Strategy · Partnerships · Events

Building something great should feel like happy hour.

Happy Hour Ventures partners with VC funds and growth brands on partnership and event strategy that drives real momentum.

Featured Work

What We Do

VC Platform Support

VC platform expertise without the full-time headcount. Sponsorships, founder onboarding, event programming, community strategy, benefits buildout — ongoing support that grows with you.

Partnership & Sponsorship

From strategy and pricing to outreach, negotiation, and close, we bring the right brand partners and sponsors to amplify your initiatives and events.

Events & Experiences

High-impact offsites, founder summits, and ecosystem events that do more than gather people. We're your thought partner for experiences that strengthen brand and community.

Operational/ Growth Support

Fractional Chief of Staff support from concept to execution. We game-plan the approach, onboard the right vendors, and keep things moving until you find your full-time fit.

About Emily

Emily Middleton is the founder of Happy Hour Ventures.

She spent the last seven years as Operating Partner at Female Founders Fund — the leading institutional seed fund for female founders — where she built a best-in-class events and programming platform from the ground up. From intimate press dinners and quarterly panels to a annual CEO Summit, investor meetings, and Camp FFF, the firm's marquee event, Emily ran it all. She funded her annual budget through strategic sponsorships, building a reputation for excellence in ecosystem building, founder support, and partnership development.

Before FFF, Emily held 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 — then went on to lead operations for a fitness franchise before making the move into venture. Along the way, she advised for Dream Ventures and Order.co, served on the Global VC Platform board, and co-founded The Group Chat, a networking and resource community for female consultants in NYC.

Emily is a mom to a toddler and a rescue pitbull named Pepper. Becoming a parent has reshaped how she thinks about work and impact — and deepened her commitment to supporting women in business, advocating for flexible work for working parents, and building community for female entrepreneurs.

  • “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

  • “I've worked with many talented people, but Emily occupies a category all her own. Over two years and four marquee events, she proved time and again that no challenge was too complex, no deadline too tight — she always finds a way. What's perhaps most remarkable is how she does it: with a cool head, a warm heart, and an infectious energy that makes everyone around her better. She is sharp, nimble, and relentlessly resourceful. Anyone lucky enough to work with her will feel the difference immediately.”

    — Courtney Forrest, Communiqué

  • “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, managing multiple workstreams with impressive precision. She has great intuition about what's needed and a natural ability to move things forward. Beyond flawless execution, Emily is low-ego, collaborative, and always provides thoughtful strategic input that elevates every project."

    —Former Colleague, Female Founders Fund

Let’s build something great together.

Interested in working with us?

Email us with a few details about your project. We’ll review your message and get back to you within 48 hours.

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