Moments of impact from Charlee Rae Bender's career
Exclaimer · April 2026Exclaimer, a Series B B2B SaaS company, was focused on growing their channel ecosystem relationships and building their reputation in the same city as their US headquarters. I saw an opportunity to bring partners together during a16z Tech Week, a high-visibility moment when key prospects and partners would already be in town. The goal was not only to drive attendance but to strengthen regional relationships that had previously been managed through overseas coordinators. I reached out to Insight's partnership team in late April and we co-created the event concept over two weeks. I negotiated the F1 Arcade venue contract, managed a $6K budget, and built a targeted invite list of 100+ contacts pulled from our CRM. I drove RSVPs through personalized outreach and partner amplification, then coordinated all day-of logistics including check-in, racing heats, and networking flow to ensure a seamless experience. The event delivered strong results: 125 attendees showed up from 100+ RSVPs, including 25+ qualified prospects. Post-event, new partnership conversations opened up, and critically, the Insight team regionally engaged with our sales team for the first time—moving beyond the formal partner program structure. I was able to connect our Channel Account Managers on a 1:1 basis with their peers and provided value by allowing Insight to sponsor in name only, without soliciting sponsor dollars. The event moved the needle with regional points of contact and significantly advanced Exclaimer's reputation in the market.
SkySafe · Senior Partner Marketing Manager · March 2026Our partnership with Motorola was gaining momentum, but we hadn't yet demonstrated the ability to co-sell at scale with them. Leadership identified Motorola's flagship Summit as a high-visibility opportunity to prove our commitment to the partnership and unlock pipeline with shared customers, making this sponsorship a strategic priority rather than just an event line item. I owned execution end-to-end: personally selecting and inviting the 20 customer and prospect attendees for an exclusive dinner, bringing in our PR agency to coach our CEO and CRO on talking points for two joint presentations during the summit. To extend the impact beyond the event itself, I also leveraged our PR agency to run a coordinated PR play amplifying our presence and content, and built a webinar off the back of the Summit to capture ongoing engagement and drive multiple news interviews through Motorola's PR team as well. The dinner became a key relationship-building venue on top of the booth visibility, giving our CRO and head of partnerships dedicated time with customers to prove out our use case and activate partner champions for joint business. This directly influenced the development of relationships with a leading city police department and one of our largest prospects both significant validation points for our ability to co-sell alongside Motorola. The Summit succeeded in its core goal: establishing credible, high-level relationships with mutual customers and creating tangible momentum in the partnership.
Struck Capital · Events & Marketing Manager · May 2024While serving as Events & Marketing Manager at Struck Capital, I identified a gap in the LA B2B SaaS ecosystem: founders lacked casual, high-trust environments to build relationships with investors outside of formal pitch settings. Recognizing this need aligned with Struck's goal of building marketing infrastructure to expand their brand across leading VC cities, I proposed and took full ownership of a recurring dinner series designed to fill that gap and position Struck as a central connector in the local venture community. I owned every aspect of these dinners end-to-end, from sourcing venues to curating a tailored guest list of 10-12 founders and investors per event based on complementary interests and needs. I brought in Struck's managing partner, director of portfolio support, and investment associates to help drive meaningful conversation among attendees. Beyond logistics and curation, I also led fundraising for the series, securing $5-7k per dinner from sponsoring service providers to ensure the audience composition served both founders and sponsors alike. Through this effort, I built partnerships with firms including Stifel, Sequoia, JustWorks, and Cooley. The dinner series delivered lasting value on multiple fronts: it elevated Struck Capital's standing as a prominent pillar of the LA VC community, deepened the firm's relationships with preferred vendors, and gave founders direct access to critical business support services. By consistently pairing the right people in the room, the series created a sustainable model that promoted sponsor services while reinforcing Struck's reputation as a connector and resource within the ecosystem.
