The most important job of a founder is getting your startup funded. Lots of the focus nowadays is on figuring out how to get money from private investors, typically venture capitalists. This talk, presented by Jared Silvia, will focus on another critical source of funds for many first-time founders — non-dilutive funding. We will do a quick survey of the sources of non-dilutive funding, discuss how it fits into a resilient capital strategy, and then do a deep dive on one of the biggest sources of non-dilutive funding in the US, the SBIR/STTR grant program, and how you can get started on your first grant.

For early-stage startups, marketing can quickly become a long list of things you could be doing. In this interactive workshop, Sara Sonnen will help you focus on what matters most — from defining your ideal customer and sharpening your positioning to choosing the right channels, improving your website, and creating content that builds awareness and drives real conversations.

Drawing on her experience working with startups and growth-stage companies, Sara will share practical examples and exercises to help you understand how these pieces work together — and leave you with a clearer sense of what to prioritize next.

Startup internships move fast, and getting the most out of one takes more than showing up ready to work. This session, presented by Bronica Sam and Colette Vogel, brings together a panel of former startup interns alongside founders who recruit them, for a candid conversation about what makes an internship successful from both sides of the table.

Who should attend: 

• Students exploring internship opportunities in the startup space. Learn how interns landed their role, how they leveraged their prior work experience, and what they did to turn a short-term internship into meaningful impact.  
• Startup Founders who want to recruit student interns. Get insights into what to look for when hiring interns beyond the resume including key success factors like sense of ownership, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to ramp up quickly on a lean team. Learn how interns can help fill a business need at your company. 

The panel will explore: 

• What separates a great intern candidate from an average one, from the founder’s perspective 
• How to communicate proactively and build trust on a small team with limited structure 
• Ways to convert an internship into a full-time offer, provide a strong reference, or connect the intern with a startup network connection 
• What startups wish students knew before day one… and what interns wish they’d known too