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Supporting early-stage founders with storytelling, market mapping, competitive positioning, partnership-building to test minimum viable products, inclusive hiring, and board creation.
Helping growth-stage businesses raise capital, expand into adjacent markets, conduct mergers and acquisitions, set key performance indicators, retain customers, and plan their exit.
Background:
An advisor to four early-stage companies, Shola is also a mentor to fellow entrepreneurs at Austin's Capital Factory and First Round Capital. In 2021, Shola joined On Deck’s Climate Tech Fellowship and served as a Venture Fellow with Laconia Capital Group.
Previously, Shola founded a tech company that transformed civic engagement in America. A generalist at heart, her responsibilities have included competitive positioning, M&A, and standing up several departments: ops, sales and marketing, customer success. Additionally, she's overseen legal, finance, comms, HR, and investor relations.
A graduate of the University of Chicago, Shola previously worked on climate policy at the White House National Economic Council and on business strategy at POLITICO. Shola has been a guest lecturer at The University of Chicago and UC Berkeley, among other places. She has served on the climate tech and startup Advisory Board for SXSW. Over the course of her career, Shola has spoken, pitched investors, taught, and mentored at Higher Ground Labs, Y Combinator, HERImpact, DC Startup Week, and the US Chamber of Commerce.
I was welcomed into the First Round Capital family as a mentor in early 2021.
The FastTrack Program matches seasoned startup leaders with early-stage founders and operators in a unique mentorship community. I serve as a resource supporting First Round founders and startup leaders on topics including: brand positioning and comms, business development and partnerships, sales and biz ops, customer success and community, legal, recruiting, benefits structures, and professional development.
Austin’s Capital Factory aims to be the humming center of activity for the entrepreneurship scene in Texas.
As a mentor, I help early-stage startups with storytelling, pitching, market positioning, go-to-market strategy, inclusive hiring, and building a board. I support growth-stage startups and later-stage companies with goal-setting and KPIs, raising additional capital, expanding into adjacent markets, strategic M&A, customer service, and client retention. I also really enjoy helping founders prepare for their eventual exit and consider acquisition options.