WELCOME to Startup Grind Maryland's Founders Forums.  These online events focus on you as the founders of your venture and business.  In July, we look at raising capital with Andrew Walsh, a professional in AI-driven deal origination and investor identification. 

What has been the recent Venture Capital market landscape?

Alpha-Sense.com says, "While there has been notable deal activity for the first quarter of 2024 (and even some megadeals), VC investments remain at a five-year low. With IPO activity also at its lowest level since 2016, there is a backlog of startups waiting for late-stage funding and investors waiting for liquidity events, further crowding the VC fundraising scene."

StoryPitchDecks.com says, "A recent Crunchbase report shows a slight uptick in investment activities in Q1. According to Crunchbase, Q1 2024 investment funding is up by 6% since the last quarter. For some, this small growth signals market recovery."

Carta.com says, "Through June 11, there had been 81 completed IPOs so far in 2024, on pace for a modest 18% increase over the previous year."

What if you just have a startup that is looking for capital?  Who has time for all this research?

Forbes.com says, "A highly data-driven list, Midas is produced from a combination of public data sources and the submissions of thousands of investment deals from hundreds of investors each year."

LinkedIn.com says, "The "Venture Capital Investment Market" Research Spanning from 2024 to 2032 offers a thorough examination of the historical and present performance of Leading Companies (Jubilee Capital Management, Golden Gate Ventures, SoftBank Corp., IDG Capital, JAIC), scrutinizing their Recent Advancements, Marketing Strategies, SWOT Analysis and impactful market contributions."

Upsurge says, "At the [Maryland] state level, the legislature passed the Governor's 2024 budget, unlocking $8.4M in funding for Baltimore Tech, including expanding programs that are critical to technology development and commercialization, i.e. Maryland Innovation Initiative and technical support for SBIR and STTR applications."

Are there fundraising shortcuts? 

Let's do a focus group on the 12th of June at 11:00 am!  The story of your startup journey is valuable and we would like to find out more about it.  Founders Forum is the place for you to express your viewpoint - this time about raising capital for your venture.  Our host Patrick Rockhill and guest Andrew Walsh will set the topics with a short presentation, but then open the floor to your feedback about some of the obstacles and opportunities in raising capital.  Plus, can AI actually be leveraged to fundraise for startups?

Does this apply to you?  Have things changed?  What can be done about it?  

Join us on the 12th of July 2024 regarding Venture Capital with Andrew Walsh.

Andrew Walsh is a serial entrepreneur with expertise in fintech and market data. He previously co-founded Peachscore, an AI-driven startup evaluation platform that was venture backed by the early investors of Google, Paypal, and Dropbox. He has served as a trusted partner and relationship owner to some of the largest institutions on Wall Street and previously held product, growth, and sales positions at IHS Markit (acq. S&P Global) and ICE (parent co. of NYSE).

Our Founders Forums are not open to the general public. They are focused exclusively on serving founders and co-founders. Attendance is limited in order to foster and maintain a safe space to openly share and support one another.

Join us,  Come as you are - it's online.  You'll be glad you did.

Your Startup Grind Maryland Team