Scott Kelly

Scott Kelly is the founder and CEO of Black Dog Venture Partners, a business accelerator that helps startups and growth-stage companies connect with capital, customers, business-development partners, and strategic support. Black Dog’s current site says Kelly has worked with entrepreneurs and investors for more than three decades and describes the firm as having a network of 16,000 investors and 40,000 business partners.

Kelly is also the organizer and host of VC Fast Pitch, an investor-founder event series built around short company presentations and investor Q&A. VC Fast Pitch says Black Dog Venture Partners has hosted investor events around the country and helped startups raise millions of dollars through its fast-pitch conferences; recent releases cite more than 15 years of events and more than $130 million raised by entrepreneurs connected through the platform.

In interviews and speaker profiles, Kelly describes an earlier career that included work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, investment-banking work in Silicon Valley helping technology companies access public markets, startup/incubator work during the dot-com era, and a period in the music and entertainment business after moving to Arizona around 2000. LinkedIn lists San Francisco State University, Lam Family College of Business, from 1990 to 1992.

Kelly has also taught entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, PR, networking, and selling for entrepreneurs at the university level. MoneyShow lists him as CEO of Black Dog Venture Partners, host of VC Fast Pitch, and an adjunct professor teaching PR, networking, and principles of selling for entrepreneurs.

• Invests in and supports early-stage companies, with a stated minimum check size starting at $25,000 and the ability to participate as part of a syndicate.
• Prefers industries where Kelly and the Black Dog team have direct operating or advisory experience.
• Black Dog’s stated role is to give startups and growth-stage companies access to funding, business development, executive coaching, and strategic growth opportunities through its investor and business-partner network.
• VC Fast Pitch’s operating model is direct exposure to investors: founders pitch to venture capitalists, angels, and accredited investors, typically in a format that includes a 5-minute company presentation and 5 minutes of investor questions.
• Kelly’s public founder advice emphasizes building investor relationships early, preparing a tight pitch deck and due-diligence materials, generating revenue before chasing investors where possible, and avoiding vanity metrics.
• His recent event focus shows active interest in AI integration, life sciences and women-led healthcare innovation, sports ecosystem investing, logistics/fintech automation, and broader technology companies.