Miguel McKelvey is the Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of WeWork, where he directs all architecture, design, and construction activities. Miguel is a multi-disciplinary designer and entrepreneur with diverse experience in architectural design, construction management, and web development. Prior to WeWork, Miguel created the design framework and led the national retail roll-out for American Apparel (170 stores), and was involved in the early-stage development of several companies, including Green Desk, Barre3, Versation, and English, Baby! Miguel earned his BA (Architecture) from the University of Oregon.
Arlan Hamilton is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm investing in founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Backstage Capital has raised more than $20 million and invested in nearly 200 companies. She is the founder of Runner, an operations and HR talent source for inclusive startups. Arlan was on the cover of Fast Company magazine, authored the book “It’s About Damn Time,” and hosts the podcast “Your First Million”. Arlan and her mother, Mrs. Earline Butler-Sims, also started a scholarship for Black students at Oxford University and HBCU Dillard University.
Marlon Nichols is a founding managing partner at Cross Culture Ventures (CCV), which finds the entrepreneurs who are building the future for the rest of America. He’s a former Kauffman Fellow and Investment Director at Intel Capital and a current adjunct professor in entrepreneurship and venture capital at the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. Marlon’s unique eye for global trends and shifts in consumer behavior has helped him capture high-potential investments like Gimlet Media, MongoDB, Thrive Market, Fair, LISNR, Mayvenn, Blavity, Wonderschool, and others. He’s been featured on Fortune, Blavity, and Smart Company and is the recipient of SXSW 2018 Innovator of the Year award, Digital Diversity’s Innovation & Inclusion Change Agent award, and was named Pitchbook’s 25 Black Founders and VCs to Watch in 2018.
Jim has achieved 5 ‘unicorn’-level successes over the past 20 years as a founder, executive, and investor. His top performers include Zoom ($1B valuation), Cruise ($1B sale to GM), Bebo ($850M sale to AOL), Tango ($1B+ valuation), and NBCi ($6B IPO), plus several other exits including the recent acquisition of Check by Intuit for $360M. Jim is one of the leading growth experts in Silicon Valley, a TED speaker, and a frequent presenter and judge at many startup conferences and events. Jim has a BS in Neuropsychology from Duke University and earned a JD at the University of California Davis School of Law. Jim has startup in his blood. He’s been a serial entrepreneur dating back to his high school and college days.
Immediately prior to founding Maven Ventures, Jim was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Charles River Ventures (CRV), a leading venture firm where he helped source, vet, and advise their consumer portfolio companies. Jim is one of the early pioneers of the social networking phenomenon as one of the first employees and the former head of business development and sales at the first social networking site, Friendster. In 2005, Jim left Friendster to join co-founders Michael and Xochi Birch to launch Bebo as the first employee and Board member. Prior to his internet career, Jim practiced corporate and intellectual property law at a leading Silicon Valley law firm for 3 years.
With over 1,000 founders, startups, investors & 50+ speakers joining us at Startup Grind SoCal, this is one of Startup Grind’s biggest events yet. View the agenda and create your own attendee schedule to ensure you get the most out of the conference.
We are a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs.
Founded in Silicon Valley, Startup Grind now spans over 600 cities across the world.
![Megan Smith (Google[x])](https://res.cloudinary.com/startup-grind/image/upload/c_fill,dpr_2.0,f_auto,g_center,h_200,q_auto:good,w_200/v1/gcs/platform-data-startupgrind/events/5-Megan-Smith_Google-%5Bx%5D_QA1Se8x.jpg)
Megan is an entrepreneur, tech evangelist, engineer, catalyst and connector. As VP at Google[x], Megan works on a range of projects including co-creating/hosting SolveForX to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and collaboration. For nine years prior she led Google’s New Business Development team managing early-stage partnerships, pilot explorations, and technology licensing for Google’s global engineering and product teams. She led the acquisitions of Keyhole (Google Earth), Where2Tech (Google Maps) and Picasa, and also led the Google.org team transition to add more engineering with Google Crisis Response, GoogleforNonprofits, and Earth Outreach. Prior to joining Google, Megan was CEO and earlier, COO of PlanetOut, the leading LGBT online community. Over the years, Megan has contributed to a wide range of engineering projects, including an award-winning bicycle lock, space station construction program, and solar cookstoves. She holds a bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT, where she now serves on the board. She completed her master's thesis work at the MIT Media Lab.
“Startup Grind is some of the best community stuff out there.”
“The payoff for me and my partner has been the discussions we’ve had as a result of what we’ve learned and experienced here. In a few short days we have made strategic decisions about what our company will and will not do going forward, and it’s because of information we’ve gathered here.”
“One of my favorite events.”
Apply to be one of only 20 startups selected to exhibit in our Startup Program
Startup Grind SoCal begins at 10:30 AM and ends at 6:30 PM on September 27th. We’ll be hosting a Happy Hour on September 27th, until 8:30 PM.
The event takes place at the Skirball Center at 2701 N Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles.
You’ll have full access to all speaker sessions and networking in the main hall and the workshop hall, lunch, snacks and drinks throughout the day, and our happy hour.
We work with Fortune 500 as well as newly launched companies to reach entrepreneurs around the world, and we’d love to work with you as a sponsoring partner. You’ll reach hundreds during our event, and hundreds of thousands of online followers with a mix of digital & on-site reach.
If your business has raised less than $3MM and has fewer than 20 employees, you’re eligible for the 2016 Startup Program. If selected, you’ll display your company during the conference, be exposed to our network of 200 investors, and enjoy perks like media opportunities and startup service discounts.
The Startup Program is simple and transparent: if chosen, your startup receives 3 VIP full day tickets, including access to a display booth for one of these two days.
The Skirball Center provides 600 free parking spaces on a first come, first served basis. Get here early to stake your claim.
All the following hotel suggestions are close to or less than 5 miles from the Skirball Center, and include options for all price ranges starting at $75 per night. Many guests will choose to stay with local hosts through AirBnB.
Hotel Bel Air (5 Stars)
701 Stone Canyon Road, Los Angeles, CA, 90077
W Los Angeles - West Beverly Hills (4 Stars)
930 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90024
Courtyard by Marriott Los Angeles at Sherman Oaks (3 Stars)
15433 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA, 91403
Best Western Plus Carriage Inn (3 Stars)
5525 Sepulveda Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA, 91411
Hosteling International Los Angeles at Santa Monica (1 Star)
1436 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90401
Absolutely! You can enter and exit the event at your leisure so long as you are wearing your Startup Grind wristband, which acts as your ticket.
But do us a favor: do not remove, tamper, or attempt to transfer your ticket to another visitor, or we may have to refuse your entry.
You can shower and sleep with your wristband on, and if you wear it for the whole year, we guarantee you a free ticket to our next conference. Yes, really.
The entrepreneur’s journey can be a winding one, so we often collaborate with partner companies to sponsor the tickets of a handful of applicants. To find out if you’re eligible, tell us about what you’re working on and why you should receive a sponsorship at this email.
If you’re a journalist reporting for a major media outlet or a private blogger with a considerable audience, we’d be happy to have you join as our guest.
Please email us with your name, the name of the outlet for which you’ll report, a link to the site where your articles are published, and the monthly recurring visitors to the media property (if known).
Please note that speaker access is reserved to select media personnel on advance request and is not open to most press pass holders.
Ah, bosses — we know the drill. We have an expert team at the ready for these kind of situations: they’ve spent their lifetimes training in the fine art of tasteful wit, persuasive copywriting, and even the dark arts of corporate speak. Send us an email and we’ll make the case on your behalf. But beware! With such great power comes great responsibility — contact wisely.
Though speakers like Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures spent over an hour with the audience, most speakers are busy founders who do us the great favor of sharing their time pro-bono exactly because they know we won’t demand much of it. All speakers are encouraged to meet attendees, walk the floor, and enjoy the conference — but we make no guarantees.
There will, however, be hundreds of investors among the audience — many who’d love to meet you. There was over $1.5 million offered to founders by investors they met during the two days of the event, some who randomly bumped into one another.
Our secret to spotting & connecting with VIPs: say hello to those people who seem relaxed and sit back during networking breaks, as many of them will be those whose networks are already incredible. If they don’t invest, it’s likely they know those who do — so make friends instead of pitching hard.
Want to be matched with investors? Apply to our Startup Program.
Aww, we were really looking forward to meeting you. We’re sorry to say we do not issue refunds, but you can definitely exchange your ticket with a friend or business colleague up to a month before the event. Email us here with your name and the name to which you’d like to transfer your ticket, and we’ll get you sorted.
Hope to see you next year!
Yes: comfortable. Expect some people to feel most comfortable dressed in formal business attire – it can be a nice confidence booster. Also expect to mingle with a SoCal crowd that’s most comfortable in casual streetwear, maybe accented with a company hoodie and sometimes flip flops. Keep in mind the amazing people you’ll be meeting at this conference, and dress to impress and connect with them. However you style yourself, make sure it’s respectful of the beautiful venue and other guests attending the event. Think twice about Crocs, though.
We appreciate your enthusiasm, but we ask our guests to stick to business cards at most. Flyers tend to take time and focus away from the conference experience, so nail your pitch instead.
The only exception are paid sponsors, who also receive a booth and other perks at the event. Learn more about sponsorships here if you’d like to reach the Startup Grind audience. We’d love to work together.
Unfortunately, we will not be sponsoring visas for attendees to the Startup Grind SoCal Conference, though let us know if you have a big travel adventure you want to share as part of your journey to SoCal.
