The Vertical Flight Society is starting a new series of regular webinars to educate our members on avenues for startup funding. "Raising $tartup Capital" is intended to provide an introduction for our member companies on the different pathways for raising capital.
This first lecture will feature experts explaining general fundraising avenues available for advanced vertical flight technology development companies — including a discussion of angel, venture, Series A-D, SPAC, IPO and non-dilutive government funding. This is the first in a series of programs intended to educate the industry on the ins and outs of securing capital.
With all of the recent news about Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) and eye-popping investments, we want to provide an instructional lesson for our companies to learn the basics. This will be followed by future webinars to give more insights and perspectives.
We want to help our small business members with innovative ideas be as efficient as possible in their efforts to find funding, and reduce the number of blind alleys that only waste time and effort. A lot of money is being invested in eVTOL/advanced air mobility and a majority of our member companies are active in this space, so these webinars will be focused primarily (but not exclusively) on eVTOL/AAM.
About our Speakers:
Moderator: Dana Jensen joined Gemini in 2019 from the Department of Defense (DoD) Office of Industrial Policy where he led the DoD's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) Non-Notified Transactions Unit. Previously, Dana worked on Political-Military affairs with the Department of State and as an equity derivatives trader with Blackrock and BNP Paribas. Dana holds master’s degrees in Archaeology from Stanford University and Geography from the University of Florida. His full bio can be found at https://www.gemini-ind.com/gemini-is-unique/meet-gemini.cfm
Lecturer: Rafferty Jackson built her diverse career through leadership roles at major market disruptors, repeatedly creating executive leadership roles requiring oversight, accountability, strategic planning and execution as well as collaboration across all company functions. Now she focuses on using her unique and valuable business insights to fill leaders and founders with courage, new tools and a strategy forward for them to transform company purpose into company culture, creating better businesses through better jobs, products and services. Her full bio can be found at http://www.jack.industries/my-story.html
Commentator: Kirsten Bartok Touw has been an active early-stage investor in new and emerging advanced air mobility, or AAM, technologies through AirFinance’s Venture Capital arm. She has sourced, diligenced and executed early stage investments in AI, machine learning, computer vision, autonomy, data analytics, drones, VTOL aircraft, electrification and battery technology. Kirsten is also an advisor to many AAM startups and a frequent speaker at the intersection of AAM and finance. She was named to Corporate Jet Investor’s “Power List” in 2015 as one of the industry’s top 10 innovators and is currently the only woman on the list. Her full bio can be found at https://www.newvistacap.com/team/default.aspx