you!"
“Before Ready Set Raise, I met with investors all across Silicon Valley, attended other ‘women founder programs’, and I tried for months to raise, unsuccessfully. Through Ready Set Raise I *actually* learned to pitch and the accelerator connected us to best-in-class mentors and investors with years of industry experience. Their guidance and coaching helped us close our first fundraising round within weeks of the program’s end.”
Hey, there! My name is Alex Iskold and I am a Tech Entrepreneur & Investor working in New York City. Currently, I am a Co-Founder and Managing Director at 2048 Ventures. Read more about me http://startuphacks.vc/about
I write about startups and venture here: http://startuphacks.vc
What I’m working on now:
– Co-Founded and building earliest stage venture firm called 2048 Ventures
– Investing in companies differentiated through technology
– Investing in startups across US and Canada
– Co-founder 1kproject.org focused on pandemic relief
– Coaching and helping as a VC in Residence at the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at the Harvard Business School
What I’ve worked on in the past:
– Ran Techstars NYC program for 5 years and invested in 100 startups
– Founded GetGlue – a leading social TV network. (acquired by i.tv, 2013)
– Created one of the most exciting startups in NYC, backed by Union Square Ventures, RRE
Ventures, TimeWarner Investments, Rho Ventures
– Won 2011 Mashable Breakout Startup of the Year (awesome)
– Named to Hollywood Reporter 2012 Digital Power 50 (surreal)
– Started a company called Information Laboratory (acquired by IBM, 2003)
– Built new grid computing technology at DataSynapse (acquired by TIBCO, 2009).
– Contributed hundreds of articles to influential technology blog, ReadWriteWeb.
– Invented software analysis and visualization tool called Small Worlds
– Taught award-winning undergraduate software engineering class at NYU
– Contributed to development of innovative visualization technology called Thinkmap
– Engineered large-scale financial applications for D.E.Shaw & Co. and Goldman Sachs
Technologist with more than 20 years cross functional experience with the design, building and management of software products.
Currently advising startups working on mobile and market place solutions.
Especially interested in challenging solutions involving technologies touching every day life. Loves to grow teams and create scalable solutions that make a difference.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” –Mark Twain
William (Bill) Bryant has had early involvement in >25 leading enterprise & consumer software and Internet companies, serving as founder, senior exec, investor & BOD member. These companies have collectively reached >$8.5B in value. Bill is currently a GP w/ Threshold Ventures (fka DFJ), serving on the BODs of Chef, Remitly, Yellowbrick, Xealth and Pro.com. Past DFJ investments include Ping Identity, Z2Live, Varolii, Azuqua, Reflect. He is an advisor to Socrata, Winshuttle, Liquid Planner, Limeade.
Other Investments: Swype,, Varolii, Banzai, Observa, Contour, Vizify, Thumb, Cascadia Capital, mInfo, SensorsinMotion, ACL, Bonanzle, Banyan Branch, Clipboard.
Previously, Bill was Partner w/ Atlas Ventures, where he originated its investment in Isilon. Prior to Atlas, Bill co-founded Qpass (acquired by Amdocs), serving as CEO & later Chmn. In mid 90s, he co-founded Netbot, acquired by Excite (1st comparison shopping agent, Jango; 1st metasearch engine, MetaCrawler), serving as President.
In early 90s, he was founding VP of WW Sales & Mktg at Visio (Microsoft). Bill was an early investor/BOD member in 15 cos that were acquired or went public: Swype (Nuance), Mpire (comScore), Loudeye (Nokia), AEI Music (Liberty Media), Shelfari (Amazon), Delve (Limelight), Jabber (Cisco), Viafone (Extended Systems), Teamplate (Captaris), Exstatic Software (Xchange Applications), Throw (Excite), Singing Fish (Thomson/AOL), NearMe (HandsOn Mobile), WebRelevance (Medio), Shelfari (Amazon). In addition, Bill consulted extensively to Microsoft, Real Networks, Getty Images & Corbis. Early in his career, he held VP Mktg/GM roles for Micrografx, Software Publishing & Traveling Software. Other recent BODs: Intrinsyc.
Senior sales, marketing & biz dev roles at four leading software companies (Visio, Micrografx, Software Publishing, Traveling SW). Consultant to Microsoft, Getty Images and Real Networks. Experienced BOD member, mentor capitalist and advisor.
I am interested in technology that furthers the whole human.
More specifically, I am intrigued and excited by companies that are solving for the impact of a multi-generational, hyperconnected society – at home, at work, and everything in between. The name of the game is mission-driven founders looking to make a deep, positive impact on the 99% and that means constantly asking the question, “How can we empower/support more people to thrive and live their best lives?”. That’s a huge part of the American dream I came here to realize many years ago.
An experienced early stage investor, Christie is a General Partner at Backstage Capital, where she evaluates new companies for investment and supports the portfolio of more than 140 companies.
In her role at Backstage, Christie built and leads the Backstage Accelerator program, with a global cohort in London, Detroit, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
Prior to Backstage, Christie led a multi-faceted career at Verizon, where she was a manager on the Verizon Ventures team, invented a connected IoT device, and led marketing and sales operations for a $4B P+L.
Experienced C-level marketing executive helping fast-growing companies assess, position, execute, scale and improve – all with data informing decisions. Advising tech companies. Serving as a board member. Teaching at the University of Washington. Volunteering.
Having joined Tableau Software in 2007 and retired at the end of 2018, was CMO through its rise from a start-up with $5 million in annual revenue to a public company with over $1 billion in annual revenue.
Elizabeth is the founder and Managing Partner of H Venture Partners. Over the past 15 years, she’s invested in over 30 companies in seed through early growth equity all over North America.
Before founding H Venture Partners, Edwards was a partner with Maywic Select Investments, a Series A/B investor in consumer products and devices focused on consumer health, wellness, and wellbeing. Maywic’s portfolio includes Peloton (IPO), Roots (IPO), Freshly, Joy, ALOHA, ONE HOPE Wine, GoldieBlox, The Infatuation (merged: Zagat), Soma (acquired: Full Circle), and SkinnyMom (acquired: Womanista).
Edwards was previously with West Capital, a corporate venture capital manager for Fifth Third Bank, whose portfolio includes Bill.com, CardioInsight (acquired: Medtronic), ALung, OnShift (acquired), and Paydiant (acquired: Paypal).
Edwards began her career as a strategy consultant with the Strategy & Operations practice of Deloitte Consulting, specializing in innovation, corporate strategy, and strategic acquisitions. Select clients include Johnson & Johnson (clinical and consumer) and XM Satellite Radio.
Gabby Cazeau is a Senior Associate at Harlem Capital Partners where she focuses on deal sourcing, due diligence, and building partnerships across the tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Gabby received her MBA in 2020 from the Yale School of Management. At Yale, Gabby served as an Innovation Advisor at TSAI City, Yale’s startup incubator and accelerator. She interned at Microsoft where she supported the Mixed Reality (HoloLens) Strategy team as a Program Manager. Prior to Yale, Gabby worked in R&D and Innovation at General Mills where she created new products for iconic brands like Cheerios, Nature Valley, Epic, and FiberOne.
She is Haitian and originally from Maryland. She holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis where she was a John B. Ervin Scholar. In her free time she is an avid reader and enjoys salsa dancing, especially finding a good dance spot while traveling to a new city.
With a foundation in psychology, my deep passion for trying to understand the reasoning behind why we do the things that we do is what initially drew me to sales and marketing. That passion fueled me as an entrepreneur and continues to fuel me now as an investor. I’m always fascinated by the behavior of customers and thrive on exploring creative ways to listen, validate, and improve their experiences.
My leadership style:
1) Collaboration: no one really knows the answer, so let’s work together, without ego, to figure it out.
2) Transparency: shining light on dark corners is how you reject inefficiencies, so be upfront.
3) Openness: an open environment means not only being open to others’ ideas, but also sharing your own crazy ones as well.
Kirby Winfield is a seasoned startup operator and investor, and is currently the Founding General Partner at Ascend.vc, a pre-seed stage venture fund investing in marketplace, e-commerce/D2C, and B2B software startups in the Pacific Northwest.
Early in his career, Kirby was a founding team member and operating executive at back-to-back tech IPOs, with Go2Net (GNET) and Marchex (MCHX).
He is also a two-time venture capital-backed CEO, with AdXpose (DFJ, Ignition) acquired by comScore (SCOR), and Dwellable (Maveron, VersionOne) acquired by HomeAway (AWAY).
Kirby has invested in dozens of technology startups, and served as a Board Director of the real estate CRM platform Sharper Agent (sold to LEDR/Z), and the in-store customer experience platform Spectrio (sold to Bertram Capital).
He currently serves as a Board Director at Bean Box, the premier Direct to Consumer gourmet coffee gift and subscription brand, and Keepe, the leading vetted, on-demand contractor network for property managers. Other notable investments include Wrench, Crowd Cow, Dolly, Stackery and Blume.
Kirby has served as Board Chair at Special Olympics of Washington, where he helped bring the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games to Seattle. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Seattle Preparatory School, Board Member at the University of Washington’s Haring Center Capital Campaign, and Board Advisor at the Friendship Circle of Washington. In his free time, Kirby coaches youth sports, and enjoys running, tennis, and traveling with his wife, son and daughter.
Kristina is the founder and CEO of Integris Software Inc., a software company that helps organizations meet rigid compliance mandates with the ability to visualize where all personal information is located across the enterprise, prove adherence to regulatory standards, and empower strategic decision making.
Previously, Kristina was a principal at Ignition Partners focused on Cloud, Big Data, Security and IoT startups. She sourced and evaluated new investments, advised current and potential portfolio companies, as well as investigated technical and business matters, including market analysis and technology development issues for prospective and existing business contacts. She also provided counsel regarding technology trends and developments.
Prior to that, Kristina was SharePoint and Business Intelligence Group Product Manager at Microsoft. Her team’s mandate included core product management, product marketing, and strategic partner strategies for Sis, ISVs, resellers, and online services, as well as running global events. Prior to Microsoft she was at Business Objects SA (now part of SAP) where she was responsible for product line marketing for strategic alliances such as SAP, Oracle, and IBM. Kristina is also the founder of two companies, including the Victoria Drive-In Theatre.
Kristina graduated on the Dean’s List from the University of Victoria (Canada) business school (B.Comm) and has her Master’s in Finance (M.Sc.) from Boston University.
Len joined Madrona in January 2010. He is interested in software/hardware/analytics systems that transform work and economics for big industries, and consumer products that change the way we see, hear, feel and sense life. He most enjoys working with entrepreneurs on building their teams to last and scale. “I have 16 years of experience working at companies and have made some great decisions and meaningful mistakes. It’s worth learning from both.”
Len has served on the boards of 17 early-stage companies and has been a director or executive at three companies that have completed initial public offerings. Prior to joining Madrona, Len was a partner at Frazier Technology Ventures and was involved in investments including Control4 and Docusign. Prior to his career in venture, Len spent 16 years in the software industry, including as senior vice president at RealNetworks from 1996-2001 (RNWK-Nasdaq). Len’s team released four major versions of the RealSystem software platform and generated the majority of the company’s 100%+ annual revenue growth during the period. Before joining Realnetworks Len was President of Creative Multimedia, Inc., (acquired by IHS- NYSE INFO) and started his software career in product management for Central Point Software before it was acquired by Symantec (SYMC- Nasdaq).
Maria Hess has a passion for and experience in researching the customer; vetting and validating startup ideas; testing user acquisition, engagement and retention tactics; and driving outcomes to achieve growth goals. She’s led product management, product marketing, or product-led growth in big tech (Google, Amazon, and Expedia), as well as SaaS startups (Picnik, PicMonkey) and mobile recommendations startup, Likewise.
Through a series of strategic roles, she’s led the launch of new products, built a talent acquisition pipeline and process, and drove media engagement, partnerships, and social media programs.
Maryam Casbarro, CIPP/US, concentrates her practice on cybersecurity and privacy litigation. She helps her clients through counseling and advising on cybersecurity best practices, drafting incident response plans, overseeing legal response after a breach has occurred, and assisting clients with privacy litigation strategies, government investigations, and regulatory compliance.
Micah brings more than twenty years of startup experience as a serial founder, mentor and ecosystem supporter. While steeped in all things startup, Micah joins us from Amazon Web Services, where he developed and operated the AWS Connections program, which helps enterprises identify and collaborate with tech startups.
Innovative product, business development, and strategic operations executive. Experienced in e-commerce, marketplaces, global expansion (APAC, EMEA, and LATAM) and leading innovation initiatives.
Nathalie is currently the CEO of Expectful, the #1 Meditation and Sleep Platform for expecting and new parents. Her mission as the CEO of Expectful is to solve the wellbeing crisis facing the 21 million women in the U.S. who are new parents, pregnant, or aspiring to conceive.
Nathalie has worked in Silicon Valley for the last decade, holding leadership roles at Google Shopping, Airbnb and eBay.
Key skills: Product development, strategic and analytical problem-solving, data analysis, cross functional collaboration, stakeholder engagement, project management, team management, change management, business development, thought leadership
Nitya is a venture capital investor at Tribeca Venture Partners, an early stage VC firm based in NYC. She sources and evaluates new investment opportunities while also supporting TVP’s portfolio companies. She was named a 40 under 40 Rising Star by Venture Capital Journal and a Rising Star in Banking & Finance by Crain’s.
Previously, she was an investment banker at Lazard, where she received the André Meyer Fellowship. She graduated from Georgetown University magna cum laude.
When she’s not meeting with entrepreneurs, Nitya can be found singing musical theater, reading about Ancient Rome, and rooting for the Georgetown basketball team.
Over 25 years of experienced in venture capital fund management, clean energy technology investing, sustainability, transportation, and energy and climate policy. Built and managed teams in startups, investing, and non-profits.
Currently leading investments for Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Alexa Fund and running the Alexa Accelerator and Next Stage programs. Compelled by big ideas that solve big problems.
My dream in life is to enhance the banking world by fusing the old world brick and mortar with the neo.
Currently, I’m refining the skills necessary to build that dream.
I have extensive experience in Capital Markets, Derivatives, Trading, Commercial & Retail Banking, and Asset & Liability Management.
My passions include volunteering for underserved populations and creating programs designed to lift them up.
Sandra Campos is a CEO, entrepreneur, and operating partner within the retail and consumer products sector. She has been building global fashion lifestyle brands for more than twenty years. She is the founder of Fashion Launchpad, the only digital masterclass edtech platform specifically for the fashion-retail-beauty industries.
Sandra advises startup businesses in tech, fashion/beauty, and consumer products such as Katie Kime-home and sleepwear brand, Bubble-beauty startup for GenZ, Saavitude-startup helping to design through AI, Project Verte-a comprehensive dashboard for ecommerce,Purple Dot-software that helps brands sell their inventory more profitably. In addition, she’s an investor, mentor, and board member.
As the former CEO of Diane Von Furstenberg, Sandra is known as an innovator and evolved a traditional business into one focused on global digital acceleration and the implementation of Omni-channel strategies to enhance the consumer experience. Under her leadership, the business turnaround was under way with profitable KPI improvements within each channel, created a Weekly Wrap newsletter with The Newsette, established collaborations with female founded brands such as Lingua Franca and Ashley Longshore, and promoted the “In Charge” mission throughout every consumer touchpoint. The company substantially reduced its losses through improvements in operational efficiencies, product margins, inventory management, and store rationalization.
Prior to DVF, Sandra was instrumental in restructuring Iconic brands such as Juicy Couture, Bebe, and BCBG. An executive with broad skills and experience, Sandra focuses on driving digital innovation, fueling international expansion, and leading youth culture marketing. Her international experience has included brand building in many regions with hundreds of stores in China and SE Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
Her entrepreneurial ventures include Mobi and Cynosure Holdings-ACH, a celebrity brand management co responsible for launching Selena Gomez’s lifestyle collection.
Ms. Campos is a frequent keynote speaker, panelist, and invited guest on MSNBC, Telemundo and Bloomberg on topics ranging from innovation at retail, leadership, and diversity in the workplace. She has been named one of the top 100 Latina Leaders by Latino Leaders Magazine, was one of 2019 Top Líderes in Business by Hispanic Executive Magazine, named a 2020 Top Woman in Retail and was honored by Girls Inc.
Sandra lives in NYC and spends her time with her three kids and partner in the Hudson Valley on her rescue horse farm.
Sarah Imbach is an active angel investor and start-up advisor. Before locating to the northwest in 2011, Sarah was an early operating executive at three of the most well known companies to come out of the valley in the last 20 years: PayPal, LinkedIn and 23andMe. As the #2 at both LinkedIn and 23andMe her responsibilities spanned broadly across product, sales, operations, finance, and engineering.
Since moving to Seattle, Sarah has shifted from running start-ups to investing in them. Sarah has made over forty investments in early stage companies. Her primary investing focus has been consumer, marketplaces and SaaS software companies. Sarah currently serves on three boards and advises several other companies.
Serena Glover is an independent angel investor and board advisor to start-up mobile, cloud service, and AR/VR companies. In 2004 she co-founded Twango, an innovative media sharing web site and technology platform. She negotiated Twango’s acquisition by Nokia in 2007. As Director of Communities at Nokia, Glover ran a global organization leading the effort to bring media-related web services to mobile devices. Prior to Twango, Glover spent 9 years at Microsoft in various management positions, where she led product teams, managed websites and helped complete several corporate acquisitions. During the 1980’s, Glover was part of a research team at the University of Michigan that built some of the very first database and graphical design tools. She received a B.S. in Computer Science and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
General Partner and Co-Founder at Hustle Fund. 33% Singaporean pragmatism + 67% SF Bay Area idealism. Loves factoids and weird humans.
Sonya has over 30 years of experience counseling emerging growth companies, established technology businesses and venture capital funds. Her clients range from early stage startups to larger public companies.
Sonya advises clients on a variety of legal and business issues. Her particular expertise is in private and public financing, strategic technology transactions and mergers and acquisitions. Sonya is counsel to public and private companies in a broad range of industries, with a focus on the software, biotechnology and medical products and services industries. In the last 10 years alone, Sonya has worked on more than 500 venture capital and private equity transactions, as well as numerous public offerings, M&A structured buy-outs, spin-offs and other complex business transactions.
Sonya serves on Cooley’s board of directors. Prior to joining Cooley, she was a shareholder at Heller
Ehrman and a director and one of the founding members of the Seattle, WA office of the Venture Law Group (VLG) before the merger with Heller Ehrman. Prior to that, Sonya was an associate and VLG in Menlo Park, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison in Palo Alto and Jones Day in Los Angeles.
Sonya is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the category of Venture Capital Law since 2004, is
listed as a leading attorney in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business from 2013 –
2018, and listed in Washington Super Lawyers from 2014 to 2018.
My background in partnership building has taken me in a variety of different career directions. I’m grateful to have experiences working on legislation for the City of New York, on expanding a billion-dollar brand at Kimberly Clark and now as the first hire at a venture capital firm investing in companies with courageous visions.
Entrepreneur / Angel Investor that is looking to fund teams that are changing the world in a non-incremental way. Also looking to help aspiring entrepreneurs, especially communities that don’t have as many resources and connections.
Tim is focused on investing in B2B software companies in the Pacific Northwest. He currently is particularly interested in the areas of intelligent applications and SaaS, cloud native software, ML and data analytics, and security. He is a board member of numerous Madrona portfolio companies.
In addition to his work at Madrona, Tim is a member of the Investment Committee for the Alliance of Angels Seed Fund I and is on the board of the Technology Alliance. Tim also serves on the Investment Committee for Global Partnerships’ Social Venture Fund.
Yohei Nakajima has been supporting early-stage startups for 15 years across a variety of stages from inception to growth. He currently works at Scrum Ventures, a Bay Area based seed and Series A fund where he sits on the investment team and leads their innovation consulting arm – which works with organizations such as Nintendo, Dentsu, and Panasonic.
At Scrum, he led the investment in, and sits on the board of Misapplied Sciences, a Redmond based startup that took Keynote stage at CES this year alongside Delta.
Prior to Scrum, Yohei helped spin up the Disney Accelerator at Techstars, before leading the Techstars-wide effort to include startup recruitment, working alongside 30+ investors on finding great startups.
