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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://stair...

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 Linke...

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...

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...

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 Tw...

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 Manage...

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:/...

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/ We...

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/ Bread...

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 S...

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'...

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/sk...

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...

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/  ...

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 is Marcelo 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...

Paul Powers, Founder & CEO of Physna 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. Physn...

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 fina...

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 Link...

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&nb...

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.atlandve...

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:...

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/ Boo...

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.c...

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/br...