Laura Buhler
Partner and Head of Community at Felicis
San Francisco Bay Area
Overview
Work Experience
Head of Startup Product Marketing & Community Programs
2025 - Current
- Product Marketing for the startup segment - AI GTM strategy - Stripe Startups - Community strategy - Founder experience
Stripe is an API technology company that provides online payment processing and commerce solutions for Internet businesses.
Raised $9,440,247,725.00 from E1 Ventures.
Investor, Advisor
2021
Investor/advisor: - Maple VC (www.maplevc.com) - Boardy.ai - Accrue Savings - Pivot - Luge Capital (luge.vc) - LMNT.vc
Partner // Head of Community
2023 - 2024
With a focus on the AI/ML community and GTM, I built the partnerships, programs, and experiences that grow the Felicis network. Highlight reel: * AI/ML technical communities + partnerships * Felicis Fellows in AI * DevBrunch + Infra leaders event series * Defense & Global Resilience VIP founder event * BD & customer intro network (GTM) * Founder learning + development retreat * CRM + event management workflow automation to run events & capture leads @ scale
Felicis invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors, industries, and frontier tech.
CEO & Executive Director
2016 - 2022
C100 is the preeminent global community of Canadians in tech known for its early-stage founder Fellowship and our roster of 100 top Canadian founders, execs and VCs we deploy to accelerate them. SF-based member-driven nonprofit supporting Canadian founders through investment, mentorship, and partnership.
Sr. Director, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships
2012 - 2016
Series D ecommerce company backed by Softbank & General Atlantic, acquired by HBC. Co-led our BD & Partnerships team, working cross-functionally with creative, marketing, sales, and engineering to launch multiple new revenue streams and strategic partnerships across data, financial services, travel, and media & advertising. Some highlights that drove real $$ for our business included: Gilt Travel (partnership with Secret Escapes); American Express (card product partnership); Affirm (payment product partnership); data (confidential); and many bespoke paid media campaigns with brands like Cadillac, Fiat, MasterCard, Moet Hennessey, and Proctor & Gamble, etc. Started at Gilt City, Gilt's local SMB marketpace, in growth & strategy, where I led demand forecasting, made board decks, and ran our affiliate marketing channel. Promoted from Manager --> Sr. Manager --> Director --> Sr. Director (left to lead the C100)
Project Manager, World Economic Forum (WEF) Secondee
2011 - 2012
• Authored the “New Vision for Agriculture” Report on behalf of 26 global companies, including Pepsico, Coca Cola, Diageo, Heineken, Kraft, Nestlé, and others • Worked to secure emerging market investment proposals from 20+ multinationals + NGOs for announcement at the G8 summit in May, 2012 • Presented at the 2012 WEF Annual Meeting in Davos
Business Analyst
2009 - 2011
Analysis for clients in various industries including: private equity, energy, agriculture, retail & consumer, and government.
McKinsey Growth Tech serves leading growth stage tech players, venture capital, and growth private equity