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Most founders think metrics are the whole story when you're raising. They're not.

In this session, Mercedes Bent, co-founder of Premise and former Partner at Lightspeed, will break down the metrics conversation into two distinct ones: what actually matters when you do have numbers to show, and what to say when you don't yet.

Drawing from her experience investing in companies now doing $300M ARR and scaling General Assembly from $2M to $100M in revenue, Mercedes will walk you through:

• The metric myths that trip up early-stage founders and what investors are actually evaluating instead
• Which KPIs matter at your specific stage and why the ones that signal traction at seed are almost entirely different from what Series A investors want to see
• How to start building your data infrastructure now so you're not scrambling when you go to raise
• How to lead with a compelling narrative when your story isn't yet in the numbers

This session is designed for founders at every stage of the metrics journey, whether you have data to show or are still building toward it.

About Your Host

Mercedes Bent is the co-founder and Partner at Premise, a venture firm investing in technical founders building AI-native tools at the pre-seed and seed stages. Prior to founding Premise, she was a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners for six years, leading investments in consumer, fintech, crypto, and SaaS. Named one of nine Rising Stars in Venture Capital by the Wall Street Journal, she has backed multiple companies now doing $300M ARR. Before Lightspeed, she was GM at General Assembly, where she helped grow revenue from $2M to $100M in four years, and worked at Goldman Sachs as an analyst. She holds an MBA and a master's in education from Stanford and a bachelor's in economics from Harvard.