Fundraising For Startups - Founder Perspectives

Building <div><em>Alex is a Swiss Army Knife who knows how to raise humans and build Public Relations strategies for businesses, politicians, startups, and non-profits. The co-founder and CEO of The Coven, a community and work space for women and non-binary folks, Alex is dedicated to the economic empowerment and advancement of women in the Twin Cities.</em></div><div><br></div><div><em>Prior to co-founding The Coven, Alex held the positions of Communications Director for advertising agency Fallon, Minneapolis City Council candidate Jillia Pessenda, and Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges. Leading PR and communications strategy and execution, she gets joy from telling stories from underestimated communities. She’s been recognized for her inclusive economy work both locally and nationally, receiving the University of Minnesota Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication Above the Fold Award, AdFed’s 32 Under 32 Award, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Award, and City Pages Best Entrepreneur Award. She’s also a 2019 Bush Fellow and one of Inc Magazine’s 100 Female Founders.</em></div>

Building <div>Ashlee Ammons holds a BA in Mass Communications and Public Relations from Baldwin Wallace University. She is the 38th Black Female to raise over $1M in pre-seed funding.&nbsp;<br><br>Prior to co-founding Mixtroz with her mother, Kerry Schrader, Ashlee established a career as an Events Producer working with an impressive list of A-listers including Oprah Winfrey, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jay-Z, as well as legacy brands like Moet Hennessy and Coca-Cola.&nbsp;<br><br>Ashlee serves on the Executive Board of Tech Birmingham and is an Advisor to the Nashville Entrepreneur Center following her time on the NEC’s Board. Ashlee is a 2019 Birmingham Business Journal 40 Under 40 recipient as well as Birmingham 40 Under 40 of the decade and Business Journals National Rising Star. Ashlee and her mother were named “Powerful Women” by Entrepreneur Magazine on their inaugural list in November, 2019. In addition, Ashlee is a proud member of Delta Zeta Sorority where she was named to their first-ever 35 Under 35 in 2018.</div>

Building <div>Bee Law is a former cytogenetic scientist turned entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Quirktastic, a group live-streaming and networking platform for geeks and gamers.</div><div><br></div><div>Since launching the company, she has helped grow Quirktastic to 200K online followers and the app has amassed 50,000 users since its March 2019 beta launch. Quirktastic has been featured in Essence Magazine, TechCrunch and has been named by Forbes as the “home for geeks”.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>The company has raised $250,000 from investors including SoGal Ventures, Snap Inc..&nbsp; Law was also an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at digitalundivided, the incubator for Black &amp; Latinx women and participated in the second cohort of Snap Inc's Yellow Accelerator.</div><div><br>To learn more about the company, visit <a href="http://www.quirktastic.co/">www.quirktastic.co</a>.</div>

Building <div>Chad Hall is the Founder and CEO of Remodelmate, an innovative company that completely renovate your bathroom for $12K in 3 weeks. Remodelmate aims to use technology and transparency to save homeowners time and money while simultaneously allowing contractors to grow their businesses efficiently.&nbsp;<br><br>Now in its third year of operation, Remodelmate has made major updates to its online platform and launched partnerships with interior design service Havenly for templated kitchen renovations and online personal finance company SoFi for project loans up to $100,000 with monthly repayments.&nbsp;<br><br>Remodelmate just finished a successful seed round of $525,000 led by CoVenture with participation from MIT Alumni Angels of Washington, D.C., Dorm Room Fund and TEDCO. Hall studied International Business at Robert H. Smith Business School while at the University of Maryland, College Park.</div>

Building <div>Named as one of the top women, “leaving their mark on the MedTech field in health IT,” by Beckers Hospital Review, Chrissa McFarlane is the Founder and CEO of Patientory, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta and a contributor for Forbes on Healthcare and Blockchain topics. McFarlane founded Patientory in December 2015 after seeing the need in the market for more personalized and secure consumer-driven health information management solutions. McFarlane has published international healthcare research, created and deployed the first global healthcare crypto currency and helped to create breakthrough digital health companies that have provided services to companies such as Tumblr, Blue Apron, Casper, and Meetup. Patientory is part of the Startup Health portfolio, a global organization leading the movement to transform health. To learn more visit patientory.com.</div>

Building <div>Donald Doane is the CEO of ConnectYard. Founded in 2007, ConnectYard specializes in helping colleges and universities tap the power of social media for student recruitment, retention and alumni re-engagement.<br><br></div><div>Previously, Doane founded OpenDemand in early 2000 and served as the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer. Doane has been involved with testing and analyzing the performance of Web sites and applications since the first commercial Web load/stress testing tools were introduced on the market and was one of the early visionaries to recognize the business need for companies to quickly adapt to the "open", or unlimited, demand of the Internet.<br><br></div><div>Prior to OpenDemand, Doane held various senior-level and key management positions with companies including Ovid Technologies, Qwest Communications, Icon CMT Corp. and Interworld Technology Ventures, and has provided consulting services to large accounts such as UBS, CBS, CitiCorp, Bear Stearns, US Clearing Corp., and PR Newswire.</div><div>Donald Doane received a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the Cornell University, College of Engineering.</div>