.png?width=2000&height=1000&name=5.19.26%20Capital%20Compass%20Banner%20(1).png "5.19.26 Capital Compass Banner (1)")
This experience is designed for growth-minded founders navigating early and growth-stage funding decisions who want practical clarity on how to prepare for capital!
May 19th, 2026 | 11:00 AM PT
The Capital Compass experience is designed to move founders from capital curiosity to capital readiness through direct engagement in the Capital Compass Toolkit activities of structured exercises focused on assessment, prioritization, and application.
Founders will gain practical insight into how to prepare for funding by strengthening the core financial and strategic components required by lenders. The experience supports technical readiness and prepares relationship-based engagement.
Founders will explore:
- How to assess their stage and readiness for capital, and identify the most critical actions to improve funding outcomes
- What lenders require to evaluate a business, including how to clearly articulate a loan purpose, use of funds, and financial position
- How to develop and communicate cash flow projections and repayment capacity with clarity and confidence
- How to prepare for relationship-based capital engagement by strengthening documentation, financial organization, and strategic positioning
Meet our special guest
Arun Gupta
Arun Gupta is CEO of the NobleReach Foundation, a venture capitalist, lecturer at Stanford University, and adjunct entrepreneurship professor at Georgetown University, and a bestselling author of Venture Meets Mission and The Mission Generation. Arun is active in the emerging technology, entrepreneurship, public policy, and venture finance communities. As a partner at Columbia Capital, Arun's investment career spanned eighteen years including initiating the firm's Cybersecurity and Government technology investments with a focus on national security, AI, and SaaS/cloud infrastructure sectors. He was awarded the Entrepreneurial Faculty Teaching Excellence Award and the Peter W. Gonzalez Jr. Award at Georgetown University. Arun earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School ('95); an M.S. degree in engineering economic systems and B.S. degree with distinction in electrical engineering from Stanford University ('91). Arun has lived in the Washington, D.C. area for over 40 years and has been happily married for 27+ years to Dr. Anjali Mehta Gupta and has three wonderful children.
The Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center is a 501c(3) public charity whose mission it is to make entrepreneurship accessible to all. We deliver free resources, expert guidance, and top-tier mentorship to over 100,000 entrepreneurs worldwide. Your support helps us continue delivering these transformative programs—expanding access to entrepreneurship and driving economic progress for all. Join us and make a gift today to help more entrepreneurs thrive!
All Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center programs and services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least 48 hours in advance of this event; please send an email to nasdaqcenterlive@nasdaqcenter.org with the subject header ACCOMMODATION REQUEST. For assistance with registration or other technical difficulties, please contact hello@nasdaqcenter.org.
If you haven't already, please add hello@nadsaqcenter.org to your safe senders list.