Upcoming Events, Courses, and Talks

Most raises fail before the first pitch, and it often has less to do with the quality of the idea than with when you started, who you targeted, and whether you ran a process or simply took meetings. This workshop takes a practical look at three critical parts of fundraising: understanding capital, running the raise, and using AI to make the process more efficient. Participants will explore early-stage financing options and how to evaluate their true costs, including how deal structure can affect an otherwise attractive offer and how equity can be used strategically to bring the right people and relationships into the company.

Designed with the realities of capital-intensive and hardware businesses in mind, this session will help founders build a more deliberate fundraising process before the pressure to close capital takes over. Attendees will leave with a lightweight investor CRM structure, prompts for investor research, outreach, and diligence preparation, a data room checklist, and a framework for evaluating term sheets and comparing financing offers beyond valuation alone.

Who Should Attend

• Founders expecting to raise capital within the next 12–18 months
• Early-stage teams weighing offers or developing a capital plan
• Founders who have raised angel or friends-and-family capital and are planning what comes next
• Hardware and capital-intensive startups preparing for future financing
• Anyone responsible for fundraising strategy or a startup’s cap table

About the Instructor

Jake Smith is the founder of Tempo CFO, a fractional CFO practice for investor-backed healthcare and technology companies. He spent seven years on Wall Street before launching Tempo, including two years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and five years in private equity at 3i, where he evaluated and structured investments across the healthcare and technology sectors. He currently serves as Fractional CFO for mHUB alumni company Crimson Scientific.