Out in Tech SF | Womxn to the front: an evening with queer leaders in vc

When the event is at capacity we will likely continue to release tickets to those on the waitlist closer to the date. We encourage you to register for the waitlist. 

*We encourage queer women, non-binary, trans* and PoC members of the community to attend, but all are welcome.*

Join Out in Tech and Twitter on Thursday, October 11 for a night of conversation with cutting-edge leaders in venture capital — who happen to be queer womxn. 

What’s it like to be an LGBTQ+ investor in 2018? How can queer founders get in front of supportive investors?

Whether you are interested in investing, leading your own company, or just looking to connect with the queer tech community, this event is for you.

This event is kindly co-hosted by Twitter Open and Twitter Women.

6:00pm | Doors
7:00pm | Panel 
8:00pm | Networking

Adult beverages (YAS) + snacks.  21+.

PANELISTS

ARLAN HAMILTON

Founder, Managing Partner – Backstage Capital

Arlan Hamilton is a remarkable entrepreneur who built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started in 2015, Backstage has now invested nearly $5M into 100 startups led by underestimated founders and has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Quartz.

TIFFANY HO

VC Investor – Sherpa Capital

Tiffany is currently an Investor at Sherpa Capital, a SF-based venture capital firm whose portfolio includes Uber, Airbnb, Ipsy, Slack, Wag!, Curology, and Rent the Runway. Tiffany previously served as Chief of Staff of Digital for the Consumer & Community Banking Division at JP Morgan Chase. The group delivers services to Chase’s 52+ million customers through internet and mobile delivery channels, next generation banking products, and emerging payments (e.g. Apple Pay, bitcoin). As part of the core Strategy team at the investment bank years prior, Tiffany restructured the trading operating model of JP Morgan’s markets business and shepherded the creation of a new cross-asset electronic trading desk. Before her start at the New York Stock Exchange, Tiffany founded three companies – a 501(c)(3) education nonprofit, a technology licensing company, and a restaurant. In 2010, Tiffany was named Emerging Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame.

MARIA SALAMANCA

Investor – TheVentureCity

Maria Salamanca is a venture capitalist at Unshackled Ventures, activist leader, and advisor at Swing Left and Higher Ground Labs. Unshackled Ventures is a fund that fills a unique space in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, funding teams with immigrant founders at the earliest stage of pre-seed. Maria joined the fund three years ago and has been involved in all 27 investments and has evaluated more than 3,000 deals. Maria is not only a leader but key figure in the pre-seed investment community, supporting underrepresented founders just like herself. In 2018, she was first Latina to be named Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital and Business Insider’s Under 30 Rising Stars.

MONICA SIMO

Investor – TheVentureCity

Monica Black is a Partner at TheVentureCity, a new venture and acceleration model that helps diverse founders achieve global impact. Prior to joining TheVentureCity, Monica was one of the first ten employees at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where she helped lead their venture capital investing. She has also worked at startups and in private equity firms.

MODERATOR

LAURA FISHER

Technical Program Manager – Twitter; Previously Founder & CEO – TreePress

Aside from having a confusing accent, Laura has lived and worked in New York City, London, Sydney and now San Francisco.  She started her career working in Digital Innovation, before branching out and starting her own company in 2014.  She built TreePress over four years, raising venture capital from Design Thinking leaders Matter VC and four Angels. After TreePress, she moved into Product at a Gaming company and then joined the Technical Program Management team at Twitter in May 2018.  At Twitter, she leads a variety of work across the company ranging from Election Integrity to Big Data Migrations.  Laura holds an English and Theology degree and serves as proof that anybody has the potential to work in tech.

IMPORTANT INFO

1. Due to Twitter’s security requirements, guests have to RSVP via Eventbrite. If you do not RSVP, we will not be able to provide access to the venue. Absolutely no exceptions – even in the event of technical or operational failure on behalf of Out in Tech – can be made to this policy.

2. Guests are also required to register with their legal name that matches a government-issued ID that must be presented at the door. There will be space provided in the RSVP for correct names that will be used for name tags during the event. There will be no access to the event without providing a form of Government ID that matches the legal name provided on the RSVP form.

3. Please know that an RSVP does not guarantee entrance. To ensure entrance we recommend arriving when the doors open at 6 pm. If we reach capacity we, unfortunately, may be required to turn people away.