Navigating the Venture Capital Funding Process

Toby Prosky

Principal, Founders Fund

Are you interested in securing venture capital to get your medical device startup off the ground? Toby Prosky will bring his unique perspective as a VC at a premier fund focused on revolutionary innovations to the table. He will be covering topics including:

• Practical thoughts on the venture funding process: getting the attention from VCs that your idea deserves.
• What are venture capitalists looking for?
• When is the right time to look for venture funding?
• What are healthcare-specific pitfalls to avoid?
• Dos and don’ts when presenting your idea.

Speaker Biography

Toby Prosky is a principal at Founders Fund. In addition to reviewing deals and performing financial analysis on portfolio companies, Toby assists Founders Fund companies with operational matters. Toby joined Founders Fund from Maxim Group, a boutique investment bank, where he headed the firm’s West Coast capital markets efforts. Toby has also worked for American Express, Merrill Lynch, and Brean Murray, Carret & Co. Prior to his career in finance, Toby was on the faculty of University of North Carolina at Asheville, where he taught courses in ancient Greek literature and post-modern theory. Toby holds a BA in Philosophy from UNC – A and an MA in Philosophy from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).

About Founders Fund (via CrunchBase):
Founders Fund is a San Francisco based venture capital firm which invests at every stage in companies with revolutionary technologies. The firm’s six partners, Peter Thiel, Sean Parker, Ken Howery, Luke Nosek, Bruce Gibney, and Brian Singerman have been founders of or early investors in numerous well-known companies such as Facebook, PayPal, Napster, and Palantir Technologies. Founders Fund was formed in 2005 and has launched three funds to date with more than $500 million in aggregate capital under management..

About the Point-of-Care Diagnostics Idea Lab

The Point-of-Care Diagnostics (POCDx) Idea Lab was created as a forum for graduate students who are working in the areas of medical diagnostics and global health to discuss topics relevant to their research.  Students working in the areas of engineering, science, policy, and healthcare are encouraged to attend.  The bi-weekly meetings will be informal and will usually include one or two short presentations by graduate students, faculty, or other outside speakers affiliated with POCDx.

This video was originally recorded on October 11th, 2011 in 621 Stanley Hall, UC Berkeley