How to Raise a Pre-Seed Round in 2025
💡 What’s the Ugly Truth
Raising a pre-seed round for a B2B startup in 2025 isn’t just hard — it’s a different game entirely.
You’re expected to show traction before you’ve had the funding to get there. Long sales cycles don’t care about your burn rate. And if your pitch mentions “AI,” you better have more than just a wrapper.
This Ugly Talk gets honest about the catch-22 of early B2B fundraising. No jargon. No investor-speak. Just raw insights from founders who’ve been through it and found a way forward.
🎯 Why You Should Attend
If you’re building something B2B and thinking about raising (or already trying to), this event is designed to cut through the noise.
You’ll leave with a sharper view of what investors are actually looking for in 2025, how other founders broke through the early-stage wall, and who you should be talking to next whether for advice, feedback, or funding.
This is the night for ambitious builders who want real perspective, not recycled Twitter threads.
🙋 Who You’ll Meet
Founders in the trenches building B2B companies from scratch
Angel and VC investors actively backing early-stage B2B startups
Operators and advisors who know how to help B2B teams scale
Technical and GTM experts who speak fluent traction, not theory
If you’re looking to raise, partner, or just get real about what works — this is your room.
🎤 Who’s on the Panel
Chris Anzalone - Founder & CEO of Knowledge
Chris Anzalone is the Founder and CEO of Knowledge, an AI-powered sales intelligence platform analyzing over 30 billion signals daily to predict real-time buyer behavior at the individual level. With a track record of building and scaling go-to-market organizations, Chris previously founded and exited a high-performing sales agency that booked over 10,000 meetings annually for enterprise clients. He also served as a researcher on a National Science Foundation grant studying algorithmic bias, where he focused on the ethical implications of AI systems in decision-making. Chris brings a unique blend of commercial execution and academic insight to the evolving AI landscape.
Nitin Gupta - CEO of Aithon
Nitin is the Co-Founder and CEO at Aithon. Nitin has two decades of sales and business development experience across consulting, startups, and public companies. He has built billion dollar businesses, and seen successful exits.
Prior to founding Aithon, he was the CRO at Genesis Global, and before that spent 8 years at AWS in different sales leadership roles.
Majd Maksad - CEO of TruAgents
Majd is the Co-Founder and CEO of TruAgents, the intelligence platform for human-like customer engagement at scale. He previously founded and led Status Money and spent more than a decade leading analytics and digital marketing at Citi and Discover.
Moderator:
Manan Modi - Founder of NYC B2B
NYC B2B is the premier community for 10,000+ B2B startup founders, operators, and investors in NYC.
💬 What We’ll Talk About
What’s changed in early-stage fundraising for B2B startups in 2025
Navigating the “no traction, no funding” dilemma — and how others did it
How to stand out in a sea of AI noise with substance, not just buzzwords
Tactics that help founders shorten sales cycles, validate faster, and survive longer
Real talk on what investors actually want to see at pre-seed
You’ll walk away with grounded advice, fresh contacts, and a clearer next step.
🤝 Co-Hosted With
NYC B2B - Join 5,000+ founders, operators & VCs in NYC’s top B2B startup community—get NYC startup events, resources & deal flow.
GREY Journal – Media partner spotlighting modern entrepreneurs (featured on Apple News + Google News).
🤝 Venue Partner
The Yard - Private offices & coworking spaces for individuals and teams
🎥 Get a taste of past Ugly Talk energy:
⭐ About Ugly Talk:
Started in 2019, Ugly Talk has been transforming business setbacks into breakthrough “aha!” moments by hosting unfiltered, no-nonsense events where battle-tested entrepreneurs share their raw lessons and insights.
With a growing presence in cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Miami, we’ve built a vibrant community of thousands of founders and industry leaders making a profound impact on the entrepreneurial landscape.