Fundraising Radio: Early Stage Startup Fundraising: Recent Episodes
Konstantin Dubovitskiy
Fundraising Radio is the largest podcast about fundraising for early stage startups in the US. We focus on helping founders understand how they can raise the first institutional round outside of friends and family. How to appeal to investors and how to make sure that they see in your company what you see there. We interview experienced founders who sold their companies in the past and raised hundreds of millions, we talk with active angels, managers of rolling funds, corporate venture capitalists and more. If you want to raise money for your young company, you came to the right place!
Terry Husayn (Talha), VP of Technical engagement and a member of the founding team at Orum. In this part Terry spoke about the process of building an early stage sales team - from the ground up. Specifically we focused on hiring, training and creating compensation plans for BDRs and SDRs.
Some mentions from the episode:
- Winning an SDR interview, Terry's blog
- Betts recruiting - recruiting
- AlwaysHired - SDR school
- Shift Group - shiftgroup.io - recruiting
Terry's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talhahusayn/
Link to Orum: https://www.orum.com/
And of course, keep an eye out on our articles through SubStack that you can check out here.
Terry Husayn (Talha), VP of Technical engagement and a member of the founding team at Orum in this episode talks about the following:
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intro to cold-calling, who needs to do it and why
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testing of the outreach strategy
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specifics of outreach
Databases of emails/phone numbers:
Zoominfo
Apollo
LeadIQ
Lusha
Intent based signals tracking can be done here: Sixth Sense
Tool to capture your website visitors: Warmly
Terry's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talhahusayn/
Link to Orum: https://www.orum.com/
And of course, keep an eye out on our articles through SubStack that you can check out here.
Amjed Aboukhadijeh - head of sales at Socket. In this part he takes a deeper dive into the specific strategies included in the territory planning, more specifically - creating drip campaigns and running a POC (Proof Of Concept) that has a much greater success rate.
Here is the link to a spreadsheet template that you can use to run your Proof Of Concept: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16RFCe-VnSILzZerdbdPsajKSsfNQHzbKxcVIG48ngYk/edit?usp=sharing
This is the second episode of two that we've had with Amjed, you can listen to part 1 here.
Amjed Aboukhadijeh - head of sales at Socket, talks about the importance of territory planning in the sales process. He explains what steps does territory planning consist of and how you should work on each step.
This is the first episode of two that we'll have with Amjed - part 2 will be focused on very specific strategies that were mentioned in Pt 1 (this episode) so stay tuned!
Lucas Price, Founder and CEO at Yardstick in this episode talks about asking the right questions, using structured interviews and scorecards to identify sales talent.
Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street https://a.co/d/fBJf66l
A VP of Sales Hiring Scorecard For Startups…Get it Right the First Time https://avenuetalentpartners.com/2021/06/27/vp-sales-hiring-scorecard-startups/
What to Know Before You Interview Your Next Sales Candidate https://www.yardstick.team/post/what-to-know-before-you-interview-your-next-sales-candidate
For our long-standing followers asking if we haven't released any new episodes in the past 8 months because we died - no we haven't, still kicking it! This new season of Fundraising Radio will be still catered to our old listeners but this time the focus will be on sales for early stage startups that have nothing to their name. Why? Because with the ongoing recession and great fears for the future of the US economy, more and more investors become conservative and want to see sales before they invest in you.
Let us know how you like the slightly updated format and most importantly - the subject!
Links that I've promised to include in the episode description:
- Lisa Falzone - Co-Founder and President Athena Security.
- Athena Secruity's website
- Book recommended by Lisa: The Four Steps to the Epiphany
- Chat GPT for google sheets
- Fundraising Radio's Substack: we cover A TON of very-very specific strategies there
Jonny Price, VP of Fundraising at Community Round Fundraising (WeFunder) in this episode talks about equity crowdfunding, process that founders need to undergo to have a successful crowd-funded round and more. We've also talked about the major pitfalls in said process and how to prepare for those.
Jonny's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnyprice/
Community Round Fundraising's site: https://wefunder.com/
SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) explained by the CEO of Assure: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Jeremy-Neilson/
Extra resources that Jonny shared with me:
Blog on how to raise $1M on Wefunder: https://twitter.com/JonnyCPrice/status/1503515916285493255
Podcast episode on fundraising strategy: https://www.spreaker.com/user/wefunder/justin-renfro
Community Round website: communityround.com
Wefunder Raise page: wefunder.com/raise
Wefunder PBC charter: wefunder.com/charter
Twitter: @jonnycprice; @wefunder
Hall Martin, Founder and CEO at TEN Capital Network that raised over $900 million for its clients, in this episode talks about hiring fundraising advisors who can connect you to the right capital. We spoke about different regulations around fundraising and of course, about hiring experts for your fundraising round and whether it's worth it or not.
Hall's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/halltmartin/
TEN Capital Network - connecting investors with startups: https://tencapital.group/
Alyona Mysko, CEO & Founder at Fuelfinance in this episode talks about the story of her company and the effects that the war has on it and its future plans. Hint: no giving up in sight and Fuelfinance is preparing to raise soon while expanding!
Fuelfinance website - https://fuelfinance.me
Support Ukrainian Busines - here
Here - how to open in Delaware a company, but it is in Ukrainian. If you want to read another way of opening a company (with Firstbase of course), you can check out our website: https://www.firstbase.io/
Here is the video Spend with Ukraine.
Sharmin Ali, Founder and CEO of Instoried tells her story of helping others write good stories. In this episode we go in-depth into the reasons why Instoried build all their tech in-house from scratch and how they use it as their competitive advantage to secure funding for the expansion.
Sharmin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharmin-ali-5b6b4237/
Instoried website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/instoried/
I forgot what else I wanted to include in the description so here is the link to our course about fundraising for early stage startups: https://fundraising-courses.com/
Russ Wilcox, Partner at PillarVC talks about his experience running startups himself. Throughout his career he raised 10 times and 3 times these were down-rounds. In this episode Russ explains what down-rounds are bad, how they happened to him and how he managed to survive and thrive!
Russ' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-wilcox-2005/
Pillar VC's website: https://www.pillar.vc/
For people who want to understand how to get in touch with the right investor, a course developed by Fundraising Radio's team and myself: https://fundraising-courses.com/
Some topics we have covered in this episode:
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your fund invests in three fields, which one of those do you specialize in?
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you've raised 10 rounds of funding and 3 of those were down-rounds with an eventual happy ending, can you tell us a bit more about that experience?
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the unique trait of your fund is that most of your managers have experience building their own companies, how transferrable is that experience?
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you're an investor who likes patents, why is that and when o you think it makes sense to patent an idea/technology?
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you've recently closed your own raise for your 3rd fund - how did that go? How does that experience compare to fundraising for your own company?
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are there any deep tech investments that you've recently made that excite you the most?
Tae Hea Nahm, Managing Director and Co-Founder at Storm Ventures in this episode talks about his experience working as an attorney and helping startup founders raise money for their companies, and eventually starting a VC fund of his own. We also spoke about his book "Survival To Thrival", why he wrote it and what was the affect on his fund.
Tae's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnahm/
Storm ventures: https://www.stormventures.com/
Here is the list of podcasts about fundraising (some of them are non-profit fundraisings but still) - https://blog.feedspot.com/fundraising_podcasts/
Koby Conrad, Head of Growth at Rupa Health and Founder of Channels of Growth talks about his experience building a company and pivoting 3 times. He also explains what growth management looks like and who should be dealing with that field.
Koby's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kobyconrad/
Subscribe to Channels of Growth here: https://channelsofgrowth.substack.com/
Course on fundraising by Fundraising Radio team: https://fundraising-courses.com/
Rupa Health's site: https://www.rupahealth.com/
Some topics we have covered in this episode:
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what does your day-to-day as a growth manager look like?
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what do you think are the essential skills for a good growth manager to make growth really happen and to run a successful growth team?
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you were previously a founder, your company got into YC and then you've raised $2 million for a completely different company, why did you decide to pivot?
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how much of the current knowledge of the growth management field did you have back then?
Jeremy Neilson, CEO and Co-Founder of Assure in this episode explains how SPVs work and what they are, how founders can use them to make their rounds easier and what are the expected costs of creating an SPV and syndicating your own round.
Assure's site: https://hubs.li/Q015d7j-0
Jeremy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyneilson/
Assure's bootcamp: https://boomstartup.com/
Assure's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4LhtX361MEw5l6nenLkWQ
Some topics covered in this episode:
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you've been the co-CEO of Assure for over 10 years until 2020, why did you decide to co-CEO a company and how did that play out?
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Assure is best known for serving investors, but your head of partnership reached out to me to talk about founder-led SPV, how do those work?
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why does such an SPV makes sense and what are the major benefits of it? Any downsides? Pricing?
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does it work post-friends and family?
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a lot of founders who have sold their previous companies frequently start investing in companies that align with the goals of their newly created startups, how would you recommend those founders structure such investments?
P.S. Fundraising Radio is a non-profit organization, this episode is not sponsored by Assure. We are running ads for this particular episode as a part of the testing campaign to discover their effectiveness of increasing the number of active listeners of FR and that campaign is indeed sponsored by Assure.
Nick Desai - Founder and CEO at HeyRenee in this episode talks about how he started 5 companies and how many of them actually made it. He also explains why he chose to raise money from VCs for all his companies and how that decision affected the business.
HeyRenee site: https://www.heyrenee.co/
Nick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickdesaiheal/
Can your investors fire me? Here is an episode of Fundraising Radio explaining this question: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Jeb-Banner/
If you choose to go the other route, check out our course about reaching out to investors! https://www.fundraising-courses.com/
Dylan Kendall - candidate for Los Angeles City Council District in 2022 and a Founder of a for-profit and non-profit in this episode shares her experience of being a founder in Los Angeles. She explains how did it happen that fundraising for a non-profit turned out to be easier than for a for-profit company and how she got into politics.
Learn more about Dylan as a candidate here: https://dylankendall2022.com/
Relevan episode where Claudine Emeott explains how impact funds work: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Claudine-Emeott/
Some of the questions covered in this episode:
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you said that fundraising for your non-profit turned out to be easier than for a for-profit, how did that happen?
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can you briefly tell us about your experience while raising for your for-profit? If you could go back in time and change that raise, what would you do?
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you are the candidate for Los Angeles City Council District in 2022, how did you get into politics?
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what do you think is the major strength of LA as a tech hub? Are there any particular government programs in LA specifically that can help startup founders at the early stages?
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you've mentioned that one of your frustration with city of LA is that it's government is very slow and falling behind the development curve, how do you plan to fix this?
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do you think there are any particular cities that have done a better job at this? (not necessarily in the US)
Jeb Banner, CEO and Co-Founder of Boardable explains how the governing boards really work and how founders can make sure that they don't get fired from the companies that they have started. He also spoke about the first steps that early stage founders should take to establish the board and explained the legal requirements around the board management.
Jeb's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jebbanner/
Boardable: https://boardable.com/
Course by Fundraising Radio's team: https://www.fundraising-courses.com/
Anthony Zhang, Co-founder and CEO at Vinovest talks about how his company helps "regular" people invest in wine - an asset class that was previously only accessible to the wealthy people with free time on their hands. He also spoke about their most recent Series A and how they had to change their business model to close the round successfully.
Anthony's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-zhang-988a2375/
Link to Vinovest that will get you 3 months of no management fees: https://vinovest.co/signup?grsf=lr4ndv&utm_campaign=Dec_2021_LTO_Referral (this episode is not sponsored by Vinovest and the referral link yields no commissions for Fundraising Radio)
Get our course at a huge discount here: https://www.fundraising-courses.com/
Some of the questions covered in this episode:
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tell us a little bit more about how vinovest operate
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you said that your series A was much easier than seed, why is that?
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when you "removed yourself from the day to day operations" in order to raise series A, who replaced you?
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on our pre-interview you've mentioned that you got a few counter-offers on your initial round in series A, how did you manage to do that?
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why didn't you follow the same strategy for your Seed?
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how did your pre-seed round go compared to the two following?
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you said that on your series A you had to switch your customer acquisition model and switch from the organic to paid, why is that?
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when did this transition happen and how do you feel about it
Jordi Hays, Co-Founder & CEO at Party Round in this episode talks about the legal side of fundraising and how it looks like now VS what it actually should be. We've also discussed the need for actual lawyers in some fundraising rounds and the importance of friends and family round in a life of a startup.
Jordi's email for those who want to skip the line of over 30k users and use Party Round now: jordi@partyround.com
Jordi's LinekedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordi-hays-559199113/
And of course, Party Round's website: https://partyround.com/
Our course on fundraising for early stage startups can be found here for only $19.99: https://www.fundraising-courses.com/
Here are some of the questions asked in this episode:
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you've mentioned the importance of social capital in fundraising - how does partyround help with that?
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many founders try to avoid raising from friends of family out of fear of ruining relationships, do you think it's worth the risk?
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many of our listeners are already over the friends and family round, is partyround applicable to later stages or do you recommend founders to reach out to lawyers to draft more custom documentation?
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you've mentioned that you've gone viral numerous times on twitter, how did you do this? Was it worth it?
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pricing of partyround. It seems like you've taken the non-traditional approach to your go-to-market strategy, how did it help you with your fundraising?
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you've raised from a16z, how long did it take you to close the round and how did this process look like?
Duy Vo, Founder and CEO at Productfy talks about being a sole founder and yet having great Co-Founders (in a way) who have helped him lead the company to the success instead of selling early on. He also explains how Productfy works and how it can transform any organization into a complex financial organization in a span of a few weeks.
Duy Vo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duybvo/
Productfy's site: https://www.productfy.io/
Course on fundraising for early stage startups: https://www.fundraising-courses.com/
Sid Viswanathan Co-Founder & President at Truepill talks about raising a Series D and how it is different from earlier rounds. We've also touched onto the story of how prior to Truepill, Sid founded CardMunch, a business-card scanning app that was acquired by LinkedIn soon after its founding.
Sid's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidviswanathan
Truepill's site: www.truepill.com
And of course, link to our course on fundraising at 70% discount (only until the 15th of January): https://bit.ly/StartupFundingCourse
Questions covered in this episode:
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you've spent 4 years at linkedin, when was the moment when did you decide to start the second company and how did you bump into the idea?
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how did you meet your co-founder?
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you recently raised a round D of 142 million dollars, how did you get there?
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at round D, what's the major problem for a company?
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looking back at your post-YC seed round, what do you think was your major mistake while raising it?
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how much of Truepill's success is due to the fact that it got into YC a year after it was started?
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you've recently expanded into diagnostics, did you raise any money to fund the expansion specifically?
Stephen Cobbe, co-founder and CEO at Opal talks about his journey with Opal, ups and downs and how to handle them. He also shares some recommendations on how to find a good co-founder and shares his personal experience in that field along with two great books.
Stephen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scobbe/
Opal's website: https://opal.dev/
Two great books in question:
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Never Split the Difference: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805
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The Founder's Dilemmas: https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Dilemmas-Anticipating-Foundation-Entrepreneurship/dp/0691158304
The course on reaching out to investors that Fundraising Radio's team is developing: https://bit.ly/FRpodcast101
Alex Simon, CEO Co-Founder of Elude in this episode talks about the new strategies that modern founders can employ while fundraising for their startups. We also spoke about some key things that founders should have on hand before starting to raise and about other things that I forgot to write down.
Alex' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexnsimon/
Elude website: https://elude.co/
Episode with the founder of DocSend: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Russ-Heddleston/
70% off (for less than a month) Fundraising Radio's course on how to get in front of investors: https://bit.ly/FRpodcast101
Brett Goldstein, Co-Founder at Launch House talks about focusing on the new values instead of pushing old shit through accelerators and how exactly he approaches it. We spoke a lot about how the fundraising field has changed over the past years and why many accelerators are going obsolete with founders needing a better alternative. We also discussed some of the fundraising tactics that Launch House implements to help its participants fundraise.
Brett's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bgoldstein3/
Brett's Twitter: https://twitter.com/thatguyBG
Launch House: https://www.launchhouse.co/
Fundraising Radio's course on how to get in front of investors: https://bit.ly/FRpodcast101
Amy Malin, Co-Founder at Trueheart talks about how by making simple search requests you give money to non-profits instead of monopolistic corporate giants. We spoke about how fundraising for non-profits looks like and how is it different from fundraising for for-profit companies and how should one approach fundraising for such projects.
Amy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amymalin/
Trueheart - change the world with every search: https://trueheart.com/
SMB bonds that we've touched on during the episode: https://www.thesmbx.com/
Russ Heddleston, Co-Founder and CEO talks about the story of DocSend and how the decision to increase their prices led to an increased conversion rate for their customers and how exactly this magic worked. We've also discussed how DocSend became so essential for the startup founders and how was the product taking shape. In this episode Russ touched onto the acquisition of DocSend by Dropbox and explained how exactly they got to a $150 million acquisition with just $15 million raised.
Russ' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heddleston/
Russ' Twitter: https://twitter.com/rheddleston
DocSend site: https://www.docsend.com/
Our fundraising course pre-sales: https://bit.ly/FRpodcast101
Michel Tricot Co-Founder at Airbyte talks about raising capital for an open-source startup. We talked about how Airbyte plans to monetize and how they managed to get into Y-Combinator. We also touched onto the effect that a good background in a relevant field has on your fundraising efforts (spoiler: it makes fundraising too easy)
Michel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micheltricot/
Airbyte's website: https://airbyte.io/
Link to our course on fundraising - The Science of Getting in front of Investors: https://bit.ly/FRpodcast101
Bryan Clayton, CEO and Cofounder at GreenPal talks about how his company outlived dozens of his competitors by NOT raising money from investors. We also discussed the future plans of the company and why their strategy might change and actually include fundraising in some form. But the major focus of the interview is on the reasons to not fundraise and on discussions of cases in which it is applicable.
Bryan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-clayton-a96b33214/
GreenPal's website: https://www.yourgreenpal.com/
Our course on fundraising: https://bit.ly/FRpodcast101
Karl Hughes, Founder and CEO at Draft.dev talks about content marketing, specifically focused on targeting developers. We discussed some strategies that can be applied and budget for good content marketing along with some use-cases.
Karl's personal site: https://www.karllhughes.com/
Promotion checklist: https://draft.dev/learn/promotion
Low-cost content marketing ideas (forgot to mention this, but might be helpful for early-stage founders on a budget): https://draft.dev/learn/low-cost-marketing-ideas
Kirk Marple, Founder and CEO at Unstruk Data talks about their fundraising round and how they doubled their valuation in less than 4 months. We also spoke about some useful techniques that can help founders fundraise.
Kirk's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkmarple/\
Unstruk Data: https://www.unstruk.com/
Paul Martino, founder at Bullpen capital talks about investing in founders who are "falling out of pattern", making post-seed investments and how such investments are different from bridge rounds. We also spoke about how founders should view such post-seed rounds and how to approach them.
Paul's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljmartino/
Bullpen capital: https://bullpencap.com/
Work is still very much in progress, but you can preview the upcoming course on outreach to investors created by Fundraising Radio team here: https://fundraise.thinkific.com/
Taylor Burton, Co-Founder of Till Financial talks about the creation and fundraising of it and how they have gathered analyzed and later presented the feedback to the investors. Taylor also touched onto the major problems that they faced while building the company and some mistakes they've made early on.
Taylor's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-burton-93073215/
Till Financial's website: https://www.tillfinancial.io/
Fundraising Radio's course preview: https://fundraise.thinkific.com/
Casey Fenton, co-founder at the legendary Couchsurfing and currently founder and CEO at Upstock.io talks about what RSUs are and how are they different from standard stock options. We also discussed why exactly Casey hates stock options so much and what is so wrong about them. And of course we talked about Casey's experience with couchsurfing and its transition from a non-profit into a for-profit company.
Upstock: https://www.upstock.io/
Casey's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseyfenton/
Casey's email if you want to discuss equity: casey@upstock.io
Couchsurfing: https://www.couchsurfing.com/
Thomas Li, Co-Founder and CEO at Daloopa talks about explaining complicated tech in simple terms and selling it to investors and buyers. We also discussed deep tech in greater detail and who are the primary targets for fundraising in these cases. We also touched onto the importance of listening to your customers and how that can directly affect your fundraising process (great quote at the end of the episode).
The preview of the course isn't up yet, but it will be very soon, if you want to make sure you don't miss it, go to https://www.fundraisingradio.com/ and subscribe to our mailing list!
Thomas' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-li-a6189245/
Daloopa's site: https://daloopa.ai/
Omry Ben David, General Partner at Viola talks about investing in Israel and Israeli founders all over the globe and why it seems to be working than most other demographics. We also discussed how does Viola Ventures work and why is it spread over 4 funds and how do they cooperate.
Omry's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omry-ben-david-2436371/
Viola's site: https://www.viola-group.com/fund/violaventures/
Another episode of Fundraising Radio about Israeli founders: Why invest in Israel and how do Israeli founders expand to the US? By Cynthia Phitoussi
Andrew Milich, Co-Founder at Skiff talks about the importance of college education while building a company and raising funding. He also talked about how investors reacted to him as the first time founder and how it affected his fundraising efforts.
Andrew's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amilich/
Skiff's website: https://www.skiff.org/
Skiff's Twitter: https://twitter.com/skiffprivacy
Christopher Lustrino, Founder & CEO at KingsCrowd in this educational episode talks about equity crowdfunding, what are the major pitfalls in it and how to avoid them. He also gave a brief step-by-step guide on raising money through equity crwodfunding and shared some of the knowledge about the process that he gained while raising money for KingsCrowd.
Checklist:
1) Be prepared for the time frame: 4-12 weeks to go live on equity crowdfunding platform.
2) Determine how much you want to raise and at what valuation.
3) Find the platform that fits your brand and begin your own fundrasing outreach
4) Get your financials in order - before going to the crowd, make sure your financials are in order and keep them that way.
Christopher Lustrino, Founder & CEO at KingsCrowd talks about his experience raising 100% of the funding for his company online. We discussed what are the major pros and cons of equity crowdfunding and how he maneuvered through them. Crhistopher also spoke about the repeat investor and their importance in any type of fundraising process and he explained how to stay in touch with your existing investors to make sure the next round will be easier to raise.
Christopher's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislustrino/
KingsCrowd site: https://kingscrowd.com/
Fundraising Radio episode on CAFE - alternative to the standard SAFEs: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Thibauld-Favre/
Akeel Jabber, Investment director at Horizen Capital talks about rules of growing a SaaS business and later on selling it. He explained how Horizen Capital makes its investment decisions and how a startup founder can get closer to an acquisition.
Akeel's podcast - SaaS district: https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast/
Akeel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar/
Akeel's twitter: https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber
Horizen Capital: https://horizencapital.com/
For A/B testing: https://vwo.com/
Tanvi Gupta, Founder and CEO at SwoonMe talks about how she left Facebook and stability that it provides in order to build her own company. We also spoke about building a startup in a crowded space (online dating) and how she managed to stand out from the crowd and get her pre-seed round oversubscribed.
Tanvi's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanvigupta773/
SwoonMe website: https://www.swoonmedating.com/
If you are curious to hear more about online dating, the interview with an Ex-Tinder Chief Product Officer is here!
Hussein Kanji, co-founder at Hoxton Ventures who presents himself as an analyst on LinkedIn to avoid spam messages from dozens of founders (I just find it hilarious that those messages go so out of hand, this kind of measures have to be taken so decided to mention it here). We spoke about the way Hoxton got to such a high rate of IPOs per investment and how Hussein finds those companies. We also spoke about IPOs and some other good stuff.
Hussein's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hkanji/
Hussein's Twitter: https://twitter.com/hkanji
Hoxton Ventures: https://www.hoxtonventures.com/
For our European listeners: Firstbase, where I work, can help you incorporate in the US fast and painlessly so check it out and use my code to get a discount - RADIO15
Billy Libby, Co-Founder & CEO at Upper90 talks about what the term "hybrid fund" implies and how is it different from a "regular" fund. We talked about who should try raising debt and how can a startup separate the part of their business that is safe and raise debt backed by that chunk of their business. We also discussed what kind of companies should really go after debt and how to do it.
Billy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billy-libby-76464b1/
Upper90: https://www.upper90.io/
QSBS - what is that? Here is the explanation: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/qsbs-qualified-small-business-stock.asp
We got to the 300th episode and decided to celebrate with a bit of extra fun for our listeners. This episode is about the mistakes that were made during the creation of this podcast - it includes the stories of the team and some random bloopers that were removed from the original episodes and saved "for later use" and the day for that "later use" came! We hope you enjoy:)
Here is the contact information of our key team members:
Elizaveta Belinskaya: email, LinkedIn.
Luis Bravo: email, LinkedIn
Konstantin Dubovitskiy: email, LinkedIn.
Anthony Baker, Founder and CEO at Satellite VU talks about fundraising for his company that is about to launch multiple satellites into space. We spoke about testing out such a complicated idea with low budget and presenting it to investors in order to actually implement the idea. For founders in deep tech space this will be an extremely interesting episode about idea testing and implementation.
Anthony's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonybaker2/
Satellite VU: https://www.satellitevu.com/
An episode on how Corporate Venture Capital works: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Mark-Crawford/ - it's a series of 4 episodes so be sure to check them all out!
Cynthia Phitoussi, Co-Founder & Managing Partner SeedIL Ventures talks about investing in Israel and explains the major differences between American and Israeli founders and shares the best qualities of both. We also discussed the major changes in the Israeli startup ecosystem that Cynthia saw over the past 7 years.
Cynthia's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-phitoussi-b306921b/
SeedIL Ventures: https://seedil.com/
The book about learning most critical soft skills: https://chutzpahcenter.com/book/
Mark Peter Davis Managing Partner at Interplay Ventures, podcast host at Innovation with Mark Peter Davis and an author of The Fundraising Rules talks about the fundraising rules, the lessons he learned from being a VC. We also spoke about who should try to create content and in what form this content should be.
Mark's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markpeterdavis/
Interplay Ventures: https://www.interplay.vc/
Innovation with Mark Peter Davis podcast: https://linktr.ee/markpeterdavis
Mark's blog: https://mpd.me/
Duane Good, Co-founder & President at Tribal Credit talks about some of the indicators of the future growth in companies, red flags that can be spotted in metrics of a company and how Tribal credit raised $43 million.
Duane's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duanegood/
Tribal Credit: https://www.tribal.credit/
Follow Tribal Credit on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tribal-credit/
For those listeners who are just thinking of starting their companies: I've recently joined an awesome YC-backed startup - Firstabase.io that helps founders create legal entities in the US from anywhere in the world within minutes. Since I work there, you get the sweet 15% discount code! Just go here and use RADIO15 code!
Dana Loberg, Founder of Leo AR, co-founder of MojiLaLa and previously the co-founder of MovieLaLa that was acquired by Gifycat talks about her story of acquisition and the launch of a new company. We also spoke about who should join the accelerator and does it make sense to join an accelerator if you already ran a startup in the past.
Dana's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danaloberg/
Leo AR: https://www.leoapp.com/
Dana's Blog on Medium: https://danaloberg.medium.com/
For those listeners who are just thinking of starting their companies: I've recently joined an awesome YC-backed startup - Firstabase.io that helps founders create legal entities in the US from anywhere in the world within minutes. Since I work there, you get the sweet 15% discount code! Just go here and use RADIO15 code!
Heidi Lindvall, General Partner at Pale Blue Dot talks about investing in ClimateTech startups in Europe and US and about the major differences between startups in the US and Europe. We spoke about some successful exits in climate-tech and how founders get there and much more useful stuff that I forgot to write down in notes.
Heidi's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidilindvall/
Pale Blue Dot website: https://www.paleblue.vc/#section-0
Jobs at Pale Blue Dot: https://www.notion.so/pbdvc/Jobs-at-Pale-Blue-Dot-66f3e6df70594d31b723166360bc8ef0
Episode about fundraising for clean tech startups here.
Mike Dowdle, Founding Partner at Circadian Ventures shares his 22+ years of experience in the VC space, explains how it changed in the past decades and how it affects startup founders who are trying to raise. We also discussed the differences between funds, syndicates and solo angels as sources of capital for founders.
Mike's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dowdle/
Circadian Ventures: https://www.circadian.vc/
Mike's email: mike@circadian.vc
Real life story of a founder that is exactly like Silicon Valley show: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Rami-Essaid/
For those listeners who are just thinking of starting their companies: I've recently joined an awesome YC-backed startup - Firstabase.io that helps founders create legal entities in the US from anywhere in the world within minutes. Since I work there, you get the sweet 15% discount code! Just go here and use RADIO15 code!
Shayn Fernandez, Corporate Attorney at Rockridge Venture Law talks about the use of the "B-corp" signature and how to obtain one and if it's even worth it obtaining it. We also discussed how startup founders should interact with their lawyers and when it might be a good idea to use software automation.
Shayn's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaynfernandez/
Rockridge Venture Law website: https://rockridgelaw.com/
Here are the software automation that might help you avoid huge legal fees you'll need to spend on lawyers:
Capbase, helps you with all cap-table management: https://capbase.com/
Firstbase, helps you create a legal entity in the US no matter where you live: https://www.firstbase.io/
Stripe Atlas, similar to Firstbase but more expensive and includes more features: https://stripe.com/atlas
Other episodes of Fundraising Radio on the legal subject: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/category/legal/
For those listeners who are just thinking of starting their companies: I've recently joined an awesome YC-backed startup - Firstabase.io that helps founders create legal entities in the US from anywhere in the world within minutes. Since I work there, you get the sweet 15% discount code! Just go here and use RADIO15 code!
Mayank Sanganeria, software engineer at Instagram talks about his experience at Instagram and at smaller startups. We discussed how can an early stage startup attract a veteran software engineer like Mayank without going broke and how they should reach out. Mayank also talked about some of the best practices he sees being used at Instagram and some of the great practices he used at smaller startups.
Mayank's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/e7mac/
Book that Mayank recommended: The hard thing about hard things.
Mayank's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/e7mac/?hl=en
Vik Sasi, Partner at Dreamers VC—co-founded by Will Smith—talks about spotting unicorns, the epic takeoff of Clubhouse and about the ways founders can be sure that investors see their venture as a future unicorn. We also spoke about partnering up with celebrities (such as Will Smith) while being a founder and how much sense those partnerships make.
Vik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikramsasi/
Vik's Email: vik@dreamers.vc
Dreamers VC: https://www.dreamers.vc/
Capbase: a super useful tool for cap table management: https://capbase.com/
Section of Fundraising Radio on the legal side of fundraising: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/category/legal/
Eddy Badrina, CEO of Eden Green, previously the Co-founder of Buzzshift talks about his transition to the startup world and the major lessons he learned along the way. We speak about his first time fundraising and some mistakes that Eddy made. We also speak about the acquisition of Buzzshift and how he got reached that point.
Eddy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddybadrina/
Elden Green: https://www.edengreen.com/
Buzzshift: https://www.buzzshift.com/
Episode of FR on investing in Ag-Tech with Grant Newlin: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Grant-Newlin/
Brian York, Co-Founder & CEO at Cubbo, and Founder and GP at Bassin Ventures talks about Latin America and how it differs from the U.S. startup ecosystem. We also talk about exits from LatAm and Brian shares his advice to founders trying to expand their network in a new country.
Brian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yupyork/
Cubbo: https://cubbo.com/
Bassin Ventures: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bassin-ventures/about/
Fundraising Radio episode about the exit of the largest e-commerce in LatAm: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Marcelo-Franco/
Amos Schwartzfarb, Managing Director at Techstars and Trevor Boehm, Venture Partner at Saturn Five, co-authors of LEVERS - The Framework For Building Repeatability into Your Business talk about writing a book together and their motivation behind it. We also talk about content generation in general and who should consider taking their time to generate content.
Amos' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amosschwartzfarb/
Trevor's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevorboehm/
Levers, a book about creating repeatable processes in startups: https://www.leversbook.com/
Saturn Five: https://www.saturnfive.com/
TechStars: https://www.techstars.com/
Alex Luce, Partner at Creative Ventures, talks about investing in first-time founders, the mistakes they tend to make and the green flags that they can show investors. We also touch on some major red flags that Alex sees and how those can be avoided.
Alex's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexluce/
Creative Ventures:
Website: https://creativeventures.vc/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Creative_VC
Early stage accelerators for scientific founders and hardtech companies mentioned in the episode:
https://www.activate.org & their resources at https://www.activate.org/learn
https://chainreaction.anl.gov
https://innovationcrossroads.ornl.gov
https://nmleep.com
Endless Frontier Labs: https://endlessfrontierlabs.com
https://indiebio.co
Creative Destruction Labs: https://www.creativedestructionlab.com
Claudine Emeott, Senior Director at Salesforce Impact Fund talks about investing in impact startups and what qualifies one. We narrow in on what founders of impact startups should and shouldn’t do to benefit the most from their unique position.
Claudine's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudineemeott/
An article that Claudine Emeott co-authored with a few other impact investors: Corporate Impact Investing in Innovation
Salesforce Impact Fund: https://www.salesforce.com/company/ventures/impact/
Preethy Padman, Impact investor talks about who qualifies as an impact startup, what the major benefits of that status are, and how to reach out to impact investors: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Preethy-Padman/
Benjamin Narasin, Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates talks about changes he’s seen in the VC space over the last decade+, and about the process of taking one of his companies public. We also discussed alternatives to the pitch decks and ways founders can speed up their fundraising process.
Benjamin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennarasin/
NEA: https://www.nea.com/
Ben's Twitter: https://twitter.com/BNarasin
Ben's blog: Ben Narasin's Writings. Sybaritic & Silicon Valley.
John Helm, Managing Director at Real Estate Technology Ventures talks about investing in proptech, and details the emerging market of rent-tech. John spoke about the future of this field and where he sees rent-tech going in the U.S. as the pandemic reaches its end. We also spoke about the two companies that John has sold and how he arrived at and identified his exit points.
John's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-helm-00820a1/
Real Estate Technology Ventures: https://www.ret.vc/
Another episode on PropTech here.
Lee Greene, former founder and CEO of WearAway and current creator & host of the Stairway to CEO podcast talks about making the pivot from startups to airwaves. We also spoke about the acquisition of WearAway and the company got to that point.
Lee's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leegreene/
GRIN, the company that acquired WearAway: https://grin.co/
Stairway to CEO podcast: http://stairwaytoceo.com/
Stacy Stubblefield, Co-Founder and CIO at TeleSign talks about landing their first big customer, which started a chain reaction that brought in even more. We spoke about the value of implying who your customers are without disclosing their names and how it can lend you validity in the eyes of potential customers. We also spoke about the acquisition of TeleSign by BICS in 2017.
Stacy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacystubblefield/
TeleSign: https://www.telesign.com/
What kind of questions should you ask your future pre-seed investor? All in this episode of Fundraising Radio: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Scott-Krivokopich/
Thibauld Favre, co-founder and CEO of Fairmint talks about a new way to raise money from your customers on an ongoing basis. CAFE stands for Continuous Agreement for Future Equity—continuous being the key word—and this new form of fundraising is on the rise.
Fairmint's website: https://fairmint.co/
For those who aren’t very familiar with standard SAFEs, here's an episode with Phil Nadel where we discuss them: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Phil-Nadel/
CAFE of Opengrants: https://invest.opengrants.io/signin
Thibauld's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thibauld/
Anil Advani, founder and managing partner at Inventus Law and founding member and legal advisor at Excelerate talks about choosing the legal support that best suits your startup. We compare pricing of small and big law firms and some automated software that can help startups avoid working with lawyers altogether. Anil also talked about how lawyers should be open to working with such software and supporting startup founders even when things go south.
Anil's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anadvani/
Inventus Law: https://www.inventuslaw.com/
Excelerate: https://excelerate.it/
Other episodes of Fundraising Radio related to law: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/category/legal/
Corinne Riley, Investor at Greylock talks about how an investment thesis strengthens a VC fund and a founder’s ability to pitch to that fund effectively. We discuss how much time you should spend trying to fit into an investment thesis and if you can expect a fund to make an exception to their thesis on your behalf.
Corinne's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corinne-marie-riley/
Corinne's Twitter: https://twitter.com/CorinneMRiley
Greylock: https://greylock.com/
An overview of investment theses
Emily Zheng, Growth Investor at Brookfield Technology Partners, Proptech Vertical lead at EVCA and Board member at Nittany Lion Fund talks about what validation capital is and what it means to raise validation capital. We also discuss late-stage investing and the difference between growth investing and seed investing.
Emily's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ezheng3/
Brookfield Asset Management: https://www.brookfield.com/
EVCA: https://www.evca.org/3e7a2f0cac74410cab05b76216846cf4
Nittany Lion Fund: https://www.smeal.psu.edu/nittany-lion-fund
Our Article on SPACs - written by Luis Bravo, based on Joe Tannos' episode: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/blog/joe-tonnos-on-spacs-and-more/
Andrew Unger, Founder and Managing Partner at High Slope and Co-Founder of Better.com talks about early-stage fundraising, and how Better.com has managed to raise so much money. Andrew also speaks about finding the right partners for your venture and what qualifies a good partner.
Andrew's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewunger/
Better.com: https://better.com/
High Slope: https://www.highslope.com/
For those who already forgot what an ICO is and how fun it can be, click here.
Petra Griffith, Founder & Managing Director at Wedbush Ventures talks about venture debt as an alternative to venture capital, key resources that founders can utilize in their ecosystem, and about Wedbush and what they invest in. Petra also explains staying ‘focused on the product’ and her own experience with product development.
Petra's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petragriffith/
Wedbush Ventures: https://www.wedbushventures.com/
Another episode on the LA ecosystem and resources for startup founders can be found here.
Armando Biondi is the Co-founder and CEO at BreadcrumbsIO and has invested in 150+ startups. Previously he served as Co-founder and COO of AdEspresso which has since been acquired by Hootsuite. In this episode he spoke about his experience with AdEspresso and how his approach to building a company changed for his second venture.
Armando's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armandobiondi/
BreadcrubsIO: https://breadcrumbs.io/pricing/
62 acquisition stories shared on Fundraising Radio: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/category/acquisitions/
Daniel Gould, Alexa Business Development Principal at Amazon, Angel Investor , Band of Angels member and Partner at DV Collective Syndicate speaks on how business development at large corporations differs from small startups and what kind of tools and strategies each should use. We also talk about what Daniel likes to invest in and what DV Collective does.
Daniel's LinkedIn
DV Collective Syndicate
Band of Angels
Daniel's email: Waxorchard@gmail.com
Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing The Sale— mentioned in the pod
Christopher Hill — strategic advisor at Retina AI, angel investor, and board observer for the city of Los Angeles talks about government support for the startup process, angel investing, and major mistakes founders make on their pitch decks. We also talk about some free resources that founders frequently forget to utilize and about the ways universities support early-stage founders.
Christophter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherahill/
Our interview with the founder of a free accelerator in Los Angeles - Miki Reynolds: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Miki-Reynolds/
Some useful free resources can be found here: https://www.sba.gov/
Scott Krivokopich, Managing Partner at 1982 Ventures talks about qualifying questions that you need to ask your investors in order to understand who they are, how they work with other founders, and what to expect from them when hard times come. We also speak about 1982 Ventures, what they invest in and what their decision making process looks like.
Scott's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skrivokopich/
1982 Ventures: https://1982.vc/
Lloyed Lobo, co-founder and president of Boast.ai talks about his bootstraps story and how he raised VC funding. We talk about Boast.ai’s recent $100 million funding round, which Lloyed secured while battling COVID-19.
For those interested in grant funding: https://www.opengrants.io/
Boast.ai is hiring. Check out the open positions here: https://boastcapital.com/careers/
Check out some hackathons here.
Lloyed's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo/
Jeff Ransdell, founder and managing director at Fuel Ventures talks about how investor outreach works with few or no connections to the world of venture capital. We also debate different approaches to "cold outreach" and much more.
If you work in music tech, robotics, IoT, space tech, marketplace, or big data startups, make sure to reach out to Fuel Ventures: https://fuelventurecapital.com/
Jeff's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffransdell/
Confluence, a community for VCs: https://www.confluence.vc/
Grant Newlin, Founder and General Partner at Newlin.vc tells us about investing in ag-tech and cross-border investing. We discuss how founders in ag-tech should approach fundraising and how their startup strategy should be different from SaaS startups.
Newlin.vc: https://newlin.vc/
Grant's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantnewlin/
The Full Ratchet: https://fullratchet.net/
Today’s guest isMarcelo Franco, founder at Verve Capital and previously the co-founder of Sacks.com - the largest e-commerce company in South America at the time that it was acquired. Marcelo explains how his company managed to survive the dot com bubble burst and how he eventually sold Sacks.com. We also discuss what Verve Capital is investing in and why Marcelo likes to invest in founders from outside the United States.
Marcelo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelofranco70/
Verve Capital: https://www.vervecapital.us/
Fundraising Radio's official website: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/
Paul Powers, Founder & CEO ofPhysna talks about the beginnings of his career in startups and the challenges he faced. We talk a lot about NDAs, IP rights and how important those are for startup founders. We also touch on how deep-tech startup founders can prevent their IP from being stolen without involving or bothering investors. If you are a deep-tech founder, this episode is for you.
Physna: https://physna.com/
Find 3D things on thangs: https://thangs.com/
Paul's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/techlab/
This educational episode is about constructing financial models on early stages - what exactly do you need to have, what do your investors expect to see on the pitch deck and what are the major mistakes that founders make while constructing financial models? All this is discussed in this short educational episode with Rami Essaid from Finmark.
If you are one of those who need to get a decent financial model for your startup, here is the link to Finmark: https://finmark.com
Rami Essaid, CEO at Finmark, venture partner at Pioneer Fund and partner at IDEA fund partners and previously the founder of Distil Networks that was acquired for over $100million tells the story of Distil Networks. Absolutely insane similarities between the story of Distil Networks and Silicon Valley show, great advice from Rami to early stage founders and much more in this episode.
Rami's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramiessaid/
Pioneer Fund: https://www.pioneerfund.vc/
IDEA fund partners: https://www.ideafundpartners.com/
For those who need to build a financial model for their startup, Finmark: https://finmark.com/
sxsw pitch competition we discussed in the first episode: https://www.startupofyear.com/
Victor Gutwein, Founder and Managing Partner at M25 talks about startup ecosystem in the Midwest and how it changed recently due to the pandemic and where will it go once the pandemic is over. He gave a ton of valuable advice to founders located in Midwest and we've touched onto Victor's own experience of starting a scooter company before scooters were a thing.
Victor's email: victor@m25vc.com
M25: https://m25vc.com/
Awesome, extremely detailed book on breaking into VC by Ayushi Sinha: https://docsend.com/view/dvufhb27r5bzrpym
Hunter Babcock, Managing Partner at Atland Ventures talks about the structure of Atland Ventures, their fundraising and their major differences from other VC firms. Hunter also spoke about who should really try to work with student-led organizations and who should aim for standard funding sources.
Hunter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunter-babcock/
Atland Ventures: https://www.atlandventures.com/
Gen Z VC slack: https://www.genzvcs.com/
Henry Pray, Director of Product Management at UpKeep talks about user acquisition for early startups and about the African startup ecosystem and why he personally likes it and sees so much potential in it. We've also talked about the major takeaways that Henry has from his experience in the startup world and what mistakes he made in the past while running his own company.
Henry's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrypray/
UpKeep: https://www.onupkeep.com/
Join Clubhouse: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/ and find Henry Pray and Konstantin Dubovitskiy (your host) there.
Steve Miller, Founding Partner at Origin Ventures talks about the changes that he saw in the VC landscape over the past 20 years that he had spent running the fund. Steve also talks about investing nationally without focusing heavily on the coastal regions and the benefits of that.
Steve's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-miller-220ab62/
Origin Ventures: https://originventures.com/
Book that Steve recommended - innovation stack.
Rob Weber, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Great North Labs talks about his path into VC, how he managed to build and sell multiple businesses with his twin brother and how it affected their ability to raise money in the past. We've also discussed the startup ecosystem in Midwest and Rob's advice to founders there.
Great North Labs: http://www.greatnorthlabs.com
Rob's Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertjweber
Book on sales that I've mentioned - very old school examples, but very applicable to this day.
Val Gui, VP of Automotive Lending at Upstart and Brittany Yoon, Principal at NFX talk about investor outreach, company valuation and early fundraising from two different perspectives - Val from the founder perspective, Brittany from the investor perspective. See how much overlap there is!
Val's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valentingui/
Brittany's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyyoon/
NFX: https://www.nfx.com/
Alyson DeNardo, partner at Mac Venture Capital, founder and CEO of Alden and partner at M Ventures talks about first time chats with investors, what kind of mistakes does she see founders making the most and what you, as a founder should pay attention to prior to the meeting.
Alyson's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alysondenardo/
Mac Venture Capital: http://macventurecapital.com/
Alden: https://www.alden.work/
M Ventures: https://m.ventures/
Alyson's Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlysonDenardo
Nick Cobb, Senior Software Engineering manager at Aurora, active angel investor and an advisor to multiple startups talks about operators as angel investors and why most operators join syndicates/funds rather than investing by themselves.
Nick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loyaltyarm/
Nick's book recommendation: Angel, by Jason Calacanis.
Aurora: https://aurora.tech/
Nick's Twitter: https://twitter.com/loyaltyarm?lang=en
Nick's blog: http://cobbservations.com/
Ashish Bhatia, software engineer, active angel investor and an advisory board member of 5 different startups talks about the journey of the first time founders. In this episode we've discussed what are the major mistakes that founders tend to make, what kind of advice they can expect from mentors like Ashish and how to get in front of investors.
Ashish's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashish-b/
More about Ashish: https://ashishb.net/about/
Tool that can really simplify cap table management and fundraising in general: https://capbase.com/
Tool to help you set up your legal structure: https://www.jumpdocs.com/
Joel Ifill, Founder and CEO at DASH Systems talks about their unique technology, how they manage to protect it without shoving NDAs in everyone's face and how they managed to prove such a complicated concept. For everyone in deep tech - this is an episode for you.
Joel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-ifill-3149a06b/
DASH Systems: http://www.dash.aero/
DASH Twitter: https://twitter.com/DASHSystems
Jonathan Wasserstrum, CEO and Co-Founder at SquareFoot and lead of a syndicate and a rolling fund talks about running a rolling fund, how it is different from a regular VC or a syndicate and also what difference does it make for the founder which entity invests in them. We also discussed Jonathan's own fundraising experience and where he believes the PropTech industry is headed.
Jonathan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-wasserstrum-8a77533/
SquareFoot: https://www.squarefoot.com/
Link to Jonathan's rolling fund: https://angel.co/v/back/jonathan-wasserstrum
Jonathan's syndicate: https://angel.co/jonathan-wasserstrum/syndicate
Zach Aarons, Co-Founder and Partner at MetaProp.vc talks about PropTech on Fundraising Radio: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Zach-Aarons/
Alessandro Gnoli, Engineering Manager at Google talks about getting talent from top firms to get in your startups. In this episode we spoke about raising money from top tier employees of large corporations, what are the pros and cons and how a startup founder can catch their attention.
Alessandro's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandrognoli/
Another episode from this series: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Nick-Miceli/
Simon Gong, Senior Manager, Capacity Engineering & Analysis at Facebook talks about startup founders being the first time team managers. We spoke about the major problems that they face as team managers, how they can prepare themselves for what's coming up and how to solve some of the issues that appear on your manager's path.
Simon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simongong/
Book on being the first time manager.
Nick Miceli, Senior Tech Lead/Engineering Manager at Google talks about assembling the right team, choosing to go remote or hiring within your city, going through a dev-shop or contractors and other choices that the startup founder has to make while building the product. We also spoke about the major problems team managers face and how to deal with them.
Nick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-miceli-59078a85/
Interesting book on team management: Leaders Eat Last
Shruti Gandhi, General Partner and Founding Engineer at Array Ventures talks about how she managed to get into the VC space and what are the most valuable skills needed to do so. We also discussed investing in Deep tech and the big problems that it's solving and how Shruti approaches it.
Shruti's SubStack: ShrutiGandhi.substack.com
Shruti's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shrutigandhi/
Array Ventures: https://www.array.vc/#/
How Shruti broke into the VC field: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6739646432044711936/
Extremely detailed book on becoming a VC from the ground up: https://docsend.com/view/dvufhb27r5bzrpym
Michael Proman, Managing Director at Scrum Ventures talks about the due-diligence process and why some investors like to "take their time" while doing it. We also discuss what should founders do if an investor is already 2 months into "due-diligence" and still didn't give a definite response.
Michael's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-proman-a2a52b7/
Scrum Ventures: https://scrum.vc/
Debt financing for startups: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Reza-Sabahi/
Christina Lopes, Founder and CEO at FidoCure talks about how she came up with an idea, how she tested it out and raised her first rounds of funding. She also explained how she managed to get the attention of such notable investors as a16z, Tau ventures, YC and Lerer Hippeau.
Christina's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-lopes-8679455/
FidoCure: https://www.fidocure.com/
Episode of Fundraising Radio with the founder who had multiple exits in pet-related field.
Joe Tonnos, principal at Mistral Equity Partners and Co-Founder at Ketch Ventures talks about his experience of creating SPACs and how founders can benefit from them. We also spoke about the general structure of SPACs and how they differ from other options of going public. We also discussed the future of consumer startups and how it looks like with the new vaccines being distributed.
Joe's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joetonnos/
Mistral Equity Partners: https://mistralequity.com/
Ketch Ventures: https://www.ketchventures.com/
Article about SPACs.
Carey Anne Nadeau, Co-CEO of Loop talks about what it means to be a Co-CEO and how that works, how Loop managed to raise over $3 million in such a short time and what led her into this field. We also spoke about diversity (the lack of it) amongst founders and specifically founders in the InsureTech and how founders can use it to their advantage.
Carey's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/careyannenadeau/
Carey's Twitter: https://twitter.com/canadeau?s=20
Loop insurance: https://www.loopinsure.co/
Episode by Katelyn Johnson, investor in InsureTech: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Katelyn-Johnson/
Mary D'Onofrio, Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners (the oldest VC firm in the US) talks about choosing the right growth investor for your company and about the preparation to that stage (explaining how to get in touch with growth investors early). We also spoke about the major differences between fundraising on early and growth stages.
Mary's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-d-onofrio-a125b2154/
Mary's Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcadonofrio?lang=en
Bessemer Venture Partners: https://www.bvp.com/
10 laws of the cloud, by Mary D'Onofrio: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/10-laws-of-cloud
Jonathan Anderson, Co-Founder & CEO at Candu talks about what happens after each round of fundraising and what are the major differences between the pre-seed and seed rounds. We also spoke about how Candu came up with its pricing and discussed the ways founders of startups can price their products.
Jonathan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathankanderson/
Candu: https://www.candu.ai/
Techcrunch on Candu: https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/10/candu-raises-5m-to-help-software-companies-onboard-users-intelligently/
Ryan Li, Co-Founder at Deep Ventures talks about the deep tech investing and how he sees it. We also spoke about how he managed to raise and run a syndicate while being a college student and how investors reacted to this. And we discussed what Deep Ventures' team looks at while evaluating a startup.
Ryan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-d-li/
Deep Ventures: https://angel.co/deepventures/syndicate
Slack channels Ryan recommends:
Altum (deep tech focused, started by Jai Malik of Countdown Capital)
Gen Z VC (name self-explanatory) - I'm personally part of this one too, great place!
Amit Garg, Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Tau Ventures talks about deep tech investing and the AI field. We discussed how VCs make their decisions while evaluating complicated deep-tech startups. We also discussed how AI is used now, where it is going and what are the major misconceptions that people have about this field (hint: Terminators won't kill us any time soon).
Tau Ventures: https://www.tauventures.com/
Amit's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amgarg/
Is Silicon Valley Dying - article by Amit about the future of SF: https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/is-silicon-valley-dying-no-and-why-it-still-makes-sense-for-entrepreneurs-84c276cae104
Laurent Grill, partner at Luma Launch and we spoke about the use of operational experience in startup investing. We also discussed which companies shouldn't try to raise money from VCs, what are the alternative sources of capital and what are the major mistakes that Laurent sees student founders making.
Laurent's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurentgrill/
Luma Launch: https://www.luma.inc/launch
USC Marshall Venture Fund: https://www.marshall.usc.edu/
Episodes about alternative sources of capital: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/category/alternative-sources-of-capital/
Ali Jamal, Growth and Product Executive, Founding Partner at First Check Ventures, Angel Investor and a Startup Advisor talks about the major mistakes that founders make while pitching their ideas. We also spoke about what qualifies as a competitive advantage for a startup and how to present it to others.
Ali's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mralijamal/
Ali's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrAliJamal
First Check Ventures: https://angel.co/first-check-ventures/syndicate?utm_campaign=syndicate_direct_link
Daniel Faber, CEO at Orbitfab explains why he decided to go into the space field, what is happening there right now and what is more importantly - how to raise money in the field that is very capital-intense? We spoke about what it takes to get to such a complicated space and what Daniel's advice would be here for aspiring founders going into this industry.
Daniel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielfaber/
Orbitfab: https://www.orbitfab.space/
Space Ventures: https://spaceventuresinvestors.com/
Mark Stokes CEO and Co-Founder at Magdrive, a company that is developing a plasma thruster for the new space age talks about raising money for such complicated projects, what it takes to get into the space startup field, what are the major pitfalls in the space startup world and how to avoid them. The next episode about fundraising in the deep-tech/hard-tech field is coming up Friday.
Mark's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markyasustokes/
Magdrive: https://www.magdrivespace.com/
More episodes on Deep-tech: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/category/deep-tech/
Andrew Gluck, General Partner at irrvrntVC talks about how startup founders should choose investors for every stage of fundraising that they go through. We also talked about what qualities should founders look for in VCs and why is it important.
irrvrntVC: https://www.irrvrnt.com/
Andrew's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azg/
Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/home
Stiven Rodríguez, Co-founder and COO at Heru talks about how they managed to raise such a large pre-seed round, why they decided to satart a company in Mexico instead of the US and how his work at Uber helped him. We also talked about how they pivoted after going to YC and how they have gone through 371 ideas choosing the best one. Covered the offline promotion of Heru and how does it work.
Stiven's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiven-rodr%C3%ADguez-s%C3%A1nchez-b65958101/
Heru: https://somosheru.com/#/home
Adam Jackson, Founder & CEO at Braintrust talks about how he managed to close a round during the covid and how different it was from the "normal" fundraisings. We spoke about early stage fundraising VS raising for Series A+ and much more.
Adam's linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajackson/
Braintrust: https://www.usebraintrust.com/
McKeever (Mac) Conwell, Managing Director at RareBreed Ventures talks about investing in minorities through the RareBreed Ventures fund and also talks about what major metrics he personally looks at when reviewing a startup.
Mac's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MacConwell
RareBreed Ventures: https://www.rarebreed.vc/
Abboud Chaballout, Co-Founder at Diagnoss talks about working in a heavily regulated field and what it takes to get into healthcare space. We also talked about fundraising for Diagnoss and how he approached it during the pandemic.
Abboud's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abboud-chaballout-207484a/
Diagnoss: https://www.diagnoss.com/
Taylor Nieman, Co-Founder and CEO at Toucan talks about raising money from investors who previously rejected her. We spoke how to maintain good relationship with investors and how that can lead to an investment from someone who previously rejected you.
Taylor's Twitter: https://twitter.com/taylor_nieman?lang=en
https://salesql.com/ - tool to find emails of leads.
Toucan: https://jointoucan.com/
Amy Cheetham, principal at Costanoa Ventures talks about investing in Fintech during the pandemic (and post-pandemic) and how founders in these fields should work with investors at times like this.
Amy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-cheetham-61835127/
Amy's Twitter: https://twitter.com/amyecheetham?lang=en
Costanoa Ventures: https://www.costanoavc.com/
P.S. Happy New Year! The next episode will be released only on January 4th.
Martijn De Wever, CEO & Founder of Force Over Mass and Floww, talks about using (and building) referral networks and getting warm introductions to investors you've never met before. Martijn also talks about his experience of raising money during COVID and his advice to founders who want to raise money soon.
Martijn's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martijndewever/
Floww: https://www.floww.io/products/
Force Over Mass: http://www.fomcap.com/
Vladimir Klimontovich, Co-founder & CTO @ Jitsu (YC S20) talks about how it felt to be in the YC during the pandemic. He explained what major problems he saw in participating in the program fully remotely and also discussed the benefits of remote-YC. We also spoke about creating the momentum for fundraising and how YC still manages to do its main job even during the pandemic.
Vladimir's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/klimontovich/
Jitsu: https://jitsu.com/
Pascal Unger, Managing Partner at Darling Ventures talks about raising money from non-US-based investors and who should try this strategy, we also spoke about raising money for funds and how funds approach their fundraising. Touched onto San Francisco being not the center of the startup universe anymore and much more.
Pascal's Twitter (super useful for founders) - https://twitter.com/PascalUnger
Darling Ventures: https://www.darlingventures.com/
Steve Morin, Head of Mobile Engineering at Asana talks about the importance of the mission statement of the company and its culture and how it affects hiring talented employees. We also talked about Steve's investment/mentorship thesis and his advice to early stage entrepreneurs trying to create their own companies.
Steve's newsletter: https://productivegrowth.substack.com/
Asana: https://asana.com
Steve's Twitter: https://twitter.com/SteveMorin
Sandy Huang, Head of Product Growth at Alexa Mobile, talks about understanding your customers early on, running individual customer interviews, releasing surveys and doing the customer development in a lean way. We also spoke about how larger companies do that and when a founder needs to hire a professional to do the job.
Sandy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandycook/
How to run customer interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTkP2JDeGWM&ab_channel=Techstars
Dave Krauthamer, Founder and CEO at QuSecure, Founder at Quantum Thought, Founder at Neural Sales and Chair of Digital Disruption Group at the Band of Angels. In this episode he speaks about how the Band of Angels invests, what major metrics do they look at and how to get to them. We also discussed how one can be a founder of multiple companies simultaneously and how does that work.
Dave's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/intelenx/
Band of Angels: https://www.bandangels.com/
Neural Sales: https://www.neuralsales.com/
Quantum Thought: https://www.quthought.com/
QuSecure: https://www.qusecure.com/
Peter Corbett, founder of iStrategyLabs talks about his journey through the startup world and shares his thoughts on fundraising for early stage startups.
Peter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corbett3000/
ISL: https://isl.co/
Co-Founder and CEO at Cladwell that exited in 2019 and currently the founder of Jumpdocs.com (formerly named Boilerplate.legal) talks about his previous experiences in fundraising and selling his company. We also spoke about the major problems that startup founders are having and how to avoid those problems.
Check out Jumpdocs.com (in episode referred to as Boilerplate.legal) - https://www.jumpdocs.com/
Blake's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakeallsmith/
We've got SWAG (merch) now so check it out: https://www.etsy.com/listing/898219952/fundraising-radio-t-shirt?ref=listings_manager_table
Pascal Levy-Garboua, currently the Venture Partner at Long Journey Ventures, talks about his previous experiences with both - fundraising and building companies in general. We also talked about what Long Journey Ventures likes to invest in and those who are good fit can ping Pascal and LJV using links below.
Pascal's Twitter: https://twitter.com/2pasc
Long Journey Ventures' Twitter: https://twitter.com/LongJourneyVC
Drew Moffitt, Exited Founder turned Corporate Venture Builder, Mentor at Techstars and a Fledgling Angel, talks about how he raised his seed round for Tailbus and how that company got to an acquisition. We've also talked about how a startup founder can raise a series A round instead of the acquisition.
Drew's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewpmoffitt/
Venture Sails: www.venturesails.co
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Zach Cohen, currently the Director of Business Development at Vista Investments and previously the President at Cohen and Sons Apparel that was acquired in 2018. In this episode he speaks about his fundraising experience and specifically about raising money through KickStarter - how did it work for him and who he believes should pursue that path.
Zach's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachtcohen/
Vista Investments: http://vistainvestments.com/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Phil Nadel, Founder and Managing Director at Forefront Venture Partners (formerly Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners), talks about the major instrument used for raising money - SAFEs or SAFE notes. We talked about the major misunderstandings about this instrument, who should use it and when is it time to price your round instead of using a SAFE note.
Phil's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philnadel/
Forefront Venture Partners: https://www.forefrontvp.com/
Forefront Venture Partners on AngelList: https://angel.co/company/forefront-venture-partners
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Victor Zhou, Ex Founder & CEO of Sentinel Tec that was acquired by DT talks about how he managed to grow his company in China and why that happened. We also looked into who should try to look abroad while being based in the US and how your startup can prosper in another country.
Victor's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vzhehao/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Alex Eckelberry is a technology CEO with an extensive background in senior technology leadership, with private, venture/PE backed, and publicly-traded companies. Alex was most recently President and COO of AutoLoop, a SaaS disrupter in the automotive technology space, now merged with Affinitiv
Alex's linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexeck/
Affinitiv Inc: https://www.affinitiv.com/
Stefanie R. Yu, Partnerships, Strategic Lead at IndiegoGo talks about reward-based crowdfunding and what kind of startup should try to pursue it. We talked about the major steps founders should take while preparing for it and the major mistakes founders make while raising money through this source.
Links mentioned in the episode:
- The very successful campaign that raised 17M I mentioned, they did extremely well in storytelling and social media community building: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mate-x-the-coolest-foldable-ebike-ever#/
- If founders/creators are not sure about what agencies/services they should go after, we have an expert directory for reference: https://entrepreneur.indiegogo.com/directory/
- "Start your campaign" link: https://www.indiegogo.com/start-a-campaign#/ and a downloadable field guide: https://entrepreneur.indiegogo.com/how-it-works/campaign/
Wade Fletcher, Founder at ScoreTwoMedia that was acquired in 2020 and currently the Founder of UndercoverVC, talks about constructing scout networks and how a high school student can grow a small startup. We've also discussed how can startup founders take advantage of such scout networks and how do they work.
UndercoverVC: https://undercover.vc/
OnePagerVC by Open Scout: https://onepager.vc/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Daniel McCarthy, Director and Co-Founder of Theta Equity Partners and Co-Founder and Chief Statistician of Zodiac acquired by Nike, talks about building and selling companies, how some funds invest based on stats only and how he personally approaches fundraising and investing.
Daniel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmcc/
Pipe - get access to your annual cashflow today (funds based on stats only): https://www.pipe.com/
Wareclouds: https://www.wareclouds.com/
Jason Myers, Partner at CopyPro.ai and Chairman of Various and Guerrilla Marketing Global, talks about how he grew multiple businesses into cash-generating machines and how he managed to get through the very first stages. We also discuss Guerrilla marketing and how it works and other customer acquisition channels.
Guerrilla Marketing Global: https://www.gmarketing.com/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Andrew Christodoulides, Founder & CEO of Moro that has raised one round through equity crowdfunding and is planning to raise the second one through equity crowdfunding again talks about the major lessons he learned in the previous round. We also talked about how his strategy will change in the upcoming fundraise and why did he decide to choose equity crowdfunding again.
Moro: https://moro.com/
Republic: https://republic.co/
Scott Schwab, Co-Founder at Bottega, Managing Partner at Aethos Ventures and Partner at Mett Corp talks about his first fundraising experience and how his approach to fundraising changed since then. We also discuss how startups can survive and prosper in heavily saturated markets.
Scott's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-schwab-8306713/
Mett Corp: https://mett.com/
Non-Profit that Scott runs - Success in Education: https://sieutah.org/
Skip Sanzeri, currently the founder and partner at Multiverse Capital and founder at QuSecure and Quantum Thought, previously the founder with several exits and failures. In this episode we talk about creating advisory boards - how to compensate advisors, what kind of contract should you have with an advisor, how to chose the right advisors and much more.
Multiverse Capital: https://www.multiversecap.com/
QuSecure: https://www.qusecure.com/
Episode on deep tech investing and AI: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/how-ai-field-reacted-to-the-pandemic-and-how-founders-in-this-field-should-raise-now-by-caroline-duffy/
Brian Mac Mahon, Founder at Expert DOJO - one of the largest and most active accelerators in Los Angeles talks about fundraising for early stage startups, investment thesis of Expert DOJO and funding availability during the pandemic.
Brian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianmacmahon2/
Apply to Expert DOJO: https://expertdojo.com/register/international-accelerator/
Miki Reynolds talking about accelerators in Los Angeles and SoCal: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Miki-Reynolds/
Joost van Dreunen, ex-Co-Founder of SuperData Research acquired by Nielsen in 2018 and currently Investor and advisor, lecturer at NYU Stern and Author of "One Up" talks about fundraising for his exited company and about the major trends he sees in the universities.
Joost's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joostvandreunen/
Interesting article about fundraising by Joost: https://medium.com/@superjoost/what-i-learned-from-raising-money-dda3f07272da
Book Joost wrote on gaming industry: https://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Creativity-Competition-Business/dp/0231197527
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Hasan Luongo, VP Growth Marketing at Chipper Cash, previously Director of Growth Marketing at Voicea (acquired by Cisco), Growth Marketing Lead at Fairy acquired by Postmates and Head of Growth at Honey acquired by PayPal, talks about growth marketing and how founders with no experience in this should approach it.
Hasan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hasanluongo/
Chipper Cash: https://chippercash.com/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Poseidon Ho, Founder and General Partner at Outliers Fund talks about investing in deep tech and the real moonshots. We've also talked about crypto investing and how Outliers Fund was started and how it became what it is in 2020.
Poseidon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/poseidonho/
Outliers Fund: http://outliers.fund/
Episode of FR on working with the US department of defence: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Ellen-Chang/
Audra Gold Co-founder and CEO at Vurbl Media in this episode explains how she managed to close the round after the covid hit. We've also discussed the major tactics she used while raising money and how her approach to investors changed after covid. We also talked about the moment that Vurble started getting more attention from VCs and the round got oversubscribed.
Audra's LinedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audragold/
Vurble: https://vurbl.com/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Adrian Sedlin, serial entrepreneur with 5 successful exits and currently the CEO at CANNDESCENT, talks about - what do you need to have to raise the pre-seed round? What is FFF round (friends family and fools) and how those are being raised.
Adrian's linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-sedlin-1087473/
CANNDESCENT: https://www.canndescent.com/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Srinivas Kilambi, founder with 2 exits and 2 IPOs and currently the Founder at Accelenovate talks about the exits in his career and one unsuccessful venture he had. We also discussed the major steps he took to get to those exits and his thoughts on the major mistake he's done in the past in terms of fundraising.
Srinivas' LiN SAB Group: Make the most of your professional life
If you want to join Srinivas' group in whatsapp ping him: whatsapp +17707140963
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Steve Walsh, angel investor, Advisory Board Member at ZenSports and the CEO at Procurrence talks about angel investments, working as an advisor, fundraising for Procurrence and comparison of fundraising in the pre-COVID VS COVID world. We also discussed Steve's work at Procurrence and how he is approaching to investors right now.
Steve's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-walsh-a791a44/
Procurrence Inc: https://www.procurrence.com/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Angad Singh, Founder and CEO at Casette that was acquired by Evernote and currently he is a Product Manager at Coda. And in this episode we spoke about differences between small and big startups from fundraising perspective as well as customer acquisition and much more. Touched onto an interesting pivot and a happy ending as well:)
Angad's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/preetangad/
Coda: https://coda.io/welcome
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
David Mandel, SoCal-based super Angel, investing in emerging technology startups who Invested in over 500 startups up to date, talks about early stage startups. We focused our conversation on how helpful accelerators can be and why founders should consider applying to those. We also talked about David's investing thesis and the way he gets his deal flow.
David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david3712/
Emerging Ventures Capital: https://emerging.vc/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Danny Done, CEO at GoBekli explains how his approach to fundraising changed in the post-COVID world and how he interacts with investors now. He also talks about methods that work for him now and those that clearly don't. For everyone who is trying to raise money now - this is for you:)
Danny's linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielarthurdone/
GoBekli: gobekli.io
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Sunny Kumar, Partner at GSR Ventures talks about the healthtech field. How can founders overcome multiple regulation barriers and get through the capital-intense field? How should they get in touch with the right people in healthtech space if they don't have the right network?
Sunny's choice of newsletters that he recommends Fundraising Radio's listeners to follow (I like those too!) -
StrictlyVC (VC)
Axios Pro Rata (VC)
CB Insights Newsletter (VC/Health/Fintech)
Fortune Brainstorm + Emerging Tech Newsletter (Health)
Rock Health Newsletter (Health / VC)
Seeking Alpha Morning Newsletter (General)
Morning Brew + Emerging Tech Newsletters (General / Tech / VC)
Accelerated (VC / Tech)
Sunny's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunnykumar1/
GSR Ventures: https://www.gsrventures.com/
Igor Belagorudsky, serial entrepreneur with several exits, currently an angel investor, mentor and president at FastCTO, talks about his previous experiences of starting companies, failing and winning. We talked about his major takeaways from that experience and the major mistakes he made in the past. We also talked about the major achievements, so this episode isn't too dark:)
FastCTO: https://www.fastcto.com/
Igor's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/igorbelagorudsky/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Daniel Kravtsov, previously co-founder and CEO at RTBmedia that exited in 2016 and currently co-founder and CEO at Improvado talks about his approach to fundraising and why he decided to raise from so many investors. We also talk about major pros and cons of that approach and about ways to manage that process. Speaking of management, below are the tools that will help you manage your leads, investors and clients:
Streak - CRM: https://www.streak.com/
Quip - alternative to Notion to keep all records: https://quip.com/
Improvado -Daniel's current startup: https://improvado.io/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Anya Cheng, who worked as Product Head | Facebook, eBay, Target | eCommerce, Growth and others talks about how big corporations chose partners and how a small startup can partner with smaller teams at large corporations. We also talk about best ways of getting in touch with those and getting the deal closed eventually.
Anya's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anyacheng/
Anya's Book: https://magazine.medill.northwestern.edu/2020/if-you-cant-make-your-dream-come-true-then-build-one/
Episode about startup selling merch to big firms: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Artem-Mashkov/
Gail Christine Gannon, Managing director at WaveEdge Capital, mentor to startups at US Market Access Center and an angel investors talks about her experience traveling the world to help founders in other countries. In this episode we talk a lot about the resources that the US provides to the entrepreneurs and how founders can use those.
Email Gail: Gail@ensantellc.com
Gail's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gailgannon/
WaveEdge Capital: http://waveedgecap.com/
Episode on government support (tons of resources there) - https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Miki-Reynolds/
Ellen Chang, director at BMNT and partner at Syndicate 708 talks about working with the DoD as a startup, she explained how a startup can get funding from the Department of Defence, what are the major problems of working with it and much more. We've also covered the major challenges for deep tech startup founders. Resources mentioned in the episode:
DEF: https://www.def.org/
SBIR: www.sbir.gov
DOD SBIR: https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/submissions/login
Syndicate708: www.syndicate708.com
Reza Sabahi, Managing Director at Wells Fargo Capital Finance explains how traditional banking works. What do you need to have in order to get a loan from a bank for your startup? How do bankers evaluate startups and what are the decisive factors? All in this episode.
Reza's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reza-sabahi-a695364/
Wells Fargo Capital Finance: https://wellsfargocapitalfinance.com/
Alternative sources of capital for startups: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/category/alternative-sources-of-capital/
Pelli Wang, managing partner at DeerCreek talks about fundraising through crypto currency issues. Are ICOs still alive? Who should raise through crypto currency and what are the major downsides of this process? We've also discussed STOs and more.
List of events, I highly recommend attending toastmasters: https://www.eventbrite.com/d/united-states/startups/?page=1
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Amit Mehta, partner at BuildersVC talks about reaching out to funds - should you reach out to an older fund that has been operating for 5 years after the raise or should you reach out to a freshly-raised fund? And why? And what are the indicators of the fund's activity? All in this episode.
Amit's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dramehta/
Fundraising Radio on acquisitions: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/category/acquisitions/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
David Yaffe, Co-Founder at Estuary, Previously Co-Founder of Arbor (Acquired by LiveRamp) talks about closing a very fast round (2 weeks only) and how that happened. We also discuss the best strategies of gaining new connections and assembling the right network to accelerate the fundraising process.
Estuary: https://estuary.dev/
David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidyaffe/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Andrew McIntosh, Director and Product Management for Platform & Integrations at Veritone Inc that went public in 2017 explains what he believes were the core strategies of the company founders that brought the company to a success. We also talked about early employees getting involved in the fundraising process and how does that work.
Andrew's Twitter: https://twitter.com/andymmmmc
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Adrian Mendoza, Founder and General Partner at Mendoza Ventures talks about his very first fundraising and why it took him so long. Adrain also talks about the ways to accelerate that process and what methodologies can be applied while fundraising.
Mendoza Ventures: https://mendoza-ventures.com/contact/
Connect to Adrian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianmendozavc/
Put the kittens in the box - how to close the round: https://mendoza-ventures.com/put-the-kittens-in-the-box-the-essential-guide-to-raising-and-closing-a-round/
More articles from Adrian: https://medium.com/@MendozaVentures
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Gabriel Paunescu, CEO at Naologic talks about his experience of opening 7 startups at 3 different countries and raising money for some of them. He talks about creating a useful and cheap product and how to start new business in a new place or even a new country.
Gabriel Paunescu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielpaunescu/
Gabriel's company, Naologic: https://naologic.com/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Ryan Whittemore, Chief Investment Officer at Florida Funders explains the major benefits of working with an angel group versus a venture capital. We also discussed what major factors should founders look into while making their decision.
Florida Funders: https://www.floridafunders.com/
Ryan Whittemore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-whittemore-91618410/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Carlos Ochoa, Founder and Managing Partner at Alpha Impact 8 Ventures explains what it means to expand to the South Americas, who should do it and when is it applicable. We also talked about moving to the silicon valley and specifically - when is it safe enough (in the economic sense) to move to the valley to run your company.
Alpha Impact 8 Ventures: https://www.ai8ventures.com/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Denis Kalyshkin, principal at I2BF Global Ventures explains what does it mean to work in the "unsexy" field and how the non-technological fields present a great opportunity for startup founders. We also talk about how startup founders can get involved in such fields.
I2BF Global Ventures: https://www.i2bf.com/
Fill out this form to get connected to investors and mentors: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Research on your competitors: https://craft.co/
Tracking competitors X2: https://corp.owler.com/
Crunchbase - pretty much where any startup search starts: https://www.crunchbase.com/home
Miki Reynolds - Co-Founder and Executive Director at Grid 110 talks about the support that government provides to the early stage startup founders and specifically talks about Los Angeles eco-system. We discussed a variety of government programs aimed to support startups and how founders can use those. Below you can find the list of very helpful links mentioned in the episode:
Make a research on the funding options you have: https://intro.me/
Spreadsheet with grant options.
SBIR - America's Seed Fund: https://www.sbir.gov/
Community for underrepresented founders: https://bunchoffounders.com/
Post that Miki co-wrote about alternative funding sources (this is super helpful) - https://medium.com/allraise/how-to-get-funding-for-your-startup-thats-not-venture-capital-7965f25998f1
Grid 110: https://www.grid110.org/
Sherwin Estanislao, Founding Partner and Investor at Creative Interlace Tech Ventures in this episode of Fundraising Radio talks about who needs an advisor, how to find one and how much approximately should you give him/her. We also talked about the venture studio model and what kind of founders should work with such.
Sherwin Estanislao: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherwin-estanislao/
Creative Interlace Tech Ventures: http://creativeinterlace.com/
Zain Jaffer, currently Partner at Blue Field Capital and previously the Co-Founder and CEO at Vungle that was acquired for $780 in 2019. In this episode Zain talks about how he managed to move from the UK to the US and who should try doing the same. We also talked about the major mistakes that he had made during the fundraising process and his major accomplishments.
Blue Field Capital: http://www.bluefieldfunds.com/
The Proptech VC podcast by Zain: https://open.spotify.com/show/5DBlKyYaVcuNv8uFq4LCfJ?si=_Jbm0oT1SWWMGaRYQ5pikw
Episode on Proptech by Fundraising Radio: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Zach-Aarons/
Mike Preuss, Co-Founder and CEO at Visible.vc explains how he managed to raise the first rounds of funding and how later on his company bought back some of the equity it sold to its investors. We also discussed the importance of following up with current investors and how it should be done.
Connect to investors (completely free) here: https://connect.visible.vc/
Follow up with investors here: https://visible.vc/
If you are too early for VC (and even Angel) funding, apply here: https://form.typeform.com/to/vT8gVQDG
Ryan Zhang and Mi Tu, Partners & Co-Founders at Standard Capital L.P. explain how do hedge funds work and how can startup founders raise money from them. We also talked about investing in securities vs investing in startups.
Book recommendations from Ryan and Mi:
The Intelligent Investor - Ben Graham (this is classic, I highly recommend it as well) https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Investing-Essentials/dp/0060555661/ref=sr_1_1?crid=291794I5VXHKV&dchild=1&keywords=intelligent+investor&qid=1599935645&sprefix=intellegent%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-1
One Up on Wall Street - Peter Lynch: https://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2HZI5N30G8ICO&dchild=1&keywords=one+up+on+wall+street&qid=1599935606&sprefix=one+up+%2Caps%2C155&sr=8-1
Vasu Kulkarni, Founder and CEO at Krossover that raised $50 million and got acquired in 2017 and currently a Partner at Courtside Ventures. In this episode he talks about how he personally managed to raise funding for his company and why he didn't go the traditional way with it. We also talked about Courtside Ventures and what's going on in the gaming and fitness industry now.
Courtside Ventures: http://www.courtsidevc.com/
Register to vote in the US: https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote
Thomas Rush, Founder at Bootstrapp explains the major non-dilutive funding sources that he believes work best for founders and explains what are its major pros and cons. We also talk about the fastest method of raising money and what are it's major downsides.
Bootstrapp, find revenue-based funding sources: https://www.bootstrapp.co/
Find Grants: opengrants.io
Jon Vlachogiannis, currently the Founder at AgentRisk and the Founder at Bugsense that was acquired by Splunk talks about building a successful company and staying lean as long as possible. He explains his approach to fundraising and investing.
Jon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnvlachoyiannis/
AgentRisk: https://agentrisk.com/
More links will come:)
This episode is featuring the team members of Fundraising Radio. I (your host - Konstantin Dubovitskiy) answer the FAQs that I get and the other team members present themselves and talk about the reasons why they joined FR, what they do here and what they plan to do in the future.
To get in touch with any individual team member go here: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/p/about-us/
Follow us on Patreon to support the team: https://www.patreon.com/FundraisingRadioPremium?fan_landing=true
And here is the link to Openland that I've mentioned: https://openland.com/
Troy Bolus, Co-Founder at OmniPanel and the Co-Founder at Seated that was acquired in 2019 talks about his journey to the acquisition, raising funding for his first company while being a student at UCLA and about extending that runway. Troy also gave his advice to student entrepreneurs and explained the reasons to risk.
OmniPanel that will help you understand your users' feedback better: https://www.omnipanel.io/
Acquisition story for $985 million by eBay: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Greg-Shepard/
Zach Aarons, Co-Founder and Partner at MetaProp.vc explains what is going on in the proptech field and how it reacted to the COVID-19 hit. We also discuss how founders in this field should make sales, when is it appropriate to hire salesman/saleswoman and how to become a better salesman/saleswoman yourself. Awesome resources below!
MetaProp: https://www.metaprop.org/
101 Proptech written by Aaron: https://www.proptech101.com/
Get better in sales by becoming a volunteer at a a political campaign: https://action.dccc.org/page/s/volunteer
Rolan Reichel, CEO and Co-Founder at Custom Social explains how he views the "Silicon Valley Path" and who should try to follow it. He also explained his own approach to fundraising and why he follows it. We touched onto a very important subject - incubators, accelerators and entrepreneurial communities and below you can find the links to the ones that Rolan mentioned.
Custom social: https://www.customsocial.io/
Creative Destruction Lab: https://www.creativedestructionlab.com/
Endless Frontier Labs: https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/about/departments-centers-initiatives/centers/endless-frontier-labs
Make it Studio (which I mentioned) - https://makeit-studio.com/
Dan Akivis, Senior Associate at Expansion Venture Capital explains what kind of reports you need to send over to your investors and to prospect investors. We've discussed how to get in touch with them and how to retain a good connection.
Expansion Venture Capital: http://expansionvc.com/
SalesQL: https://salesql.com/
Our video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeYMI5if7CI&ab_channel=FundraisingRadio
Greg Shepard, Founder at BOSS Capital Partners, Founder and CEO of the 12 startups that have successfully exited, one of which was AffiliateTraction acquired by Ebay for $985 million. Greg in this episode explains how he managed to create so many successful companies and shortly explains the BOSS system. He also talks about the major mistakes he saw other early stage founders making and talks about the mistakes he has done himself in the past.
BOSS Capital Partners: https://www.bosscapitalpartners.com/
BOSS system explained in greater detail: https://www.gregoryshepard.com/
For founders who are too early for Greg's investments, submit your idea here: https://startupbattle.typeform.com/to/sMFwMAhz
Ayushi Sinha, Co-Founder at Prospect Student Ventures explained how their student-led Venture Capital works, what do they invest in, how do they source their deals and how did they manage to raise it. We've also discussed major mistakes that students make while building their startups, so this episode is a must-listen for any US-based student founder.
Prospect Student Ventures: https://www.psv.vc/
Ayushi's publication on finding a role at a Dope Startup: https://medium.com/@ayushisinhahaha/how-to-find-a-role-at-a-dope-startup-d5d74d7f956f
Book about Yale's female entrepreneurship: http://yalewli.org/remembering-50
Our video recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evh4ttFWxr8&feature=youtu.be
Andrew Ermogenous, Co-Founder at Real Factors acquired by 7ParkData explains what major mistakes they have done with the company and what were the major achievements. We also talk about the importance of planning the first funding round and some alternative sources of fundraising that Andrew recommends.
Andrew's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aermogenous/
7ParkData: https://www.7parkdata.com/
You can contact Andrew at his website, ermognius.com
Brett Lewis, Co-founder and Co-CEO at SkillBridge acquired by TopTal, talks about the acquisition, the major mistakes they've done with SkillBridge and the major successes they had. We also talked about business development - what does one actually do and how is business development at google different from business development at early stage startup.
Brett's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettrlewis/
Acquired by Lyft: https://open.spotify.com/episode/04id5VWWnfNzDVCnhTFX2a?si=gr5tjriJRLOQ4hsY_B4T1g
The video record: https://youtu.be/pKGCxQgxFCU
Tim Lozott, CEO and Managing Director at Green Life Capital explains what the phrase "No investor wants to be just money" means and how to apply it to your fundraising process. We've also touched onto the Linked ventures (and their upcoming summit) and how Linked Ventures cooperate with the Green Life Capital.
Linked Ventures summit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/linked-ventures-investor-summit-2020-10-tickets-112308856814?aff=erelexpmlt
Green Life Capital: http://glifecap.com/
Jack Greco, founder at One Link Ventures who is also a very active angel investor and strongly believes in the power of community. And in this episode we've discussed what is going on the early-stage fundraising world right now, what is Jack's advice for founders who are trying to find best advisors and mentors and much more (that's why episode is so long).
One Link Ventures: https://onelinkventures.com/
Jack's Calendly link: https://onelinkventures.com/
Kiyan Yazdi, Investor at Mucker Capital explains what is going on in the LA ecosystem, why Mucker Capital is so focused on SoCal startups and how it operates during COVID-19. We also discussed two different arms of Mucker and talked about which one fits what kind of startups.
MuckerLab accelerator: https://www.mucker.com/muckerlab-accelerator/
Mucker Capital: https://www.mucker.com/
Venture Studio VS Accelerator - how to choose: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Carey-Ransom/
Dan Johnston, currently the Co-founder & CEO at WorkStep and the Co-Founder at InstaEDU explains what major lessons he had learned from building InstaEDU and raising $5.1 million for it. We also talked about what he would do if he can go back in time and change one thing in the process. Super helpful for any early stage founder and specifically for founders in educational field.
Workstep: https://www.workstep.com/
Similar story of acquisition of SchoolMint: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/acquired-by-bv-investment-partners-founder-of-schoolmint-jinal-jhaveri-shares-his-experience-of-getting-acquired/
Carey Ransom, Founder and President at OC4 Venture Studio in this episode talks about the differences between venture studios, incubators and accelerators and explains how to choose the right program for your startup (hint: know your 3-month goal really well). We also discussed major downsides of venture studios to help you make a better decision.
OC4 Ventures: https://oc4v.com/
Carey's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/careyransom/
Office hours with Make it Studio: https://make-studios.typeform.com/to/bUvZoSwl - it's time to get some extra questions answered.
SC Moatti, Managing partner at Mighty Capital and a founder at Products That Count in this episode of Fundraising Radio explains how to make sales through product managers, when should startups start working on content generation and how long it might take to pay off.
We also discussed different strategies of getting in touch with those product managers and Moatti explained why product managers are the best points of contact in the organisation.
Mentioned in this episode:
Webinar by Products That Count (with Ravi Mehta, who was on Fundraising Radio as well) - https://productsthatcount.com/events/
Sandler Sales Training: https://www.sandler.com/
Toastmasters, improve your speech: https://www.toastmasters.org/
Mighty Capital: https://mighty.capital/
Dan Held, Growth Lead at Kraken Digital Asset Exchange with two companies sold explains how to acquire your first customers and why paying for your first customers might be a bad idea. We discuss few particular ways of being "cheap and scrappy" in user acquisition and talk about low-budget startups in this episode.
Dan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dheld/
Kraken Digital Asset Exchang: https://www.kraken.com/
Episodes about blockchain fundraising: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/category/blockchain-investing/
Office hours with Make it Studio: https://make-studios.typeform.com/to/bUvZoSwl - it's time to get some extra questions answered.
Nitin Pachisia, Founding Partner at Unshackled Ventures explains how does immigrant-focused investing work, how does Unshackled Ventures source its deals and how should immigrant (and local) founders start building their network during COVID-19. We also discuss the best ways to identify if the investor is a good fit for your specific company.
Nitin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/npachisia/
Unshackled Ventures: https://www.unshackledvc.com/
Office hours with Make it Studio: https://make-studios.typeform.com/to/bUvZoSwl - it's time to get some extra questions answered.
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Michael Dunn, the CTO at Ultra explains how he sees the future of team building, networking and fundraising and he also talks about the current situation and how early stage startups can use it to their advantage. We also touch onto what value Techstars and similar incubators/accelerators provide.
Michael Dunn's linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glemak/
Office hours with Make it Studio: https://make-studios.typeform.com/to/bUvZoSwl - it's time to get some extra questions answered.
How to legally start a startup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf4qtY6vvBs
Arthur Nobel - B2B SaaS Investor, Associate at Knight Venture Capital explains how to acquire your first customers in B2B field and how to present those customers to investors. We discuss B2B fundraising and international sales for B2B SaaS startups.
Arthur's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthurnobel/
Knight Venture Capital: https://www.knight.vc/
YC library: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/
Office hours with Make it Studio: https://make-studios.typeform.com/to/bUvZoSwl (it's extremely helpful, trust me).
Kofi Ampadu, Founder and General Partner at SKU'D ventures explains how should founders in consumer space fundraise and specifically those who are in CPG (consumer packaged goods) fundraise.
Kofi Ampadu's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kofiampadu/
SKU'D ventures investing in consumer brand startups: https://www.skudventures.com/
Jamal Ashraf, acquired in a year after reaching over 40 million downloads: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Jamal-Ashraf/
Jamal Ashraf, the founder of Esgut, talks about how he turned down funding from Naval Ravikant and how the company was acquired by Shervin Pishevar's Social Gaming Network (now Jam City) after a 2 hour conversation at a conference. We also discuss growing to 1 million users just 4 weeks after starting the company, how products can go viral, and what to focus on other than the number of downloads.
Bulk Probiotics: https://bulkprobiotics.com/
Office hours with Make it Studio: https://make-studios.typeform.com/to/bUvZoSwl (it's extremely helpful, trust me).
Jeffrey Silverman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Laconia explains the meaning of having a capital strategy and explains how to develop one. We also talk about how much money should founders raise, how long should that money last and how to calculate the ideal amount of funding.
Laconia's website: https://www.laconiacapitalgroup.com/
Office hours with Make it Studio: https://make-studios.typeform.com/to/bUvZoSwl (it's extremely helpful, trust me).
Christopher Hussain, the Co-Founder and CEO at RealKey in this episode talks about what he learned from his past fundraising experiences and how it affected his approach of raising money for his current company - RealKey. We also discussed what should early stage founders do to raise money now and who should consider accelerators (hint: pretty much anyone early stage).
Christopher's email: Christopher@realkey.com
RealKey: https://www.realkey.com/
Office hours with Make it Studio: https://make-studios.typeform.com/to/bUvZoSwl (it's extremely helpful, trust me).
Mayur Motgi, the Co-Founder and CEO at Propl, acquired by Jobox.ai explains how he managed to bring his company to an acquisition with no funding raised and he also talked about who should consider fundraising versus bootstrapping.
Mayur Motgi's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/motgi/
Get access to our custom content: https://www.patreon.com/FundraisingRadioPremium?fan_landing=true
Our YouTube record: https://youtu.be/tM7iCPFmQSs
Sungjoon Cho, General Partner at D20 Capital explains who should try to expand globally and how to prepare for an abroad expansion. We specifically focused on Asian markets expansion and talked how founders can benefit from working with cross-border investors.
D20 Capital: http://d20cap.com/index.html
Our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/FJsi7W9sPKQ
Our premium channel: https://www.patreon.com/FundraisingRadioPremium?fan_landing=true
Partner at Foundation Capital, Sid Trivedi explains how he sees startups making B2B sales in the enterprise sectors. We also discussed hiring commission-only salesman and full time account executives. If you are an early stage startup in B2B field this episode is right for you.
Sid Trivedi's article on Cybersecurity being the next trillion dollar market: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cybersecurity-next-trillion-dollar-market-siddhant-sid-trivedi/
Sid Trivedi's article on Cybersecurity during pandemic: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stay-home-secure-productive-security-pandemic-sid-trivedi/
Foundation Capital: https://foundationcapital.com/
For those who want to see ideas turning into fundable companies - Student Startup Battle: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
Record of the call: https://youtu.be/DGFI2OjjTl4
The CEO and Founder of Red Rock Capital and former JP Morgan Global Innovation & Digital Strategy, Mars Shah explains how M&A works now and how he personally sold RideKleen Inc, to Cox Automotive.
Mars' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mars-shah-5a353b14/
Acquired by Lyft within a year: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Kenan-Saleh/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/x7OOkuatycI
Artem Mashkov, COO at SwagUp and Founder and President at Intelligent Ventures explains why founders shouldn't hunt for VC or angel funding and instead should try thinking more traditional and work on your credit line. We also discuss current situation and how founders can survive this pandemic.
Artem's Twitter: https://twitter.com/artem_mashkov?lang=en
Artem's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artemmashkov/
SwagUp: https://www.swagup.com/
Our YouTube record: https://youtu.be/1wC7Ty01CWE
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Steve Gera, Partner at Hickory VC explains what's going on in the sport-focused startup world right now and what he sees coming. This episode is for anyone in the sports field who thinks/currently works on creation their own startup.
Steve Gera's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevegera/
For those who want to see ideas turning into fundable companies - Student Startup Battle: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
Jesse Randall, Partner at Citrine Capital Partners explains who should take time to draw financial projections and at which stage one should do that. We also talk about what should go into those projections and how to get the first traction for those projections.
Sweater Ventures - become a venture capitalist: https://www.sweaterventures.com/
Acquired by Lyft in less than a year: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Kenan-Saleh/
Video of our interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u93aceqknN0
Deven Soni, the Co-Founder of Kingmakers explains how the acquisitions of small-cap business is going now, who can expect to get acquired and what are the major problems associated with it. He also gives a brief overview of the M&A field and gives his opinion on where the market will go.
Deven's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsoni/
Kingmakers/Acquira: https://acquira.com/
For those who want to see ideas turning into fundable companies - Student Startup Battle: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
Brandon Maier, Founder at LVLup Ventures explains how he sees coronavirus unfolding for founders (hint: according to Brandon - not too well, the inflation is coming). We also talked about acceleration programs and where should early stage founders go now.
Fundbetter: https://www.fundbetter.io/
Brandon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandontmaier/
For those who want to see ideas turning into fundable companies - Student Startup Battle: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
Kenan Saleh the Co-Founder and CEO at Halo Cars explains how his company got acquired by Lyft in less then a year after it was funded and how he approached this process. We also talk about the fundraising of Halo and how building a strong self-sufficient team can help you fundraise.
Kenan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/kenanhsaleh?lang=en
Halo Cars: https://halocars.co/
For those who want to see ideas turning into fundable companies - Student Startup Battle: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
Daniel Fetner, principal at Corigin Ventures in this episode explains what does it mean to have a founder-market fit, who can claim that they are the perfect founder for a company and what to do if you realise that you don't have a founder-market fit. We also talk about how founders can find the lead investor and what the term "lead investor" mean?
It means that the lead investor will lead your whole round - he/she will cut a first check for you, help you set terms for all other investors, introduce you to other investors and much more.
Daniel Fetner's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-fetner-39097535/
Corigin Ventures: http://www.corigin.com/
For those who want to see ideas turning into fundable companies - Student Startup Battle: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
In this episode Sarah Leners, Venture Capital Senior Associate at Bull City Venture Partners explains how to lead your first call with an investor and more importantly - how to get that first call with an investor. We also talked about the current situation in the world of startup fundraising.
Bull City Venture Partners: https://www.bcvp.com/
Sarah's email: sarah@bcvp.com
For those who want to see ideas turning into fundable companies - Student Startup Battle: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
In this episode Marc McCabe tells how he created Airbnb for business travel, how he acquired first customers and what does he like to invest in now. We also discussed the process of evaluation of the companies that have no revenue and fundraising climate during coronavirus.
If you have a company that could fit Marc's investment criteria, here is his email: marc.mccabe@gmail.com
2.5 hour long podcast with Marc where he talks about fundraising in details: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/deepdive-into-startup-fundraising-with-marc-mccabe/id1457400066?i=1000447317091
For those who want to see ideas turning into fundable companies - Student Startup Battle: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
In this episode Caroline Duffy, Investor in AI Fund explains how she thinks AI field was affected by the COVID-19 and how founders in this field should approach fundraising now.
Caroline's Twitter: https://twitter.com/C_lineinthecity
AI Fund: https://aifund.ai/
Directory for founders and investors sign up sheet - Confluence: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUSNhob52rG66tbD_18d7-H6TtdMspX0bGy4Y9MhTPqXDHZA/viewform?usp=sf_link
In this episode Nirman Dave co-founder and CEO at ObviouslyAI explains how they raised their pre-seed round without having any traction and we also go into discussion of raising money from scouts of large funds (such as Sequoia capital). We also talk about how ObviouslyAI came up with their pricing plans and how they acquired their first customers.
Obviously AI: https://www.obviously.ai/
Student Startup Battle: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
In this episode Matt Thompson, Partner at Skyview Capital explains why he thinks that family offices are more mobile during covid and why some of them might be a better option for raising money. We also discuss how Skyview Capital invests during these uncertain times and how they find the projects to invest in.
Skyview Capital: http://www.skyviewcapital.com/
Matt Thompson's email: mat_iii@yahoo.com
Our Patreon page with exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/FundraisingRadioPremium?fan_landing=true
Check out our new event Student Startup Battle (if you have fun ideas for startups, it's for you) - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbeac
Juliana Graizar, the board member at Angel Capital Association, member of Portfolia, President of Business Angel Minority Association and Launch Director at Greentown Labs in this episode of Fundraising Radio explains about work of ACA and how can entrepreneurs benefit from it. We also talk about other organisations that Juliana is a part of and speak about the ways founders can work with those associations.
Angel Capital Association: https://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/
Portfolia: https://www.portfolia.co/
Our Blog: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/blog/
Co-Founder and CEO at 6D.ai Matt Mieskieks in this episode of Fundraising Radio explains how to grow your network organically and what are the best tactics for it. We also discuss the acquisition of 6D.ai by Niantic and talk about how this happened.
6D.ai Website: https://www.6d.ai/
Our Patreon page with exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/FundraisingRadioPremium?fan_landing=true
Check out our new event Student Startup Battle (if you have fun ideas for startups, it's for you) - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbeac
In this episode, Jeremy Burton the Co-Founder and CTO at Wonolo explained how they managed to raise over $52 million dollars, how Wonolo pivoted after it was created in Coca Cola's incubator and how it is operating now. We also go back in time and see what mistakes would Jeremy fix in terms of fundraising.
Wonolo: https://www.wonolo.com/
Our Patreon page with exclusive content: https://www.patreon.com/FundraisingRadioPremium?fan_landing=true
Check out our new event Student Startup Battle (if you have fun ideas for startups, it's for you) - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbeac
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Emanuel Pleitez Investor at East Los Capital, tech-enabled private equity firm. Emanuel also worked at the U.S. Department of Treasury during 2008 crisis and a large part of this episode is about comparing the 2008 crisis to the current crisis and of course we talked about how East Los Capital makes its investments and what does it mean to be tech-enabled PE firm.
East Los Capital: https://eastloscap.com/
Our Custom paid channel: https://www.patreon.com/FundraisingRadioPremium?fan_landing=true
Check out our new event Student Startup Battle (if you have fun ideas for startups, it's for you) - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/student-startup-battle-tickets-105973058270?aff=ebdssbeac
Brock Weatherup, the CEO and Co-Founder of Metamorphosis Partners, the CEO and Founder of Pet360 acquired by PetSmart and the CEO and Co-Founder of Petcoach acquired by Petco explains how staying super focused on one field helped him in his career and also talks about his experience raising money for his companies and then selling them.
Metamorphosis Partners: https://www.metamorphosis.com/
Link to Fundraising Radio Premium: https://www.patreon.com/FundraisingRadioPremium?fan_landing=true
Phin Upham, the Managing Partner at Haymaker Capital explains what is going on in the fundraising world during coronavirus, what kind of startups can raise money right now and what should early stage founders do when all investors are focusing on later stages.
Haymaker Capital: https://www.haymakercapital.com/
Pipe, SaaS financing: https://www.pipe.com/
Talking about 3 different sources of capital for startups with Todd Thompson: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Todd-Thompson/
Take a look at our custom channel: https://www.patreon.com/FundraisingRadioPremium
Rishwie Cauvery, member of Pipeline Angels and a CTO at Time Study in this episode explains how Pipeline Angels work, how she personally invests and how she sources deals. We also cover the current situation on the market and discuss what should early stage founders do to raise money during COVID-19.
Pipeline Angels: https://pipelineangels.com/
Time Study: https://www.timestudy.co/
Episode on pitch events and networking during COVID-19 with Nick Adams from Differential Ventures: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/pitch-events-during-covid-19-importance-of-media-attention-and-investing-by-nick-adams-managing-partner-at-differential-ventures/
Marik Hazan, the Founder at Tabula Rasa Ventures explains what does it even mean to "invest in psychedelics" and how this can be done. If you are interested in investing in CBD and related fields or if you want to open a startup in this field, this episode is just perfect for you.
Tabula Rasa: https://tabularasa.ventures/
Psychedelics Industry Analysis: https://fraqtal.space/
(no similar episodes really, this one is unique)
Roberto Machado the CEO at BetaBlocks and a member of Tech Coast Angels explains his vision of going through COVID and emerging as a stronger company while many of your competitors die. We also talked about Roberto's view on the pitch decks as he has seen over 4,000 of them and wanted to share his major takeaway from them.
Roberto Machado's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robmachadosf/
BetaBlocks: https://academy.betablocks.co/
Related episode on VCs behaviour during COVID: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Vishal-Uttam/
Katelyn Johnson, the Principal at American Family Ventures talks about starting a business in capital-intensive and highly regulated fields like insure-tech. We discuss how these startups should fundraise and where should people, willing to work in those field start.
American Family Ventures: https://www.amfamventures.com/
Generator Accelerator: https://www.gener8tor.com/
Speaking of raising a lot of capital - interview with Adrian Druzgalski whose company raised over $107mil: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/1076-million-dollars-raised-the-role-of-a-cto-in-the-fundraising-process-by-adrian-druzgalski-co-founder-and-cto-at-radius-intelligence/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Jad Esber, the Co-Founder at Koodos and a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard talks about the consumer internet, how fundraising in that space works and what founders in this field focus on.
Here are the links to some of the things mentioned in the episode:
Koodos Hiring a creative developer
Koodos: koodos.substack.com
Berkman Klein Community
Unshackled Fellows
Pear Fellows
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Todd Thompson the Co-Founder & CEO Carnot Compression goes over the 3 sources of capital that Carnot used to raise money. In this episode Todd compares Friends and Family, crowdfunding and grants as sources of capital for a startup.
Carnot Compression campaign on Startengine: https://www.startengine.com/carnot-compression
Grants 101 by the CEO of Opengrants.io - Sedale Turbovsky : https://www.fundraisingradio.com/grants-101-sedale-turbovsky-on-how-to-fundraise-through-grants-and-is-it-a-good-source-of-funding-during-the-crisis/
Equity Crowdfunding by the CEO of Republic - Chuck Pettid: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/ceo-of-republic-tells-about-equity-crowdfunding-how-does-it-work-who-should-consider-it-what-does-the-process-look-like-and-how-much-it-costs-by-chuck-pettid/
This is the 7th educational episode by Fundraising Radio and in this episode Kristina Subbotina, corporate and securities attorney at Ross Law Group explains what are the major mistakes that founders make while hiring new employes.
Video explanation that Kristina made specifically for this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LogLsQ-xky4
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Jasmine Yu Zhang explained how Venture University works, how do they source deals and how their deal sourcing is different from other firms and individual angels. We also discussed the current situation and talked about fundraising during pandemic.
Venture University: https://www.venture.university/
SoGal Ventures: http://www.sogalventures.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Brandon Walker a Venture Fellow at Go Paladin explains how to construct your pitch deck, shares the major rule of it and then goes into details of the common mistakes he sees on the pitch decks of the founders he works with. We also discuss how much time should you spend on researching your competitors and how much should you know about the competitive landscape.
Brandon Walker's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/biomwalk/
Go Paladin: https://www.gopaladin.org/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio our guest speaker is Osayi Igharo, the Managing Parter at Ripple VC that focuses on investing in African startups. And Osayi explains why Africa is a good place to invest in, how can you do cross-border investing while living in the US and how funds are being raised for VCs.
Osayi's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osayiigharo/
Ripple VC: https://twitter.com/RippleVC
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Edith Simchi-Levi the VP of operations at Logictools explains how the acquisition by the IBM went and how times are different now. We also discussed where should founders go to get their first funding.
New York Angels: http://newyorkangels.com/
Leaf Logistics: https://www.leaflogistics.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio David Whelan, the CEO of BioscienceLA explains how founders working in bioscience and health tech can use this pandemic to their advantage during their fundraising and how other founders should adjust.
BioscienceLA: https://biosciencela.org/
David's Twitter: twitter.com/djwhelan
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Jason Scharf the Associate Director at Illumina and a Co-Fund Manager at San Diego Angel Conference explains how biotech and life-science startups should adapt to the current situation and use it to their advantage and how should other founders make sure they are prepared for the investor's questions regarding covid.
Illumina Accelerator - https://www.illumina.com/science/accelerator.html
San Diego Angel Conference - http://thesdangels.com/
In this episode, Georgia Athanasiou the on-demand CFO and an angel investor at Keiretsu Forum explains what CFO's do, who really needs a CFO and what CFO really does in the company. We also talk about early stage founders and how should they make their financial projections.
Article on making financial projections for your startup by Guy Kawasaki: https://guykawasaki.com/how-to-create-an-enchanting-financial-forecast-officeandguyk/
Georgia's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgia-athanasiou-508316/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Saeed Zeinali co-founder of Tranqool acquired by HumanaCare and a private investor at Keiretsu Forum explains how Canada is different from the US, how he invests in the US-based startups and how cross-border investing works.
Saeed's current company - EdgeCollab: https://www.edgecollab.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Preethy Padman an impact investment Partner at SV2 and a member of Portfolia explains who are impact investors, what impact investing even means and who should try to take this route. Preethy also explains how to reach out to the right impact investors and what are the major benefits of working with them.
Apply for funding at SV2: https://www.sv2.org/
Portfolia: https://www.portfolia.co/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Greg Miaskiewicz the Co-founder and CEO of Capbase explains how he managed to raise money for Capbase, while there is such a large firm (Carta) operating in this field. He also explains how to differentiate your company from large (and small) competitors and sell that to investors.
Capbase (simple to use legal and financial foundation for your startup): https://capbase.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Kristina Francis Principal at The Marathon Fund and a member of Pipeline angels explains how this angel group works and who should try working with it.
Kristina Francis' podcast: Get Found Get Funded https://getfoundgetfunded.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Sebastian Zhou Investor at Alpha Square Group explains how family offices act now VS how they act in the "normal" times and also gives recommendations on which investors to approach first during this pandemic.
Alpha Square Group's website: https://alphasquaregroup.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Gregory Lim, the CEO and co-founder of Persosa explains how they are raising their new round during this pandemic and how is it different from fundraising in the times of "peace".
Gregory Lim's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorylim/
Greg's Email: greg@persosa.com
Stratechery: https://stratechery.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Steve Shwartz, co-founder of Device 42 that raised nearly $40 million and who is currently an angel investor explains how founders should reach out to angels now during this pandemic and how he himself raised money for device 42.
Device 42: https://www.device42.com/
AIMadeEasy.com
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Ramsay Brown, the co-founder of Boundless Mind explains how he as a first time founder was raising money for his company and gives advice to other entrepreneurs on this process.
Ramsay's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramsaybr/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Jim Connor the member of Sand Hill Angels and an Executive Producer at Game Changers Silicon Valley, explains how to find the right investors, how to reach out to them and how to give a great pitch (and how to prepare one!)
Sand Hill Angels: https://www.sandhillangels.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Vivin Hegde the Director at Hilti Tech Office explains how Hilti CVC department makes its decisions, what metrics they use and what do they like to invest in.
Hilti Group: https://careers.hilti.com/en
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Landon Ainge, the Managing Director at Assure Syndicates explains how he helps startups to raise money without charing any fees or even taking any equity. He explains how the syndication process works and what he gets out of it.
Article by Landon on Assure Syndicates: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introducing-assure-syndicates-landon-ainge/?trackingId=0kCMulCPT9W5dAvm1jDsvA%3D%3D
Landon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/landon-ainge-bb354166/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Grant Van Cleve an ex-President at Tech Coast Angels at Orange County and a current member of Board of Governors of Tech Coast Angels as well as an angel investor and a Managing Partner at Hangar 75 explains the current landscape of investment field from the investor's perspective. He also explains where should founders head to get funded.
Hangar 75: https://www.hangar75.com/
Tech Coast Angels: https://www.techcoastangels.com/
Angel Capital Association: https://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Vishal Uttam Founder and Managing Partner at Veloquence Capital explains why is it a good time for fundraising now and how VCs behave. He also explains how Veloquence Capital invests and how their approach to investing changed after the COVID-19 breakout.
Vishal's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishal-uttam-5517a0114/
Veloquence Capital's site: https://www.veloquence.capital/
Pitchbook: https://pitchbook.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Tina Tosukhowong the Senior Director at GC International explains how their investment strategies work and how their approach of looking at the companies is different from a VC's approach. We also discussed how founders can improve their chances of getting funded by a corporate venture capital and how to get in touch with them.
GC International's website: https://gcinternational.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Gianluca Guerra the CEO at Virgilius Wealth explains how he connects corporations to young startups and how this process works. He also talks about the multistage fundraising process and how it can be done in an efficient way. If you have some questions, reach out to Gianluca Guerra via LinkedIn (link below).
Gianluca's LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/gianlucaguerra/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Mark Crawford - Venture Capital Investor at Stanley Ventures and Intel Capital will explain how does Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) work and how is it different from a Venture Capital (VC). Lots of insights into this question by an experienced investor who was on both sides of it - the VC and CVC. In this episode we also discussed the government-sponsored venture capital funds, specifically Invest Nebraska Corporation, how it invests and who should consider it.
Stanley Ventures: https://www.stanleyventures.com/
In this educational episode Nathan Beckord, the founder and CEO of Foundersuite explains how his software can be used by founders to accelerate and make their fundraising easier.
Foundersuite: https://foundersuite.com/
This episode is NOT sponsored by Foundersuite and was chosen purely as an example of software exploitation for fundraising.
In this episode of Fundraising Radio the guest speaker is Nathan Beckord, the co-founder and CEO of Foundersuite - the tool that helps founders fundraise. And in this episode Nathan explains the major strategies used to fundraising, how much time should you use making a research on investors, how big should the lists be and much more.
StrictlyVC: https://www.strictlyvc.com/
Foundersuite: https://foundersuite.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio the guest speaker is Christian Pankovcin, analyst at 13 Ventures and he explains how much more useful a connection to an analyst can be rather than to a managing partner. We also touched onto the deal flow and deal sourcing of 13 Ventures and New York Angels.
Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-t-pankovcin-757905137/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio the guest speaker is Erik de Stefanis - analyst at Interlace Ventures. And he explains the role of an analyst in a venture fund and how startup founders can use analysts to get to the managers of the fund. This episode is mainly about going through a less traditional way of reaching out to funds.
Erik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikdestefanis/
Tristan Pollock built and sold two companies - SocialEarth and Storefront and in this episode we focus on this - how to approach fundraising, how to get first contacts, how the life in the accelerator looks like and what happens after the demo day. Because Tristan was also a partner of 500 Startups for a few years, we touched onto that subject as well.
HumanIPO where I bought Tristan's Time: https://humanipo.app/featured
Tristan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/writerpollock?lang=en
Tristan's Medium: https://medium.com/@tristanpollock
Tristan's Blog on 500 startups: https://500.co/blog/author/tristanpollock/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio the guest speaker is Mitzi Krockover, managing director, Co-Chair of the Health Sector Committee and the Founding Member of Golden Seeds' Arizona chapter. And in this episode we are primarily focused on discussing the work of the Golden Seeds - angel group that primarily invests in female-founded startups. We also touched onto the differences between the different chapters of Golden Seeds and about differences in different regions of the US in terms of fundraising for startups.
Golden Seeds: https://goldenseeds.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio our guest speaker is the Founder of 33 Capital, Stacey Feinberg and a Managing Director at Golden Seeds and she explained what are the major mistakes that she sees on the pitch decks and during the in-person presentations. She also talked about reaching out to investors and her personal investing preferences.
Golden Seeds: https://goldenseeds.com/
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Gay Gaddis the founder of T3 explained how she ran a company for 30 years until acquisition without raising any money. As bootstrapping becomes more and more popular during COVID-19 this episode could be very helpful to many founders who are considering this alternative to the standard Silicon Valley path.
Gay's book on building your path to success: https://www.amazon.com/Cowgirl-Power-Kick-Business-Life/dp/1478948213
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Anton Fedorov, Investment Director at Flashpoint Venture Capital explained why Israel is such a popular place for venture investing in Europe and also talked about non-US based companies making 50%+ of their revenue from the US customers. This episode will be interesting for anyone who plans to work with the US and raise money there eventually.
Flashpoint Venture Capital: https://flashpointvc.com/
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode we talked about two major subjects: growing your network once you move to a new city/country and how to find new partnerships and the second topic being the fundraising itself. Zenetta Burger explains what she does as a scout for Mucker Capital and how scouts work and can be helpful for startup founders.
Mucker Capital: https://www.mucker.com/
Social Venture Partners: https://www.socialventurepartners.org/
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode of Fundraising Radio our guest speaker is Chuck Pettid, the CEO, Republic Crowdfunding Platform - one of the largest equity crowdfunding platforms in the US. And he explains how equity crowdfunding works, who should consider it, how is it different from regular crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We also talked about the most fundable types of project that should go for equity crowdfunding and at the end of the episode Chuck went over the application process of Republic Crowdfunding Platform.
Republic, invest as little as $10 in private startups: https://republic.co/
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
This episode of Fundraising Radio is very educational and our speaker is Zane Witherspoon, co-founder and CTO at Dispatch acquired by Perlin. And in this episode Zane shares the lessons he learned from raising during the times when there was a hype around crypto and what was his major takeaway from that fundraising (spoiler: raise as much as you can while there is hype to extend your runway). He also talks about the acquisition that Dispatch went through and why it wasn't a great success.
Zane's linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zanewithspoon/
In this episode, Wendy Ryan Managing Director at Golden Seeds explains how GS works, what do they invest in and how to improve the chances of getting funded by an angel group. We also spent some time talking about free resources available to startup founders and Wendy named a lot of them, but here are the major ones:
- Golden Seeds office hours (free help from expert angel investors): https://goldenseeds.com/entrepreneurs/office-hours/
- Angel Capital Association (wonderful search through all angel groups): https://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Nicola Mattina co-founder and CEO of Stamplay tells about how he raised nearly $1 million in funding from across the world and how his company got acquired by Apple. In this episode we talk a lot about choosing the right physical location for fundraising - different cities focus on different fields in the startup industry and in this episode Nicola explains how to choose the right place for your fundraising.
Series about mistakes in pitches: https://www.hustlefund.vc/blog/
Instathings: https://www.instathings.io/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio we had two guest speakers - Filipp Chebotarev and Polina Chebotareva telling about the differences between the current crisis and the crisis of 2008 and how investing during these times works. We've touched onto multiple subjects, including - how to evaluate your startup, pitching to investors and much more.
Polina Chebotareva: https://www.linkedin.com/in/polina-chebotareva-aa44966b/
Filipp Chebotarev: https://www.linkedin.com/in/filipp-chebotarev-385a472a/
Cambridge SPG: http://www.cambridgespg.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Andrew Ly, Founder and CEO at ticktBox explains how he managed to acquire a large customer early on and what effects it had on his company. We also talk about the acquisition of tickBox by ScreenEngine and about acquisitions in general - who should expect them, who should expect an acquisition and what happens after your startup gets acquired.
ticktBox's website: https://www.ticktbox.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Jessica Li, investor at Soma Capital talks about fundraising at the earliest stages, how to reach out to the right person and how to establish that connection with the point of contact at a fund. This episode is full of insights into fundraising from VCs at an early stage.
Highly recommend all early entrepreneurs going through Soma Capital's program: https://fellowship.somacap.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Wally Wang an Angel Investor, Limited Partner at OSS Capital and a Managing Partner at Scale Asia Ventures (sav.vc) tells about the current market situation from the multiple viewpoints that his experience gives him. We covered several different topics the most important being - Wally's recommendations for startup founders to act soon as the fund managers will have to deploy loads of cash that they have been storing for months.
You can reach Wally Wang at: wally@sav.vc
In this episode Emilie Mazzacurati, founder and CEO of Four Twenty Seven talks about working with strategic investors, what are the major benefits of strategic investors and what are the common pitfalls. Emilie also explains how to reach out to early stage investors if you don't have a large network and were to start your fundraising process. Also we talked about the acquisition of Four Twenty Seven by Moody's.
Four Twenty Seven: http://427mt.com/
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Wesam Mikhail the co-founder and CTO of TradeDash explains how he manages to build and sell his companies so fast - for example TradeDash was acquired in 9 months after its inception by the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US! How to accelerate the acquisition process, how to find buyers, how to hire team members faster and much more in this episode!
Wesam's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/wesammikhail
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode, Kim Patel angel investor and scout at Female Funded Club (https://www.femalefoundedclub.com/) in this episode talks about the work of scouts, how founders should reach out to scouts and where should female founders start in their fundraising process. Touched onto many interesting topics, but should be extra interesting for all my female listeners!
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Dan Tamkin - Managing Director at Resurgent Capital Partners tells about the types of the Mergers & Acquisitions that are out there, how to prepare for an acquisition, what is the minimum size of the deal that you can expect and also how to accelerate the process of getting acquired.
Dan Tamkin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dantamkin/
Sam Nagar, founder and CEO at Pixeom acquired by Siemens in this episode of Fundraising Radio tells how his company acquired very first large customers, how he managed to grow the company with no VC or angel funding and how he retained largest part of the share of the company even after raising $15 million. This episode has tons of insights and a great CTA from Sam, but the major CTA from me personally is to message Sam! He can give you really good feedback on your project and here is his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samnagar/
Second CTA from me - invest in my through my HumanIPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
John Kao, founder of EdgeMakers that was recently acquired by Coded Minds and who raised $16 million explains how he managed to raise his first round at the idea stage by giving the right pitch to the right person. If you want to get some inspiration - this episode is for you. Generally the content of Fundraising Radio is pretty dark (as several of my listeners complained) but this one is truly inspiring!
John's Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnkao?lang=en
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Matt Pru - Managing Partner at Stackmatix, tells about angel investing, the basics of marketing and gives wonderful recommendations on the books to read. If you want to make sure that your marketing is in order before starting raising money - check out this episode. Books recommended:
On negotiation: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-More-Negotiate-Succeed-Work/dp/0307716902
Building a startup very lean: BOOK
Zero to One on company building too: https://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804139296
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Adrian Druzgalski, co-founder and CTO at Radius Intelligence that raised $107.6 million and survived the 2008 financial crisis tells about the role of a CTO in the fundraising process of the startup, explains how he thinks founders should deal with the financial crisis and when is it the time to pivot your company.
Airtm: https://www.airtm.com/en/
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Vivek Kumar, Director at Dolby Laboratories explains how startup founders should work on the technical side of the project - when to switch from contractors to full-time developers, how to outsource your development and who should consider doing this. And of course we talked about fundraising process and specifically angel investing.
Dolby Laboratories: https://www.dolby.com/us/en/index.html
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Ravi Mehta, the ex-CPO at Tinder tells about his experience in working with Gen Z and about building dating apps, he also had experience working for Facebook focusing on acquiring startups that were working with Gen Z users and we touch onto M&A subject here as well. If you plan to work with Gen Z this episode is a must.
Ravi's site: https://www.ravi-mehta.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Ryan Morris President at Meson Capital, Executive Chairman at Software Motor Company and founder of Belichka tells about his experience in raising money for large and small companies. He explains how larger hard-tech companies secure funding and how is it different from consumer-focused startups. Tons of insights into the fundraising process on different levels.
Belichka bars (don't forget the code: keto2): https://belichka.com/
Fyre Festival movie trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4CBAY_wFvk
In this episode the co-founder and CEO of Orb Intelligence, Maria Grineva shares her story of starting a first company back in Russia that generated no revenue but still got acquired by one of the largest internet companies in Russia and then we talk about Orb Intelligence - how first sales are made while you are bootstrapping, should you talk to VCs if you don't plan to raise money from then and tons of insights into the process of fundraising.
One Million By One Million blog: https://www.sramanamitra.com/?s=bootstrapping+to+exit
Orb Intelligence/DNB: https://www.dnb.com/solutions/marketing-sales.html
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode by Fundraising Radio, our guest speaker is Ahmad Abdulkader, the CTO and co-founder of Voicea that raised about $20 million and was recently acquired by Cisco. Ahmad tells about the role of technical people in the fundraising process, explains how to attract talent early on and how even a bad pitch can lead to an acquisition.
Articles by Ahmad: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HZxrGFIAAAAJ&hl=en
Article on how Voicea raised $14.5 mil: https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/07/voicera-raises-14-5-million-for-ai-that-draws-insights-from-meeting-notes/
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode of Fundraising Radio our speaker, Alan Fisher - member and angel investor at Sand Hill Angels tells about the major differences between angel groups, explains how Sand Hill Angels work and who should consider applying. He also covers some resources available for founders that are provided by Sand Hill Angels. Insights into the angel groups in this episode by Alan Fisher.
Sand Hill Angels: https://www.sandhillangels.com/
Apply for practice pitch with SHA here: https://www.sandhillangels.com/raw-application
Invest in your host through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Craig Kaplan, Venture Partner at NextGen Venture Partners explains the importance of initial sales, explains how to speed up the process and how to make sure you don't get stuck in awfully long sales cycles which bankrupted many startups. And of course, we talked about the fundraising process - specifically for early stage startups.
NextGen Venture Partners: https://nextgenvp.com/
What are the top 5 documents you need to show to the investors before they will invest?
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Certificate of incorporation.
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Bylaws.
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Confidentiality and Intellectual Property (IP) assignment.
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Restricted stock purchase agreement.
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Corporate resolution.
All that explained to you on Fundraising Radio by Yev Muchink - founder of Launch Legal LLC and your host - Konstantin Dubovitskiy. Educational episode of Fundraising Radio #5
Launch Legal: https://www.techlawstartup.com/
How to assign stock to your employees? How to distribute it among the co-founders? How to store stocks and keep track of the cap table. We even touched onto paying employees through debt and employees purchasing stocks through forgiving debt. Epic educational episode on the legal side of the fundraising with Yev Muchnik, founder of Launch Legal. Educational episode of Fundraising Radio #4
Carta - equity management solution: https://carta.com/
EQUA start - dynamic agreements platform: https://www.equastart.io/
Launch Legal: https://www.techlawstartup.com/
Early stage fundraising can become a legal mess - mixing friends and business is always dangerous and might lead to serious legal issues. To help you guide through this process Yev Muchnik in this episode of Fundraising Radio explains what are some of the major regulations that you need to follow while raising your first money.
Launch Legal: https://www.techlawstartup.com/
In this episode Raphael Danilo - co-founder of Yobs Technologies and also an angel investor with 12 portfolio companies tells about fundraising for complicated technical solutions and what should early stage founders do if they think of building it.
Yobs Technologies: https://www.yobstech.com/
In this episode Chris Lu, angel investor and investor at Employee Stock Option Fund gives a lot of recommendations for early stage founders - how can they reach out to angel investors if they don't have a good network, what books on fundraising should they read prior to raising funding and what he as an angel investor likes to see in the startup.
Book recommendation by Chris: building a business culture - https://www.amazon.com/What-You-Do-Who-Are-ebook/dp/B07NVN4QCM
Invest in Konstantin Dubovitskiy through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Below the description you can find the transcript of the episode and actually search it for things that you want to learn!
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Gabriele Sorrento, the Co-Founder and CEO of Mindesk that was recently acquired by Vection Technologies tells how they fundraised, how and where to find investors and why is stealth mode a very bad choice for a startup.
Vection technologies: https://www.vection.com.au/
Invest in Konstantin Dubovitskiy through an IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
This episode is about going through struggles to reach success. James Marks, Co-founder and CEO of Whiplash explains how he sold his company and how it nearly got bankrupt because of a small mistake they made in the very beginning of this journey. We talked about the importance of legal side, how can one bootstrap a startup for years and how to get your company acquired.
Whiplash: https://sales.getwhiplash.com/
Invest in me through my IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Want to get an NFL player to invest in your company? Want an NBA player to promote your product? Want to partner up with any type of celebrity? First check out this episode with an ex-NFL player - Bret E. Lockett who gives a lot of insights into this topic here on Fundraising Radio!
Bret's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-lockett/
Invest in me through my IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
This episode draws the line under the previous two episodes about Tech Coast Angels - how it operates, how do chapters of TCA work together, how to choose the right chapter and much more. We also touched onto the topic of foundations and family offices and about ways that founders can get in touch with them. All that explained by President of Tech Coast Angels, the Sand Diego chapter - Caitlin Wege.
https://www.techcoastangels.com/
MooDoos investments: https://www.moodooslp.com/
Invest in me through my IPO: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
President of Tech Coast Angels of the OC chapter tells about the value that OC TCA provides to founders, how it works with other angel groups, how should founders apply to TCA and how to choose the right chapter to apply to. Tons of great insights and much more in this episode with David Friedman!
https://www.techcoastangels.com/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
How does TCA work and who should apply to Tech Coast Angels in Los Angeles? Insights into the work of one of the largest angel groups in Southern California by the Vice President of Tech Coast Angel's Vice President - Digvijay (Sunny) Singh.
https://www.techcoastangels.com/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode we go into the topic of the venture studios - how does the model work, how is it different from accelerators, who should go through venture studio and what the the pros and cons. Everything in this episode with Jake Hurwitz - founder and CEO at Parallel Ventures.
Amit Pradhan, Co-Founder and President of Silicon Valley Blockchain Society tells about his organization building long-term relationships with institutional investors and showing them long-term perspective on blockchain technology. This episode perfectly depicts how long-term vision vs speculation works.
SVBS: http://svbs.one/
In this episode Greg Dickerson, the CEO of Dickerson Investments tells about fundraising for real estate-related projects, how can startups reach out to family offices and how should they choose the right source of capital.
Dickerson Investments on LinkedIn: www.DickersonInternational.com
In this episode the practical knowledge meets the theoretical knowledge. This episode of Fundraising Radio is unique because we had two speakers at once talking about one subject from two different perspectives. The major topic for this episode was due-diligence from a theoretical and practical standpoints. Listen the episode to learn more.
Syndicate 708: https://www.syndicate708.com/
Pepperdine Graziadio Business School: https://bschool.pepperdine.edu/
In this episode our guest speaker is Doug Lorenzen Partner at Moore Venture Partners, talking about fundraising for funds, applying to government support during covid-19 and using virtual lawyers as an alternative to hiring a full-time lawyer.
Moorpark's website: https://www.moorevp.com/
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Jamie Gull tells about his experience of building a startup in deep tech and going through YC. What are the major reasons one should join YC and what are its main benefits? All in this episode of Fundraising Radio with the CEO of Talyn Air, Jamie Gull.
Talyn Air website: https://www.talyn.co/
In this episode Michael Riemer, Managing General partner at New Urbana talks about investing in critical infrastructure and his path to the investment world. How should startups in urban tech raise money and how it should be done through a venture studio and much more in this episode with Michael Riemer.
New Urbana: https://newurbana.com/
You can apply for funding using the link below!!
In this episode, Mark Rosner shares his experience in investing in startups, shares his insights into what the investor's expectations of the landscape are and how should founders approach fundraising during covid-19.
Apply to Applied Revenue: http://apenu.com/
What is venture debt, what are its pros and cons? How to get funded through venture debt and how is it different from regular debt and venture funding. All these topics are covered in this epizode by Troy Zander, Partner at Barns & Thornburg.
Troy's LinkedIn
Troy's lawfirm's bio
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Founder of SchoolMint and Venture Partner at Runa Capital, Jinal Jhaveri shares his experience of selling his company. How do acquisitions work, how do you get a proposal and does it make sense to aim for an exit from day 1. Much more in this episode.
Runa Capital: https://runacap.com/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Nick Adams, Managing Partner at Differential Ventures in this episode tells how pitch competitions work now, how to network during the lock-down and does it even make sense to attend such events. Should someone try to get on a popular show like Shark Tank and of course, how to reach out to investors. All above and much more in this episode!
Site of Differential Ventures: https://www.differential.vc/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode Zann Ali, investor at 2048 ventures and founding member at 1k Project, talks about fundraising for first time founders. We covered the topic of creating good pitch decks, reaching out to investors in a smart way and investing based on geographic location.
2048 Ventures: https://www.2048.vc/
1k Project: https://www.1kproject.org/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode Hugo Tilmouth shared his experience of raising over $4 million for ChargedUp. Where to find investors? Hugo's partner ran into someone who became their lead investor in a bar, but where should you go to search for investors? Did accelerator help to raise funding?
Lots of fun stuff in this episode, but also a lot of helpful resources:
SeedLegal: https://seedlegals.com/
Alternative to LegalSeed in the USA: https://www.rocketlawyer.com/ - for legals that you need on early stages.
ChargedUp's website: https://chargedup.green/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Want to compete with Facebook, Google or some other serious corporation? You should learn how to differentiate yourself and how to prove that you have identified the market segment that your competitor ignored. Listen to this episode to learn about how it should be done and how was it done by co-founder of b12 - Nitesh Banta, who managed to raise over $12 million.
b12 site: https://www.b12.io/
Stellar Capital: stellar.capital
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Fundraising through non-profits is possible. In this episode Shaun Randolph, founder of SoTech Ventures tells how it can be done and how this fundraising strategy works.
SoTech Ventures: https://www.sotechventures.com/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode, Sami Rusani, the chief revenue officer at ShipChain shares his experience on securing funding through an ICO and doing angel investments. Tons of great insights in this episode!
Sami Rusani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samirusani/
https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Bryan Mac Mahon - founder and CEO of Expert Dojo tells about investing in early stage startups. In this episode he also compares startup founders to Vikings and it's really fun to listen to:)
Expert Dojo's website: https://expertdojo.com/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Ryan Hickman, founder of epic.ai in this episode covers the essentials of revenue-based funds. How do revenue based funds work, who should try this source of funding and much more you can find in this episode.
Sorry for the sound quality - Ryan had a bit of a problem with the sound and I couldn't fix it completely.
Ryan's company: epic.ai
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode Taj Ahmad-Eldridge, managing partner at Babylonian Ventures and a senior investment director at LACI tells about fundraising for a startup in clean tech field. This episode is full of great resources and here is the list of resources for fundraising in clean tech:
https://pitchbook.com/ - pitchbook is great for finding the right investors for you
Signal.nfx.com - growing your network and connecting to new VCs and angel investors
https://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/directory/ - lists of angel groups
https://news.crunchbase.com/news/top-ten-family-offices-direct-startup-investments/ - top 10 family offices investing in startups
laincubator.org - LACI - Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, great source especially for those who are in LA.
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Tholfaqar Al Emara in this episode of Fundraising Radio goes into importance of pitch events, investing during hard times and the opportunities that covid-19 presents to founders. In this episode you can find tons of great information, especially if you are a technical founder, so check it out!
Link to Tholfaqar's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tholfaqar/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Gerard Casale, founder and managing director of TYLT ventures with over 25 years of legal practice experience and years of investing experience tells about the legal aspects of building a startup, motivating the team through stock options, investing in startups and much more.
TYLT Ventures website: https://www.tyltventures.com/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Jonathan Hung, managing partner at Unicorn Venture Partners and experienced entrepreneur tells about fundraising during COVID-19, raising money from professionals of your field instead of VC, alternative capital to VC and angel funding and much more.
Check out the blog of Jonathan Hung with tons of great insights into angel investing and raising money from angels: https://jonathanhung.com/blog/
Site of Unicorn Venture Partners: https://www.unicornvp.com/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Founder and CEO of Opengrants Sedale Turbovsky in this episode tells about raising money through grants. Who should look into funding through grants, what sorts of startups are eligible for grants and what should you look out for while applying for grant funding or receiving it.
Website of opengrants: opengrants.io
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Anastasia Green, managing partner of Burgundy Capital tells about fundraising through brokers and how to make sure that you comply with all the SEC regulations on securities offering.
Link to Burgundy Capital webiste: https://www.burgundy.capital/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
How does fundraising work at later stages? How do you get to this late stage? What is coin-swap during an ICO? How did 1World Online survive the "Crypto Winter"? That and much more explained by Alex Fedoseev, founder and CEO at 1World Online.
Offering of 1World Online on Republic, click on this sentence!!
My humanIPO profile
In this episode our guest speaker is Christian Kameir, managing partner at Sustany Capital - blockchain focused VC. Today we are focusing on making the right pitch to the blockchain-focused investors, discussing why no "world currency" will be adopted in the near future and much more fun stuff.
Link to the Sustany Capital's website: https://sustany.co/
Article that Christian wrote on HackerNoon
My humanIPO profile
What is STO? What are pros and cons of fundraising through it? How to fund any startup through blockchain and how to grab the "lowest hanging fruit" in blockchain fundraising - all that and more explained by today's speaker - Alex Nascimento, Managing Director of 7CC Blockchain Investments.
Download the book on STOs by Alex here: www.TheSTOfinancialRevolution.com Use this code to get it for free: STOBOOK-KONSTANTIN
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
2nd Educational episode on Fundraising Radio: a precise step-by-step guide on making sales through LinkedIn for b2b model by Yulia Shin - experienced saleswoman working for a tech focused company in Dubai.
Important links mentioned in the episode: https://rocketreach.co
https://www.zoominfo.com
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/booleanassistant/
hunter.io
https://start.me/p/GE7Ebm/ssar?ref=recruiterhunt
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Peter Lee, founder and managing partner of Embark Ventures. Embark ventures focuses on investing in deep-tech and is located in Los Angeles, so in this episode we are really focusing on fundraising for startups working with deep-tech and steps that one should take if he or she decides to start a project in deep-tech. Check out the episode to find out more about deep-tech funding in SoCal and about Embark Ventures.
Embark Ventures website: https://www.embark.vc/
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
Joe Magee, founder and CEO of RallyBound in this episode will tell his story of getting his company acquired for over $10 million. In our discussion we mainly focused on how to acquire large institutional customers, how to raise your first money, where to look for money and how to choose a new venture to work on after you sell your company.
My humanIPO profile: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode Sergey Gribov, partner of Flint Capital, shares his experience working in the investment field. In our discussion we focused on how to reach decision makers at big investment firms and how choose the right investor for your company. We also reviewed differences between early stage investors and later stage investors and how a late-stage investment firm can make multiple X return in a few months!
Link to Flint Cpital: http://www.flintcap.com/
Link to my HumanIPO page: https://humanipo.app/id/konstantin.dubovitskiy
In this episode, Stijn Vanorbeek, venture partner of K5 ventures and an angel investor tells about the best ways of raising money when working in hard tech field. Great advice and valuable feedback on the fundraising process for hard tech founders and investors. Discovering the difference between angel investors and VC investors as Stijn has been both!
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Dominique Wu, professional designer tells how she ran multiple crowdfunding campaigns - watched people become rich and watched people loosing thousands of dollars by making one poor decision. In this episode we talked about choosing the right agency to run your crowdfunding campaign, what steps you should take before starting crowdfunding campaign and what are the common pitfalls.
Now Dominique Wu runs a UI/UX design agency in Los Angeles, here is the website: https://www.hummingbirdsday.com/
Fundraising Radio is hosted by Konstantin Dubovitskiy and supported by Openland. To get access to the private chat room, from which you can join the calls with the speakers - contact the host.
In this episode of Fundraising Radio our guest speaker was Paran Sonthaliathe co-founder and CEO of DeWaste, who raised $21,000 exclusively through grants. After realising that raising money at such an early stage will heavily dilute his and his co-founder's shares in the company, Paran decided to raise the pre-seed round exclusively through grants. And in this episode we will cover that.
Website of DeWaste: https://de-waste.com/
Fundraising Radio is hosted by Konstantin Dubovitskiy and supported by Openland. To get access to the private chat room, from which you can join the calls with the speakers - contact the host.
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Anatoly Corp, CEO and co-founder of Fueltime tells about raising $170,000 for his startup through one angel investor and one accelerator.
In this episode we focused on: stages at which you should raise money for your startup, working on multiple projects at the same time, finding co-founders and finding connections in a new place.
Website of Fueltime: https://fueltime.co/
Fundraising Radio is hosted by Konstantin Dubovitskiy and supported by Openland.
In this episode of Fundraising Radio we had an unusual guest - Sophie Alcorn, a well known immigration lawyer in Silicon valley and Founding Partner & Certified Specialist Attorney in Immigration and Nationality Law. This episode focuses on how to move to the US if you are a startup founder or an investor, emphasizing the O-1 Visa and all the requirements for it. If you are a US citizen or have a green card, I suggest you skipping the first 20 minutes of the episode, since later on we talked about approaching investors, incorporating and seeking funds in the Valley.
Sophie Alcorn is also starting her own podcast soon: Immigration Law for Tech Startups. I will inform everyone when it will get live.
Fundraising Radio is hosted by Konstantin Dubovitskiy. Regarding questions and partnership opportunities contact: Konstantin Dubovitskiy via linkedIn.
In this episode of Fundraising Radio our speaker was Farmon Akmalov, co-founder and CEO of a Latvian company - Airdas, who recently moved to the US and now is growing his startup here. He went through incubator, pre-accelerator and accelerator and in this episode explains the difference between these three and also shares his vision on why he thinks such programs make more sense for young startups than angel investors.
In this episode you can find:
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differences between accelerator, pre-accelerator and incubator
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who should join such programs
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moving your company to the US from abroad
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getting first traction
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what support does UCLA offer to its students who are becoming founders
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and many more topics which I won't list here as no one really reads this.
Website of Airdas: https://www.airdas.eu/#industries
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Josh Schlisserman talked about how his fund – lvlup.vc is raising funds right now! In this episode you can learn about the difference between fundraising for a fund and for a startup (hint – your struggles are nothing compared to struggles of venture capitalists). If you want to raise money for your company, understanding struggles of investors is crucial and this episode will be helpful for all founders, not only for investors, so take 30 minutes while you are driving and listen to Josh:)
Website of lvlup Ventures: lvlup.vc
Fundraising Radio is sponsored by Marpl, a company that can help you create marketing campaign in minutes: https://go.onelink.me/app/f6b412bd
Fundraising Radio is hosted by Konstantin Dubovitskiy. Regarding questions and partnership opportunities contact: Konstantin Dubovitskiy via linkedIn.
In this episode of Fundraising Radio Andy Scherrer, the founder of Peanut Butter Ventures tells about his experience of raising money on Indiegogo and presenting his peanut butter at Shark Tank. Andy went over the budget that it took him to raise $140,000 on Indiegogo campaign and compared crowdfunding with regular fund raising from Angels and VCs.
Quote of the day: if I found a good investor I definitely wouldn’t go to crowdfunding
Website of Andy Scherer: https://thenuttyinventor.com/
Fundraising Radio is sponsored by Marpl, a company that can help you create marketing campaign in minutes: https://go.onelink.me/app/f6b412bd
Fundraising Radio is hosted by Konstantin Dubovitskiy. Regarding questions and partnership opportunities contact: Konstantin Dubovitskiy via linkedIn.
In this episode of Fundraising Radio, Ari Hirsch, founder of an LA based startup - InstaSteam shares his experience raising of raising funds for a physical product, working with Indiegogo and selling products through TV shows. He also explained what is the difference between advertising software vs advertising a physical product and how you should adjust to those differences.
Quote of the day: be careful, don’t rush into deals, take the time to make the research, since startup is a long-term game.
Website of InstaSteam: https://instasteampod.com/
Fundraising Radio is a weekly online conference, focused on early stage fundraising and bringing as guest speakers only founders who have raised money and investors. Whether you want to raise pre-seed or seed round – you should check out previous sessions of Fundraising Radio and you will find a lot of helpful information in each of them. Join our chat room to participate in the conferences that are hosted every week: https://openland.com/invite/c8AR7qV
Fundraising Radio is sponsored by Marpl, a company that can help you create marketing campaign in minutes: https://go.onelink.me/app/f6b412bd
Fundraising Radio is hosted by Konstantin Dubovitskiy. Regarding questions and partnership opportunities contact: Konstantin Dubovitskiy via linkedIn.
Partner or Ruvento Ventures tells about the investing cycle, structure of the Venture Capital firms and about the career growth within VC firm.
Importance of selling before building - founder of an LA venture studio explains why you should follow the lean startup model.
Managing partner of GVA.capital and Mindrock.capital tells about raising money in Silicon Valley and gives great tips on how to approach investors.
Co-founder and COO of Rooit tells about hardships of raising funds from the US investors by a foreign startup.
Co-fouder and CEO of Discotech tells about raising $1.6 million and about the importance of keeping current investors updated.
Co-founder of 6nomads tells about raising $100,000, how US investors view traction got abroad and shares low-budget growth hacks.
Co-founder of Marpl tells about raising $100,000 as a seed round and "reinventing a wheel".
Founder of WeStrive tells about raising $145,000, struggles with App Store and the importance of investing personal funds into your startup.
Co-founder of Gehr Capital speaks about why should more funds invest in students and how the LA is different from SF.
Co-founder of One Dollar Capital tells what are the investors mainly looking at in the startups.
Founder of ShivaAI shares his story of raising $75,000 in Russia to expand his company to the US.
Principal of Ruvento Ventures shares his knowledge about fundraising and working with VCs.