Discover Opportunities:

Sessions for Venture-Scale Founders

Location

2 Available

expert

Pitch Deck Teardown LIVE: A Real VC Reviews a Real Founder's Deck

August

7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Zoom

Benjamin Nahir

Most pitch deck advice is generic. This isn't.

For one hour, you'll watch a seasoned VC open up a real founder's actual pitch deck - slide by slide - and react the way she would in a real partner meeting. No hypotheticals, no polished "after" version. Just an honest, live teardown of a deck that's out in the world right now.

The VC: Ben Nahir, PhD is a Partner at Elevate Capital, a Portland-based fund backing underrepresented founders across enterprise software, healthcare, biotech, cleantech and fintech. A former research neuroscientist turned investor, he sees 25–30 pitches a month and has helped deploy over $7.5M of early capital into 45 startups through TiE Oregon Angels. He writes some of the first checks into companies and invests at the earliest, hardest stage to fund — where the story matters as much as the numbers.

What you'll get:

A live, slide-by-slide review of a real seed-stage deck

What a VC actually looks for - and what makes them lose interest

The difference between a slide that "works" and one that raises questions

Open Q&A: bring your own deck questions and pitch challenges

Whether you're actively fundraising, refining your story, or just want to understand how investors really read a deck, this is a rare look behind the curtain.

expert

What Do I Actually Charge?

August

9:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Zoom

Court Lorenzini

Every founder sets their first price by gut feel — and it's one of the highest-leverage decisions you'll make. Price too low and the deal you were trying to win becomes the ceiling you can't escape. Discount too easily and the discount becomes the price.

In this session we'll dig into the pricing questions founders actually wrestle with:

How do you figure out what your product is really worth to the buyer?
What's the right pricing model for your business — and how do you test it without losing deals?
How should early deals and pilots be priced so a discount buys you something in return?
When does a low price hurt you — and when does charging more win the deal?

This is a working session, not a lecture. Bring your real numbers — what you charge today, what you've been discounting, the deal where the price felt wrong — and we'll pressure-test them together.

I can say with confidence that I get far more value from FounderNexus than the cost of the membership, and I'm not even taking full advantage!

Steve Tout

founder, Identient

I really loved how welcoming the vibe felt from the moment I arrived.

Katrina Romatowski

founder, reSpace

It was awesome.

Edan Shahar

founder, Wild Zebra

The session was great! Highlight: Encouragement of diverse viewpoints and good founder mix.

Darian Parrish

founder, PwrOn

I think the breakout sessions are a loose but useful way to get people talking about challenges and resolutions.

Mark Fiebig

founder, Payscore

I was initially hesitant to join yet another group as there is no shortage of people claiming to help entrepreneurs, but Court Lorenzini and FounderNexus are the real deal. Any serious founder will benefit immensely from joining FounderNexus.

Jasper Kuria

co-founder, ConversionMagic

Great session, I learned a lot! Looking forward to the next one.

Shama Keskar

founder, Mudita Studios

FounderNexus fills a gap for entrepreneurs by complementing traditional incubator and early investment programs with a high-quality peer founder network.

Bob Lach

founder, Lightbridge Solutions

I also felt a sense of real community for the first time as a founder. You're all onto something special here!

Elias DeFaria

co-founder, SDF Labs

This was a fast track to relevant experience/advice in a room where you hold nothing back.

Nicole Resch

Co-founder, Imperative

I have attended sessions nationwide and joined so-called “MasterMind” groups, but nothing comes close to the network and support I have experienced at FounderNexus.