Watch the entrepreneurial funding process as it actually happens - not what you see on Shark Tank! The event will feature four startup firms honing their pitches to a panel of angel investors - the last step before they hit the big stage. We encourage entrepreneurial companies considering a fund raise down the road to attend as observers in order to become more familiar with the process. Format: 8 minute presentations, followed by 8 minutes of panel feedback. After panel comments, we allocate 4 minutes for audience perspectives and questions. Serious entrepreneurs only.

Eleanor Haas co-leads the New York Chapter of Keiretsu Forum, the largest angel network in the world. She is also an advisor to two additional angel communities - 37 Angels and Astia, which focus on firms created or led by women. Further, Eleanor is Managing Director of The Calyx Group LLC, which advises startup firms on revenue and growth issues, business planning, marketing, funding, and relationships with investors.   

Michael Beck is an independent angel investor. He also serves as Principal of EX Consulting LLC, an advisory group that performs scalability and stability assessments of entrepreneurial companies, and provides fundraising support. In addition, Michael is the Founder of Medox Technologies Inc., whose platform allows healthcare patients to authorize or restrict access to electronic health information maintained by data custodians.        

John Hempill is a Partner at Sheppard Mullin in the Corporate Practice Group. He has extensive experience in private and public finance, representing private emerging growth companies, venture capital funds, and strategic investors in seed rounds and later stage private financings. He has advised clients in both acquisitions and dispositions of companies and lines of business, as well as in other types of negotiated business combinations.   

Bruce Crawford, Founder of the Entrepreneur Forum, will serve as moderator. Prior to founding the Forum in 2008, he was Co-Head of Ratings Advisory at Salomon Smith Barney, where his primary responsibility was preparing corporations for bond rating presentations to agencies. Previously, he was a Director in Corporate Finance at Standard & Poor's, responsible for firms in the automotive, chemical, energy, and pharmaceutical industries.