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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 peo...

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/ St...

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 Fu...

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/...

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 episo...

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://dylanken...

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/je...

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/antho...

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 Rou...

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/ Produc...

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 co...

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: 1. Never Split the...

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 wi...

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 Hou...

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/...

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 e...

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/ Airbyt...

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 applic...

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 th...

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/ Wor...

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 websi...

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-p...

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...

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/f...