Demo Day LA — Case Study
From 5% to 220%
in 40 Days
How Stanify founder Hank Leber used one night at Demo Day LA to raise more than double his pre-seed target — with two-thirds of his capital coming from connections made in the room.
within 40 days
Demo Day LA connections
The Outcome
The Timeline
What happened after Demo Day LA on September 19, 2025:
Demo Day LA Night
It's Demo Day. Only 5% of the pre-seed raise is committed. Hank pitches to the room and has conversations at his demo tables, beginning to build relationships with investors and operators in attendance.
Momentum Building
Follow-ups from Demo Day connections are turning into calls. The network is activating.
The Flywheel Spins
Demo Day connections are making introductions to investors outside the room. Interest is compounding beyond the original network.
100% — Round Fully Committed
Stanify hits 100% of the original fundraise target. The round is fully committed.
220% — More Than Double
Stanify closes the round with more than double what they set out to raise.
of all capital raised came from Demo Day LA connections
Two-thirds of a round that closed at more than double its target.
"I don't know what would've happened if we hadn't done Demo Day. So I can't evangelize enough how effective it was to be in this audience."
— Hank Leber
Some of the investors from that September raise were in the room again at the February 2026 Demo Day LA, five months later. These aren't transactional connections. They're ongoing relationships that started with a conversation in a well-curated room.
September 2025
The Starting Point
Stanify builds AI-powered community management for brands, saving community managers 90–99% of their day-to-day time. Enterprise customers, including Unilever brands, are already on the platform.
Hank Leber
Co-founder, Stanify
14+ years startup experience
M.A. VCU Brandcenter
Hank took the stage at Demo Day LA with a company that was working, customers that were happy, and a growth chart pointing in the right direction. But he was early in what mattered most that night: Stanify had just opened its pre-seed fundraise, and only 5% of the round was committed.
He had traction. He had a product. What he didn't have yet was a room full of the right people hearing the story for the first time.
"I was up here song and dancing and talking about what we're gonna do. We had some traction, but we hadn't really talked about it much in a bigger forum like this."
— Hank Leber, Founder & CEO, Stanify
That night would change the trajectory of Stanify's entire raise.
The Night
What Happened at Demo Day
The Preparation
Demo Day LA doesn't just put founders on a stage. Before the event, every presenting founder works with a pitch coach to sharpen their three minutes. Hank has been pitching startups for over a decade. He has a master's degree in mass communications. He spent years in advertising learning how to sell campaigns worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And he found huge success by being coachable.
"Three minutes is hard. I've been doing this forever and I had real trouble getting a crisp three minutes. That hour-long coaching session for Stanify was transformational. And I kind of know what I'm doing and I still couldn't get it on my own."
— Hank Leber
Hank's advice to other founders: practice ten times more than you think you should. If you run through it five times and feel ready, do it fifty. By the time you hit forty and fifty, you're humming. You can pace across the stage, make up a joke on the fly, and exude the confidence and trustworthiness that makes investors lean in.
The Stage
Hank pitched in the second batch of the evening — somewhere in the middle of the lineup. Three minutes. The room was engaged. Investors visited his demo table and were talking about Stanify all night.
But here's what Hank learned, and what separates Demo Day LA from a typical pitch competition:
"It's all conversations, connections, and communication. It is not the pitch on stage; that's just enough to get someone to want to come over and learn more."
— Hank Leber
The time on stage isn't the finish line. It's the spark. The rest of the evening, plus the days and weeks that follow, is where the real work happens.
The Flywheel
The flywheel kicked in. The quality of the audience at Demo Day LA meant that the people Hank met didn't just invest; they made introductions to other investors. Some invested and made intros. Some didn't invest but made intros anyway. The network effect compounded over weeks.
"The quality of the audience was so good that it just became kind of a flywheel. People who I met here made intros to other investors. Some invested and made the intros, some did not and made the intros. So it's really about inspiring someone else to want to help you."
— Hank Leber
The Model
Why It Worked
Was Hank's trajectory magic? No — it was the result of a specific set of conditions that Demo Day LA is designed to create:
A Curated Room
An intentionally assembled audience of investors and operators who are actively looking to support founders at the early stages. The quality of the room meant that introductions flowed outward for weeks, creating a compounding network effect that extended far beyond the night itself.
Hank's round didn't close at the event. It closed because of relationships that started there and multiplied over 40 days.
Pitch Coaching That Works
Every presenting founder at Demo Day LA gets a one-on-one coaching session to sharpen their pitch. Hank has more than a decade of startup pitching experience and a graduate degree in communications — and he still says that session was transformational.
Together, you and your coach distill what makes your company compelling into three minutes that earn the right to a longer conversation.
A Format Built for Conversations
Demo Day LA is intentionally designed so that the stage is the spark, not the whole fire. The pitch gets attention. The conversations before and after — at the tables, by the bar, on LinkedIn the next day — are where outcomes happen.
As Hank put it, the pitch is "just enough to get someone to want to come over and learn more." The room does the rest.
Founders Who Show Up Ready
The format works best when founders arrive ready to do more than pitch. Hank didn't wait for investors to come to him. He had conversations before he even took the stage. He followed up on LinkedIn with someone he'd never exchanged contact information with.
The founders who get the most out of Demo Day LA are the ones who treat every conversation as an opportunity to earn trust, get feedback, and build a relationship.
Watch the Full Story
Presentation & Interview
February 2026
Hank's complete presentation and conversation with Nerdstage co-founder Zach. Includes the Stanify case study, a deep dive into pitching and storytelling, and advice for founders at every stage.
Chapter Guide
Your Story Starts Here
Ready to start the next chapter, where your pitch is undeniably effective?
Your story starts with showing up.
For Founders
Apply to Pitch at Demo Day LA
Present your company to a curated room of investors, operators, and fellow founders. Includes one-on-one pitch coaching, stage time, and access to the full Demo Day network.
Apply to Pitch →Go Deeper
Explore the Pitch Accelerator
Structured coaching to sharpen your pitch, your story, and your fundraising strategy — whether or not you're presenting at Demo Day.
Learn More →For Investors
Attend as an Investor
Get early access to vetted, coached founders at the pre-seed and seed stage. See what's next before anyone else does.
Get Investor Access →