Note: $25 charge is a deposit ONLY. See below for more details.

Empower your business with the tactics, language and mechanics of dilutive (equity) capital options, so you can successfully build a runway for your company. Throughout these sessions, we will help you navigate the landscape of financial resources available for your business, simulate scenarios that could impact ownership dilution, and delve into Angel, Seed and Series A (Venture Capital) raises. We will explore valuation, the process of raising equity capital and dive into common terms and conditions.

Our goal is to help you be well-versed and comfortable with dilutive capital options and, should you decide to proceed down the route of VC capital, for you to have the highest chances of success in your Seed and Series A rounds. We want an investor to walk away from a conversation with you being impressed by your fluency and confidence!

This program was built and is delivered by venture capital investors and C-suite CFOs who’ve lived through the capital journey themselves.

Workshop Schedule

• June 9, 2026, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm EST
• June 16, 2026, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm EST
• June 23, 2026, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm EST

*Please note that this is a 3-part session, and each session is 2 hours long. Attendance is required for all sessions.

To register, please contact greta.black@innovationfactory.ca.

What you’ll learn

• Understand dilutive capital options available to you and gain clarity on why certain finance pathways may not align with your company’s needs.
• Understand the VC funding process, how much to raise, demystify valuations, learn how to find and manage investors, and what dilution looks like for Seed and Series A rounds.
• Navigate the mechanics and technical conversations on 3 venture deal types: Convertible Notes, SAFEs and Priced Rounds
• Review common terms and conditions you may find on a Term Sheet and identify the main terms to negotiate that help you keep as much equity and control of your company as possible

Requirements:

• Strong internet connection
• Web Camera with video conferencing capabilities

Who should attend?

• Entrepreneurs with established assumptions and hypotheses that are ready to test scenarios while working through problems within their startups.
• Startups with a prototype/ beta or minimum viable product (MVP), but also have a team, some customer validation, and some traction.

Only available to Regional Innovation Centre (RIC) clients. Please contact your RIC contact for more information.
Please note that to benefit from the peer-to-peer nature of these sessions, all attendees are expected to engage and remain for the full session.

Deposit:

In order to take advantage of the sessions, we require participants to give a deposit of $25. This deposit is fully refundable ONLY upon completion of the post-session survey following each session within 5 days of the last session. Given the intimate nature of the sessions, and because the success of each session relies on the attendance of ventures, we use the deposit to ensure that ventures will attend when they sign up.

If you are no longer able to attend the session, we require 2 business days’ notice. Please email workshops@marsdd.com. We regret that failure to do so may result in the loss of your deposit.

About the Facilitator

Vivek Chandra, President, Univentures Consulting Inc

An Engineer MBA with decades of global executive experience in Banking, Finance and Technology, I have followed my passion in supporting cutting edge startups over the last 7 years through advisory help and by investing as a VC LP. I have worked through GTA incubators with early-stage founders at a Seed/ Ser A Stage in clean tech, hardware & fintech. My areas of focus are on Capital Strategies and Fund raising, and Product/ Market fit establishment. Passionate and committed to the startup ecosystem, I work with various cities, incubators and colleges to support entrepreneurs and have advised on successful multi million dollar fund raises.