Gabi Fireside Chat

Fireside Chat with Gabi Zijderveld

Oct 22, 2025 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm

In celebration of Women Entrepreneurship Week, please join us for a fireside chat with Gabi Zijderveld, Cofounder of Blue Tulip Ventures, an VC firm that invests in early stage startups building human-centered AI.

Click here to register!

Blue Tulip Ventures is cofounded by Gabi and Rana el Kaliouby, two women power houses who had already built a successful startup, Affectiva, before generative AI came about. Learn about the in’s and out’s of the fundraising process not just from the startup founder’s perspective, but from the perspective of first-time VC’s with a strong track record and ambitious vision, who are raising their first fund in a crowded market.

This is an Inside the Classroom event hosted by Professor Joe Volman, Partner and Co-Chair of the Boston Office of Blank Rome LLP. Joe teaches ENT163 Entrepreneurial Business Law.

 

About Gabi Zijderveld

Gabi is a seasoned technology executive, innovator and startup mentor with 10+ years building and commercializing AI products. She has decades of operating experience at 7 startups and two public companies, including IBM. She has led product and marketing teams, and built partnerships and ecosystems. She has created new technology categories, devised go to market strategies and launched numerous v1 products. Gabi loves mentoring early stage AI startups in all aspects of growing their business.

 

About Josef Volman

During his 30-year career, Joe Volman has become known as a go-to lawyer in the middle-market community, particularly with respect to mid-market mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”). Through his creative, results-driven approach, Joe partners with his clients as a strategic adviser, and leverages his vast network to help clients source deals and raise capital in order to effectively drive growth and maximize returns on their investments.

 

He is particularly skilled in negotiating in a constructive and collaborative fashion, made evident by an illustrious career grown through referrals of past clients and industry-leading companies seeking his proficiency with buy- and sell-side transactions. On the sell-side, Joe helps clients prepare for the sale process, including tax and other structuring. He assists strategic and financial acquirors with tax, structuring, and negotiating transaction documents.

 

Joe is a deal maker and is known to take a highly commercial approach to move transactions over the finish line. He constantly strives to be the lawyer clients call to solve their problems, operating as if he is in the office next door and available to help when needed. His sell-side clients know that he treats their business as if it were his family business—he cares very deeply about them, their family, and their business. They know he has their back and that he’s going to help them achieve their wealth and liquidity goals. On the buy-side, private equity (“PE”) firms trust him to help them make the best choices, acquire the right companies, to achieve success for their limited partners. As a firm leader, he is also able to command the best resources for their transactions.

 

In addition to his M&A work, Joe represents entrepreneurs and investors, startups and emerging companies, and PE / venture capital funds through all phases of the fundraising and investment process. Joe also has significant experience representing small and mid-cap public companies and investment banking firms that work in the small and mid-cap markets. He helps early-stage companies with formation and financing, and guides venture funds with the structure and negotiation of venture capital financings. For small and mid-cap public companies, he helps them comply with securities laws, attain public and private financings, and execute M&A transactions.

 

Joe has a deep understanding of several dynamic sectors, including technology (particularly software as a service (“SaaS”) and FinTech companies), business services, professional services, consumer businesses, life sciences, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, sports, food & beverage, and hospitality.