Podcasts about raising vc

Amardeep Parmar (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amardeepsparmar) from The BAE HQ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-bae-hq) welcomes Jyoti Patel, CEO and Founder of Red Rickshaw and FeastBoxThis podcast episode explores Jyoti Patel's entrepreneurial journey from co-founding Red Rickshaw and Feastbox to angel investing, focusing on the interplay between psychology, business growth, and cultural innovation.Message from our headline partners:From the first-time founders to the funds that back them, innovation needs different. HSBC Innovation Banking is proud to accelerate growth for tech and life science businesses, creating meaningful connections and opening up a world of opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors alike. Discover more at https://www.hsbcinnovationbanking.com/________Show Notes: 00:00 - Intro02:01 - Jyoti's childhood ambition of becoming an FBI agent and early passion for psychology.03:07 - Reflections on family, cultural influences, and first trip to India.05:13 - Choosing psychology as a career and studies.06:47 - Transition to business psychology and first career steps.08:30 - Jyoti's curiosity about building businesses from her management consulting experience.09:55 - The catalyst for starting Red Rickshaw: personal frustration with Asian grocery shopping.12:02 - Initial steps in launching Red Rickshaw, identifying product-market fit.14:58 - Challenges in building the business, including logistics and product sourcing.17:11 - Early hires and managing logistics with a full-time job.19:43 - Reaching a million in sales and deciding to go full-time.21:42 - Raising VC funds and scaling the business.25:50 - Launching Feastbox as an extension of Red Rickshaw.29:01 - Lessons learned from Red Rickshaw applied to Feastbox operations.31:02 - Exiting both businesses and transitioning to new ventures.32:46 - Exploring psychology's role in consumer behavior and decision-making.35:32 - Current focus: angel investing and helping startups expand to the US.38:48 - Advice for entrepreneurs on geographic expansion.Jyoti Patel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jyoti-patel-53ba37a/Website:https://jyotipatel.me/

This week, we sat down with Julia and Brian, co-founders of Pickle. Julia and Brian met at Blackstone before leaving to start Pickle, a P2P clothing rental marketplace.We discuss their founder dynamic, lessons learned through execution, leveraging micro-influencers, and scaling through network effects. We also explored their experience raising capital, how to identify the right investors, and managing round dynamics. Episode Chapters: Blackstone to Pickle - 1:58What is Pickle? - 4:13Reaching consumers - 6:24Secondhand marketplaces - 10:03Acquiring first closets - 13:22Supply side demand - 18:29Measuring success - 22:11Kickstarting organic channels - 24:02 Raising VC capital - 26:45Two areas of validation - 31:35Quick-fire round - 33:25As always, feel free to contact us at partnerpathpodcast@gmail.com. We would love to hear ideas for content, guests, and overall feedback.This episode is brought to you by Grata, the world's leading deal sourcing platform. Our AI-powered search, investment-grade data, and intuitive workflows give you the edge needed to find and win deals in your industry. Visit grata.com to schedule a demo today.Fresh out of Y Combinator's Summer batch, Overlap is an AI-driven app that uses LLMs to curate the best moments from podcast episodes. Imagine having a smart assistant who reads through every podcast transcript, finds the best parts or parts most relevant to your search, and strings them together to form a new curated stream of content - that is what Overlap does. Podcasts are an exponentially growing source of unique information. Make use of it! Check out Overlap 2.0 on the App Store today.

Welcome to another exciting episode of Product Market Fit, where we delve into the fascinating world of AI and workflow automation with our esteemed guests, Pascal, Jakob, and Raphael. In this episode, we explore the cutting-edge advancements in AI technology and how it's transforming the way we work and interact with digital tools. Chapters: (01:36) Highs/lows (and buffalos) for 2023 (07:20) Is the AI hype cycle slowing down? (11:23) Will OpenAI live up to its valuation? (12:50) e/acc vs. deceleration debate and the risks of regulation (18:55) What does the death of the Adobe-Figma deal mean for startups? (25:34) Euro-zone tech trends and funding environment (33:27) Lessons on PLG and reverse trials (45:01) Advice for founders just starting out (49:17) Predictions for 2024 (53:44) Raising VC funding in today's environment (56:00) Is PLG dead? _________________  Guest Contact Info: Raphael Allstadt, founder and CEO of tl;dv https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascalweinberger/www.bardeen.ai https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakobknutzen/https://www.butter.us    Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠grwth.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Grwth offers fractional CMOs, paired with best-in-class digital marketing execution to support early-stage startup success. With a focus on seed and series A companies, Grwth has helped a number of SaaS, digital health, and e-commerce startups build their go-to-market function and scale up. To learn more and book a free consultation, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠grwth.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.    Get in touch with Mosheh: ⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/in/moshehp⁠ ⁠twitter.com/Moshehp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ hello@pmfpod.com ⁠pmfpod.com

Funding is one of the biggest challenges facing startups and entrepreneurs. In this episode, serial entrepreneur Matt Watson shares his advice on bootstrapping vs raising venture capital based on his experience building and selling multiple companies.Matt explains how he bootstrapped his first company VinSolutions to $35 million in revenue before selling it for $150 million. He discusses the pros and cons of bootstrapping and when it makes sense to seek outside funding.Matt also shares what VCs look for in potential investments, how to know if your business is “investable,” and how much equity you may need to give up. He advises first-time founders to consider having a co-founder when starting out.Some of the key topics covered include:- Bootstrapping successfully vs raising VC money- Validating your business before fundraising- How much of your company you may need to give up- Ideal criteria for venture capital investments- Advice for technical founders who want to become CTOs- Transitioning from coder to manager as your startup grows- How to scale your startup and build a profitable businessIf you're an entrepreneur trying to figure out how to fund your early-stage startup, this episode is full of practical insights from someone who has built companies with and without external funding. Matt shares hard-earned lessons from his 20+ years of startup experience.

Mikus Krams, Jānis Vāvere and Kārlis Broders are the co-founders of TraceSpace - a tool that helps developers build complex products 10x faster. The guys managed to raise a substantial 1.5mUSD pre-seed round on the back of a great idea and solid credentials from building Lokalise.In this episode we talk about:Raising VC money at pre-seed stageHow much early stage founders should pay themselvesValidating market demand for your productDifferences between startup founder and startup employee/managerSelling software to software engineers===Find other episodes on >  https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/Watch select full-length episodes on our YouTube channel > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP6ueaLnjS-CQfrMCm2EoTAConnect with us on Linkedin > https://www.linkedin.com/company/pursuit-of-scrappiness/Questions/suggestions? Join our Telegram group > https://t.me/pursuitofscrappiness 

Emma Lawler (@emmaryanlawler) talks whether crypto is dead, VC vs bootstrapping, getting an MBA after a successful exit, why NYC beats SF, trading sleep for work, whether capitalism leads to perverse incentives, and how she plans to disrupt the App Store with Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen).

Do you have a Web3 startup idea, but are not sure how to turn it into a successful business? In this episode of Polyweb, business coach and founder Emily Rose Dallara shares her journey as a first-time founder and reveals the secret of how to build and manage multiple successful businesses.Emily is the founder of Payant, a crypto payment solution that helps freelancers and contractors get paid on time. As a business coach and host of the Web3 and Thrive Podcast, she has helped entrepreneurs turn their ideas into thriving businesses.In this episode, Emily discusses what business coaching for Web3 looks like, and provides her step-by-step guide on building a startup from idea to solution, including how to validate your product idea, find the right people to work with, and set goals and fundraising for Web3.A first-time founder's journey to building a Web3 startup00:00 Intro03:33 What business coaching for Web3 looks like07:25 Building a startup: from idea to solution19:10 How to validate your product idea: question to ask and how to find the right people26:15 Setting goals and having the right mindset as a founder30:28 Tips to collaborate with developers as a non-technical founder33:55 Qualities of a good leader37:50 Emily's prioritization framework40:02 Fundraising as a first-time founder42:45 Raising VC money vs creating your own token46:50 Launch and go-to-market strategy50:31 How to manage multiple businesses

As our special guest this week, we have Ömer Artun, who founded AgileOne in 2006 and held the CEO role until he sold it to Acquia in 2019. Now he's pursuing his dream of running his own restaurant. Omer explains how to leverage customer data to anticipate their needs, preferences, and behaviors. During our conversation, he also gave us some insight into his experience building, scaling, and selling AgileOne. He emphasizes the importance of having “grit as startups don't fail because it's a bad idea or Startups only fail if the founder gives up”. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (03:20) Appeal for Turkey (04:40) How did you get into predictive marketing and why did you start AgilOne? (06:52) The early days of AgileOne (09:40) Today's data infrastructure (Snowflake, AWS, etc) (14:15) Leveraging predictive marketing across acquisition, activation, and retention (22:39) Retention & churn data points for SaaS businesses (24:27) Customer LTV vs. upside potential; and uplift modeling (27:27) Attribution modeling (and leveraging LTV) (32:07) Defining LTV cohorts and payback period (35:25) Getting started with predictive analytics (36:55) Leveraging customer data in a privacy-first world (38:48) Raising VC funding for AgileOne and selling the company (41:56) Founders vs VCs: misalignment of incentives (46:02) The burden of entrepreneurship (47:25) Generative AI and augmented analytics (49:05) Lightning Round (54:00) Conclusion Guest contact info: omer@artun.com Support Turkey: Ahbap Organization: https://ahbap.org/disasters-turkey Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by grwth.co. Grwth offers fractional CMOs, paired with best-in-class digital marketing execution to support early-stage startup success. With a focus on seed and series A companies, Grwth has helped a number of SaaS, digital health, and e-commerce startups build their go-to-market function and scale up. To learn more and book a free consultation, go to grwth.co. Get in touch with Mosheh: www.linkedin.com/in/moshehp twitter.com/MoshehP hello@pmfpod.com www.pmfpod.com

On this episode of DTC POD, we discuss the key factors that investors look for in a business, such as product excellence, differentiation and the ability to manage capital responsibly. We cover benchmarks for what it takes to be successful at each stage of raising capital for your brand. We discuss the best types of businesses to launch, what VCs look for in a crowded space, and the importance of retail margins and unit economics when launching a business. Timestamps[00:03:58] Networking and pattern recognition in CPG industry vital for success in BD; takes 6 years to know if VC is successful.[00:08:47] Austin is an excellent city for CPG, supportive culture, helpful community, and over a third of portfolio companies are based there.[00:11:11] Portfolio companies doing well; 15x markup, 300%-200% growth, 98% retention rate, 8-9x growth[00:17:24] Investing in pre-revenue businesses requires special conditions such as high retention rate, LTV to CAC ratio, high AOV, and other metrics.[00:23:04] Founders need to manage capital responsibly, focus on break even and not overhire; gaps between funding rounds are getting longer.[00:26:04] Need resources, plan, and know-how to succeed; don't forget freight costs; raise money sooner; treat retailers like laboratories.[00:31:55] Valuations have been compressed, but there are still some companies that can get high valuations if they have strong metrics and a compelling founder. Some companies are being undervalued and some are being overvalued.[00:36:52] Exploring a variety of categories, looking for something special and unique.[00:45:31] Get advice from experts and understand your product's channel and unit economics to find the path of least resistance. VC Investments are Paying Off:"Within 18 months, one of our portfolio companies just had a 15x markup, another is growing 300-200% every year, and Jolie Skincare is doing unbelievable on a monthly basis." — Ryan Springer 11:11Metrics for Pre Revenue Success:"If you're under 20% on retention and customers order twice or more in a year, it's going to be tough for us to get interested. You have to be like a couch that's a little outside of where we would normally invest." — Ryan Springer 21:43Valuation Compression:"We've seen valuation compression. It's definitely real, but it's not the same. We use projections to see whether or not you have a realistic understanding of how the business works, not what weight to value a company. We don't do trailing twelve months either, necessarily."— Ryan Springer 31:57Shownotes powered by www.castmagic.io Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands-----Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you.Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokRyan Springer - Founding partner of MidnightVP & Founder of High Desert Cactus VodkaRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

Minoan is at the frontier of a new shopping experience they call “Native Retail.” At the forefront of this retail concept is founder Marc Hostovsky who leads an incredible team that is pushing the boundaries and shaping the future of what the retail experience will look like. We are more likely to purchase a product that we have experienced “in the wild” ourselves from sleeping on a good pillow, linen, mattress, to riding a Peloton bike. Marc and his team believes that these moments in retail are a powerful driver for customers to purchase and they've successfully built a market around these experiences. Short term & vacation rentals are the perfect space for the customer to experience branded products that have both functionality & enhanced their user experience. Minoan and Marc have simplified this experience with a simple shoppable system that allows you to order anything seamlessly by scanning a code. This means additional profits for the host, and a step closer to changing the perspective of how retail should view hosts as marketing partners. Hosts not only provide the space but allow for these rich, sensory retail moments that can only be duplicated in the short term rental industry. Marc uncovers every facet of this retail innovation at Minoan and its potentials from the B2B market, their future marketing goals, native retail moments, to their core values & business principles. Marc and the team at Minoan are introducing the idea of hosts as “four-walled influencers” for brands, while Minoan provides a curated experience that bridges together the hosts and brands into the makings of the future of digital retail not just in real estate but for shopping all over. It's an incredibly riveting and informative episode, exactly the type of data-driven, revolutionizing innovations that defines our love for experiments here in the lab. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EPISODE: 25:48 Madison started her company when she was 12 45:36 The story behind Mount's name and logo KEEPING IT REAL: 05:10 E-commerce for short term rentals 07:26 Four-walled influencers 13:04 Getting started with Minoan 14:50 The B2B Market 19:21 Top items being sold 21:42 Native retail 27:13 Future marketing goals 30:26 Minoans front end simplicity 30:02 Focus on the team 34:48 Once true in business but no longer 37:40 Seed round funding 40:17 Raising VC money with Excel 43:29 Billions of body bags 45:37 Retail moments in short term rentals 49:41 Minoan user experience 52:45 Curating the best products for each space 54:58 The value of consumer data 58:27 https://www.minoanexperience.com/ CONNECT WITH THE GUEST Website: https://www.minoanexperience.com/ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/minoan Get Your Airbnb Millionaire Blueprint: https://experimentrealestate.com/#blueprint Get coached on how you can repurpose your existing home or investment property into an Airbnb with me: https://experimentrealestate.com/hospitable-hosts Guesty Unique Link: https://hosts.guesty.com/?=therealestateexperiment Hospitable Hosts book: https://amzn.to/3e4LEhE #nativeretail #ecommerce #shorttermrental #airbnb

Discussing weekly tech news w/ second time venture founders. No investors. Guest - @sm (Google, Twitter, Postmates, Winnie) @julien (Breather, Practice) @kevingibbon (Shyp, Airhouse) @berman66 (Nanit, Vowel) @JoeFernandez (Klout, Joymode, newco)

Katie Reed is the Co-Founder and CEO of Balanced, a digital fitness platform to build a healthspan that matches our new lifespans. They are committed to helping older adults maintain vibrancy in their lives, with an exercise platform that promises community, joy, and a personalized experience to rebel against the decline of aging. Balanced meets older adults where they are with their heterogeneous profiles by taking into account chronic conditions, injuries, pain, and physical ability. Balanced was inspired by Katie and Kelly's families during COVID-19. While living with her grandmother during quarantine, Katie was distraught with the state of digital fitness for folks like her grandmother. At the same time, Kelly was virtually training her grandparents with cardio boxing via Facetime. With backgrounds in technology, startups, and fitness, the two knew that they could create a digital fitness experience to inspire and build community with healthy outcomes that all older adults deserve. Founded in 2021 and headquartered in New York City, Balanced has a growing number of fitness programs and content across its platform, available to members at anytime, from anywhere. Their world-class trainers teach live and on-demand classes across multiple fitness modalities with on-screen modifications, including pilates, strength training, cardio boxing, yoga, stretching, dance cardio, and walking. Topics Covered by Katie Reed in this Episode What Balanced is How Katie's grandparents inspired her to found Balanced Initial testing for Balance How they networked to conduct original testing among both communities and trainers From bootstrapping to deciding to raise VC in order to become a market leader Building out production and branding after piloting their program Early decision-making to enable long-term quality and scalability Building out their MVP Capital deployment from their pre-seed round and positioning themselves to be a supplemental benefit for Medicare Advantage Plans Katie's experience fundraising as a first-time founder and selling a vision that resonates Building out the team for Balanced Katie's tips for finding great founding engineers How they're using the funds with their most recent raise The Balanced user experience How they're approaching motivation and adherence to the program What Katie's biggest challenges have been building Balanced as a first-time founder How Katie manages her time and takes care of herself What's next for Balanced Where Katie sees potential in the market of aging adults Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Fresh off a major announcement that Hostfully successfully raised $4M in funding, Margot is part of only 2% of venture funded companies led by female founders. Margot credits her success to her ability to lead with transparency and authenticity that is rarely seen in the VC world. Mom of 3 beautiful children, she talks to us about how she balances a very busy work and home life and the challenges this has created along the way of building Hostfully into one of the most successful property management companies in the world. CONTACT MARGOT SCHMORAKmargot@hostfully.comLinkedInFacebookHostfullyCONTACT ALEX & ANNIEAlexandAnniePodcast.comLinkedIn | Facebook | InstagramAlex Husner - LinkedinAnnie Holcombe - LinkedinPodcast Sponsored by Condo-World and Lexicon Travel

Sam Safer Valentine is the co-founder and COO of Norby, a venture-backed startup empowering creators and founders to own their audience with practical community success tools. She's an expert in helping brands and creators reclaim their social media audiences, understand and optimize your marketing funnel, and independently engage with your community.  Links Try Norby for free! https://nor.by/❤/femalefounderworld  https://www.lennysnewsletter.com Join the waitlist for the event connecting thousands of female founders IRL: www.femalefounderworld.com  Get the free 10-minute newsletter keeping 5k+ consumer brand builders in the know: www.femalefounderworld.beehiiv.com Shownotes 05:56 Why so many tech founders start agencies first. 07:33 How to adapt an optimisation mindset. 20:00 Raising VC with two male cofounders. 24:00 Day in the life of a tech founder. 27:30 Reclaim your social media following and own your audience. 32:30 SMS marketing ideas 34:00 How to centralise your social media DMs. 36:30 Resource recommendation!

Stix makes women's at-home health essentials like fertility, pregnancy, UTI, and yeast infection products. In today's episode, Stix cofounder Cynthia Plotch chats with Ramon & Blaine about building Stix, finding investors, talking to customers about difficult subjects, and how her prior experience at Harmless Harvest gave her the confidence to create Stix. 1:10 - 5:52 Story behind Stix8:08 - 8:45 Medical Advisory Board13:19 - 16:56 Raising VC money17:59 - 20:31 Prior startup experience22:37 - 28:57 Understanding the customer29:25 - 38:33 Customer service & conversations39:35 - 43:24 Product & Regulatory Environment45:29 - 46:13 Distribution This episode is brought to you by OpenStore:Visit https://open.store to get a free, no-obligation offer for your e-commerce business from OpenStore in 24 hours. Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further? Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you.Follow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTok Cynthia Plotch - Co-Founder of StixRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - COO of OmniPanel

In this episode of the IFundWomen Show with Karen Cahn, Carina Glover, Founder of HerHeadquarters, tells us first hand the challenges she faced raising venture capital as a Black woman startup founder in the U.S. and how she is now crushing it. ICYMI: in 2021, just 2.1% of all VC dollars deployed in the United States went toward women-owned businesses, and just a fraction of a percent went toward women of color business owners.   Carina Glover came to the IFundWomen Show to get expert coaching on how to secure the enterprise partners of her dreams, and left with tactical, strategic steps on how to make her enterprise partnership dreams come true.   This episode was produced by Sofia Badalamenti at IFundWomen   Host: Karen Cahn, Founder & CEO of IFundWomen Music: “Street Dance Hip-Hop Party” by StereoNuts from Envato Elements   Important Links: Follow Karen on: Instagram: https://bit.ly/3zSkFv5 Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rGQ7tu LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3laVdNy   Follow IFundWomen on: TikTok: https://bit.ly/3k83X4R Instagram: https://bit.ly/3D3esz1 Twitter: https://bit.ly/3zLWOxe LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3sAQ96w Sign up for IFundWomen's newsletter: https://bit.ly/3D7bZn2 Get your copy of the IFundWomen Method Playbook: https://bit.ly/381nSgg   Check out Her Headquarters: Website: https://herheadquarters.app/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herheadquarters/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/herheadquartersapp/

Welcome back to Intellicast! We have a great guest joining us today – Lisa Wilding-Brown, CEO of InnovateMR. Lisa joins Brian Lamar and Producer Brian to talk about the recent venture capital funding InnovateMR received from CIVC Investments out of Chicago. Before we dove into those details, we talked to Lisa about how she was settling in as CEO. Brian mistakenly thinks it was over a year ago, and it cause a good laugh when Lisa told him it has only officially been since September of 2021. We then jump into a discussion around the new capital InnovateMR raised from CIVC Investments. Lisa talks about what the investment means to the organization. She then gets into the process behind getting the venture capital, which if you have not been through the process, is super interesting. We then get Lisa to talk about what some of the new money might be used for. She gives us a couple of hints like upgrading Pointclub.com and VisionSuite but keeps the rest of it close to the vest. We then switch gears and talk about a new industry study InnovateMR has launched called The State of DIY Research. This is an interesting study because they are asking for insights from users of DIY tools. If you are interested in providing your feedback on this topic, you take the survey here: https://visionsurveys.innovatemr.com/survey/582/The-State-of-DIY This was a great episode, and it was great to catch up with Lisa. You can connect with Lisa on LinkedIn here: You can also email her at Lisa@InnovateMR.com Thanks for tuning in! We have been nominated for the Market Research Podcast of the Year. Click here to vote for Intellicast: https://info.littlebirdmarketing.com/mr-podcast-award Want to catch up on our blogs? Click here: https://emi-rs.com/blog/ Missed one of our webinars or want to get some of our whitepapers and reports? You can find it all on our Resources page on our website here: https://emi-rs.com/resources/ Got a suggestion or feedback? Reach out to us at Intellicast@emi-rs.com, or on Twitter at @Intellicast1, or leave us a voicemail on our call-in line at 513-401-5463. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meghan Jewitt is the CEO and Co-Founder of Uniform Teeth, a modern orthodontic startup that uses advanced technology to deliver a best in class experience. Meghan believes in making orthodontic care higher quality, more patient-centric and more affordable. After over a decade in the healthcare industry, Meghan's past experience includes executive roles at DaVita Kidney Care and One Medical Group, and she holds a Biomedical Engineering degree from Columbia University and a MBA from Harvard Business School. In her downtime, Meghan skis, surfs, bikes and climbs. Topics Covered by Meghan Jewitt in this Episode What makes Uniform Teeth a modern orthodontic services provider Meghan's journey to starting Uniform Teeth and her mission to improve the health care industry Meeting her co-founder Kjeld Aamodt and what empowered Meghan to commit to their idea The evolution of Uniform Teeth The technology that enables a seamless experience for patients Their “scrappy” approach to early customer acquisition Deciding to go the VC route for funding and what Meghan would do differently Fundraising vs. bootstrapping Their fundraising experience as a tech-enabled brick and mortar service business What has fueled their growth over the past few years Facilitating an organic referral engine Hiring for a diverse range of positions and how the challenges have been different than they expected Considering the four-day work week How Uniform Teeth is pioneering orthodontics care of the future Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Summary: Marija Vrljic, Ph.D., is the co-founder and CEO of Scalmibio, an early-stage biotechnology startup that developed a transformational technology focused on oncology applications. We talk about the inspiration for launching the startup, how she was able to bootstrap the company, raised non-dilutive funds which ultimately led to being acquired in October, 2020. Show notes: - ScalmiBio is a startup that was born when Marija was diagnosed with thyroid cancer - Technology: Antibody prodrugs that could target only cancer tissues and remain inactive around healthy tissues. - Startup was based on unique insights (around protein folding and publicly available protein databases) that came from deep understanding of work during graduate and postdoctoral research. - Founding story - Bar for founding a startup for scientists with data packages from their research is much lower. In terms of fundability- In vivo model as a proof of concept seems to be more fundable for life sciences startups. - SBIR/STTR funding Small Business Transition Grant For Early Career Scientist: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-21-001.html NCI SBIR Concept Award https://sbir.cancer.gov/funding/concept NCI SBIR writing assistance program: https://sbir.cancer.gov/programseducation/aap?cid=eb_govdel - Writing out a grant gives clarity and helps builds a business case - The whole scientific field would say that the technology might not work because there was not enough data - Talking to folks (once you filed provisional patent) in the industry usually helps entrepreneurs understand potential issues on both the technology and business fronts. - You need to have a lead product before talking about platform plays - Raising VC funds to take a product to the market might not always be the fastest way. Working as a part of a bigger company with the right resources - Recruited by Pat Brown as one of the first scientists to work at Impossible Foods - Understanding the concept of scaling and costs/pricing is super important as you embark on the startup journey - It is hard to stay competitive- You have to move fast and get better results than the competition - Network with engineers, law students, MBA students and others while in grad school/postdoc- a valuable skill!   Startup Pitch ubiqd.com Email: Hunter McDaniel- hunter@ubiqd.com

Today on the show we're learning from Dr. Amy Divaraniya, the founder of Oova, a women's health company. She has more than 10 years of experience as a data scientist and has both led and published original research in the areas of personal genomics and biomarker discovery. Her solid understanding of biology and being able to apply complex analyses have led to innovative projects in the healthcare space. After facing her own struggles with conceiving her son, she decided to build a solution to help women having difficulty getting pregnant. Today, she and her team have built the first at-home test, OOVA, that measures multiple hormones through urine samples and provides personalized results and insights on a woman's fertility. We talk through her journey as a female founder in the VC world and question why things don't seem to have changed, we talk about the development of something that doesn't exist in the world and how to find your beta group! LINKS WE MENTION: OOVA WebsiteFemale Startup Club's InstagramDoone's InstagramIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Female Startup Club's YouTubeFemale Startup Club's Private Facebook GroupSay hello to Doone: hello@femalestartupclub.com

This podcast is an absolute gem. In this podcast episode, we're talking to Mandela SH Dixon about her journey from school teacher to CEO of Founder Gym. Founder Gym has helped entrepreneurs raise over $100,000,000 in venture capital. One of the biggest hurdles with raising money is the communication gap between VCs and entrepreneurs. In this podcast you'll learn: - The journey from teacher to entrepreneur - The insider language of venture capital - What most startup entrepreneurs get wrong about raising money - Advice for startups in the beginning stage. If you're in the startup stage of your business this podcast is for you. Timestamps: 02:07 - Intro 14:45 - Mandela Interview 19:02 - Mandela's Backstory 30:00 - Practical tips for Entrepreneurs You can find out more about Founder Gym here: https://foundergym.com/ FOLLOW HUSTLE OVER EVERYTHING: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hustleovereverything Subscribe to Our Newsletter: http://bit.ly/2mYZurF Instagram: http://bit.ly/2pMQ4jU Twitter: http://bit.ly/2Ix1leI Alex Whitfield Instagram: http://bit.ly/2ScPqH5 Alex Whitfield LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-whitfield-94ab0480/ Owen Osinde Instagram: http://bit.ly/2LXmT6t Owen Osinde Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/owenosinde/

Today I'm joined by Debbie Mullin, the founder of Copper Cow Coffee. Equal parts Vietnam and equal parts California, Copper Cow Coffee is the brainchild of Vietnamese American Debbie Mullin, who blended her love for Vietnamese coffee and culture with her background in sustainability. It brings an authentic, yet modernized, pour-over barista quality coffee experience to homes across the nation. Dedicated to the environment, Copper Cow Coffee is quality-obsessed, eco-friendly, and proud to be part of the 2% (and growing) of women-owned companies with venture funding.We're covering How to approach your acquisition costs Advice for Raising VC dollars and whether you should or notWhy your network as a founder is highly important and something very exciting we're launching to empower our female startup club listeners LINKS WE MENTION: Copper Cow Coffee WebsiteCopper Coe Coffee's InstagramFemale Startup Club's InstagramDoone's InstagramIn partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Female Startup Club's YouTubeFemale Startup Club's Private Facebook GroupSay hello to Doone: hello@femalestartupclub.comPodcast: How I Built This with Guy Raz

In this episode of China Money Podcast, listen to all the news headlines in the China venture investment and tech sector for the week ending May 7. It's been a long holiday week in China, but dozens of startups still managed to close deals to raise additional funding. We monitored 34 different startup, growth stage, and pre-IPO investment deals closing over the past 5 days totaling US$880 million across China. Investors such as GP Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Panlin Capital, Champion Ascend, Forebright Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia, DCP Capital, and Sequoia Capital China all made investments this week in a bunch of startups. This is the May 7, 2021 edition of the China Money Podcast where we update you on the news, data, and insights you need for making private equity and venture capital decisions in China. Be sure to subscribe to China Money Podcast for free in the iTunes store, or subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Ryan Mundy was a hard-hitting safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants and Chicago Bears who played in two Super Bowls and hoisted the Lombardi Trophy with the Steelers in 2009. He didn't always have the best on-field reputation, having been fined multiple times in his career for illegal hits, but he's ultimately shown himself to be a mature, innovative and humble person who is working to have a positive impact on the world. Mundy, who retired from the NFL in 2014, was one of the first pro athletes to dip his toes in venture capital, including investing in bitcoin as early as 2016. Today, he has moved across the table as an entrepreneur. Mundy is the founder and CEO of Alkeme, a platform for mental health and wellness that focuses especially on the Black community. About The Game Plan The Game Plan is a weekly SportTechie podcast hosted by venture capitalists Jay Kapoor and Tim Katt. The show features professional athletes and their business interests beyond sports. You can follow us on Twitter (@thegameplanshow) and Instagram (@gameplanshow) for show news and updates, to recommend guests, and for bonus content! Follow co-hosts Jay Kapoor (@JayKapoorNYC) and Tim Katt (@Tim_Katt) for all things sports, media, tech, and venture capital. Question? Comment? Story idea? Let us know at talkback@sporttechie.com

Entrepreneur, a term that has lost its potency over the years, is finding it's way back home in today's story. There are those of us that start businesses out of the desire to control our own destiny, but then grapple with the inability to see the forest through the trees. Every reason why we started a business to begin with — freedom, choice, creativity — become the very anchors that hold us back. Great entrepreneurs know that in order for an idea to flourish and make deep roots in the world, she needs to decouple herself from the ownership of it all. When Miriam, today's guest, raised $6.5 million in a Series A VC round (which includes Automattic) for Strattic WordPress hosting company, she wanted to build something great. Two challenges lie ahead: 1. To make the decision to wind down a thriving WordPress services agency 2. Go get that money to watch her idea come to life and grow beyond just a side project. Join me in welcoming Miriam Schwab as we explore the hyper-competitive landscape of managed hosting through the lens of a static WordPress solution platform. Say THANKS to our sponsors: PaidMembershipspro.com for the most complete membership plugin in WordPress. Head over to Mindsize.com and signup for their site performance audit service. ★ Support this podcast ★

Entrepreneur, a term that has lost its potency over the years, is finding it’s way back home in today’s story. There are those of us that start businesses…

Cyrus talks to Michael Ginzo, Co-Founder of Hofy, a leading remote working B2B subscription startup. Hofy enable companies to set up home offices for their employees online in just a couple of clicks. Michael discusses the early days of setting up Hofy, achieving product-market fit, scaling, Hofy tech, closing large clients, advice on raising VC funding, the future of remote work, efficiency hacks, and the mental models he uses as a successful COO. Hofy: https://www.hofy.co/ Michael's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelginzo/ This podcast provides weekly content on technology investing and technology building. We also write long-form memos on all things tech investing and building. You can sign up for these monthly memo newsletters on the website: https://www.rationalvc.com/ We've already reached 100 subscribers in less than a week and are now looking to get to 200 monthly memo subscribers by Jan 2021 - please help us reach this milestone! Thanks! We break everything down to first principles, to simplify the complex technology world. We aim to bring you content that is insightful, logical, and rational. We cover tech products and tech companies across the lifecycle, from pre-seed to seed, Series A to D+, to IPOs and beyond. We also cover all investing methods including Angel Investing, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Hedge Funds, Public Markets, SPACs etc. For more information on Cyrus, Iman and the channel, check out: https://www.rationalvc.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/cyrusyari/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/imanolya1/ https://twitter.com/CyrusYari https://twitter.com/iman_olya Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/rational-vc/id1537462327 Your feedback and comments are very welcome. We hope you enjoy listening as we embark on a journey to understand this space; clearly, and rationally, of course. --- Disclaimer: The materials provided are solely for informational purposes and do not constitute investment or legal advice. All opinions expressed by hosts and guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of their employer(s).

This week, we had a fascinating discussion that unveiled the dirty secret of AI and machine learning: algorithm performance is only as good as data quality... and data pipelines break frequently. Data Scientists spend most of their time wrangling data. Barr Moses, CEO and Founder of Monte Carlo, explains how the problem is getting solved and what that means for the future of technology. Plus, learn… The five pillars of data health How to quantify the impact of data downtime How Barr thinks about being intentional when establishing company culture and values Barr’s advice for female and under-represented minority entrepreneurs raising venture capital Shark populations off the coast of South Africa? Well, just listen :). Companies and people mentioned in the episode: GainsightThe Great RBGKamala Harris

What is up SharkNation!  This week were lucky to sit down with one of the originals of the Irish tech scene. Brian Caulfield is an entrepreneur, ex-CEO, Board Member of a huge amount of companies and a Venture Capitalist.  He was at the forefront of the technology startup scene in Ireland back in the 80's and was the leader of one of the first companies to raise VC money in Ireland in the mid-90s. We cover: 1. How Brian got into tech in the 80's - getting into one of the first computer engineering classes in Trinity. 2. Starting his first software business in the doldrums of 1980's Irish economy. 3. Raising VC capital for the first time. 4. The best kind of people to work with and how to find them. 5. How he got into VC. 6. The industries he would start his business if he were starting again. 7. The when, the how and why of VC funding 8. What the future looks like for Irish tech startups.   And a lot more.... We are brought to you be Audible. Click here and sign up for your free audio book (cancel anytime and keep your book!) Feed back: Luke@shark.ie KEEP MOVING FORWARD!   

Richard Kerby of Equal Ventures joins Nick on a special Crisis Coverage installment to discuss the Tactical Advice for Raising VC Fund 1, Why Not to "Raise the Bar," and a Framework for Startups Adjusting to COVID-19. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to Venrock Why'd you leave to launch Equal? You, Rick and the team just launched a $56 million Fund 1 at Equal Ventures in February...congrats on the final close! Tell us a bit about your thesis and how you differentiate? You invest in retail, insurance, supply chain and the care economy. From afar those seem unrelated - how'd you arrive at those four categories... is there a common thread? What is the best tactical advice you'd give to someone raising a fund? What's the biggest mistake you made during the raise process that prospective fund managers should do their best to avoid making? So you're early in the fund cycle w/ multiple years of initial check deployment in front of you... has the deployment strategy changed at all given the current environment? Many investors are talking about and tweeting about "raising the bar” for investments... due to the pandemic and recession. Are you "raising the bar" at Equal? Many famous investors opine on the importance of market size when making investments. What's your position on market size and how does one estimate an accurate market size in categories that have not yet been created? You recently published your framework for COVID-19 Scenario Planning on Medium. Walk us through this framework and how it's applied. What impacts has the virus had on your incubation arm at Equal? Do you see this being a permanent change in incubators once this passes? Diversity in venture is terrible... what is Stealth Mode and how are you trying to improve diversity? To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

Nathan Beckord Contributor Share on Twitter Nathan Beckord is CEO of Foundersuite.com, a software platform for raising capital and managing investors that has helped entrepreneurs raise over $2 billion since 2016. He is also the host of Foundersuite's How I Raised It podcast.

The post E886: Samasource Founder & CEO Leila Janah is reducing poverty by training people in Africa in AI & future technologies to earn 400% more; shares her LXMI organic skincare products, the rewards & challenges of running two startups, raising VC, & the profitable art of doing more with less appeared first on This Week In Startups.

The post E886: Samasource Founder & CEO Leila Janah is reducing poverty by training people in Africa in AI & future technologies to earn 400% more; shares her LXMI organic skincare products, the rewards & challenges of running two startups, raising VC, & the profitable art of doing more with less appeared first on This Week In Startups.

Embark Ventures is a pre-seed and seed stage fund focused on “deep tech” – companies with proprietary and highly defensible technology that is a strong competitive barrier. Particularly interested in cyber-security, robotics, advanced manufacturing, materials, and bio/med tech but open to other opportunities that have a highly technical/proprietary core. We invest early (generally first institutional round) with check sizes between $250k and $1M typically. Most of our companies are pre-product, and our goal is to get them to first customer/revenue on our round of financing. Will discuss the Southern California eco-system for “deep tech” startups and bridging the gap between R&D; and engineering BIO: Peter Lee is the Founding Managing Partner at Embark Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund based in Los Angeles focused on “deep tech” companies in industries such as robotics, advanced manufacturing, and cybersecurity. Prior to entering venture capital, he was the VP of Product at a venture backed startup in the digital media space. Peter was a manager with McKinsey and also worked as a product manager at Microsoft. Peter earned his BS and MS at MIT, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Embark Ventures is a pre-seed and seed stage fund focused on “deep tech” – companies with proprietary and highly defensible technology that is a strong competitive barrier. Particularly interested in cyber-security, robotics, advanced manufacturing, materials, and bio/med tech but open to other opportunities that have a highly technical/proprietary core. We invest early (generally first institutional … Continue reading Episode 69: Raising VC for “Deep Tech” Startups in Southern California →

Thiel Fellow Josh Sakhai on Funding Pre-Product, Startup Media, and Disappearing Tattoos Josh Sakhai is the cofounder and CEO of Ephemeral Tattoos and a 2018 Thiel Fellow. He joins Subversion to discuss how he's raised millions of dollars before taking his product to market. We also discuss how to fund your company without giving up equity. Some key takeaways: Fundraising is always hard. Exhaust as many resources for free money as you can. Even consider universities that you don't go to. Talk to mentors and friends. Warm intros will be a lot more powerful than cold outreach. Stay SUPER-organized. When did you first talk to the investor? Who introduced you? How warm are they? Do you need to follow up with them? When was the last time you spoke? Media is less important than you think. It will mostly just make you feel bad about yourself. Recommended resources: Venture Deals, by Brad Field and Jason Mendelson Blogs: Alex Dispol - Techstars NYC - https://alexiskold.net Mark Suster - Upfront Ventures - https://bothsidesofthetable.com

When Latin America shifted abruptly to mobile in the early 2010s, the online dating industry had to change with it. Luckily, Pedro Neira, the founder of Mi Media Manzana, now Latin America’s most-downloaded dating app, had enough experience from his three previous startups to know when to make changes. Mi Media Manzana now has over one million downloads and recently received an undisclosed investment from Axon Capital Partners. I sat down with Pedro Neira in this episode of Crossing Borders to hear about his journey founding four startups, what it’s like doing business in Peru, advice for raising capital in Latin America and Silicon Valley, and the future of Mi Media Manzana. Pedro didn’t realize he was an entrepreneur until his third startup A few of my previous guests on the show called themselves “accidental entrepreneurs” because they never realized their careers would lead them to innovate. Not so with Pedro. Instead of following his MBA classmates down the consulting track, he worked on a startup in Barcelona right before the financial crisis. Only after starting a few Internet businesses when he returned to Peru did Pedro realize his career path was unique. Check out this episode of Crossing Borders to learn about Pedro’s three startups, and how they prepared him to found Mi Media Manzana.   Leading the acquisition of AdondeVivir.com After his second startup failed, Pedro and his co-founders found themselves in an unusual situation; they had the team, but not the idea. Eventually, Pedro and his team created Peru’s largest real estate portal, AdondeVivir.com, and was a driving force in its acquisition by Navent, a Argentine classifieds site. Pedro started looking for his next project right after the acquisition, and eventually landed on the dating industry. Find out Pedro’s advice for entrepreneurs heading into a challenging negotiation in this episode. How Mi Media Manzana targets Latin America Mi Media Manzana wanted to be the eHarmony of Latin America, but that model does not transition well to mobile. In Latin America, where most people are accessing the Internet through smartphones, online dating had to be mobile-friendly. That’s why Mi Media Manzana resembles a social network, where singles looking for relationships can mingle freely online. Pedro was so confident in the Latin American dating industry that he invested much of his own money into the app before looking for investment. Listen to this episode to hear how Pedro pioneered the online dating industry in LatAm. Pedro’s advice to LatAm founders raising capital abroad Pedro has raised four rounds for Mi Media Manzana, from investors in Peru, South Korea, and the US. His advice to founders is to raise capital at home first, before looking abroad. US investors will pay attention to Latin American startups if the team, the traction, and the idea are there. However, he claims that raising capital in Latin America is the opposite of the US; check out the rest of the episode to find out why. Pedro was active in Peru’s startup ecosystem before it even formally existed. Now he is building Mi Media Manzana into a regional business, targeting the largely untapped Latin American dating market and gaining the attention of international investors. Pedro is the first Peruvian entrepreneur to appear on Crossing Borders, so if you are interested in Peru’s startup ecosystem, you should definitely check out this episode. Show Notes [1:24] - Nathan introduces Pedro [3:27] - How Mi Media Manzana works in Latin America [7:50] - Did you always want to be an entrepreneur? [10:15] - What did family and friends have to say? [11:42] - The journey back to Peru [13:47] - Building an Alibaba for Latin America and failing [16:49] - Scouting ideas for the next startup [20:07] - Raising VC funding from Latin America [25:05] - Lessons learned from exponential growth [27:53] - Making the decision to move on to Mi Media Manzana [29:54] - Dating is an untouched market in Latin America [30:30] - Raising funds for Mi Media Manzana [32:05] - Raising money in Lima vs. Silicon Valley [33:24] - Advice to LatAm entrepreneurs who are raising money [35:00] - Why should US investors look at LatAm [39:23] - How to pick the right accelerator program [43:15] - What’s next for Mi Media Manzana? [44:47] - Peru’s entrepreneurial ecosystem [47:02] - What is missing from the ecosystem [47:57] - Pedro’s advice to his younger self [50:51] - Final advice to LatAm entrepreneurs Resources The Lean Startup [BOOK] AdondeVivir.com BlackBox Accelerator Steve Blank Masters of Scale [podcast] Mi Media Manzana Cristobal Perdomo [Podcast]

Rachel Braun Scherl calls herself the Vagipreneur™, with a new book out called Orgasmic Leadership: Profiting from the Coming Surge in Women's Health and Wellness.  She shares stories about innovating on the frontier of female sexual health, from startup to exit. Raising VC money is hard enough without talking arousal, menstruation or fertility: Listen to how Rachel got investor buy-in for her company Semprae, makers of Zestra® Essential Arousal Oils, and now helps other women in FemTech.

Rachel Braun Scherl calls herself the Vagipreneur™. She shares with WINGS host Melinda Wittstock her entrepioneering stories about innovating on the frontier of female sexual health, from startup to exit. Raising VC money is hard enough without talking arousal, menstruation or fertility: Listen to how Rachel got investor buy-in for her company Semprae, makers of Zestra® Essential Arousal Oils, and now helps other women in FemTech.

On this episode of The Backbone, Dwayne Walker, CFO at LookbookHQ discusses: His journey into tech and startups and his progression from Controller to CFO; What LookbookHQ does; Raising $50M in venture capital funding and orchestrating a $110M exit to a publicly traded company; Demystifying finance leader jargon: the differences between Controller, Director, VP and CFO; What makes a great finance leader; and The importance of the finance function at an early stage technology company --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/backbone/message

The Tech.eu podcast is a weekly show where Neil S W Murray and Roxanne Varza discuss the most interesting stories from the European technology scene. On this episode they discuss: - Qubit, the UK-based startup that raised $40 million last week - Nokia Growth Partners announcing a $350 million IOT fund - France’s NUMA teaming up with mVenturesBcn to launch a programme in Barcelona - Our Editor Robin had a chance to catch-up with Niklas Zennstrom and to give his thoughts on MWC - What you need to know if you’re a startup who wants to raise funds with an American VC because things may not be as easy as they seem For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

CEO and Founder of CarWow James Hind chats to Ben about running and growing a marketplace business. Amongst other things, James reveals how cold calling VCs and angel investors actually works; he advocates taking the plunge with TV advertising, so long as you keep your eye on the stats; and he offers some hints & tips for entrepreneurs trying to spearhead their own marketplace business.

Serial entrepreues in conversation about raising money from VCs