BevNET is pleased to announce that, as part of its comprehensive look at early beverage company funding practices, CircleUp’s Katie Fitzgerald will be speaking during the September 12 Beverage School program at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Conference Center.

Ms. Fitzgerald will be on hand to explain crowdfunding as a way of raising capital and building brand awareness for beverage companies, and will also participate in a panel discussion of funding mechanisms for early stage entrepreneurs along with experts from the fields of angel investment, institutional investment, and lending.

Crowdfunding is evolving as one of the key alternative sources of financial assistance for beverage and consumer product companies, one that is growing in the wake of technological advances and changing federal regulations concerning fundraising. CircleUp is one of the most active crowdfunding platforms, allowing small consumer brands to run full or partial investment rounds online to a vetted group of investors.

This edition of beverage school features a comprehensive look at early stage funding options for beverage companies as well as advice on balanced growth, as well as a look at beverage company lifecycles and structure. More speakers will be announced in the days to come.

About CircleUp and Katie Fitzgerald:
CircleUp (http://circleup.com/) is an equity-based investment platform that connects individual investors with growing private companies. CircleUp features a curated list of national high-growth U.S. small consumer brands. All companies have a tangible product or retail outlet that you can touch, taste, use, or visit. Using tools provided by the platform, investors review companies of interest, ask questions of the management team and complete their investment – all on CircleUp.

As a business development executive at CircleUp, Ms. Fitzgerald has substantial experience from positions in investment banking and private equity. She began her career at Deutsche Bank advising both public and private technology companies in mergers & acquisitions. Later, Ms. Fitzgerald spent several years with H.I.G. Capital, a global private equity firm, where she focused on identifying and evaluating investment opportunities, making investments out of H.I.G.’s lower-middle-market fund, and working closely with the management teams of H.I.G. portfolio companies across various industries and sectors, including consumer products. She has also gained substantial experience in both evaluating and working with high-growth consumer product and retail companies.

About BevNET and Beverage School:

BevNET.com is the leading beverage-oriented media company, producing a web site, print magazine, and live conference series. The company was founded in 1996 by John Craven, with its mission to offer, through products in a variety of media, the best, most comprehensive forum for news coverage, expertise, partnership and support for all members of the beverage community.

Since its inception, BevNET.com has become a recognized authority on the beverage industry. BevNET.com and its employees are often used as sources for media publications looking for industry information, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Detroit Free Press, CNBC and Wired Magazine.

Since 2009, BevNET has offered Beverage School, a mix of live courses and online content that provide beverage entrepreneurs with instructional tools to launch and grow their companies in the rewarding but high-risk beverage industry.