Investor Connect Podcast

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. After the pitch comes the investor discussion, in person or by conf call. Research the investors in advance by looking them up on LinkedIn and their own company websites. In setting up a call or meeting, always have new information to share. Give the investor a reason to join the ca...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In your pitch deck, the sixth slide is the traction slide. For this slide, show current sales as well as the funnel of upcoming sales opportunities. Include forecast numbers for each opportunity. Show the pipeline as a repeatable, predictable process and that you are creating a syst...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In your pitch deck, the first slide is the title slide. It's important as it's the first slide the investor will see. It should convey the style and culture of the company. On the slide, include your company name, presenter's name and position. Also show your tagline as this sets th...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Many startups use loans to fund their business. If you are taking a loan from family and friends, here are some points to consider: The first step is to determine the amount of the loan and how it will be disbursed to the startup. There's time-based disbursements. For example, the s...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Many startups use profit sharing to fund their business. It is important that everyone involved has a very clear understanding of how "profit" is calculated. There are three locations in the startup's profit and loss to dip in and take out a "share" to pay back an F&F investor. They...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Many startups raise funding from family and friends on their first round to get the startup going. Before launching, make sure you do the following: Co-founders should agree on the equity split for each one and document the ownership agreement legally. Intellectual property (IP) nee...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Many startups use loans to fund their business. Here are a few ways to set up a payment structure and schedule. For payment structure you can use: Interest-only payments -- in the beginning the startup only pays out the interest and later pays the original loan. Deferred start of pa...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Many startups raise funding from family and friends on their first round to get the startup going. For those considering family-and-friends funding, think about the profile of the type of investor you need. Clearly, the person has sufficient money and can afford to lose some of it w...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. I'm often asked if you should you take money from family and friends to fund your startup. Outside investors will look at family-and-friends funding as a sign of support for your business. If your family and friends won't invest, why should the outside investor invest? Many startups...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Targeting investors for your fund and getting buy in is a key step in raising a fund. Potential investors include family offices, high net-worth individuals (HNI), and angel investors. Larger, institutional investors such as pension funds, are typically not interested in unproven fu...

In this episode, Hall welcomes Eric Berman, Co-chair and President of Element 8 (E8) Ventures, an angel, impact-investing group who invest for profit with a purpose. E8 is an international, Seattle-based community whose mission is to accelerate the transition to a prosperous and cleaner world by investing in and fostering emerging cleantech enterprises. Its flexible, investor-centric platform supp...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. So what is growth equity? Growth equity refers to investing in a company at later rounds such as Series C or D. These companies typically have $3-5M of revenue and are beginning to start the scale process. Growth equity venture firms look for a company that will become a market lead...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. As a startup, it's helpful to understand the VC investor you are talking to and how they make money. In venture capital, there's two ways to make money. First, VCs typically take one third of the equity for their investment. In rough numbers, the VCs take the amount to be raised and...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The Returns on a Fund are based on the power law which means that the Pareto Principle applies: The bulk of returns come from just a few of the companies. Out of ten investments, one will be a home run, two to three will be small returns, and the rest will be losses. Some use the J-...

In this episode, Hall welcomes Peter Adams, Executive Director of Rockies Venture Club. Rockies Venture Club is "...an angel investing group dedicated to accelerating economic development by educating and connecting investors and entrepreneurs." Their culture is based on the following three "pillars": events, education and execution. Excited by impact investing, Peter explains Rockies Venture Club...

In this episode, Hall welcomes Charles Sidman, Managing Partner and Member of ECS Capital Partners. ECS is a fund that invests in a wide range of enterprises from early-stage Angel start-ups, to later Venture-stage or even public growth companies, focusing completely on investor returns (Internal Rate of Return). Charles' career path is vast and includes building computers to becoming a professor...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In running a fund it's important to analyze market segments. First, evaluate the leading companies in the market. Are there any leaders that stand out, or are all the companies competing head-to-head with the same approach? Highlight the supply chain to show who has control of the m...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Investors in the startup space have a certain expectation for returns. Startups raising funding should keep in mind these expectations and only approach them if you have a deal that is in the game for it. Venture investors including angels, venture capitalists, and limited partners,...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Fund managers must present their investment ideas to the other general partners. Here's how to analyze a potential company for investment: Identify a recent event for the target company, such as entering a new market. Discuss how the company can disrupt the newly-entered market with...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The fund manager provides a quarterly report to the Limited Partners. The reports typically contain the following sections: Fund Manager Commentary -- the fund manager provides an overview of the current news and trends related to the fund. Performance -- this includes the financial...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. There are 3 key legal documents for your fund. They are Subscription Agreement -- describes how the limited partners purchase interest in a fund, or rather, subscribe to it. It contains representations and warranties. Private Placement Memorandum -- provides a high-level overview of...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. There are three key metrics for tracking the performance of a Fund. The first is Net Internal Rate of Return (called Net IRR) -- this measures the performance of fund distributions and the change in value of the invested companies over time, after management fees. The second is Tota...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In raising a fund you'll need an executive summary which should include the following: Fund Objectives, (Legal) Structure, Fund Specifics, Investment Strategy, Investment Criteria, Investment Process Overview, Management Team and Disclaimers. Fund Objective -- purpose of the fund an...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. For those raising a fund, you must develop an investment thesis for your fund or investing strategy. An investment thesis is a hypothesis that describes how a particular market is suitable for producing a positive return. Most funds are formed around a specific vertical in which the...

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. One of the key selling points for a startup is their potential market size. There are several ways to find it for your startup. You could buy a market research report. These typically run anywhere from $5K to $20K. This is an expensive way to do it and there are other ways to find t...