Building something great should feel like exchanging ideas at happy hour — fun, authentic, and collaborative.
At Happy Hour Ventures, we act as your trusted thought partner, pairing sharp strategy with our signature touch of magic to help startups and VC funds thrive.
Founded by Emily Middleton—operator, generalist, and get-it-done partner behind firms like Female Founders Fund and brands like SoulCycle—we bring 15+ years of experience making complex work lighter, clearer, more fun, and far more doable.
From strategy and operations to events and partnerships, we hustle alongside you—keeping momentum high and turning ideas into action.
Recent Work Featured In
Services
Source, structure, and close aligned sponsorships and brand partnerships that support your company’s initiatives and events.
Design and execution of high-impact founder, investor/VC, LP, and ecosystem events and communities that strengthen your brand and network (beyond traditional event planning).
Ongoing fractional support across VC platform strategy, partnerships, programming, and community, without adding full-time headcount.
Fractional Chief of Staff–style support to take big ideas from concept to execution—game-planning the approach, identifying and onboarding the right vendors, and keeping initiatives moving forward.
About
Emily Middleton (St. Denis) is the Founder of Happy Hour Ventures.
Emily spent seven years as Operating Partner at Female Founders Fund, the leading institutional source of seed capital for female founders. At FFF, she built a best-in-class events and programming platform—from intimate press dinners and quarterly panels to large-scale gatherings including an annual CEO Summit, annual investor meetings, and Camp FFF—the firm's marquee event. She secured her annual budget through strategic sponsorships, establishing a reputation for excellence in ecosystem building, founder support, and partnership development.
Prior to FFF, Emily held key operational and logistics roles at several fast-growing startups. As one of SoulCycle's first corporate hires, she helped build the company's early operating infrastructure and scale its procurement systems nationally. She later led operations for a fitness franchise before transitioning into venture capital. Along the way, she's advised for Dream Ventures and Order.co, and served on the Global VC Platform board.
Emily is a mom to a toddler (and a rescue pitbull named Pepper). Becoming a parent reshaped how she thinks about work and impact. She is passionate about supporting women in business, advocating for flexible work to support working parents, and creating community for female entrepreneurs. Emily is also the co-founder of The Group Chat, a networking and resource community for female consultants in NYC.
Working with Emily
“Emily is easily one of the best people I've worked with since starting my company 15 years ago. No one is better at translating client needs and directing deliverables toward the desired goal. Across multiple projects, she’s consistently sharp, creative, and exceptionally fast on her feet, especially when conditions shift or constraints tighten. Just as importantly, she balances stakeholder needs without losing momentum or compromising the work. She elevates both the process and the final result. If you have the opportunity to work with Emily, take it.”
— Erika Kramer, Sleeves Up Productions
“Emily cultivates meaningful relationships between investors and among all of us portfolio companies. She is the hostess with the mostess, the connection queen, the find-a-way-and-get-it-done maven. Emily brings the magic.”
— Sarah Robinson, The Wonder
“Working with Emily was the best decision we have made for our business. Her deep expertise & knowledge in the founder & investor space was invaluable as we planned for a big launch to expand our business. Her superpower is streamlining operations to set you up for success and connecting the dots to bring the vision to reality. From refining our brand partnership deck to helping us map out programming for a large scale summit we are planning, she has been the MVP of our team.”
— Annie Evans, Dream Ventures
“Emily brings exceptional attention to detail and a strong eye for quality to everything she does, managing multiple workstreams with impressive precision and ease. She's great about progressing things forward and has good intuition about what's going to work and what is needed. Emily is low-ego, highly collaborative, and supportive. Beyond flawless execution, Emily provides thoughtful strategic input that elevates every project.”
— Former Colleague, Female Founders Fund
