Apply now for Include Office Hours with General Catalyst and CrunchFund!

TechCrunch Include Office Hours are happening on August 31st! Adam Valkin, Spencer Lazar and Peter Boyce from General Catalyst in NYC, along with Pat Gallagher and Susan Hobbs from CrunchFund in SF, will join TechCrunch to provide valuable advice and feedback to startups.

Launched in 2014, Include is TechCrunch’s diversity program, aimed at facilitating opportunities for underrepresented groups in tech to take their startups to the next level.

The Office Hours program is part of that effort. Once monthly, TechCrunch works with VC partners to provide feedback and advice to early-stage companies. To be considered for a meeting in our August session with CrunchFund in San Francisco or General Catalyst in New York City, fill out the application here by Wednesday, August 24th at 12pm PT.

Underrepresented groups in tech include, but are not limited to, Black, Latino, Native American, LGBT and female founders. Preference will be given to teams that can meet in person. Startups should at least be at the prototype stage.

Let’s learn more about our co-hosts.

Adam Valkin (Managing Director)
I focus on consumer and SMB-oriented businesses with an emphasis on mobile-first applications. Before I joined General Catalyst, my investments included LOVEFiLM (where I was co-founder and initial CEO), Spotify, Hailo, Fiverr, Kenshoo, peerTransfer, GoCardless and Dragonplay. The companies I have been involved with at General Catalyst include BrainlyCCPClassPass, flok, Fundbox, Giphy, Super Evil Megacorp, Vroom, WayUp and YPlan.

Spencer Lazar (Partner)
I’m particularly excited by entrepreneurs who use technology to democratize access to products and services that previously were available only to a few. My investment focus has been on new service delivery models for both consumers and businesses, such as those at ClassPass, FundBox, Giphy and L2.

Peter Boyce II (Principal)
I am excited about opportunities anchored by product-focused entrepreneurs and it’s a privilege to work alongside founders who champion this, as well. At General Catalyst, I’ve enjoyed supporting companies such as CadreGiphy, Indico and Mark43. In addition, I help oversee Rough Draft Ventures, through which General Catalyst invests in promising university entrepreneurs. It’s incredibly rewarding to work with student entrepreneurs, as I am passionate about empowering potential founders early in their lives.

Pat Gallagher (General Partner)
Pat co-founded CrunchFund in 2011 and has 16 years of venture capital experience. Previously he was a partner at VantagePoint, and before that spent most of his career at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners. He has invested across all sectors of information technology, has served on more than a dozen (public and private) boards and has held management roles at RealNames, an Internet services company. He is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College (BA).

Susan Hobbs (Partner)
Susan is a partner at CrunchFund. Previously, Susan worked as the Director of Events at Y Combinator and as the Director of Global Programming at TechCrunch. She started her career as a teacher in Southern California and returned to her Silicon Valley roots in 2004 to join a hardware startup based in the U.K. and the Silicon Valley. Susan was the first non-engineering hire at both Codian (acquired by Tandberg in 2007, then by Cisco Systems in 2008) and CoTweet (acquired by ExactTarget in 2010, then by Salesforce.com in 2013).

If you’re interested in attending Office Hours with General Catalyst or CrunchFund, apply here by Wednesday, August 24th.