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Deals & Drinks is an interactive event offered every other month by First Row Partners (firstrowpartners.vc).
<aside> 💡 We believe that 'angel/investor education' is valuable for anyone in the startup ecosystem who interacts with founders & investors.
The intention is to create an approachable and relaxed discussion environment to build investing skills and reduce the artificial barriers that persist between founders and funders. While you'll hear a founder pitch, it is only for the benefit of our discussion and isn't a solicitation for investment. Because this is an educational event, we also welcome participants regardless of their accreditation status or active investing role.
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<aside> 📢 We'll send a signup link via email a couple weeks prior to each session.
If you are interested in joining an upcoming session as a participant, please sign up here.
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The group changes each month, but it is a total mash up of the startup ecosystem from across the US (and sometimes farther afield!) — VCs, LPs, angels, founders, accelerator leaders, students and more. Inclusion is intentional, and we find that our best discussions come from a group with a range of investor experience levels, gender diversity, and people from groups traditionally underrepresented in tech.
See what one attendee had to say —
As the presenting founder you'll give a 5-7 min pitch followed by Q&A with participants. Then, you'll drop off the call and we'll use your pitch as a basis of discussion for participants about what we hear on the investor side of the table. We'll share a summary of the feedback and discussion as a thank you for your time, and to help improve your messaging and presentation.
Here's what some of the past presenters had to say about their experience:
Wow, I am blown away by the feedback! Thank you so much for taking the time to compile it into such a digestible and actionable document. There are lots of nuggets here that I plan to act on / incorporate more into our pitch.
Thanks so much for the information. Seeing the negatives, I realized that I didn't drive some essential points home. Super helpful!
This is awesome! I am literally having talks right now with VCs and I feel like I can see into their brains now.
Huge thanks again for this opportunity. Seeing the aggregate of opinions in one place provides a more quantitative data point for what we're developing. I was glad to see that we have been thinking through most of the risks the group teased out!
This feedback has already been a game-changer for us. We loved participating in Deals + Drinks. The most thoughtful audience, with a great lead-in from which we learned too.
<aside> 💰 Apr 2022: Ruth Health raised a $2.4M seed round led by Giant Ventures. Read about the round here.
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<aside> 💰 Apr 2022: MeterFeeder raises a $2.6M seed round extension led by Trucks VC, a San Francisco-based firm focused on investments in companies advancing the future of transportation. Read about the round here.
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<aside> 💰 Mar 2022: HomeRoom raises a $2M seed round following their participation in YCombinator’s Winter 2022 cohort.
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