500 Global, Google, and Mercury are teaming up for a webinar on how to be an AI-native founder from day one. Explore what it means to embed AI into the DNA of your startup—fueling faster product development, smarter fundraising, and scalable growth. Hear real-world examples from 500 Global's portfolio, gain insights and access to the resources, and learn how to leverage this rapidly evolving ecosystem.
Expect actionable advice and real-world perspectives on building resilient, scalable companies in the age of AI.
Clayton has over 12 years of experience in the tech space. Initially working as a marketer, he transitioned into business development, and over the past 3 years has worked in venture capital. Currently, as a Venture Partner at 500 Global in San Francisco, Clayton is focused on media, ecommerce, and frontier tech. Clayton is also one of the co-founders of the Transparent Collective, a non-profit launched to help founders of color connect with
investors and mentors. Prior to returning back to the Bay Area, as a member of the Dorm Room Fund team in New York, Clayton worked with and invested in some of the best and brightest student founded startups on the east coast. Clayton holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and a BA in Political Economy from UC Berkeley.
Anand Deshpande is an entrepreneur, startup advisor and angel investor. He has 10+ years experience working with and scaling startups ranging from a couple employees to hundreds. Anand is ex-Lyft, ex-Segment (acq Twilio) and currently at Mercury. Anand's forte is building demand gen programs for scaling companies emphasizing on experimentation and attention to meaningful metrics. He advises and invests in pre-seed and seed stage B2B PLG startups, providing guidance on PMF, early go to market strategy and building demand gen channels. He's also currently in post-production on a tv series around food and storytelling called Kindred Kitchen which has won best pilot at 3 film festivals thus far.
Iliana Quiñonez, Director of North America Startups Customer Engineering, leads a team dedicated to accelerating startups’ success through cloud technology. She focuses on empowering her team to deliver innovative solutions for a wide range of clients, from early-stage startups to IPO-bound companies. With over 25 years of industry experience, including advisory roles with startups, accelerators, and VCs, Iliana emphasizes customer empathy, technical leadership, and creative thinking to build high-performing teams. Her ability to foster meaningful connections across ecosystems has been pivotal in establishing her team as a trusted partner in the North American startup ecosystem
Built to help startups scale quicker and easier, Mercury has intuitive banking dashboards and payment flows, SAFE products, virtual and physical credit and debit cards, team management capabilities, and API access. Set up $5M FDIC insured checking and savings accounts with no monthly fees, send ACH payments, domestic and international wires (in USD) for free, use treasury products to save and grow your money, use our foreign currency exchange features, find your next funding round through their Raise program, or extend your runway through our Venture Debt program.
The Google for Startups Cloud Program is designed to give you the financial, business, and technical support you need to succeed. This program gives eligible startups access to Google startup experts, your Google Cloud and Firebase costs covered up to $200K USD (up to $350K USD for AI startups) over 2 years, technical training, business support, and Google-wide discount offers. To receive benefits, you must have an active Google Cloud account.
LEGAL NOTICE: THIS PROGRAM IS OPERATED BY 500 STARTUPS INCUBATOR, L.L.C (TOGETHER WITH ITS AFFILIATES, “500 GLOBAL”). ALL CONTENT PROVIDED IN THIS WEBINAR IS PROVIDED FOR GENERAL INFORMATIONAL OR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD ANY CONTENT PROVIDED THEREIN BE CONSTRUED AS INVESTMENT, LEGAL, TAX OR ACCOUNTING ADVICE BY 500 STARTUPS MANAGEMENT COMPANY, L.L.C. OR ITS AFFILIATES (“500 GLOBAL”). UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THIS INVITATION OR ANY INFORMATION OR CONTENT IN THE WEBINAR BE CONSIDERED AS AN OFFER TO SELL OR SOLICITATION OF INTEREST TO PURCHASE ANY SECURITIES. FURTHER, NO CONTENT OR INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS INVITATION OR WEBINAR IS OR IS INTENDED AS AN OFFER TO PROVIDE ANY INVESTMENT ADVISORY SERVICE OR FINANCIAL ADVICE BY 500 GLOBAL. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD ANYTHING HEREIN BE CONSTRUED AS FUND MARKETING MATERIALS BY PROSPECTIVE INVESTORS CONSIDERING AN INVESTMENT INTO ANY 500 GLOBAL INVESTMENT FUND.APPLYING TO THE PROGRAM DOES NOT GUARANTEE AN INVESTMENT FROM 500 GLOBAL, OR ITS RESPECTIVE AFFILIATES.
