Girls in Tech NYC Entrepreneurship and Venture Series with ASTIA

The GIT NYC Entrepreneurship and Venture Series Kick-Off with ASTIA

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To attend please RSVP on eventbrite: http://gitnycventure..... Tickets available Wed May 12th, 8AM. Thank you to Christine for the event copy. Thanks to and read Jalak's blog at http://nothingventure... or girlsintech.net. Thanks to Melek for your passion and drive.
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The road to raising venture capital is never easy. And as a recent New York Times article, Out of the Loop in Silicon Valley highlights, navigating this opaque and clubby world can pose unique challenges for female entrepreneurs, including lack of visible role models.

So please join Girls in Tech NYC and ASTIA for an evening discussion with high caliber female entrepreneurs who have successfully raised venture capital. Hear tips and experiences from a panel of four women who have taken an idea through the fundraising stage and beyond.

Moderator:

Jalak Jobanputra – Senior Vice President and venture investor at the New York City Investment Fund

Panelists:

Heidi Messer – Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of LinkShare, sold for $425MM. Currently Co-founder of World Evolved.

Stephanie Sarka – Co-founder and SVP Product and Marketing and Executive Director of Overture Europe, Overture was acquired by Yahoo for $1.63B. Currently founder of a stealth social semantic startup.

Jenny Fleiss – Co-founder and President of Rent the Runway, recently funded by Bain Capital and Highland Capital.

Jen Bekman – Founder of 20x200, funded by True Ventures and several prominent technology angels including Caterina Fake, Chris Dixon, Zach Klein, James Joaquin and Scott Heiferman.


Details:

Date and Time: Arrival and reception at 6:30pm, program start at 7pm on Thursday, May 27

Cost: $5 per person to benefit the Girls in Tech organization.

Venue: DogPatch Labs, 36 East 12th Street (between Broadway and University)



Girls in Tech would like to thank:
Christine Lemke, Entrepreneurship Series Lead, is COO and Co-Founder of Sense Networks. Most recently, at Microsoft, she was the XBOX World Wide Program Manager in charge of development programs encompassing four global regions and twenty markets. Prior to her work at Microsoft, Lemke was the President and co-founder of Channel Velocity and currently serves as an advisor. Prior to that, Lemke was the first employee and Director of Product Management at Returns Online, Inc., a venture-backed reverse-logistics technology firm. In addition, Lemke has held roles at 3i Group, Paris, where she analyzed the Internet, Software, and Advanced Technologies markets, and at SAP AG, Germany, on the Global Execution Acceleration Team. Lemke holds an MBA from HEC Paris and a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the University of Washington.
, Entrepreneurship Series Lead, is currently Senior Vice President at the [url=http://www.nycif.org/]New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF) where she oversees technology and digital media venture investments, Jalak spearheaded the formation of NYCSeed in 2008, a seed fund dedicated to funding early stage tech entrepreneurs in NYC, and sits on its Investment Committee. Prior to NYCIF, she was a Principal at New Venture Partners, a $300 million early stage venture fund. From 1999-2003, Jalak was at Intel Capital in Silicon Valley. In 1997, she was on the launch team of online financial research startup Horsesmouth, and began her career in media, telecom and tech investment banking at Lehman and Broadview in NYC and London.

Jalak has invested in North America, India, Europe, Africa, East Asia and Latin America. She is also active in supporting education reform and social entrepreneurship and serves on boards of Achievement First Bushwick Charter School (Brooklyn) and Echoing Green, and has consulted for the Big Picture and Fenway charter schools in New England as well as Jobs for the Future. She spent four months setting up microfinance programs and training women entrepreneurs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania after receiving her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in 1999. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Communications from the Annenberg School and a BSE in Finance from the Wharton School.

, Entrepreneurship Series Lead, Melek Pulatkonak is the President and COO of [url=http://hakia.com/]Hakia, a semantic search technology company. Since 2004, Melek has been dedicated to semantic search and can’t wait to see how its successful implementation will change our lives. Most recently, she was the Associate Partner of Star Venture Group (SVG), a VC firm with investments in the U.S. and Turkey. Prior to her work at SVG, she was the Advisor to the Chairman of the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Prior to that, she was a Research Associate at the New York Stock Exchange where some of her academic work was published. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.Sc. degree from London School of Economics and Political Science. In her play time, Melek co-organizes TEDxEast and TEDxGotham, leads the International Committee at the Columbia Business School Alumni Club and is building the Turkish Women’s International Network.