If you’re reading this you may be telling yourself, “I need a new career.” So what should you do if you want to work at a tech company, but feel like you don’t have the right experience to break in? In short, you should target specific tech companies whose mission aligns with what you’ve accomplished in the past.

Drew Leahy is the Managing Partner and Cofounder of Hawke Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund that focuses on consumer and technology that powers consumer. Three-time entrepreneur and inventor, Drew was previously the Chief Marketing Officer and Co-founder of SnapSuits.com, a tech-forward men’s fashion e-retailer. He leveraged his seasoned product team, based in Colombia, South America, to achieve an 8x ROI with powerful technology and marketing. Drew was also previously Entrepreneur in Residence at memBrain in Los Angeles, working with tech and entertainment angel investors Ken Hertz and Liz Heller. He hails from Brighton, MI, graduated from the University of Michigan, and was awarded 2010 Ross School of Business Entrepreneur of the Year.

Elaine is a Partner with PLG Ventures focused on early stage tech investing in Southern CA. She started her career in investment banking at JPMorgan in NYC and worked in M&A within the CPG industry before receiving her MBA at Kellogg. Elaine then spent the past 10 years working within the startup industry in San Francisco and Chicago. First, she was an early employee at Tiny Prints up until they were acquired by Shutterfly in 2011 for $333m. After, she moved to Chicago to be VP of Product for Storeplacer, a company with a SaaS social commerce product and then co-founded two B2C companies. The last company she founded was called Little Key, an on-demand marketplace for parents to find and book kids’ classes and activities, acquired in 2016 by Dabble.

Prior to HelloAdvisr, Ed was a Director of Simon-Kucher & Partners, a global management consulting firm with more than 30 offices worldwide and widely recognized as the global leader in pricing. He advised clients on pricing, sales effectiveness and marketing strategy while working in a range of sectors including retail/ecommerce, B2B services, consumer goods, marketplace/platform and private equity. Previous to this, Ed was the Go-To-Market (GTM) manager for LG Electronics Europe where he worked with senior leadership across 14 subsidiaries and 20 markets to develop and implement initiatives to increase revenue and profitability growth. Ed received an MBA from Oxford University, double Masters of Science (MSc) from the London School of Economics and a BA from the University of California, San Diego.

Brian is an active angel investor and board advisor to several seed stage companies in LA. He is President of Tech Coast Angels LA Chapter and is currently in charge of both their VC outreach program and their new sidecar investment fund. During his time with TCA he has screened over 300 companies and met with several hundreds more. Last year, TCA invested $15 million across 57 companies, matching similar amounts in 2017 and years prior, making it the largest angel investment group in the US. In addition to angel investing, Brian also trades energy futures for a commodities hedge fund. Prior to joining TCA, Brian spent 10 years in the investment banking industry in New York. Brian received an MBA from UCLA Anderson.

Chris holds a diverse range of investment and consulting experience in areas including SaaS, consumer marketplace, entertainment, and real estate technologies. His limitless view of the connected world comes from curiosity and deep-rooted industry connections in the Los Angeles startup ecosystem. Prior to joining Comcast Ventures, Chris served as Principal at Siemer & Associates where he focused on digital media and software startup transactions. He spent his early career as SVP at IMT Capital where he identified growth opportunities and implemented the M&A due diligence process for the firm. In 2013, he was appointed by California’s governor to join the State of California Workforce Investment Board. He received his B.A. in History from Yale.

I’m inspired every day by the creativity and boldness of strong founders.Seeing founders achieve the impossible, simply because they don’t live within traditional limits, always excites and inspires me. After exiting China Export Finance, I took 3 years and focused on working with a portfolio of young technology companies to help them along the journey to build their businesses. During that time, I was exposed to both inspiring talent and a wide set of challenges that really opened my eyes—to the unique nature of every business, yes, but also to the problems and solutions they often had in common. Working with these founders not only grounded me as a mentor, but also provided me with countless insights and significant growth that prepared me for my tenure at Digital Ocean, where I was able to leverage my 20 years of experience and build the company from the ground up—ultimately reaching 500+ employees and over $200M in revenue. I’m thrilled to be able to share this playbook of knowledge and experience with M13’s partner entrepreneurs, across every stage of growth.

Paul Orlando focuses on getting startups to succeed. As Director of the USC Incubator, he works with businesses founded by USC students, alumni, and faculty. Incubator startups have been funded, run crowdfunding campaigns, shipped product, and have been acquired. Paul teaches Feasibility Analysis, Growth Hacking, and the Digital Startup Launchpad. Before USC, he co-founded AcceleratorHK, Hong Kong's first startup accelerator, which recently had a portfolio exit. Previously, he co-founded a startup that developed new communication technology and won at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon. He wrote the book Startup Sacrilege about thriving outside the tech hubs. Paul's work has been featured in media including Forbes, TechCrunch and the Wall Street Journal.

Jim Cooper has had over 20 years of startups, market research, market intelligence and competitive analysis experience. He has assisted companies enter the United States market, and has helped many other companies entering markets further afield. He is CTO of Braid Theory, an early-stage startup advisory and consulting group located in Los Angeles. He also created a consultancy, Conscientia Research, and as a full-service Market Research business its goals are to make businesses successful and competitive by employing research to understand markets, so a business doesn't have to rely on assumptions about how a market works.

Let’s talk about how to create and build a pitch deck.

In a time of such polarizing leadership, there’s a good opportunity to reflect on our paradigms and retool our thoughts on how to be the leaders our employees, co-workers, friends or family deserve. This is the first post in a three-part series walking you through the idea of leadership versus management and the challenges I had making the shift.

Taking ownership of a failure or shortcoming is difficult. Our egos, self-worth or even careers can take a massive hit when we execute poorly or fail at a task. When we are wrong or when we fail, our natural reaction is to become defensive and blame someone else, but this just exacerbates any previous problems we had.

202 SoCal VC Funds

Entrepreneurship Guide: Index

Active VC’s in LA