Startup Lean Coffee: Practical Insights and Real Connections

Since 2019, Startup Lean Coffee has sparked valuable conversations and delivered breakthroughs for over 1,100 founders, advisors, operators, and investors who collaborate to foster growth.

In each session, participants present topics, vote on them, and discuss. Every five minutes, they decide whether to continue with the current topic or move to the next. This dynamic process keeps things moving, encourages full participation, and turns questions and concerns into insights and actionable next steps.

Come ready to discover and share proven tactics and useful resources, expand your thinking, and connect with other passionate members of the startup ecosystem. 

Our next event is on October 22, 9-11 AM, in Midtown. You can register HERE.

Highlights from “Fundraising Tradeoffs: Lessons Investors Don’t Teach You”

Fundraising decisions can determine your company's trajectory. We recently gathered a panel of experts to discuss how to navigate valuation, ownership, and strategy to choose your best path.

Daniel Ahmadizadeh, Growth at Crustdata, talked about the Start with One model. Focus on truly adding value and solving a burning problem for a real customer rather than always thinking strategically.

​Emily Zhen, Principal & Healthcare Lead at Zeal Capital Partners, emphasized that beyond capital, you need to consider what value-add you're looking for from an investor. It could be connections to customers, domain expertise, or other resources. She also explained various fundraising options, such as Seedstrapping—raising only a single seed round and then focusing on building a sustainable, revenue-driven business.

Taz Singh, LP in several VC funds and a charter member of TiE SoCal, insisted that once someone gives you even a dollar, you're accountable to them. You have an obligation to steward their capital wisely. Be mindful of capital efficiency and cash flow management as you grow and scale.

Sophy Li, an investor and contributor at three AI startups, encouraged founders to consider what can be built in a scrappy way to show customer value before building out the full technology if engineering resources are limited. She added that investors are looking for founder-product-market fit. Why you and why now?

The event was sponsored by CTI, which helps businesses maximize tax incentives to drive measurable results, and Stifel Bank, which offers fund banking, venture lending, and tailored startup solutions.

Hire World-Class Finance & Accounting Talent [Sponsor]

MAVI is an AI-driven marketplace for highly skilled finance and accounting talent that connects US companies with pre-vetted global accounting professionals. 

Our talent supply is aggregated through proprietary sourcing, vetting, and matching processes to find the right resource for our clients, either in a part-time or full-time capacity.