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Alexis Alston    

Forbes 30 Under 30 Awarded Venture Capitalist; Brown University Professor & Leadership Expert

Alexis Alston is a seasoned investor, startup advocate, and tech evangelist. She began her career at a $3Bn AUM fund, Advantage Capital, investing in growing brands, AI, and healthtech companies, including Grainful, and Recursion Pharmaceuticals (IPO: RXRX). She is now a General Partner at Lightship Capital, a family of funds valued at over $2Bn dedicated to investing in remarkable founders and funders where she leads the investment team and has investments including Enable Injections, Kare Mobile, and Boddle Learning.

She also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Engineering at her alma mater, and Ivy League school, Brown University. Currently, she teaches at the Nelson Center of Entrepreneurship and leads the B-Lab program for entrepreneurship.

Most recently, she was awarded the designation of Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital. In addition, she is the Director of Revenue at Lightship Foundation, where she forges Fortune 500 partnerships with the organization, and leads curation for notable conferences such as Black Tech Week, raising millions of dollars for the organization annually.

In addition, Alston serves on the Entrepreneurial Council, an advisory board at Target Corporation, where she collaborates with Target to launch new programs towards their $2Bn commitment to working with diverse brands. Today she is writing her debut book - "The Pitch and The Proposal: VCs and Founders, a Love Story", slated for a 2025 release.

Speech Topics

Blind Ambition

This is a motivational talk on the importance of self-care, boundary setting, balance, the power of no, and other strategies to ensure your health is not compromised as you climb the corporate ladder. How I overcame my diagnosis of Multiple Evanescent White Dot Syndrome and learned to recover from blindness through delegation and de-stressing. How to save yourself as you chase your dreams. This is generally a solo talk.

The Pitch and the Proposal: VCs and Founders, a Love Story

This is a talk that draws the parallel between fundraising for a company to dating in the modern age. This talk demystifies the venture capital and private equity fundraising processes and makes an easy-to-understand framework for executives to use to go out and fundraise for their businesses. This is generally a solo talk.

Act Like the President

This is an entirely non-political talk, on how perceiving yourself as the President is a great framework to think about team building. Learn how to build your own personal or professional Supreme Court, congress, or cabinet, and learn to listen to your audience to build what your constituents are asking for. The importance of great dynamic team building- no empire was built alone. This is generally a solo talk.

Exits Exits: Read all about it!

This talk is focused on executives and corporate leaders on how to build a company ready to get acquired, featuring examples from acquisitions I’ve experienced in my investing career, and what Fortune 500 corporations are looking for today in the current uneasy economic landscape. This is generally an educational workshop.

How we Built It: Scaling one of the largest venture funds led by Black Women in the United States

This is a DEI-focused talk on how we built and scaled Lightship from a small non-profit organization in 1 city to a family of funds in over 16 cities, with an AUM of over $2Bn in 5 years. The power of diversity in teams- the power of timing, conviction, and having a unique value proposition in building the business of your dreams. This is generally a workshop, solo talk, or fireside chat.

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