Are you seeking funding to grow your company?

Join us for a special virtual discussion on funding optionality geared toward female founders with Desi Stark, Senior Vice President at Bank of the West; Melissa Bradley, Managing Partner at 1863, Gwen Edwards, Managing Director at Golden Seeds & Chair at the Angel Resource Institute; and moderated by Nicola Corzine, Executive Director of the Nasdaq Center. This session will present an overview of financial growth resources for startups and small businesses.

During the fireside chat, our experts will explore:

• Different ways to raise money for your business without venture capital as the fuel
• Additional alternative options to consider
• Pitfalls to avoid when exploring your funding optionality

OUR SPECIAL GUESTS

Desi Stark

Bank of the West, SVP of Business Banking – California Region

Desi Stark is a Senior Vice President for Bank of the West, BNP Paribas and currently running Business Banking for the state of California.

After spending 6 years in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, Desi Stark came back to fun loving Newport Beach, CA in March of 2017 and joined Bank of the West soon after. From starting her own company when she was 20 years old to developing and managing teams in Business Banking, Wealth Management and Investments at Bank of America and US Trust, Private Bank of Bank of America, Desi never misses an opportunity to learn from every experience and people around her. Her favorite quote is “In Omnia Paratus” which translated from Latin expresses her curious, driven and slightly intense nature: “Prepared for anything”. She likes challenges and solving complex issues especially around the psychology of human behavior.

Born in Europe, Desi speaks 4 different languages and often reflects on the fundamental values she would like to think that the old country has provided to her: do the right thing; be tough but fair. She moved to the US permanently when she was 16 and found home in California.

In her spare time, Desi enjoys spending precious hours with her adorable 7 year old niece. Desi is a regimented Pilates and HIIT attendee and enjoys a good cup of coffee in the quiet, dusk hours of the day. She has always been an ardent admirer of the spectacular world of fashion and tries to infuse her days with her own personal style for every occasion. Since she has already explored the European continent multiple times, she is motivated to visit and sightsee unfamiliar continents and admire their beauty and cultural diversity in the future.

Melissa Bradley

Cofounder & Managing Partner of 1863 Ventures

Melissa L. Bradley is a co-founder of venture-backed Ureeka, a community where small businesses gain unprecedented access to the expertise needed to grow their business. The Ureeka mission is to democratize economic opportunity by enabling community and by reducing the cost and risk associated with growing a small to medium business (SMB). She is also founder and Managing Partner of 1863 Ventures, a business development program that accelerates New Majority entrepreneurs from high potential to high growth. In this role she created a community of over 10,000 New Majority entrepreneurs in three years. Melissa is a Venture Partner at NextGen Ventures and serves an advisor the New Voices Foundation and New Voices Fund, as well as the Halcyon Fund. Melissa is the former Co-Chair, National Advisory Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and was recently named one of The Most Entrepreneurial Women Investors in 2018.

Melissa is a professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University where she teaches impact investing, social entrepreneurship, P2P economies and innovation. She recently received The Ideas Worth Teaching Award which celebrates exceptional courses that are preparing future business leaders to tackle society’s largest challenges and create a more inclusive, just, and sustainable version of capitalism. She is also a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Sidecar Social Finance, a social impact agency that provides impact investing advisory and capital services to individuals, institutions, and social enterprises.

Melissa currently serves as board chair for My Way to Credit (MWTC) and board member for AEO. She is a Founding Advisor to the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs as well as a Senator with the Board of Governors at Georgetown University.

Melissa’s educational background includes graduation from Georgetown University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the School of Business, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration in Marketing from American University in 1993.

Gwen C. Edwards

Managing Director of Golden Seeds & Chair at the Angel Resource Institute

Gwen C. Edwards brings over 30 years of experience building products, services, and profitable business units in high technology sectors. From Stanford Research Institute to Fortune 50 executive (SBC, Nortel Networks, Bell Canada, to Venture Capital backed technology start up CEO and advisor, she unites the knowledge of successful brands, experience with scale, and the skills of managing innovation. Since 2001, Gwen has been working in advisory capacities with angel and venture backed companies assisting with capital formation, key milestone achievement to enhance value, developing target market strategies, cultivating customer input, and assisting in the execution of key deliverables.

Gwen is known for her customer advocacy efforts -whether to obtain input early in the technology development process, to lead stellar sales efforts, or to build the strong linkages between stakeholders and strategic initiatives.

Prior to joining Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial ranks in 2000, Gwen was President of Pacific Bell Network Integration and Business Internet Services, a $400M high growth business unit of SBC Communications (now AT&T), which she grew from a $50 Million business to $400M in less than 24 months, delivering enterprise wide customer networks, with a focus on Internet and electronic commerce based solutions. She also established and grew to a $200M dollar business, a vertical market group for Pacific Bell focused on the health care and biotech markets, building on the success of new programs she previously launched for Pacific Bell’s National Accounts organization.

Gwen’s early career affinity for innovation at SRI caused her to quickly pursue a complementary background in business, recognizing her passion for commercializing innovation and going beyond applied research. She joined Bell Canada, in Montreal, for international experience, and soon was responsible for the development and launch of a major content infrastructure project nationally and internationally (iNet). She returned to the United States with Nortel Networks, and became Vice President of Sales for their largest unit. She has led business development and sales efforts for major firms and has experience that includes marketing, sales, general management, and entrepreneurial leadership, basic research and product development.

She holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, an MA degree in Communications from California State University, and a BA from the University of California (National Scholastic Award Scholarship).

Gwen currently serves on the advisory board of Astia, an organization dedicated to the success of women entrepreneurs, as well as co-leads Golden Seeds San Francisco, an angel investment network. She also serves on the board of the National Health Foundation.

Moderated By: Nicola Corzine

Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, Executive Director

Nicola Corzine serves as the Executive Director of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, a non-profit that delivers world-class resources and mentoring to enable every entrepreneur across the globe to realize their maximum potential. As Executive Director, Nicola is responsible for strategic and operational leadership that help drive research, programing, fundraising, and operations for the organization.

Nicola brings over 17 years of strategic business development and entrepreneurial thought leadership programming experience to the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, most recently in her role as Deal Manager for the Band of Angels, a position held since 2004 as well as Investment Partner in the 2009 Acorn fund which includes investments in Practice Fusion, Niveus Medical, and Flywheel, one of the biggest names in the E-hailing industry. During her time at the Band, she was as an early advisor to Startup America and led the development of the first national and regional Angel Capital Association conferences.

Prior to Band of Angels, Nicola was the founder and executive director of Financing Partners, an organization that delivered education to both entrepreneurs and investors to enable them to reach their mutual objectives. Before Band of Angels, she was part of three startup companies in the US and UK.

Nicola is a frequent speaker on angel investing, technology trends and seed financing at Universities including Stanford, Wharton and Duke, national conferences, including IEEE Women in Engineering, NVCA and Innovation Enterprise, and has served as a formation advisor to several regional and international angel groups and seed funds.

This learn in is brought to you in partnership with WBEC-West

All of our programs and offerings are brought to you for free thanks to:

The Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center is a 501c(3) public charity whose mission it is to make entrepreneurship accessible to all. We deliver world-class resources and mentoring to enable every entrepreneur across the globe to realize their maximum potential. Please join us and make your gift to ensure these transformative programs may continue to reach the underserved.