In this episode, Hall welcomes GreenBar founder Larry Cynkin. Larry ​is a serial entrepreneur who has been CTO or VP Engineering at five startups, with experience in industries ranging from health care to personalized e-commerce to ed-tech.

Larry started his career as a software developer, with a degree in Computer Science from Brown University. He eventually moved into software management and has always had an affection for startup companies. After working with several startups he eventually moved into being CTO.

In this episode, you’ll hear more about his path in helping startups and investors. According to Larry, he helps non-technical or not-so-technical executives and founders run, manage or plan for software development and software product development. From an investor perspective, he helps mitigate the risks of software execution.

Before the fundraise, startups should spend time with the investor first. It’s less about the amount of face time and more about the number of interactions over the phone, email, in person, and otherwise.

It’s best to connect with investors before you start your fundraise so you have a basic relationship established.  

You can use the approach “I’m not raising funding now, but I will be in six months” to open the dialog. Then, spend the next few months getting to know them and updating them on you and your deal.

Investors are interested in knowing about not just the product you are building, but also the team you will assemble.
With most VCs, their diligence process focuses heavily on the team. So, you want to use your time showcasing what great things they can do. 

The more that investors see you making good decisions in this phase, the faster your fundraise will go in the next one.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let’s go startup something today!