EHF Friendly Sharks: Mentor Hours for Founders (April 2024)

You're invited to this monthly "Friendly Sharks" event hosted by EHF Fellows! 

• 3x Startups will have the opportunity to present their ideas, pitch, or seek advice
• Each startup gets a 20-minute slot for their presentation (5 minutes) and feedback/conversation (15 Minutes)

Join us for a session of startup wisdom and guidance from seasoned entrepreneurs, angel investors, and VCs. In a supportive atmosphere, we'll listen to the challenges you’re experiencing and tackle topics critical to startup success - from determining market potential and protecting IP to fundraising strategies and growth hacking. We’ll provide actionable advice to take your business to the next level.

If you're a budding founder, this is a unique opportunity to connect with New Zealand investors in a friendly and low-key way, that isn’t a formal pitch for money. You'll gain insights from those who have been there before and they’ll give you tips on how to make your business more successful and increase the odds for being able to find funding for your business. 

Startup Founders will be welcomed by participating EHF Angel Investors/VC’s.

• Kirsty Reynolds
• Sean McGrail
• Mark Bregman
• Mark Pavlyukovskyy (Guest Investor)
  

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The event will be held virtually. Spaces are limited. If you are a startup and wish to take this opportunity to present and get feedback, please RSVP a 1x 20min slot to secure your presenting and feedback spot. You're invited to stay for the whole session (1.5 hours) and listen to other presentations.

This is a closed session for the participating startups only.

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✅ What this is:

• Raising founders' commercial savviness 
• Encouraging founders to thrive locally and globally
• EHF Fellows giving back to the community
• An opportunity for EHF Fellows to come and connect with the Aotearoa NZ ecosystem
  

❌ What this is not:

• Pitching for funding

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MEET THE INVESTOR FELLOWS

Kirsty Reynolds is an EHF Fellow, angel investor and company director with deep experience investing in startups and working with ambitious New Zealand SME businesses that are poised for international expansion. She has 25+ years of commercial experience, developing businesses internationally throughout the Asia Pacific region, across a range of industries, from SMEs to MNCs including founding her own export business which she ran for 8 years. These experiences help inform her understanding of the unique challenges faced by business owners who are invariably constrained by limited resources, thereby impacting their ability to scale their businesses internationally. As an angel investor, her focus is on companies poised to significantly contribute to the growth of a productive, sustainable and inclusive New Zealand economy. In addition to supporting dozens of Ice Angels portfolio companies, she is a founding investor in Icehouse Ventures, Outset Ventures and several funds including the Arc Angels’ funds. 

Mentoring and empowering women founders on their capital raise journey is especially important to Kirsty. Her aspiration for women founders is that they can raise money on the merits of their business despite potential unconscious bias in the market.

Sean McGrail is a committed social entrepreneur and impact investor based in Auckland, New Zealand. As an Edmund Hillary Fellowship Investor Fellow, he propels entrepreneurs to create world-changing businesses, with a focus on UN sustainable development goals like gender equality, clean energy, and fair work. Prior roles include Managing Director at Golden Seeds, where he supported women-led start-ups, and co-founder of Paint Nite, an award-winning, social impact company that became one of the fastest-growing private companies in the US.

Mark Bregman has spent more than 30 years in the technology industry since earning his PhD in physics. He has often worked with early-stage companies to help them develop their products and bring them to market. Mark launched Quidnet Ventures, a new fund to support early-stage NZ companies. He previously ran IBM’s innovation lab in Japan and was Managing Director of Vista Labs (Vista Equity Partners), helping their portfolio companies innovate more effectively.

Mark Pavlyukovskyy was born in the Ukraine and educated in America and the U.K. with stints in China and Ghana. He's used his multicultural upbringing to see problems from different angles and solve them in creative ways. His early experiences in molecular biology, led to his interest in infectious disease education through games. He later used game based methodology to teach kids computer science in revolutionary ways. Along the way he started and exited several companies. Currently He's an investor at NZVC, a New Zealand focused VC fund helping bridge the gap between innovative kiwi founders and bigger markets in North America and Asia.