Entrepreneurs Panel @ Innovation Factory

Description

Dreaming of your own company, but don't know where to start? Join the Innovation Factory's panel to hear real stories and tips that work and to network with successful entrepreneurs who have nailed it. Learn how to validate ideas, build high-performance teams, and earn funding for your idea through the Student Startup Challenge in April.

Guest speakers:

• Kavya Krishna, co-founder of the Society of Women Coders
• Mike Leffer, principal at Early Light Ventures
• Jack Fischer (moderator), founder and author of Molecular Ideas

Kavya Krishna is the co-founder of the Society of Women Coders (SOWCoders), a women-led organization that works to encourage young girls from developing nations to opt for education and careers in STEM by conducting free coding and entrepreneurship camps and providing mentorship. SOWCoders has worked with over 1,200 girls from 27 countries around the world. Through SOWCoders, she has worked with government agencies and civic organizations in Haiti, Kenya, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and Belize to establish coding camps and has personally taught at several of them. Krishna also works as a senior analyst at SiriusXM in New York. She was also involved with the Code in Place Initiative at Stanford University. She is an advocate of women education and regularly speaks about women's issues and social impact in the developing world.

Mike Leffer is a principal at Early Light Ventures, an early-stage Baltimore-based venture capital fund. He previously worked as a principal and founding team member at Squadra Ventures, an investment analyst with Baltimore Angels, is a two-time founder with one exit, and served as an officer in the U.S. Army. Leffer regularly advises founders at the earliest stages of their companies, several of whom have raised millions of dollars in venture funding. He holds a Masters of Business Administration from Johns Hopkins, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and regularly holds his breath for over five minutes while freediving and spearfishing.

Jack Fischer is the founder and author of Molecular Ideas, a life sciences innovation blog. He brings ten years of commercial planning and strategic storytelling experience for early-stage biotechnology and top-ten pharmaceutical companies to the Innovation Factory as a board member.

This event is hosted by the Carey Business School, Office of Experiential Learning.