INFLECTION Con 2: Day 1 Recap

On June 13th INFLECTION hosted the second annual INFLECTION Con, talking about building sustainable, profit-driven companies. Over 23 speakers on day 1 told their stories of how they built interesting companies. Here is a recap of what we saw, with pictures (more can be found on the facebook page).

First, we’d like to thank our awesome sponsors, core team, and host:

Surdna Foundation (Supporting just and sustainable communities)
Microsoft for Startups (Helping B2B startups grow)
Azlo (Business banking for entrepreneurs)
Clearbanc (Equity-Free Financing)
Digital Ocean - (Get $50 in hosting credit)
Stripe (Payment processing & company formation)
Alley (Community space for creators)
Acast (Podcasting network)
Scout Lab (the best brand agency. trust me)
Little Universe (digital product agency)
McCarter & English (startup legal)
Sage Labs (create great landing pages from customer feedback)

Tani Chambers from Savi Moni hosted the event for the day

Founder Story - Al Doan talking about the 10 year story of building Missouri Quilt Co.

Founder Story - Vlad Magdalin on the growth of Webflow, through the lens of personal and company bank accounts. 

Funding Options Panel - Bea Arthur (The Difference) spoke to Emma Lawler (Moonlight), Tyler Tringas (Earnest Capital), Zeina Muna (iFundWomen) about the various financing options entrepreneurs have in building their companies.

Panel: The Platforms Powering Ecommerce - Greg Kubin (HelloSponsor) interviews Kent Fenwick (Clearbanc), James Allgrove (Stripe), Mike Sullivan (The Stable) about the future of ecommerce and how their platforms play into it.

Noon: We ate

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your S**t Together - Dr Sherry Walling (ZenFounder) and Michelle Blue (The Journey With Blue) had a fireside chat about difficulties with mental health for entrepreneurs.

Founder Story - Sahil Lavingia (Gumroad) gave an open talk about the many ups and downs of building Gumroad and dealing with personal and societal pressures.

Panel: Revenue Strategies: Scott Smedresman (McCarter) chatted with Ankur Nagpal (Teachable) and Michael Farber (Breakout) about the creative strategies they employed to build their companies.

Startup Competition : Willow Hill (Scout Lab), Adrian Del Balso (Little Universe), & Thomas Smale (FE International) judged a 5 company startup competition where they competed for $100K in prizes. More on those companies to come in the next blog post.

Panel: Real Talk, What Its Really Like : Megan Bruneau (Moderator) interviews Lisa Wang (SheWorx) and Donald Desantis (VTS) about the truths behind building a company.

Keynote: Ben Conniff (Lukes Lobster) talks about the early days of building a 500 person company over 10 years.

Videos to come soon, stay tuned to the blog for the releases.