Day 1/3 Recap: Zette Attends Accelerate Summit at Startup Grind
This morning we were excited to attend this exclusive pre-conference event designed specifically for exhibiting startups like Zette. After completing some morning work deliverables over coffee, we were off in an Uber to start our day in San Mateo, California.
The Accelerator Summit was held at “Draper University,” a whimsical cross between a university and a startup accelerator founded by venture capitalist Tim Draper, and fully decorated with superhero and villain themes — an apt metaphor for the rollercoaster life of a founder! (Fun fact: Tim’s daughter is Jesse Draper, GP at Halogen Ventures and one of Zette’s earliest investors!)
The Summit kicked off with a particularly relevant panel on startup funding in 2024, touching on themes like AI and the evolving founder-VC dynamic. This sentiment echoed throughout the panel as discussions highlighted how venture capital dynamics, disrupted since the 2020 pandemic, are now beginning to normalize.
Marcos Fernandez from Fiat Ventures said it best: “As long as you have resilience and staying power, this is an excellent time to be a founder.”
Next up, we headed off to our choice of Roundtable sessions. We attended an early stage fundraising talk with Gunderson Dettmer, one of the top startup law firms in the valley, as well as a series A/seed funding data trends workshop led by the Carta team which explored cap table strategy and evolving market trends with a small group of founders.
Afterwards we took a working lunch break to finish a few urgent Zette deliverables. As much as we love conferences, we can’t avoid the Monday grind — especially with our first-ever Wefunder round coming to a close this Friday!
After the talks of the day concluded, we chatted with members of the Startup Grind team to fine-tune the details of our on-stage pitch and exhibition. With nearly 3,000 attendees expected in Redwood City tomorrow through Wednesday, we’re gearing up to make a strong impression alongside hundreds of startups and speakers.
We wrapped up the evening with birria tacos and fresh guacamole at Loló, followed by a coworking night prepping for the culmination of our Wefunder campaign as well as the kickoff of our Startup Grind exhibition.
Stay tuned for more!
— The Zette Team
