PreMoney, our one-day conference on the future of venture capital, takes place in San Francisco on December 5th.
It’s hard to believe, but this will be our fifth (yes, fifth) year hosting the event! The PreMoney stage has been host to a lot of big names and unicorn costumes over the years.
Since we started in 2013, more than 2,000 fund managers, investors, angels, and LPs have traveled to cities like San Francisco, Miami, and Hong Kong to learn about the latest disruptive technology, strategies, and models in VC.
We have a particularly kickass agenda this year. We’re looking forward to sitting down with some of the brightest minds in the industry, including top VCs behind companies like Snap, Lyft, and Shopify, to discuss everything from Cross-border investing to the future of ICOs.
Still on the fence? Here are five reasons to attend.
1) Get the Midas Touch in 2018
Over the past five years, we’ve had memorable keynotes and panels from the biggest names in the industry, including Marc Andreessen (Andreessen Horowitz), Sam Altman (YCombinator), The Draper Family, Naval Ravikant (AngelList), Christine Herron (Intel Capital), and Kate Mitchell (Scale VP) to name a few.
Four of this year’s speakers officially have the golden touch. Just ask Forbes – they were all named to the 2017 Midas List, the magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s smartest tech investors, including:
Ann Miura-Ko, Partner, Floodgate
Ann Miura-Ko has been called “the most powerful woman in startups” by Forbes. Ann’s investments include Lyft, Ayasdi, Xamarin, Refinery29, JoyRun, TaskRabbit, and Modcloth. Ann was featured on the 2017 Midas List.
Jeremy Liew, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partner
Jeremy invests mainly in consumer-facing companies in the mobile and online space. He has been named to the Midas List multiple times, most recently in 2016. His current investments include Snapchat, The Honest Company, Giphy, Bonobos, Affirm and Mic.
Rebecca Lynn, Co-founder/Partner, Canvas Ventures
Ranked #23 out of 100 top tech investors on the 2015 Midas List, Rebecca focuses on early-stage venture investments in AI, FinTech, digital health, SaaS, and mobile at Canvas. She led the firm’s investments in Casetext, CrowdFlower, HealthLoop, Roofstock, and Vida Health
Aydin Senkut, Founder/Managing Director, Felicis Ventures
An original “super-angel” investor, Aydin has been a fixture on the Midas List for the past four years. He was an early backer of a number of iconic tech companies including Shopify, Fitbit, Adyen, Greenhouse, Credit Karma, and Rovio.
2) Kickass Agenda
We’ve got a lot to cover this year! Our action-packed agenda is divided into two tracks: verticals and hot topics in VC.
The day is scheduled around five keynotes from top VCs that touch on broader trends affecting our industry as whole. We’re excited to hear from Aydin Senkut of Felicis Ventures on his thoughts on the top VC trend of 2018. We’ll be announcing details on the other keynotes in the next few weeks.
We’ll also be drilling down on specific strategies and verticals with 13 panels, including investing in AI, data-driven investing and portfolio theory, and a fireside chat on IPO 2.0. We’re particularly looking forward to our lunch session on “Investing in Inclusion,” a topic that’s critical to our mission at 500. Don’t miss it.
Other topics include:
- LPs Investing Strategies
- Investing in Automotive
- Secret Hacks for Company Growth
- Team, Product, Market
Check out the full agenda here.
3) Last year was kind of a big deal
Missed last year’s event? Over 500 attendees joined us in San Francisco to see Christine Tsai’s interview with Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures, Jason Calacanis’ session on how to be a great angel & syndicate lead, Jason Lemkin’s presentation on his approach to early-stage SaaS VC, and much more.
Here’s a video of the highlights from 2016:
4) Investors love PreMoney
Here’s what past attendees have had to say:
“I am an addict to PreMoney. I come every year because it’s a great group of people.”
-Kate Mitchell, Scale Venture Partners
“Thanks for having me at PreMoney, I really enjoyed speaking here. I come to PreMoney because the crowd is great, awesome connections, and PreMoney is really at the cutting edge of what’s happening in the industry.”
-Jared Friedman, Funders Club
“This is a good conference for people to come to if they want to understand what is happening in the startup community & industry as a whole…It’s a good place for startups & venture groups, accelerators, LPs to understand what’s going on in the ecosystem, make great connections, and stay in touch.”
-Constance Freedman, Moderne Ventures
“This was a networking opportunity for us to meet investors globally and to meet new people here. This is the best thing for VCs.”
-Eric Osiakwan, Chanzo Capital
“Come for the uniquely insightful investor insights, stay for the cheese fries!”
– Aaron Blumenthal, 500 Startups
5) Noteworthy Networking
Stuff your pocket full of business cards and update that LinkedIn headshot, it’s networking time!
Join us for a reception after the closing keynote at the Intercontinental. It’s a great opportunity to meet fellow fund managers, investors, angels, and LPs, as well as our annual partners from companies including Silicon Valley Bank, Microsoft, IBM, SendGrid, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Gunderson Dettmer, and Pivotal.
Oh, and there may or may not be unicorn-themed cocktails!
Buy your tickets today (limited seats) at SanFrancisco.PreMoney.co (Use 15% off code 500NEWS for reading this article!)
About 500 Startups
500 Startups is a global venture capital seed fund with a network of startup programs headquartered in Silicon Valley with over $390M in committed capital across 4 main funds and 15 micro funds. We have invested in 1,800 technology startups all over the world since our inception in 2010 including: Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), Credit Karma, Grab, Udemy, Ipsy, Talkdesk, Intercom, MakerBot (acq’d by SSYS), Wildfire (acq’d by GOOG), and Viki (acq’d by Rakuten). Our team of 150 people based in 20 countries manage seed investments across 60 countries and speak over 25 languages. The 500 Seed Program emphasizes internet marketing and customer acquisition, design, and user experience, and lean startup practices and metrics in San Francisco, Mountain View, and Mexico City.
NOTE PREMONEY IS OPERATED BY 500 STARTUPS INCUBATOR, L.L.C. AND NO INVESTMENT FUND ADVISED BY 500 STARTUPS PARTICIPATES IN ANY REVENUES GENERATED BY THIS EVENT. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD PROSPECTIVE ATTENDEES CONSTRUE ANY OF THE CONTENT DISCUSSED AT PREMONEY OR ANY PRIOR OR SUBSEQUENT COMMUNICATION WITH REGARD TO THE EVENT AS EITHER LEGAL, TAX, INVESTMENT OR OTHER ADVICE FROM 500 STARTUPS OR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATES OR AN AS AN OFFER TO SELL OR A SOLICITATION OF INTEREST TO PURCHASE ANY SECURITIES BY 500 STARTUPS, OR ANY OF ITS REPRESENTATIVES OR AFFILIATES.
