Getting Venture Ready — What Does It Mean and How Do You Get There?

As a founder, you know your company is eligible to raise venture funding and you want to raise funding from angels and VCs. What next? As part of the Elevate Your Venture: Arlington Female Founder Speaker Series, powered by Citrine Angels, explore what you need to do and how to prepare for raising money in the venture ecosystem.

The panel of experienced fund managers will discuss everything from finding and evaluating investors to crafting a persuasive pitch, setting you up for success.

This is the second panel in the "Elevate Your Venture: Arlington Female Founder Series," sponsored by Arlington Economic Development and powered by Citrine Angels, which features four free educational events designed to tackle the unique challenges facing entrepreneurs today.

Catch up on the key takeaways from the first event in our series, Is Venture Funding Right for You?

Moderator: Michelle Olenoski, Deal Flow Committee Chair, Citrine Angels

Panelists:

Haley Bryant, Principal, Hustle Fund
Emily McMahan, Co-founder and General Partner, AIN Ventures
Dahna Goldstein, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Halcyon Venture Partners

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About the Moderator and Panelists:

Emily McMahan is a co-founder and General Partner at the Academy Investor Network. Previously, Emily served as the Founder / Executive Director of Capitol Post, an incubator that taught military veterans and their spouses how to think and act like entrepreneurs. Capitol Post was also the home of Bunker Labs DC, a national 501(c)(3) organization network of military veteran entrepreneurs dedicated to helping the military-connected community start their own business.

Before starting Capitol Post, Emily was a partner and CFO at a successful startup technology firm serving the federal government. Emily holds an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Patriot Boot Camp based out of Boulder, CO and lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband and three children.

Haley Bryant, is a pre-seed investor at Hustle Fund, investing in great founders that look like anyone and come from anywhere across b2b SaaS, digital consumer health, fintech, and web3. Haley broke into VC as an angel operator, and has invested in over 50 companies to date.

Dahna Goldstein is a Managing Partner of Halcyon Venture Partners, a Washington D.C. based fund focused on impact investing. As a two-time founder, Dahna co-founded Resistance by Design in 2018, and was the founder and CEO of PhilanTech, which was acquired by Altum in 2014. She is also a Senior Fellow in the Digital Impact and Governance Initiative at New America. Prior to starting PhilanTech, Dahna worked for venture philanthropies, including Ashoka and Blue Ridge Foundation New York. She has written extensively about social impact. She has taught courses in blockchain at American University’s Kogod School of Business and technology entrepreneurship at Georgetown University, where she is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence.

A graduate of Williams College, Dahna also holds a master of education degree with a concentration in technology from Harvard University and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business. Dahna has been named one of Newsweek’s “13 Women Entrepreneurs to Bet On”, one of BusinessWeek’s “25 Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs”, and one of Technical.ly’s “RealLIST Connectors 2023”. She is a DCA Live “Power Woman of DC Tech,” a DC Inno Fire awardee, and a Washingtonian Tech Titan.

Michelle Olenoski serves as the chair of the Dealflow Committee of Citrine Angels, where she leads a team to source and vet potential investment deals. Citrine Angels has invested more than $1M in female-founded companies since its inception in 2019. She has 20 years of experience in product management, general management, marketing, startups, mobile, and e-commerce. She focuses on leading consumer-driven products and businesses that are changing an industry.

Michelle received her B.S. from Penn State University and MBA from Stanford University.