Orange County VC Fast Pitch

Pitch and network with venture capitalists, angels and accredited investors from Southern California, Silicon Valley and throughout the country at the Orange County Venture Capital Fast Pitch Conference

Black Dog Venture Partners has hosted investor events throughout the west and has raised millions of dollars for start ups as a direct result of our fast pitch conferences.

Our investor panelists include:

Scott Kelly, Black Dog Venture Partners

Scott Kelly Founder and CEO of Black Dog Venture Partners, is a 25 year fundraising, marketing, sales, training and publicity veteran. Scott has raised millions of dollars in capital for disruptive companies, garnered national media coverage for hundreds of regional and national brands and generated millions of dollars in revenues for the companies he has represented. He has also trained over 1,000 sales people and has taught marketing at the university level in the United States and Europe.

Alessandro Marianantoni - Exec. Director and Founder at M Accelerator

Alessandro Marianantoni is Exec. Director and Founder at M Accelerator in Los Angeles, offering programs to serve the Los Angeles Startup ecosystem providing students, early-stage and later-stage founders with skills to grow their startups.

He has designed and developed projects in different spaces: entertainment, engineering, architecture, and healthcare, receiving public and private funding from a number of organizations including UCLA, Google, Siemens, Marriott, Universal Studios, Disney, Amazon, Italian Government and the City of Pasadena.
Alessandro earned a degree in Computer Science from the University of L’Aquila, with a thesis on perceptual interfaces at the USC Integrated Media System Center.

Over the years he has run numerous international programs including summer boot camps and international research initiatives at UCLA and he is now directing M Accelerator and MEDIARS LLC.Hershel Mehta, Mehta Ventures, Principal

Hershel Mehta, Mehta Ventures, Principal

Hershel Mehta is a Venture Capitalist in charge of U.S. investments through his Family Office's proprietary fund called Mehta Ventures. He has gone through the entrepreneurship journey himself, having published a mobile application in the Apple App Store in 2015, and Hershel uses that experience to help guide entrepreneurs through their own journeys. He finished his Venture Investing Education through the Executive Education Program at the Wharton School of Business. Likewise, he is a CPA certified by the CA State Board of Accountancy. Hershel has invested in 20 deals in 2019. Since joining his Family Office in 2018, Hershel has executed 25 startup investments in total

Anshuman Sinha - CEO Optizm Global, Executive Director of TiE SoCal Angels

He is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and subject matter expert with 23+ years of experience and leader of high-performing teams in Talent Management, CxO placements, Staffing, Business Operations and launch of new businesses. He has been an advisor to many startups and he invests in technology and innovative startups.

He also helps well-funded startups in building their stellar delivery teams with a broad set of diverse experiences and competencies, in a variety of technology-based companies. Anshuman is an experienced business executive and advisor to a number of early-stage firms.

He is Executive Director of TiE SoCal for 2019 and President-elect for 2020. TiE is a non-profit, global community (18 countries, 61 chapters) welcoming entrepreneurs from all over the world. TiE believes in the power of ideas to change the face of entrepreneurship and growing business through our five pillars: Mentoring, Networking, Education, Incubating and Funding.

Anshuman brings clarity and alignment to the vision and strategy of companies while leading them through a transition. Combines entrepreneurial spirit with operational excellence, a keen focus on execution, and leverages his extensive experience in research and development, high-performing team building, and organizational design. He has held P&L accountability for worldwide operations, established successful offsite development centers in Mumbai & Pune (India). Established & Managed new sales center based in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Implemented International Partner Program in Germany, Ukraine, Singapore, Kuwait, and Kenya

Alexis Bedoret- Co-Founder and Business Prototyper at Make It Group

I spent the last 10 years building startups with expertise in Software, Hardware and the Internet of Things. With my co-founders, we created a Startup Studio to invest in startups. We learned how to be the best builders, not by brainstorming, but by making our hands dirty building our own startups. Too many entrepreneurs focus on their product building great technology before validating that it actually fulfills a need for which the customer is ready to pay. This is a particular topic that I feel passionate about and we have built a great mindset and culture about this particular problem in the life of a startup. It's all about trying to generate customer traction as fast as possible, we believe that's the best way to validate a business opportunity.

Tony Sarris - Executive Director for Tech Coast Angels Orange County

During his career, Tony has been an individual contributor, manager, executive, entrepreneur and investor with responsibilities spanning technology innovation and incubation, product management, partnerships, product development, and IT operations. He's worked for large global enterprises, management consulting firms and startups from pre-seed to growth stage. His technical background is in data-centric information technologies including artificial intelligence-based systems. He's currently Executive Director for Tech Coast Angels Orange County, one of the longest serving, largest and most active angel investment networks in Southern California.

Asher Leids - Venture Mentor at LDR Ventures

Asher is a Corporate Attorney specializing in venture capital, securities & merger & acquisition transactions. He is also an angel investor with a focus on consumer lifestyle brands, eCommerce, healthcare and technology companies that have a socially responsible aspect in their mission. He has made over 20 investments in startup companies which include the following: Thrive Market, events.com, mogl.con, Connected Signals, Jaanuu, Arsenic, Vow to be Chic, Trufl and Snobar Cocktails. Asher was involved in one of the first e-commerce IPOs, taking Shopping.com public in 1997, and represented a startup that was formed by a number of UCLA computer science majors that received funding from Ron Burkle, the founder of The Yucaipa Companies, and Mike Ovitz, one of the founders of Creative Artists Agency. While that company, Scour.net, eventually didn’t succeed, one of the founders, Travis Kalanick, has gone on to lead Uber Technologies, Inc.

Arabian Prince - Founder / Chief Innovator, Inov8next
​​A songwriter, rapper, producer, DJ and technologist, Arabian is best known for pioneering west coast electro music and being a founding member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted rap group N.W.A. His passion for technology led to him create a 3D animation and special effects studio in the 90’s working with companies like Saban Entertainment and Fox; including 100+ video game titles for Fox Interactive and Vivendi Universal. As a consultant, Arabian has advised many companies on bridging the gap between technology and the youth, while bringing new product innovations to market.

Vishal Arora Technology Executive, Startup Investor, Incubator, and Advisor

Vishal is a technologist at heart. He enjoys building disruptive, innovative technology products and services that have worldwide impact, as well as investing in, incubating, and advising startups that do the same. He has Bachelor’s and Master’s in Computer Science and an Executive MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Vishal has served multiple products and professional services organizations like Microsoft, Symantec, Accenture, and Avanade in different leadership capacity, where his roles included enterprise product and services strategy, design and delivery, product and portfolio management, global technology and P&L management. He is a founder of both Netvega Solutions, an IT services firm focused on providing services and solutions for small to mid-market companies, and VDOSH, an investment and advisory firm focused on growing technology startups in the early stages of their development.

Vishal is passionate about startup mentorship and incubation and supports startups throughout the United States and India. He is a mentor with multiple incubation and acceleration centers including Alchemist Accelerator, Accenture Ventures and SAP and more.

Mark Son -Pasadena Angels Board Member

Mark is an active member of Pasadena Angels, one of the top angel groups in the country. His professional background is in Finance and Software Technology, but he also had a stint in running an international fashion business. His goal is to meet energetic and tenacious very-early-stage entrepreneurs that are curious about angel and VC funding.

Cameron Colvin - Chairman & CEO- Rise Above Enterprises

Cameron Colvin having played for the De La Salle Spartans, Oregon Ducks, and San Francisco 49ers. His story was recently portrayed by Ser'Darius William Blain in the 2014 Sony film When the Game Stands Tall, about his life through high school with the De La Salle Spartans.

Chairman of CamCo Commercial Inc & Creative Solutions company “Rise Above Enterprises Development " that has taken on projects for American Idol creator Simon Fuller as well as Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee.

Now author of Never Stop " 12 Principles of Success book series. Cameron has been featured in numerous global media outlets from Forbes, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, New York Post and more.

Cameron is currently an active investor on hit show Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch by Sprint which did 25,025,724 total views. His commitment to his sports career, business endeavors, and philanthropy with his 15 year non profit Linking Sports and Communities which supports underprivileged youth has set Cameron on a path to influence many around the world. Cam is your influential specialist that collaborates with brands to drive traffic and make splashes in your perspective market!

David Friedman - Tech Coast Angels

As a businessman and executive for technology, software, cloud, and service companies, I am passionate about helping companies increase their value, improve customer loyalty and build a success culture that makes employees enjoy working in that environment. As an executive or on a consulting project, I develop and execute market, strategy, and product plans with tactical growth programs, increasing top line revenue and margins. I do this through a combination of tools and techniques that I have developed in my career, one of which is called “customer jujitsu.” while helping companies bridge technology and business into an innovation mindset.
C-LEVEL EXECUTIVE FOCUSED ON PROFITABLE GROWTH
As Managing Director for C-Level Partners, a business consultancy, I help corporate executives drive value creation by helping them see different paths to success and helping them manage those growth paths. During my career I built top in-class marketing and business organizations with a foundation of analytics and metrics that demonstrate ROI and support business goals. And I commercialized more than $1.5 billion in new products during my career. My international experience extends to Europe and Asia.
I want my business epitaph to read: He is a builder of businesses, a teacher to the next generation of business leaders. I give back to executives and teach marketing at Camp Pendleton through the Marine Executive Association; being a mentor at the UC Irvine Merage School of Business; and an Expert in Residence at UC Irvine Applied Innovation. I am also involved with the Medical Information and Intelligence Institute at Children’s Hospital of Orange County and the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs as part of my work with TechCoastAngels.
I just published a new book called StreetSavvy℠ Business: A Way to Prevent Corporate Mediocrity based on my cable business TV show, my business practice, and my blogs.

Janice Orlando - Private Investor - Board of Directors, Pasadena Angels

The Pasadena Angels were founded in 2000 and are one of the longest-running angel investing groups in Southern California. We have invested over $75 million in 190 plus companies. Pasadena Angels funded companies have gone on to raise over $500 million from additional funding sources such as venture capital and private equity. Recent notable exits for the Pasadena Angels are Mind Body Software (NASDAQ:MB) reaching $1 billion and Bluebeam Software, acquired by Nemetschek for $100 million.

The Pasadena Angels have been consistently ranked as one of the top ten angel investing groups in the country according to Forbes Magazine (2015) and Angel Resource Institute's HALO report (2017). A nonprofit entity, the Pasadena Angels offers early-stage start-ups capital investments; as well as mentoring from the expertise of more than 100 investor members with over 4,000 years of combined business expertise. Our $1.5 million PA Fund 1 was formed in 2016 with the sole purpose of co-investing exclusively in deals subscribed by Pasadena Angels members.

Jeffrey Lin -  Director of Oak Sky Capital 

Managing his own AUM as well as his family's, Jeffrey Lin has been investing for the past decade. Focusing on real estate/infrastructure and seed-stage to publicly-listed companies, he invests with a cross border angle (Asia Expansion). Jeffrey Lin started college at the age of 14 and received his JD from the University of Iowa. 

Many more investors expected to attend!

Feedback from our previous events: