Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Investors should set up a deal flow process that takes startups through in a timely manner.

Here are the deal flow stages:

Initial contact -- before reviewing a deal there’s often a call or email that describes the deal.

It’s best to provide initial feedback and ask key questions about key criteria.

Encourage those that meet the criteria to apply, and discourage those that don’t.

Submission -- the startup provides a deck or executive summary.  

Review the deal for your key criteria. It’s best to give a fast “no” so it doesn’t waste everyone’s time.

First call -- set up a call with the ones that meet your criteria to learn more.

Explain how your diligence process works and the amount of time it takes.

Team review -- review the deal with your team.

Determine additional questions to ask and decide the next steps.

Second call -- the startup meets the team.

The team and the startup take a deeper dive into the business and everyone gets to know each other better.

Diligence --  the team starts diligence on the deal.

Discuss valuation and other terms. By now, both sides should be in the same range.

Closing -- the team wraps up diligence and finalizes the investment documents.

Both sides should be looking to close. 

At each stage, educate the startup about the process and their status.

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.
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Music courtesy of Bensound

In this episode, Hall welcomes Kevin Rivers, Managing Partner at Black Ventures, LLC.

Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, Black Ventures, LLC (BV) is an emerging private equity firm that buys media companies and real estate assets in wildly inefficient markets. They buy revenue-generating assets in music rights, apps, books, YouTube IPs, and enterprise software. They work with bootstrappers, self-funded and venture-backed companies, influencers, publishers, and profitability-focused founders. Through their M&A deals, they merge the assets into their media and IT businesses to expand their overall growth. 

Kevin is a serial tech entrepreneur and is raising his inaugural fund to provide access to capital for YouTubers and music companies. Prior to working at Black Ventures, Kevin was CEO of Venzo Digital, an award-winning music distribution service that helped musicians earn over $2M in sales within the first year. Kevin sold Venzo to an NYC venture capital firm years later. Prior to Venzo, Kevin spent several years in the music tech space by creating the first Facebook Music Store platform, gaining media attention for a revolutionary music industry model, and securing landmark deals with leading gaming publishers. 

Kevin shares with Hall what excites him now in the industry, advises entrepreneurs and investors, and discusses his investment thesis.

You can visit Black Ventures, LLC at www.blkvc.com/, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/xeinge/. 

Kevin can be contacted via email at ikevinrivers@gmail.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/kevinrivers.

Music courtesy of Bensound.