6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
Recap
independent
Ugly Talk: B2C Startup Fundraising and Scaling
Photo gallery
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
About Event
A post shared by Ugly Talk (@ug_talk)
Raising money as a B2C company is harder than most founders expect. Investors are naturally friendlier to B2B. Revenue is more predictable. Churn is easier to manage. For consumer companies, the bar is higher. VCs scrutinize CAC, traction, and retention more aggressively because you're not just fighting for market share. You're fighting for attention against every app, brand, and platform on the planet. That makes B2C one of the hardest games in startups. Period.
This session brings together funded B2C founders and active investors to break down what's really working in 2026, what's not, and how to position your company to win when the odds say you shouldn't.
This event: Ticket Includes: Food & Media Team
Photo Station: Photography team taking professional headshots & more at our backdrop + Candid Coverage
Featured speakers.
Krishna is the Founder & CEO of Clockout, the fastest growing networking platform for Gen Z+. Under her leadership, Clockout has reached 500,000+ downloads, ranked #19 on the App Store, & hit $1M+ in ARR within 10 months. Clockout has expanded nationwide across the U.S., Canada, is entering London this month as part of its international growth. The company has been featured across 68 Fox News stations nationwide & has raised $1.3M from Evite Corporation, Gaingels, Baytech Ventures & more.
Benji is a driven entrepreneur dedicated to building a new community infrastructure around coworking and entrepreneurship. Inspired by his experience of loneliness as a remote worker during the pandemic, Benji founded Tavern Community as a membership-based social network to foster genuine human connections. Members gain access to hybrid restaurant-coworking spaces and an app that leverages AI-powered deep matching to connect them with like-minded peers, accountability buddies, and niche communities.
Eni is the Founder and CEO of Travel Spoken, a platform turning user generated content into direct bookings, acting as a travel marketplace transforming how people discover, plan, and book trips. She is building the next generation of travel infrastructure by combining creator-driven content that inspires so many on social media with agentic AI to create a seamless booking into one unified platform. With a background spanning sales, technology and consumer growth, she is focused on solving travel planning fragmentation and unlocking new monetization opportunities for content creators as well. Eni is passionate about the future of AI, marketplace design, and building venture-scalable consumer platforms.
Who's hosting it.
Dylan Oriundo a growth operator & community builder in the NYC startup ecosystem. He joined Clockout & serves as Director of Marketing & Operations, playing a vital role in growth strategy, partnerships, community expansion, product feedback. He helped scale the company from pre-revenue to 500,000+ downloads, driving $1M+ in ARR within 10 months. He also, founded The Builder Series, a 36,000+ member community that has grown into one of the fastest-growing communities in NYC since launching in October. He is taking on traditional networking & transforming it into curated, experience-driven environments built for high-value, non-transactional relationships.
Questions? Talk@UglyTalk.com
Location
Edge Studio Voice Over
115 W 45th St Floor 8
New York