Ugly Talk: Founders Zero to Global #SFTechweek
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:◗◕‿◕*⏖*ᵔᴥᵔWomen founders remain underrepresented across venture stages. The path from first check to Series B and public markets is possible with the right playbook, allies, and persistence. This session focuses on what changes outcomes. Clear strategies for fundraising, growth, board building, and leadership. Real stories from women who navigated bias, turned setbacks into data, and kept moving until the metrics spoke for themselves.
🎯 Why You Should Attend
Hear first hand how successful women founders overcame stereotype risk and earned conviction from customers and investors
Learn the common traps that slow progress and the simple systems that prevent them
Meet women founders and active supporters in the room who can be partners, co builders, and allies
Leave with practical steps for the next thirty, sixty, and ninety days across fundraising, hiring, and growth
🙋 Who You’ll Meet
Women founders building ambitious companies across software, consumer, and deep tech
Ecosystem enablers who support women led companies including accelerators, bankers, and platform leaders
Investors and advisors with a clear interest in backing women founded teams
🎤 Who’s on the Panel
Justine Juillard - Co-Founder of Girls Into VC at Berkeley
Justine is the co-founder of Girls Into VC at Berkeley, the first org empowering the next generation of female VCs. She’s also a LinkedIn content creator with a community of 40k+ followers. As a VC Investment Partner at Critical Venture Partners, Justine scouts and consult early-stage female-led startups at UC Berkeley and beyond.
Alyona Mysko - Founder & CEO of Fuelfinance
Alyona Mysko is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fuelfinance, an AI-powered financial planning and analysis platform built for SMBs. Before starting Fuel, she spent 10+ years as a CFO helping founders handle messy spreadsheets and build forecasts. Now she’s scaling that superpower with AI, giving founders real-time visibility into their numbers and faster decisions without hiring a full finance team. She’s a Masters of Scale podcast guest, a HubSpot INBOUND speaker, and finalist in the $1M Pitch Competition by Hubspot. With Fuel, customers manage over $400M+ in P&L, including companies like Hampton, ColdIQ, Oceans, and others. Fuel’s mission is to save SMBs from financial mistakes, and unlock trillions of dollars in global GDP.
Logan Brown - Founder of Soxton
Logan Brown is the founder of Soxton AI, a full-stack, AI-powered law firm transforming how startups get legal work done. A Harvard Law graduate and former Cooley attorney who helped launch the firm’s Miami office, she blends deep legal expertise with product thinking to automate incorporations, equity, financings, and governance. A Vanderbilt valedictorian and Marshall Scholar, Logan has founded and scaled multiple ventures while partnering with regulators to modernize compliance. She’s building a “legal OS” that ends the billable hour and makes VC-ready legal infrastructure accessible from day one.
More panel speakers announcing soon. Stay tuned!
Moderator:
Icey Juthapohn Roongpiti - Founder & CEO of Starla Skin
As part of a third-generation family business in healthcare and aesthetics, I bring MedSpa expertise and advanced 7-in-1 LED Light Therapy Technology into the comfort of your home. Growing up with hypersensitive skin and seeing my mother’s struggle with hyperpigmentation, I turned to dermatology. When COVID-19 shut everything down, I made it my mission to create accessible, at-home treatments. Today, I’m building Starla Skin to make medical beauty more accessible, sustainable, and self-empowering for different skin concerns, while championing women and minority leadership as an Asian founder committed to empowering confidence and celebrating individuality on a global scale.
💬 What We’ll Talk About
How to spot and avoid common traps and how to respond with data and momentum
Lessons from real setbacks and the decisions that restored progress
What to watch in 2026 including sectors, buyer behavior, and capital markets
Fundraising from preparation to close including narrative, metrics, and target lists
Team building and talent management including hiring, performance, and values
Board and advisor strategy including selection, expectations, and meeting rhythm
Practical workflows for growth including go to market, customer success, and finance hygiene
A ninety day action plan you can start this week to move from idea to traction to the next round
🤝 Co-hosted With
Starla Skin - Starla is building a high-precision skin-health ecosystem, an intelligent LED Light Therapy Mask with AI-driven, personalized plans. Built with MIT & Harvard engineers and dermatologists, serving a $200B skincare & wellness market.
Global Entrepreneurs Hub - The Valley's $1M+ ARR founder community. Private events + direct intros to founders, investors, strategic GTM and more every week over Whatsapp/Email.
🤝 Supported By
GREY Journal – Media partner spotlighting modern entrepreneurs (featured on Apple News + Google News).
🤝 Community Partner
Foundess - A female-equitable nonprofit startup community created by Stanford students.
⭐ About Ugly Talk:
Started in 2019, Ugly Talk has been transforming business setbacks into breakthrough “aha!” moments by hosting unfiltered, no-nonsense events where battle-tested entrepreneurs share their raw lessons and insights.
With a growing presence in cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Miami, we’ve built a vibrant community of thousands of founders and industry leaders making a profound impact on the entrepreneurial landscape.
Official Website: UglyTalk.com
Guest List
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