Investor Connect Podcast

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Zamir Shukho, CEO and Founder at Vibranium VC. Located in San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA, Vibranium VC is a venture fund based in Silicon Valley and led by an international team of serial entrepreneurs. The investment focus is on seed-stage B2B SaaS startups. Vibranium. VC aims to identify future champions and support their rapid growth a...

Preparing the Pitchdeck Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In preparing your pitchdeck consider the following: Start with a template slide deck. This ensures you cover all the key points. Each slide is one section of the executive summary. Problem/Opportunity, Solution, Product, Team, etc. Write out on each slide wha...

Identify the Target Investors Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Once you've identified the ideal investor type for your business you'll need to build a target list of investors to pursue. Research potential investors for their criteria and how it matches your deal. Key areas to look for are industry sector, stage of...

Profiling the Ideal Investor Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. There are several types of accredited investors in the startup world. These include angels, venture capitalists, and family offices. Angels write smaller checks compared to the other two but can provide support for your business as advisors and networker...

Valuation Methods To Consider Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In preparing your fundraise you need to consider your current valuation even if you're using a SAFE or Convertible Note. There are several methods to use to estimate your valuation. The most often used method is comparables. This method looks at similar...

Preparing the Business Metrics Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Investors are looking for a high-growth company with good unit economics. In preparing for your fundraise you need to identify a handful of key metrics that show your growth story. For the seed stage, you must have a run rate that is above 10K revenue...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Bentley Adams, CEO & Founder at Way. Located in Los Angeles, CA, Way is an intuitive eating app that helps people find peace in their relationships with food and their body. Their mission is to impact health and happiness, with a vision of the future where restrictive diets are a thing of the past - where people discuss listening to their body ins...

When To Raise Funding Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Most founders go out for a fundraise prematurely because they need money, not because they are ready for fundraising. Consider the following to understand when to raise funding. Have a compelling idea that you can clearly articulate. Have a validated customer,...

Milestone the Raise Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Founders often want to compress their fundraising into one round for the sake of efficiency. While this may sound like a good idea, it's actually an expensive one for the founder. Raising too much money in the early stages will cost the founder equity dilution. T...

How Much Funding To Raise Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. When raising funding consider how much you should raise. Start with the overall amount of funding required to take the business to cash flow positive. This is often a fairly large number for platform-based businesses in a high-growth sector. Take the overal...

Fundraising Timeline Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. For every $1M of funding you want to raise, it will take one year to raise it for early-stage startups. This includes time to prepare the company, the investor documents, and the pitch as well as contacting, pitching, and following up with investors. It's best t...

Fundraise Differences by Stage Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In raising funding over the life of the startup you'll find there are differences in the fundraise at each stage. The goal at the Seed stage is to show you can sell the product. At this stage, the investors will look primarily at the team since there's...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Liam Krut, Investment Partner, at Reinforced Ventures. Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, Reinforced Ventures invest in overlooked areas of deep tech and have a network of over 1700 experts. The company was founded by technologists with a mission to serve and fund the next generation of commercial infrastructure in software and autonomous s...

Von Restorff Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The Von Restorff effect is defined by Wikipedia as an item that sticks out and is more likely to be remembered than other items. The startup pitch that provides something unique will be remembered more than the others. To use the Von Restorff effect in your pitch...

What Type of Funding Should You Seek Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. When raising funding consider the type of funding you should pursue. There are many types of funding such as equity funding including angels and venture capitalists. There are debt funding tools including loans and revenue-based funding. There ar...

Zeigarnik Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The Zeigarnik effect is defined by Wikipedia as uncompleted or interrupted tasks that are remembered better than completed ones. Investors will remember the pitch that leaves them hanging more easily than those with closure. The cliffhanger in a serialized show is r...

Verbatim Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The Verbatim effect is defined by Wikipedia as the "gist" of what someone has said that is better remembered than the verbatim wording. Catchphrases and taglines will help investors remember your startup and what it does. Investors remember the essential meaning rath...

Should You Raise Funding for Your Startup Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Before raising funding consider if you should raise funding for your startup. Ask why you need funding and see if you have a specific need for funding tied to growing the business. If you have a business on a high growth trajectory, consider...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Rodney D'Souza, Managing Director of Horned Frog Investment Network, a program from the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Texas Christian University (TCU). Located in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, Horned Frog Investment Network brings together an empowering community of accredited investors to support the next generation of inno...

Testing Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The testing effect is defined by Wikipedia as the fact that you more easily remember information you have read by rewriting it instead of rereading it. Investors remember what which they recall from memory better than just hearing the pitch again. This comes from rese...

Spacing Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The spacing effect is defined by Wikipedia as information is better recalled if exposure to it is repeated over a long span of time rather than a short one. A series of updates is more effective in communicating your startup story as the investor will remember more th...

Humor Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The humor effect is defined by Wikipedia as humorous items that are more easily remembered than non-humorous ones, which might be explained by the distinctiveness of humor, the increased cognitive processing time to understand the humor, or the emotional arousal caused...

Context Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Context effect is defined by Wikipedia as cognition and memory are dependent on context, such that out-of-context memories are more difficult to retrieve than in-context memories Investors need context in order to understand the startup offering such as the problem to...

Bizarreness Effect Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The bizarreness effect is defined by Wikipedia as bizarre material that is better remembered than common material. Presentations that use bizarre information are more easily remembered than conventional ones. Founders can capture and maintain the interest of inves...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Adam Besvinick, Founder and Managing Partner at Looking Glass Capital. Located in Purchase, NY, USA, Looking Glass Capital is a pre-seed and seed fund that seeks to invest in and support mission-driven founders during the earliest days of company building. They are most inspired by entrepreneurs solving today's biggest challenges across health, cl...