EIR Workshop with Daphne Preuss: Financing Your New Venture
Channel: Illinois Research Park
Date: 2022-03-25

Daphne Preuss joined us for an EIR Workshop on January 20, 2022. Today's entrepreneurs have more viable opportunities than ever before when capitalizing their new venture. This discussion provides a high level overview of the various options for seed capital: SAFEs, convertible notes, crowdsourcing, traditional venture capital, and non-dilutive capital.  Pros and cons of the various financing methods were discussed, along with a deeper dive into the key terms associated with the most commonly used options. This talk concluded with an action plan for pursuing your preferred financing path. 

About the Speaker: 
 
Daphne Preuss is an entrepreneur focused on bringing genetic and biotechnology innovations to life sciences, food technology, and agriculture. She previously founded, built, and served for 11 years as CEO for Chromatin Inc., developing sorghum seed for growers in over 50 countries. Since exiting in 2019, she has served as an Executive Board member / Operating Partner leading startups through value inflections and has launched BlooMD to explore antimicrobial compounds made by plants. She frequently advises faculty and founders who are launching companies, including providing guidance on raising capital and capitalization strategies, forming a board and choosing investors while maintaining good and appropriate governance, building a team, planning for an exit, building an IP portfolio that is aligned with a commercial strategy, go-to-market plans, and forming strategic partnerships.  In addition,  Preuss enjoys leveraging her network of investors, entrepreneurs, advisors, and service providers to accelerate the growth of small companies while keeping costs manageable.  Prior to joining Chromatin, Preuss was a Professor and Howard Hughes Investigator at the University of Chicago.

Learn about other events held at the Research Park here: https://researchpark.illinois.edu/calendar/