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

Salary-based funding makes a startup investment and pays back the investor at the rate of compensation the founders take.

This aligns the investor and founder on the same goal, to create a business that can sustain itself and pay the team.

The investors receive an agreed-upon percentage of any salary or profit the business takes in.

In salary-based funding, the investors receive payback until they reach a predetermined payback amount.

This is different from revenue-based funding which is a debt instrument that pays out based on a percentage of top-line revenue.

This keeps early-stage investors off the cap table so it’s clean for future investors.

The investor can choose to take their payback in cash or they could convert to equity.

This is a good way to run an initial raise when it’s not clear if additional funding will be required.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
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In this episode, Hall welcomes angel investor Richard Teideman.

Richard is the Commercial Director and an investor with a private family office based in the UK. He has owned 7 companies, with one trade sale and one IPO on the London Stock Exchange. He has been personally investing since 2008 and currently has six investments including wastewater engineering, railroad engineering, digital assets custody, AI-based healthcare, and intelligent data integration.

Richard began his business career by sub-contracting a newspaper round to a friend at the age of 9 years old. He was part of a group running PA systems in London at the age of 13. At heart a polymath, he has knowledge of a broad range of industries.

Richard is an accredited MCIM former marketer, and during his marketing career gained the following awards: Winner London International Advertising Awards, Snapshot OTC (digital) Winner Travel Marketing Awards X3, (TV / Digital), (Digital),(Integrated), (Marketing / Social) Franchise Marketing Awards (Retail) Judging Panel of the New York Festivals X3 promoted to the New York Festivals Grand Jury, Freeman of the City of London, a member of the Company of World Traders, and the Worshipful Company of Marketors. During his career, he also has been involved with the launch of over 40 motion pictures (credit list available) and 10 computer games. He is also a well-established professional voice-over with two international agents over the past 20 years.

Richard attended his first angel investment round in London in 2009 and has been a regular investor since.

Richard discusses how he sees the angel industry evolving, the biggest change he has seen, and some of the challenges angel groups face. He also shares with Hall some good opportunities for investors to pursue.

Richard can be contacted via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/richardteideman/. 

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

As your company grows and the equity becomes worth more, there comes a time to switch over to debt funding.

There are several forms of debt to consider.  Each one is used for a different application. 

The primary options are as follows:

1. Traditional bank loan - requires a personal guarantee and is most often used to launch a company.
2. Line of credit - once you have revenue, this can be used to smooth out the uneven bumps in your cash flow.
3. Equipment financing --if you need equipment for your business this is a good way to finance it as it reduces your fundraise requirements.
4. Revenue-based funding - once you have a steady flow of revenue, you can use revenue-based funding to accelerate the growth as you pay back out of the revenue stream.
5. Factoring/Accounts receivable funding - once you have a steady book of business, you can borrow against the accounts receivable line.
6. Venture debt - once you have substantial revenue, you can raise debt funding rather than equity funding, as it will be cheaper in the long run. 

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
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In this episode, Hall welcomes Davron Karimov, CEO of FunderHunt.

Funderhunt specializes in getting capital to business owners across America who are doing $5,000 and above in monthly revenue.

If you take a look at their website, there is no application in order to get a business loan, there is no printing, or faxing, or scanning required. There is a short 3-5-question questionnaire asking you about your business goals. Assuming it's a match, their algorithm has the capability to match you with perfect funding options based on your answers. Since last year, they have doubled many times in monthly funding volumes.

Typical funding amounts range from $5,000-$2M, depending on factors like monthly revenue, number of deposits, industry, amount of NSF's/negative days, and credit score. Business owners can expect to get a business loan or an advance of 1-2 months of their monthly revenue.

Davron is the star of the TV show, The Broker (now postponed), and the CEO of Funderhunt. Davron was raised in New York. In 2017, he left college without knowing that he still had to pay for the classes he canceled. He had to find a way to come up with $10K within 2 months. Knowing the only way to avoid bankruptcy was to get a job, he found himself working at a sales job in commercial finance. After closing some early deals at the firm he worked at, a friend with experience building tech startups told him that he could do it on his own and make more dollars. They started Funderhunt with two partners in New York City. After a breakup with his business partners, he moved far away from home, to Miami, Florida, and opened a new office. They now have salespeople that are closing deals and he is on track to have the best year ever.

Davron shares his background, advises entrepreneurs and investors, shares how he sees the industry evolving, and how FunderHunt works. 

You can visit FunderHunt at www.FUNDERHUNT.CO, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/funderhunt, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/funder_hunt.   

Davron can be contacted via email at dave@funderhunt.co, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/davronkarimov, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/sweetdaddydev. 

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

Growth startups can raise not only funding for equity but also funding for debt called venture debt.

Venture debt doesn’t dilute the founders and provides capital to continue the growth.

Here are some key terms and conditions to know when looking for venture debt:

There are term loans and revolving lines of credit with maturity dates and interest rates.

The lender will look to secure assets for the loan.  

Check to see if the intellectual property will be required.

If they do tie to the IP, then they will want a negative pledge in that they don’t want you to pledge the IP to any other lender.

Many lenders will require you to move all your banking to their firm.

If so, understand the account transfer period.

The amount of funding and timing is a key issue. Will the funds be transferred in one go or in tranches?

Check to see the requirements for each tranche.

Check for fees on early payoff and exits.

The default rate is the increase in the interest rate in case you default on the payments.

Finally, warrants are often part of the terms. A warrant is the right to buy stock at a specified price.  

What is the price of the warrant and what is the timeframe it is active?

Check for these key points in a discussion about venture debt.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
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In this episode, Hall welcomes Ross Darwin, Principal at Owl Ventures.

Founded in 2014, Owl Ventures is the largest venture capital firm in the world focused on the education technology market with over $1.3 billion in assets under management. The Silicon Valley-based firm was purposely built to partner with and help scale the world’s leading education companies across the education spectrum including PreK-12, higher education, and the future of work (career mobility/professional learning). They invest in companies at all stages from early, growth, and later stages and across all geographies around the world.

Ross is an investor at Owl Ventures where he helps lead new investments and supports existing portfolio companies. His investments span across early childhood, K12, college, career, and lifelong learning and he has actively looked for areas where education intersects with other parts of the economy including areas like financial literacy and wellness.

Prior to receiving his MBA, Ross spent 3.5 years at TA Associates as an associate where he was active in deal sourcing, due diligence, deal execution, and portfolio support. Ross evaluated a number of opportunities in the education space and was an integral member of one of the major education deals that TA closed. Prior to TA Associates, Ross was an associate at The Parthenon Group, a consulting firm that specializes in education and private equity work. Ross worked on numerous client projects including a unique education assignment where he developed classification and intervention programs for CORE, the largest 8 school districts in California to seek US Department of Education approval for a custom program to replace the requirements of No Child Left Behind.

Ross has been an active volunteer in Bay Area schools, working with students in East Palo Alto through Math Magic, and in San Francisco through the Telegraph Hill Community Center. Ross is also an active mentor and former Board Member for the Peninsula College Fund, a bay area charity focused on supporting first-generation college students.

Ross graduated from Stanford University with honors of Phi Beta Kappa, Stanford Award of Excellence, and the Innovative Research Award. Ross received his M.B.A from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Ross goes into great detail about the state of investing in education and how he sees the industry evolving. He discusses what he thinks will be the most significant change in the next 12 months and shares some of the challenges entrepreneurs and investors face.

You can visit Owl Ventures at www.owlvc.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/3855155/, and via Twitter at https://twitter.com/owlvc?lang=en.  

Ross can be contacted via email at ross@owlvc.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/rossdarwin. 

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Thank you for joining us today for our TEN Capital Fundraise Launch Program.

In this program, we help startups prepare for a fundraise. 

We provide templates, tools, eGuides, and advice to founders who are working towards raising funding.

We'll kick off the session with a short overview on a fundraising topic, then we’ll answer questions from the founders.

I hope you enjoy this episode.
_______________________________

Thank you for joining us for the TEN Capital Fundraise Launch Program where we help startups prepare for a fundraise. 

For more episodes, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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

Venture debt is not for every startup or for all fundraises.

It is best used in conjunction with an equity raise.

The equity funding provides ongoing working capital that doesn’t need to be paid back.

It works well between equity raises from institutional investors.

The business must be up and running with stable revenue.

Those with recurring revenue are a good fit.

Those with healthy gross margins also do well. 

Investors will look at the cash flow of the business, so it’s important to have a healthy cash flow statement.

It doesn’t work well for seed startups that are still looking for product-market fit.

Established businesses will find it easier to raise venture debt as the investor will look at the company’s traction, track record, business model, and previous fundraises. 

Venture debt raises are typically limited to 25% of the equity raises, so a $3M fundraise most likely will not exceed $750K of venture debt. 

Most loans last around four years, so it’s not often used for working capital but rather for specific projects.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Nikita Demidov, Venture Associate at the Houston Angel Network.

The Houston Angel Network (HAN) is the oldest angel network in Texas and the most active angel network in the USA. HAN is also a non-profit organization dedicated to developing the innovation ecosystem in Houston, Texas by supporting founders and startups with financial resources and mentorship. 

HAN’s members have invested more than $96M in more than 366 deals since its inception in 2001. The typical individual HAN member is an accredited investor seriously interested in providing capital and coaching to early-stage companies. HAN also has institutional members such as seed funds, accelerators, universities, and other networks within the innovation ecosystem.

Nikita was born in Kaliningrad, Russia where he started his career as a financial advisor at Russia's largest bank and fintech company, SberBank. He moved to the United States before he turned twenty to pursue a BBA in Finance from Texas State University. During his time at Texas State, Nikita worked on a number of business ventures from the decarbonization of the dairy supply chain to blockchain for residential solar.  

After graduation, Nikita worked in corporate finance helping to develop commercial solar plants at travel stops and gas stations. He worked on a variety of alternative fuel projects such as hydrogen, renewable natural gas, and renewable diesel.  

Last year, Nikita joined the venture ecosystem in Houston to help startups access more funding opportunities. He leads a team of venture associates at HAN and drives the monthly deal cycle for the network.  

Fun Fact: Nikita also lived in Boston, Peru, and is currently finishing his MSF at the University of Houston. 

Nikita suggests some good opportunities for investors to pursue, shares some of the challenges startups and investors face, and discusses his investment thesis.

You can visit the Houston Angel Network at www.houstonangelnetwork.org, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/the-houston-angel-network/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/Houston_Angels. 

Nikita can be contacted via email at nikita@houstonangelnetwork.org, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/nikita-demidov/. 

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

Venture debt can reduce dilution and give your startup more runway. Here are a few pointers to see if venture debt is a good fit for your fundraise:

It’s often used with equity funding for purchasing equipment, making acquisitions, or making up for funding not acquired through the equity raise.

If the company is in a difficult cash position, then venture debt will come with higher interest rates. 

If the proposed debt payments are higher than 20% of operating expenses, then it may not be a good fit. 

If the company has stable revenue and predictable receivables, then a line of credit may be a better choice than venture debt. 

Some tie venture debt to the company’s cash or accounts receivable.

Covenants around venture debt such as ‘material adverse change’ can trigger a recall of the debt early.

It helps to understand how the lender performs. Check their past history to find out more.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Neil Senturia, CEO at Blackbird Ventures.

Blackbird Ventures is a California-based principal investment firm specialized in funding technology and real estate companies. Their mission is to work with high-tech entrepreneurs who are passionate about the relentless pursuit of their dreams.

With over 30 years of diverse entrepreneurial endeavors, Neil brings a unique perspective to business challenges. His wide range of experience includes starting and leading six software companies, co-founding two fintech companies, an alternative energy company, and a materials science venture. 

Prior to his technology adventures, Neil was a real estate developer, building more than two million square feet of commercial and residential space. Preceding that, he labored in the slough of despond, writing television and movies in Hollywood.

In addition to Neil’s business ventures, he is a motivational speaker and also volunteers as a business teacher at Donovan State Prison, where he helps implement entrepreneurship, employment, and leadership training programs that serve people with criminal histories. Neil has also taught entrepreneurship at San Diego State University (in the MBA program) as well as at the University of California, San Diego (Von Liebig School of entrepreneurism in the Division of Engineering).

Finally, Neil has authored and published three books and writes a weekly column on entrepreneurship for the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper. His columns can be found at www.imthereforyoubaby.com. 

Neil details his very diverse background, explains what he thinks the future of startup investing will look like and shares his investment thesis.

You can visit Blackbird Ventures at www.blackbirdv.com.

Neil can be contacted via email at neil@blackbirdv.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/neilsenturia/, and via Twitter at https://twitter.com/itfyb?lang=en. 

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

Venture debt is on the rise in the startup world as more startups find it a useful part of their fundraise strategy.

It’s a form of debt financing for venture-backed companies that lack the assets for traditional debt funding.  

Venture debt has been around for as long as venture capital has been writing checks for equity investments. 

It’s often used in conjunction with an equity fundraise.

It typically runs for three years and is secured by the company’s assets.  

Venture debt reduces dilution and gives the startup more runway before the next fundraise.

It lets the startup acquire more capital without setting a valuation for the company which is advantageous in advance of a new round of equity funding. 

Venture debt does not take board seats and is often cheaper than bank loans.

Venture debt is a more quantitative decision than equity capital which is more qualitative so the closing is typically faster.

The disadvantage is that it must be paid back in the near term and interest rates are typically higher than bank debt.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Ron Thompson, CEO of CAIL.

Headquartered in Winnetka, Illinois, CAIL successfully enables organizations to leverage the considerable investment in current systems and services with solutions that provide an evolutionary strategy to evolve and improve information services.

This approach provides clients with immediate and important advantages with products having extensive flexibility, scalability, and being cost-effective. In conjunction with this, the CAIL emphasis is on delivering a great user experience, quick gratification with the fast deployment of new services, providing solutions with advanced capabilities that build on the familiarity with current systems and processes, and realizing a rapid return on investment.

CAIL’s IoT department provides “Smart Facilities Solutions” for the new-normal with Contact Tracing, Occupancy Monitoring, Predictive Cleaning, Asset Tracking, Environmental Monitoring, Air Sanitization, etc. To better ensure building safety and wellness, these solutions provide real-time data, analysis, and reporting to make smarter decisions, extend services, provide more value, better assess business risk, and respond to feedback quickly. By connecting buildings, assets, people, and devices through a range of ready-to-deploy IoT solutions, this results in improved tenant satisfaction and property management as well as reducing operating costs and health risks.

From making many venture investments and having numerous insights on how to innovate for impact, Ron encourages entrepreneurship to improve outcomes and help people realize their potential. This is based on Ron having an extensive background in technology and in business, as well as collaborating with others having strong look-ahead skills and high competencies to create value and manage risk. 

Ron describes the types of companies he likes to invest in, discusses the state of startup investing, and advises entrepreneurs and investors.

You can visit CAIL at www.cail.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/cail_2/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/cail_systems. 

Ron can be contacted via email at rthompson@cail.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ron-thompson, and via Twitter at https://twitter.com/ronthompson.

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This is Investor Perspectives. I’m the host of Investor Connect, Hall T Martin, where we connect startups and investors for funding.

In our new Investor Perspectives series entitled “How to Solve the Biotech/Life Sciences Problem”, you’ll hear about changes expected in the Biotech/Life Sciences sector in the coming 12 months.

As the COVID pandemic passes, we emerge into a new world. The biotech space is now undergoing tremendous change as we shift back to a normal way of life. The process for designing and approving vaccines demonstrated a new protocol. Biotech now moves into a new era. We have investors and startup founders describe the changes coming up.

Our guests are:

Yaniv Sneor, Co-founder, Mid Atlantic Bio Angels 01:16
Carter Williams, CEO and Managing Partner, iSelect Fund 05:08
Maximilian Bade, Founding Partner, Nucleus Capital 12:06
Ron Paliwoda, President, Paliwoda Group 15:44
Orrin Ailloni-Charas, Managing Partner, Global Health Impact Fund 24:21
Eyal Lifschitz, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Peregrine Ventures 27:28
Mark Groper, Chief Executive Officer, Orion Biotechnology 30:22

We hope you enjoy the show.
_______________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org     

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/  
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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

There’s an old saying in the angel world:

If you want money, ask for advice. If you want advice, ask for money.

In raising funding, most founders spend their time selling the idea to the investor.

An alternative approach is to collaborate with the investor.

The selling approach uses the entire ten-minute pitch talking about all the great points in the deal.

The collaborative approach saves half the time to ask questions.

This approach turns your meeting into a strategy session and engages the investors to collaborate on how better to run the business.

After setting the stage with a short introduction of the business, follow up with questions to engage the investors on sales strategy, marketing strategy, and product strategy.

The collaborative approach is far more engaging than the pitch approach.

It makes everyone in the room a peer and gives everyone a chance to contribute.

This approach helps the startup learn from the investor engagement.

Lyndon B. Johnson once said, “You’re not learning when you’re talking.”


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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

Founders need to bring startup mental models to bear on their business.

Here’s a list of key mental models to know:

Least worst option -- use this model when all options are not ideal.

Jobs to be done -- use this model to discover how your product fits into the customer’s workflow.

Minimum viable product -- understanding the bare essential features a customer will pay for.

Product-market fit -- shows your product meets a set of customer requirements in a market. 

Network effects -- the value of the network grows exponentially with the number of participants, so your product value grows with the size of the network.

Economies of scale -- costs decrease as the quantity of units increases by spreading the cost over more customers.

Disruptive innovation -- an innovation that displaces competitors and redefines the industry.

North star -- the one metric that guides decision-making and drives actions by the team.

These are key mental models startup founders need to know.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Bradley Aelicks, Co-founder and President at Pyfera Growth Capital Corp.

Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Pyfera Growth Capital Corp. is an investment corp specializing in investing in private technology companies with a near-term objective of accessing the public markets.

The Pyfera Capital team is comprised of investors, operators, and proven entrepreneurs. They draw from extensive capital markets experience to provide their portfolio companies with clear, calculated, and actionable advice.

Pyfera has funded over 2 dozen companies and assisted in over $70 million in funding from co-investors and the finance community.

Brad is a geologist and serial entrepreneur with 35 years of experience in the capital markets. He has served as a senior officer and director of over a dozen public companies and has consulted with dozens of others. He was a founder of B&D Capital Partners, a merchant banking entity whose clients successfully raised over $650 million during their relationship with B&D. He founded one of the first and most successful environmental companies, Napier Environmental Technologies specializing in alternative chemical compounds for the coatings industry. His latest endeavor as co-founder of Pyfera Growth Capital Corp. has him financing some of the most exciting new technologies in the tech sector and assisting those companies in preparing to go public for access to larger capital markets.

Brad advises startups and investors, discusses some of the challenges they face, and shares some good opportunities for investors to pursue.

You can visit Pyfera Growth Capital Corp. at www.pyferacapital.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/10822616.  

Brad can be contacted via email at brad@aelicks.ca, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-aelicks

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

In pitching your business, investors will ask questions about metrics such as customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, and churn rates.

The purpose of the question is to discover what systems you have built into the company and how robust they are.

In the early stages of a startup, the CAC, LTV, and revenue growth metrics are not impressive.

Instead of focusing on the metrics in the very early stages of the startup, talk about the fundamental systems already in place.

Describe your system for acquiring customers and how it works.

Detail how you deliver the product/service.

Show how many of the users so far continue to use the product/service.

Instead of relying on numbers, go to the next level and describe the systems you have.

Investors are not expecting big numbers but instead, look for a company with systems installed and working for the core functions.

The core functions are acquiring customers, delivering the product or service, and providing support to retain those customers.

Look at your business as a series of systems.

Present your business to investors in that manner as it gives a clearer picture of how far along you are.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Rohit Gupta, Managing Director at Future Communities Capital.

Headquartered in Berkeley, California, Future Communities Capital looks for technology entrepreneurs focused on disrupting legacy industries such as government, healthcare, finance, and real estate. Portfolio companies are tackling problems ranging from smart city infrastructure to disease outbreak management.

Rohit has led investments into Coupang, Counsyl, Biomeme, SpaceX, Akido, Lyft, Roofr, and more. He holds an MS in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University. He completed his BS at the University of Southern California.

Rohit discusses his background and what excites him now in the venture capital sector. He shares with Hall how he sees the sector evolving, and advises startups and investors.

You can visit Future Communities Capital at www.FutureCommunities.vc. 

Rohit can be contacted via email at rohit@futurecommunities.vc, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/rohit-gupta. 

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

In running a startup, time management is a key skill for the founder. 

Here are some key steps in managing time:

1. Set up a schedule with standard meetings, routines, and to-dos that recur each week or month.
2. Schedule your day in advance so you’re ready to execute the day when it comes.
3. As new issues come up, have a plan for how you’ll manage it -- do it now, add it to an existing scheduled time, or create a new schedule time for it.
4. Use agendas for meetings so you cover all the necessary topics and can add to the agenda when new items come up.
5. Set clear job descriptions for the team so it’s easier to delegate items.
6. Choose carefully what you pursue and say “no” often.  
7. You have an ideal client so you should also have an ideal list of what you work on.
8. Grow and develop your team so they can take tasks off your desk completely.
9. Review your time spend one week out of each month to see how well you are doing. 
10. Are the tasks taking the most time aligned with your goals?
11. As the startup grows, you’ll need to adjust your focus to higher-level activities.
12. Build reading, research, and thinking time into your schedule.

Encourage your team to follow the same practices.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Julio Moreno, Partner and Co-Founder of Santa Cruz Angeles (SC Angeles).

SC Angeles invests in early-stage startups from across Latin America in areas of fintech, logistics, AI, and more. As of now, SC Angeles has close to 40 angel investors as members who pay a monthly membership. SC Angeles has invested in 8 startups and investment funds, with tickets ranging from $50,000 USD to $200,000 USD. Dealflow is generated through a network of other angel groups and contacts. They have two analysts that evaluate close to 20 startups per month. Out of the total, they choose one to present to their angels in their monthly session.

Julio has a BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and he graduated in 2013. In 2015, Julio came to Bolivia and founded a food delivery service app named Netcomidas.com. The startup was bootstrapped for 3 years. In 2018, Netcomidas.com was acquired by Delivery Hero and its Latam subsidiary PedidosYa. Julio has served as a director for PedidosYa Bolivia for the past three years, achieving amazing growth and penetration in the country, and holds over 90% of the market share. In parallel, in 2019 he founded the first angel investment group in Bolivia, SC Angeles.

Julio discusses the state of investing, the group’s investment thesis, and he shares some of the challenges investors and startups face.

You can visit Santa Cruz Angeles at www.scangeles.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/sc-angeles.

Julio can be contacted via email at julio.moreno@pedidosya.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/julio-moreno.

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

In pitching your business, focus on the benefits your product or service provides rather than listing out the features.

Features answer the question -- what, or what is it?

Benefits answer the question -- why, or why do you want it?

In pitching your business, go beyond the features of the product to show why customers need it.

To capture the benefits, start with the pain the customer feels.

If your customer has too many to-dos on their schedule, then pitch your product as a simpler schedule.

If your customer lacks knowledge in a subject, then pitch your product as mastery over the subject. 

If your customer has low revenue, then pitch your product as finding more customers and generating more revenue from existing customers.

Start with the pain point to determine the needs and then show how your product supplies those needs.

Once you’ve captured the audience’s interest, you can dive deeper into the features.

Lead with the benefits and follow up with the features if needed.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Dr. Neal Vail, angel investor and Chief Technical Officer/Co-founder at Progenerative Medical.

Progenerative Medical is a pre-commercialization stage medical device company focused on expanding clinically proven reduced pressure therapy into spinal and orthopedic indications. Their initial clinical application is to significantly improve clinical outcomes and satisfaction in patients undergoing spinal fusion procedures, a new annual revenue opportunity of $1.6B in the US market. They have the opportunity to expand the clinical use of their product into other orthopedic indications such as trauma, joint arthroplasty, and revision surgeries, all significantly larger markets than their initial indication.

Neal has 25+ years of medical device and pharmaceutical product R&D and commercialization experience. He has held positions of increasing technical, program management, and organizational leadership responsibilities at NEC America, Inc., DaimlerBenz Central Research, Southwest Research Institute, and Kinetic Concepts, Inc. Neal has assembled cross-functional teams to develop and execute successful product development programs funded through corporate, private and public stakeholders. He has experience in M&A and technology licensing. Neal has been an angel investor for about 15 years, reviewed 100s of investment opportunities, and invested in several startups. He has been a business strategy and technology advisor to several medical device start-ups. Neal graduated from UT-Austin with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and has business training from the Sloan School at MIT.

Neal shares with Hall what led him to start working in the medical device and product development space. He discusses the state of startup investing, its evolution, and some of the challenges entrepreneurs face.

You can visit Progenerative Medical at www.progenerative.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/progenmed/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/progenmed?lang=en. 

Neal can be contacted via email at nvail27@gmail.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/neal-vail-phd.  

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

In pitching investors, there are many ways to blow the pitch.

Here’s a list of common mistakes startups make:

Losing your temper and letting emotions get the better of you.

Investors want level-headed people they can work with.

Building the company only for the exit.  

There must be a “why” behind the business.

Inability to present the idea or business in a smooth way.

Lack of clarity in the pitch will translate into a lack of clarity regarding the business plan.

Not answering the investors’ questions, such as failing to give revenue numbers.

Lack of direct answers frustrates the investors and leads many to believe the answer is not attractive.

Not knowing your industry or market.

It’s best to demonstrate knowledge of the market with some key numbers.

Not knowing your team well.

It’s best to have some history with the team members and demonstrate how you work well together. 


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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This is Investor Perspectives. I’m the host of Investor Connect, Hall T Martin, where we connect startups and investors for funding.

In our new Investor Perspectives series entitled “How to Solve the Biotech/Life Sciences Problem”, you’ll hear about participation in the Biotech/Life Sciences segment and what investors look for.

As the COVID pandemic passes, we emerge into a new world. The biotech space is now undergoing tremendous change as we shift back to a normal way of life. The process for designing and approving vaccines demonstrated a new protocol. Biotech now moves into a new era. We have investors and startup founders describe the changes coming up.

Our guests are:

Yaniv Sneor, Co-founder, Mid Atlantic Bio Angels 01:18
Carter Williams, CEO and Managing Partner, iSelect Fund 08:50
Maximilian Bade, Founding Partner, Nucleus Capital 15:31
Ron Paliwoda, President, Paliwoda Group 20:15
Orrin Ailloni-Charas, Managing Partner, Global Health Impact Fund 26:00
Eyal Lifschitz, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Peregrine Ventures 30:05
Mark Groper, Chief Executive Officer, Orion Biotechnology 37:20

We hope you enjoy the show.

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org     

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/  
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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

In running a business, it’s important to use written contracts.

It’s easy to negotiate an agreement verbally, but this often leaves loose ends that become a problem later.

A written contract makes clear the responsibilities and duties of both parties and what each owes the other.

It’s often the case that both sides make assumptions underlying the agreement and those assumptions conflict with each other.

A contract includes both the agreement and the consideration.

Consideration is some value that is paid for the services rendered or the product delivered.

If there’s no consideration, then the service is considered a gift.

Written contracts are required for any sale over $500, any lease over $1000, and anything that creates a security interest such as pledging real estate.

There are several advantages to written contracts.

It is easier to enforce a written contract.

Signing a contract indicates that both parties have agreed to it.

Verbal contracts are often nullified when one side or the other claims they didn’t agree.

Written contracts provide better recourse than verbal contracts with the courts and arbitration.

Make sure you put it in writing.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group 

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Josh Chodniewicz, Founder and CEO at Fundify. 

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Fundify is a tech-driven equity crowdfunding marketplace that enables anyone to invest in next-gen startups alongside industry experts. They work closely with experts in a wide variety of industries to review and comment on investment opportunities. Fundify makes it simple for anyone and everyone to invest in startups and build a portfolio, with as little as $10 per investment.

Josh previously co-founded and served as CEO of Art.com/Allposters.com, where they built the world’s most successful online art retailer selling more than $3 billion in posters and framing services and satisfying more than 20 million paying customers.

The experience of co-founding Art.com showed Josh how difficult and time-consuming it can be to raise capital for a business. In fact, in the early years, he bootstrapped the business on just $35,000 and was continually told “no” by potential investors. Josh and his team went on to raise a $58M Series A for Art.com before it was acquired by Walmart. 

Josh began angel investing to help other founders build their dreams. He founded his own venture company and incubator called Mach 10 Ventures and has invested in dozens of startups including Mixbook.com ($11m+ in follow-on funding), Collectrium (acquired by Christie’s), Moolala (acquired by Ncrowd), Pixowl (acquired by Animoca), True Impact Media and others.

As an early-stage investor, he once again found a time-consuming, inefficient process, especially when considering investments in industries outside of his expertise. 

Josh founded Fundify to simplify startup funding and investing. Josh has won numerous awards and honors, including Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Entrepreneurial Excellence Award, 40 Under 40, among others. While Josh was CEO of Art.com, the company earned recognition from Inc. Magazine as the 2nd fastest-growing company in the nation. 

Josh lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife Natalie and three sons: Beckham, Asher, and Edison.

Josh shares with Hall what excites him now and how he sees the industry evolving. He discusses his investment thesis and some of the companies in his portfolio which fit the thesis.

You can visit Fundify at www.fundify.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/fundify-inc/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/fundify?lang=en.  

Josh can be contacted via email at josh@fundify.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/jchod/. 

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

In raising funding, you must have a growth story.

Investors want to know your business is in motion with momentum and traction.

Investors look for activity in four areas: sales, team, product, and fundraise.

These are the factors under the control of the startup.  

Other factors such as competition, market size, and growth are not interesting.

Investors want to know what you are accomplishing, not what the market is accomplishing.

In every contact with the investor, bring up a key result in sales, team, product, or fundraise.

Most startups spend their air time with investors focused on the forecast.

Instead, show how your company is executing today.

Make sure you follow up to demonstrate how the growth story continues. 

It takes about four updates before the investor becomes convinced there’s a growth story underway.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Nicolas Colin, Co-founder and Director at The Family.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in London, The Family nurtures entrepreneurs through education, unfair advantages, and capital. Moving at startup speed, The Family is transforming a portfolio of non-linear companies, special projects, and virtual infrastructures into a connected community of entrepreneurs, operators, and fellow investors who inspire and support each other.

Nicolas is the publisher of European Straits, a research newsletter dedicated to the Entrepreneurial Age viewed from Europe, a columnist at Sifted, and an author (more recently of Hedge: A Greater Safety Net for the Entrepreneurial Age). He's a member of the board of directors of Radio France, the French national radio broadcasting corporation, and of Mettle, the digital branch of Natwest/Royal Bank of Scotland. Nicolas previously served as an advisor with the OECD, a member of the board of the French personal data protection authority, and a senior civil servant at the French ministry of finance. He lives in Munich, Germany, with his wife and their two children.

Nicolas advises investors and entrepreneurs and shares some of the challenges they face. He also discusses some good opportunities for investors to pursue.

You can visit The Family at www.jointhefamily.co, and at europeanstraits.substack.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/thefamily/.  

Nicolas can be contacted via email at nicolas@jointhefamily.co, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-colin-the-family, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/Nicolas_Colin.  

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

There are basic principles around fundraising that apply in every situation.

First, the most important step in fundraising is to build a relationship with the investor.

The more you know the investor and the more they know you, the better the outcome.

Second, demonstrate results in every contact.

Never show up without a currently relevant result or a proof point.

Third, be honest at all times.  

It only takes one deception to ruin the relationship.

Fourth, it’s the number of touches and consistency that counts, not how long the discussion or pitch deck runs.

It takes four touches for an investor to understand what you are doing and seven touches before they make a final decision.

Fifth, include the “Why?” -- why are you doing this startup?


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Darren King, Fund Manager and General Partner at Unbridled Ventures.

Unbridled Ventures’ fund consists of accomplished angel investors who provide funding and expertise to help entrepreneurs fulfill their American dream.

Darren has spent a lifetime working for and consulting with small businesses in Indiana and Kentucky. The son of a small business owner, Darren has also had a passion for small businesses and has worked in various roles as a CEO, CFO, and CPA (inactive) to analyze, invest, and consult on various investment and acquisition opportunities.

During the past ten years, Darren has been an active angel investor and mentor to startups and small businesses throughout the Commonwealth. He has personally invested over $1 million in startups. He also has extensive experience with angel funds as a board member and as an investor. Successful angel investments include Hosting.com, Gun Media, Poseida (PSTX), and First Care.

Prior to his role as an angel investor, from 2000 until 2009 Darren was CEO of Hosting.com, a cloud service provider headquartered in Louisville with operations in San Francisco and Irvine, California. Hosting.com sold to Wachovia Capital in May 2009 for an 18x return on equity.

Prior to Hosting.com, Darren was a CFO and CPA. Darren holds a B.S. in Accounting from Indiana University where he graduated with honors in 1992. He resides in Prospect, Kentucky with his wife and two children.

Darren discusses his investment thesis, the financial risk-reward, and some of the non-financial benefits of investing as an angel. He also advises investors and entrepreneurs and shares some of the challenges they face.

You can visit Unbridled Ventures at www.unbridled.vc, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/unbridled-ventures/about/. 

Darren can be contacted via email at darren@unbridled.vc, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/darren-king-295b2a2/. 

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

Many entrepreneurs fail to build a financial forecast claiming they cannot predict the future.

The purpose of the financial forecast is not for future predictions, but rather for communicating the business plan to the investors.

From the forecast, the investor learns what growth rate the entrepreneur is considering.

The forecast shows where break-even may come in.

The investor can also gauge how much the entrepreneur knows about the costs and revenues of the business.

Big round numbers in the forecast indicate little knowledge of the costs and revenues.

Most financial forecasts can be driven by specific product quantities.

Finally, the forecast shows the interdependence between revenues and costs.

Increased revenues will drive variable costs higher leaving the fixed costs unchanged.

A financial model is helpful for managing the business.

If revenues double, the model shows what will happen to the costs.  

If revenues get cut in half, the model shows what costs will drop and what will not.

It’s important to create a 3-5 year financial forecast to share with investors to inform them of the plan and demonstrate the startup’s credibility.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes David Blackledge, Angel Investor, Professor at Grand Canyon University, and Attorney at Davis Miles Law Firm.

David is full-time faculty at Grand Canyon University’s College of Business and 2020-21 Teacher of the Year. Fall 2021 will be his seventh year teaching at the school which quickly became a second calling for him.

David is an active investor in multiple angel groups as well as a mentor and judge in many Arizona-based business competitions. He is currently a board member on various volunteer groups whose mission is to educate, accelerate and invest in entrepreneurs who are creating solutions to business and social problems. He has provided thousands of hours mentoring and advising students, startups, and others in professional matters such as interviewing, business formation and ownership, and fundraising.

David is also Of Counsel (a fancy phrase for part-time) at Davis Miles McGuire Gardner, a full-service law firm operating in the southwest US. He focuses his practice on startup and emerging businesses, particularly in various technology markets. The first thirty years of his professional career were in sales and operations management of high technology startups giving him a unique perspective on advising business owners, investors, and others in the business world. 

David received his degree in Business Management from Penn State Smeal College of Business, an MBA in Finance from George Washington University, and his J.D. from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

David discusses what excites him now in angel investing, some of the challenges angel investors face, and the state of angel investing post-COVID-19.

David can be contacted via email at dblackledge1@cox.net, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/david-blackledge-7829a23/.

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

If you successfully raised your seed round you will find that Series A funding to be a new challenge. 

Series A funding is different from seed funding in several ways.

In seed funding, the entrepreneur must convince the investor that they can sell the product.

In Series A funding, the entrepreneur must convince the investor they can grow the overall business.

In seed funding, product-market fit and traction are the key drivers pointing to success.

In Series A funding, repeatable processes and systems installed are the key drivers.

In seed funding, investments come in bits and pieces and anything helps.

In Series A funding, larger portions must be raised to carry out the plan.

In seed funding, family, friends, angels, and others, are the primary source of funding.

In Series A, venture capital and institutions take the lead in funding.

Make sure you don’t use your seed deck for a Series A funding as you will find the presentation will fall flat.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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This is Investor Perspectives. I’m the host of Investor Connect, Hall T Martin, where we connect startups and investors for funding.

In our new Investor Perspectives series entitled “How to Solve the Biotech/Life Sciences Problem”, you’ll hear about primary trends and what makes for a successful company in this segment.

As the COVID pandemic passes, we emerge into a new world. The biotech space is now undergoing tremendous change as we shift back to a normal way of life. The process for designing and approving vaccines demonstrated a new protocol. Biotech now moves into a new era. We have investors and startup founders describe the changes coming up.

Our guests are:

Yaniv Sneor, Co-founder, Mid Atlantic Bio Angels 1:17
Carter Williams, CEO and Managing Partner, iSelect Fund 5:58
Maximilian Bade, Founding Partner, Nucleus Capital 15:08
Ron Paliwoda, President, Paliwoda Group 17:09
Orrin Ailloni-Charas, Managing Partner, Global Health Impact Fund 20:09
Eyal Lifschitz, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Peregrine Ventures 22:57
Mark Groper, Chief Executive Officer, Orion Biotechnology 30:45

We hope you enjoy the show.
_______________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org     

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/  
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/   
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/   
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/  
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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

So, who does the Venture Capitalist serve?

The VC raises funds from the Limited Partner and invests in startups.

In talking with entrepreneurs, they make clear the VC serves the Limited Partners first.

Many founders talk about how helpful the VC is to their company and personal growth.

Entrepreneurs are important to the VC and vice versa.

The VC needs the business in which to invest, and the entrepreneur needs the funding. 

The VC to entrepreneur is more of a partnership than a customer/vendor relationship.

They both share a common goal. 

They must work together and remain aligned to the mission and vision of the business.

For VCs funding startups, consider it a partnership and look for entrepreneurs you can work with. 

For entrepreneurs raising funding, consider it a partnership as well and ask if you want them as a partner for your business?

This brings some clarity to the funding process.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Carolyn Lowe, CEO & Founder of ROI Swift.

Founded in 2015, ROI Swift is an agency made up of fun and approachable digital marketing experts who are passionate about growing small and medium businesses. They offer expert management in Google Adwords, Google Shopping, remarketing, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Pinterest - pretty much every digital platform - and take pride in their results.

ROI Swift was started with one goal: to help small and medium businesses grow through profitable paid advertising vehicles. They were tired of seeing small companies waste money with clueless marketing firms. Emerging brands need a strategic partner that will put them on the same playing field as the big businesses. That’s what they do. When you hire them, you get a responsive team that’s passionate about working with you. Their goal is to grow 1000 emerging brands by 2030.

Carolyn is the author of “Business Do's and Absolute Don'ts: Applied Wisdom from my work with Dell, Costco, Amazon, and multiple startups”. 

Fun facts about Carolyn: She once won $10,000 on the radio and wished she saved it to invest in Google or Amazon two decades later. After leaving Dell, she ran Global marketing and events for an NPD company and consulted for many brands including DirecTV, Callaway Golf, and others.

She founded ROI Swift to follow her passion of helping emerging businesses grow. Brands like Tecovas, Howler Brothers, LemiShine, Incrediwear, UpSpring, and many more can attribute successes due to ROI Swift.

She lives in Austin, TX, and is married with two children. Carolyn has her pilot’s license, though no time to actually fly anymore.

Carolyn discusses the state of investing in the e-commerce industry. She also speaks about the evolution of it, the number of companies engaged in it, and some of the challenges companies face.

You can visit ROI Swift at www.roiswift.com, and via LinkedIn at  www.linkedin.com/company/roi-swift.

Carolyn can be contacted via email at carolyn@roiswift.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/carolynbyronlowe. 

Music courtesy of Bensound.

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

There are many metrics for determining how well your SaaS business is doing.

Net dollar retention is a key metric that indicates the health of the business.

To calculate it, take the revenue at the beginning of the month, plus upgrades, minus downgrades and churn. Divide this by the revenue at the beginning of the month. 

If the formula is above 100%, then your business is growing.

If it’s below 100%, then it’s shrinking.

The key to a high net dollar retention rate is strong customer service.

Low net dollar retention rate comes from poor service.

Market-leading companies often have a net dollar retention rate well above 100%. 

Know your numbers and use them to guide your execution.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Eric Thome, Director at VentureSouth.

VentureSouth is an early-stage venture firm that provides capital and expertise to Southeastern startups through their angel investment network and funds.

Since their inception with the Upstate Carolina Angel Network (UCAN) in 2008, VentureSouth has grown to include more than 350 active investors, making them one of the largest angel investment groups in the United States – and they have been named a Top 10 angel group three times.

To date, VentureSouth has invested over $50 million in more than 80 companies.

Eric is the Managing Director of Business Development for Charles Towne Holdings, a boutique investment bank headquartered in Charleston. He is also the founder of Death Valley Ventures where he acts as a consultant and operator for businesses large and small. Through DVV, he is part owner of Barre3 Charleston and formerly acquired the folding Kayak company, Folbot, and launched GameDayBlazers.com.

Eric received his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University and his MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia. He currently serves on the board of the American Red Cross of the Lowcountry, the board for InnoVision SC, the advisory board for Clemson Honors College, chairs the Investment Committee for Social Venture Partners Charleston, and is a leader of the Charleston Shared Future Project.

Eric and his wife, Eloise, live in Charleston, SC with their daughters, Anna, Landon, and Virginia.

Eric advises startups and investors and shares some of the challenges they face. He also discusses his investment thesis and what he thinks will be the biggest change we will see in the next 12 months.

You can visit VentureSouth at www.venturesouth.vc, via LinkedIn at  www.linkedin.com/company/venturesouth-vc/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/VentureSouth_VC.  

Eric can be contacted via email at eric@venturesouth.vc, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ericthome.

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

Investors look for certain things in the pitch to decide whether or not to pursue.

In pitching VCs, make sure you cover the following points:

Say what your company does in 10 words or less.

This provides context so the investor knows how to understand the rest of the pitch.

Show how your team is great.  

Give examples demonstrating how sharp they are, how fast they execute, and how they learn from mistakes.

Mention the size of the market and include not only the total available market and serviceable market but also the beachhead market.

The beachhead market is the first 20 customers you will pursue.

This shows you know where you are going to start with your go-to-market plans.

Discuss the monetization model.

If you have recurring revenue, highlight that aspect as that will appeal to them the most. 

Show recent milestones accomplished such as a product launched, or a customer closed.

Discuss current traction.

Forecasts must rest on top of historical numbers.

Investors will look for where you are today in order to understand your forecast.

Show how much funding you have so far.

Have one fundraise target, not several, as investors can’t manage multiple scenarios in the initial meeting.

Know what you are going to accomplish with the fundraise. 

Again, focus on clear milestones and avoid multiple scenarios.

In the end, it’s one team, one product, one business model, one fundraise, and one outcome. 


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

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In this our 600th episode, Hall welcomes Paul Glover, Author of “WorkQuake” and Executive Coach at Paul Glover Coaching.

Paul is the “no BS work performance coach”, a "recovering trial lawyer", an ex-felon, an unabashed Starbucks addict, a Chicago Bears fanatic, the author of WorkQuake, a speaker on business and leadership topics, and a member of the Forbes Coaching Council.

In 2001, based on his personal experiences as a federal court trial lawyer and a set-back survivor, Paul created a unique coaching program, recognizing the primary reason why convincing successful leaders to engage in the hard work necessary to improve their leadership skillset was so difficult was that leaders seldom know the truth about the weaknesses in their leadership skill set. This lack of knowledge exists because of the inherent nature of positional authority which eliminates the psychological safety necessary for others in the organization to tell leaders the unfiltered truth. This lack of truthfulness about their leadership skill set restrains both the leader and their organization from reaching their full potential. For the last 20 years, he has used a coaching program based on a measurable improvement process that holds leaders accountable for eliminating the filters and stuff that surrounds them. But, more importantly, it also requires leaders to discover their blind spots and their propensity for producing self-inflicted injuries which constrain their organizations and themselves from realizing their full potential. And, finally, it requires that they take the corrective action necessary to eliminate those constraints.  

Paul discusses the inspiration behind his book, the primary audience, what surprised him the most whilst writing it, and the most important takeaway.

You can visit Paul at his website www.paulglovercoaching.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/paulglovercoaching/, via Twitter at www.twitter.com/paulglovercoach, and via email at paul@paulglovercoaching.com.  

You can purchase his book from his website or from Amazon, at ww.amazon.com/Work-Quake.

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

Pitching is an important skill in fundraising.

Consider these key points in your next pitch:

Tell a compelling story, not just any story.

Use the pitch deck to communicate the “Why” behind your business.

Time is short, so make sure you hit the key points of the business -- team, product, fundraise, in a logical order.

Include meaningful numbers that demonstrate you know what you are talking about.

Market size, revenue, growth rate, customer acquisition rates are important numbers to include. 

In building your pitch, involve your team and others as it will be a great way to reinforce the strategy with those who are helping execute it.

Pitching skills also help in recruiting employees, fostering partnerships, and selling customers. 

The deck is there to help you, not take your place.  

Remember, you are the presentation, not the slides. 


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Avetis Antaplyan, Founder & CEO of HIRECLOUT.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, HIRECLOUT is a technology recruiting and consulting firm focused on building relationships that deliver results. They utilize their proprietary process and a team of recruiters and Client Success Managers to find and deliver top technology professionals with their top technical hiring system on a contingency basis. HIRECLOUT only earns a fee when the candidate starts.

Avetis is a passionate entrepreneur and technologist focused on making an impact. He is a proud husband and father of two kick-ass kids. He is also an angel investor with an interest in everything tech-enabled, especially in robotics and AI. Avetis is all about helping people elevate their mindset, their teams, and careers.

Avetis discusses what excites him now in the sector, the state of investing in startups, and some of the challenges entrepreneurs face. 

You can visit HIRECLOUT at www.hireclout.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/hireclout/mycompany/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/HIRECLOUT.

Avetis can be contacted via email at avetis@hireclout.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/yourpartnerrecruiteravetis/.

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

The process of raising funding brings the startup founder several intangible benefits.

Here is a short list:

Fundraising forces you to think through your business strategy and articulate it clearly.

Investors will challenge your strategy requiring the founder to defend it.

The pitch elicits feedback from the investors which often improves the plan.

While entrepreneurs look at the opportunity in the deal, the investor looks at the risk.

Investors highlight the risks and the challenges to overcome.

This feedback sharpens the pitch.

Investors also provide feedback on the market, team, product, and other aspects that help refine the strategy.

The pitch presentation expands the circle of those who know the business and can potentially help in the future.

Consider the additional benefits that come from raising funding, which is a better business plan and a broader network of contacts.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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This is Investor Perspectives. I’m the host of Investor Connect, Hall T Martin, where we connect startups and investors for funding.

In our new Investor Perspectives series entitled “How to Solve the Biotech/Life Sciences Problem”, you’ll hear about growth in the biotech/life sciences segment.

As the COVID pandemic passes, we emerge into a new world. The biotech space is now undergoing tremendous change as we shift back to a normal way of life. The process for designing and approving vaccines demonstrated a new protocol. Biotech now moves into a new era. We have investors and startup founders describe the changes coming up.

Our guests are:

Yaniv Sneor, Co-founder, Mid Atlantic Bio Angels, 01:18
Carter Williams, CEO and Managing Partner, iSelect Fund, 05:05
Maximilian Bade, Founding Partner, Nucleus Capital, 07:35
Ron Paliwoda, President, Paliwoda Group, 10:34
Orrin Ailloni-Charas, Managing Partner, Global Health Impact Fund, 16:36
Eyal Lifschitz, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Peregrine Ventures, 20:31
Mark Groper, Chief Executive Officer, Orion Biotechnology, 29:20

I hope you enjoy this episode.
________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org       

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/  
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/  
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/  
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/    

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group 

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Wes Barton, Founder and Managing Partner at Third Prime.

Headquartered in New York, New York, Third Prime is a venture capital firm focused on identifying and investing in seed-stage companies that are using technology to develop business models with the potential to disintermediate incumbents within the fintech and proptech sectors.

Prior to founding Third Prime, Wes spent nearly 9 years as a Vice President at Trimaran Capital Partners, a private equity firm based out of New York City, where he underwrote and managed private investment opportunities across diverse industries. While at Trimaran, he also worked with Trian Partners, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund, to identify and invest in public distressed equity and credit opportunities.

Before Trimaran/Trian, Wes spent 2 years as an investment banker with Bank of America advising public and private technology and media companies on corporate strategy and capital market initiatives and practiced law in the M&A department at the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP where he represented companies and investment firms with respect to acquisition and disposition of assets and broader corporate matters.

Wes received his J.D. from Duke School of Law in 2002 and his undergraduate degree from Western Kentucky University in 1999.

Wes discusses his investment thesis and some of the startups he has invested in which fit that thesis. He shares some of the challenges they face in launching their businesses and suggests some good opportunities for investors to pursue.

You can visit  Third Prime at www.thirdprime.vc, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/15189541/admin, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/thirdprimevc. 

Wes can be contacted via email at wes@thirdprime.vc, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/wes-barton, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/farmer_vc.

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

In raising funding, the startup should be doing as much diligence on the investor as the investor is doing on the startup.

Start by checking out the portfolio of the investor and making contact with CEOs who have been funded by the investor.

Ask the CEO about their experience with the firm. 

Most VCs tout their entrepreneur-friendly mantra and how much they can help the startup. 

In addition to funding, VCs provide strategy, recruiting, business development, and future funding. 

Ask the CEO about their experience with the VC in these areas.  

Also, check their experience in negotiating the term sheet with the investor.

Look for examples of non-standard behavior such as lock-up terms, and a last-minute change of terms in the negotiations.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Neetu Puranikmath, Early-Stage Investor.

Neetu is an experienced investor, operator, and startup advisor. Neetu worked at Alumni Ventures Group as a pre-seed/seed investor where she focused on Fintech and SaaS. Previously, she was Chief of Staff for a Fintech startup and worked in operations at YouTube, Google, and Facebook. She is a former 501(c)(3) founder and has been a mentor for the Clinton Foundation, First Round Capital’s Dorm Room Fund, and Texas’ NewChip accelerator. She graduated with a Bachelor in Political Science from UC Berkeley and received her MBA from the University of Oxford.

Neetu advises startups and investors and shares how she sees the startup industry evolving. She discusses some of the challenges startups and investors face, alternative financing options in the early-stage ecosystem, and she shares her investment thesis.

Neetu can be contacted via email at neetu.puranikmath@gmail.com. 

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

In approaching venture capital, it’s important to know something about the VC’s sweet spot for funding.

By reviewing the VC’s website, you can see their portfolio.

By reviewing their portfolio companies, you can get a sense of the stage and sector of deals they invest in.

The best way to learn about a VC is by contacting one of their portfolio companies.

From the CEO, you can find out more about how the VC supports their companies and what strengths they bring to the table.

Knowing the VC’s sweet spot will save you a tremendous amount of time and help you focus on the ones who are a good fit.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Dr. Eric Tait, Founder and Fund Manager at Vernonville Asset Management (VAM).

Vernonville Asset Management is a private investment firm created to provide investors the opportunity to invest in real assets. Their focus is creating and maintaining investor wealth through alternative investment strategies. Returns are generated for their clients by directly investing in companies and development teams with a proven track record of profitable operations along with experienced management.

Eric is a physician who is board-certified in Internal Medicine. Under Eric, VAM has grown to over 100 million dollars in assets internationally and domestically, these include the Hilton Curio Resort in Belize, numerous Triple Net Commercial and Light Industrial assets, multi-family apartment homes, student housing, specialty coffee farms in Boquete, Panama, and dozens of single-family homes, private lending funds, and angel investments. Eric is also the Founder and Managing Partner of Urban Capital Network, an investment firm that partners with top quartile Venture Capital firms to allow access to non-traditional venture investors. Eric attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. At Morehouse, Eric was very involved in the Health Careers Society and mentoring elementary school children in math and science.

After college, Eric relocated to Houston to attend Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones School of Management and Baylor College of Medicine where he received his dual-degree M.D./MBA. During his tenure at Rice, he worked for Aetna Healthcare as special assistant to the Senior Network Medical Director for the Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware region. Eric graduated from Rice University with an MBA in Healthcare Management and a concentration in Entrepreneurship.

Upon graduation from Baylor College of Medicine, Eric attended the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston for his internship and residency in Internal Medicine. Eric is in private practice and is currently on the medical staff of Saint Joseph Medical Center in Downtown Houston.

Eric is also President of Pinnacle Physician Management Organization, a member of Key PAC, and is also involved with numerous community-based organizations in the Greater Houston region like The Morehouse College Alumni Association. Eric’s interests include reading, entertaining, and spending time with his wife Claudine and young daughters Kiran and Lena.

Eric shares with Hall what excites him now in the industry and advises startups and investors. He discusses the state of startup investing post-COVID-19 and speaks about his investment thesis.

You can visit Vernonville Asset Management at www.vernonville.com.

Eric can be contacted via email at eric@vernonville.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/eric-tait-m-d-mba-b2581a5/, and via www.urbancapitalnetwork.com.

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

Startup founders need time-management skills to run a business.

Here’s a list of key skills successful founders have:

1. Can set up daily routines and repeat them consistently.
2. Can prioritize tasks doing the most important ones first.
3. Can delegate tasks to others when others are better suited for those tasks.
4. Can use time management techniques such as Pomodoro and others.
5. Can plan the work and then work the plan consistently.
6. Can mitigate distractions from social media, email, and other sources.
7. Can focus on a singular task and avoid multitasking.
8. Can simplify projects to their essential components and focus on those.

In this attention-demanding economy, it takes strong time-management skills to succeed.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Dr. Hector Jirau, Chief Investment Officer at Jirau Capital Management.

Headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jirau Capital Management is a scientist-led investment advisory firm at the intersection of breakthrough science providing exposure to the latest advancements in healthcare and innovation. Jirau Capital Management is the first and only investment advisory firm in Puerto Rico combining quantitative methods with evidence-based science.

Hector holds a B.Sc. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). He completed a Doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in Biochemistry at the UPR School of Medicine, focusing on the discovery of novel metabolic pathways for polygenic respiratory disorders. Dr. Jirau also holds a Master’s degree (MSc.) in Financial Engineering, specializing in risk management in financial derivatives. He has experience managing alternative investments, especially with the successful launch of pooled investment vehicles, such as a biotechnology long-short equity hedge fund and an early-stage venture capital fund expected to deploy capital in Q4 2021. He currently serves on the board of different seed-stage ventures in the healthcare/technology sector.

Hector speaks about the growth and primary trends in the biotech/life sciences segment. He also discusses his participation in the segment and what he looks for when investing.

You can visit Jirau Capital Management at www.jiraucapital.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/jirau-capital-management/.

Hector can be contacted via email at hector@jiraucapital.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/hjirau, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/PhDInvestor. 

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

Startup founders need strategy skills to run a business.

Here’s a list of key skills successful startup founders have:

1. Business model design - the founder can review a situation and develop a business model to create a profitable business.
2. Buy vs. build - the founder can decide between buying a solution or building it from scratch.
3. Growth management - the founder knows when to press forward for growth and when to maintain the current run rate.
4. Product management - the founder knows how to expand the product line and when.
5. Resourcefulness - the founder knows how to get the most out of the situation and applies resourcefulness to do so.
6. Experimentation - the founder is constantly examining new strategies to grow the company.
7. Measurement - the ability to measure the results to see how a strategy is working.

The founder needs to apply strategic thinking to every aspect of the company, mission, product development, hiring, marketing, and sales.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Robert Norton, CEO at AirTight Management.

Headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, AirTight Management prepares and assists entrepreneurs in launching new companies and products, scale through consulting, and training and coaching to create high-performance cultures. 

Robert has been a serial entrepreneur since 1989. He has founded and scaled several companies as CEO and in four exits earned investors over $1 billion in profits just while at those companies. Today, these companies generate billions annually. He is also a speaker, author of two books, over 125 articles, and over 360 studio-produced videos on these topics, trained thousands of CEOs from 35+ countries, and is a thought leader in entrepreneurship, innovation, and scaling of companies.

Robert has grown two startups to over $100M in sales, Thomson Financial Services, and HomeView ($156M) in five years each. HomeView was the first HD, virtual touring company for residential real estate and achieved a 78% market share in only 18 months. Both companies disrupted their industries with six successful products out of six. Robert has now created over 80 products and helped with hundreds. He specializes in entrepreneurship and scaling companies that can become $100M+ with impact and has helped over 200 companies start and/or scale.

As a board member, adviser, and coach, Robert has doubled and tripled the growth rate at many client companies in short order leading Organization Change Management (and Development OCM/OD) and adding tens of millions in valuation to individual clients in months.

Robert discusses the steps to creating and the benefits of sustainable competitive advantages, how the business model impacts it, where intellectual property comes into play, and more.

You can visit AirTight Management at www.airtightmgt.com, at and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/airtight-management/.

Robert can be contacted via email at bnorton@airtightmgt.com, via www.ceobootcamp.us/, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/robertjnorton/.

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

Startup founders need problem-solving skills to run a business.

Here’s a list of key skills to develop:

1. Critical thinking - ability to analyze the key factors around a situation and find the real problem to be solved.
2. Decision-making - ability to choose the right solution and see it through to implementation.
3. Lateral thinking - can think outside the box and come up with solutions that take into account other factors.
4. Creativity - ability to generate solutions by brainstorming and looking for similar models and sources of inspiration elsewhere and applying to the problem.
5. Determination - ability to test and try several solutions to find the right fit. 
6. Adaptability - ability to adapt to new situations and try new solutions.
7. Self-discipline - ability to stay focused on the problem until you find the right solution.
8. Positivity - ability to stay positive about finding a solution and not giving up.
9. Curiosity - ability to apply curiosity to the problem to spur new solutions.
10. Networking - ability to connect with others to find a solution.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Tim Marx, Venture Partner at Baird Capital. 

Baird Capital makes venture capital, growth equity, and private equity investments in strategically targeted sectors around the world. They are value creators who identify exceptional opportunities and partner with senior industry executives to build world-class companies. Their in-depth sector knowledge, deep relationships with entrepreneurial management teams, and global network of 60 investment and operating professionals in the United States, U.K., and Asia help ensure that they consistently drive value in their portfolio companies. 

Tim supports Baird’s fund's efforts to identify, diligence, and support venture capital investments in healthcare as well as industry-agnostic technology and tech-enabled services companies in the Texas market. Additionally, Tim works at a Houston-based blockchain startup, Topl, that supports digital transformation across the supply chain by providing trust and transparency to its customers’ ESG claims across multiple industries (agriculture, metals and mining, energy, retail, etc.). Topl also incorporates decentralized finance applications that arise from the ability to monetize in a variety of ways the impact being created.

Tim continues to support select clients in an advisory capacity as well as to serve as an Investment Committee member to the TMC Venture Fund, in addition to other advisory roles across multiple startups and small companies.

Prior to his current slate of activities, he was at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) from 2001 to 2018, leaving as a Partner and Managing Director. Tim is a graduate of Penn State University, holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and was a Fulbright Scholar at the ITESM in Mexico.

Tim shares his investment thesis and advises investors and entrepreneurs. He discusses how he sees the industry evolving and the biggest change he expects to see in the coming year. 

You can visit Baird Capital at www.bairdcapital.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/baird-capital-partners-europe-limited/.

Tim can be contacted via email at tmarx@rwbaird.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/timothymarx.

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

Startup founders need emotional intelligence skills to run a startup.

Emotional intelligence helps the founder control emotions and empathize with others.

Here are the key components for building those skills:

Self-awareness - this is the ability to know yourself and recognize your strengths, weaknesses, and limitations.

The more you know yourself, the more you can work around your weaknesses to achieve your goals.

Self-regulation - this is the ability to recognize your emotions and control them.

The stronger your self-regulation, the more control you have over your responses to challenging situations.

Social skills - the ability to influence others to be more empathetic.

This comes in the form of communication, persuasion, and collaboration skills.

Social skills help you connect to others and bond with them.

Empathy - the ability to understand others intellectually rather than emotionally, which is sympathy.

Empathy helps the founder understand the team on a deeper level and provide appropriate responses.

Motivation - the ability to drive forward through challenging situations.

Founders need to understand what motivates the team members which can be financial, personal, or otherwise.

Founders need strong emotional intelligence skills to lead the team, manage conflicts, and motivate the team members.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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

Startup founders need to be visionary to run a startup.

Vision starts with seeing a business opportunity and applying a solution to solve it.

The founder clarifies the vision and shapes it into a platform, product, or application.

This informs the founder of all business decisions going forward.

It starts with knowing the industry and current solutions in the market.

The solution must be unique and competitive with advantages over competitors.

The vision should establish a unique product in the market.

Over time, the founder refines the vision with changes in the market.

The founder uses storytelling to communicate the need and the value that comes from the vision.

The founder must sell the vision to everyone including the team, customers, and partners.

The founder is part evangelist selling and promoting the idea.

The market must be able to see the value that comes from the vision.

The vision must inspire others to learn more and then join the effort. 

The vision is captured into the company’s tag line, mantra, and mission statement.

The vision must be established for the long term as it will undergo many refinements and clarifications.

For startup founders, vision is a key element you’ll need to run your business in the early days.  


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Kenneth Alan Goodwin, General Managing Partner and Founder at Jeanensis Ventures.

Headquartered in New York City, New York, Jeanensis is a capital markets advisory and digital asset management firm that focuses primarily on advising multi-nationals and mid-market firms.

Jeanensis has developed its expertise and continues to grow its partnership, alliances and clientele alike, in fintech and regtech, innovation and technology, artificial intelligence [AI], blockchain-enterprise, and digital asset management.

Ken is a widely sought-after executive with global banking and capital markets experience - achieving results in venture capital, digital transformation, big data, innovation and technology, and risk management. Ken advises large multinationals and mid-level capital firms and executives in executing multi-billion (USD) business development and institutional partnerships agreements in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Ken is a TEDxTALKS Speaker, a 10 to Know Global Game Changer, U.S. White House Business Council/Forward member, Aspen Institute Nakasone and Mike and Maureen Mansfield Fellow, Ph.D. Project Member, Ronald E. McNair Scholar, and Harvard Model Congress Member.

Ken is a globally recognized lecturer with over 30+ courses and 700+ students as a college adjunct professor on Economics of CryptoAssets, Blockchain Investment, International Trade, Forensic Methods, and Corporate Ethics.

Ken is a trailblazer with a history of firsts that include:

1st foreigner to monitor JGBs on the floor of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE/JPX)
1st curator of the Women Leaders in Blockchain Symposium (NYC)
1st curator of the Urban Leaders in Blockchain Symposium (NYC)
1st curator of the Globally Local FinTech, AI and Blockchain Symposium (Wealth & International FinTech 2020 Award)

Ken discusses his investment thesis, what excites him now in the blockchain industry, how he sees the industry evolving, and some of the challenges startups face.

You can visit Jeanensis Ventures at www.linkedin.com/company/jeanensis/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/jeanensis.

Ken can be contacted via email at kennethgoodwin@jeanensis.net, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/akennethgoodwinjr/.

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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

Startup founders need general business skills to run a startup.

Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup:

• Ability to make decisions in a timely manner.
• Ability to take risks on new ideas, people, and strategies.
• Ability to communicate in a clear and precise manner.
• Ability to show confidence in your business plan and team.
• Ability to show competitiveness in the market.
• Ability to show creativity in designing products and offering solutions to problems.
• Ability to delegate basic responsibilities and tasks to others.
• Ability to stick with the project through defeats and failures.
• Ability to show discipline in achieving goals.
• Ability to learn new things including technologies, processes, and markets.
• Ability to identify business opportunities when they arise.
• Ability to set up a plan and execute it.
• Ability to sell yourself and your ideas.
• Ability to manage your time efficiently and effectively.

For startup founders, these are the general skills you’ll need to run your business in the early days. 


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group 

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

Startup founders need management skills to run a startup.

Here are some key skills to have:

Ability to wear multiple hats at one time since there’s not enough revenue to fill every role.

Can hire and manage the team members. 

Ability to set strategy and direction for the team.

Can develop and execute on short-term and long-term plans.

Ability to metric the processes of the business and manage accordingly.

Can resolve conflicts with employees, customers, and investors.

Understands the tradeoffs in making business decisions.

Can see the needs of each role and the resources that need to be supplied.

Have a general knowledge of technology, marketing, finance, legal, and HR for running the business.

Ability to learn new technology including business automation, collaboration, and data management.

Ability to communicate effectively with the team, investors, and customers.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Andrea Belz, Division Director at the National Science Foundation.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense...". The NSF is vital because they support basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future. This type of support is a primary driver of the U.S. economy, enhances the nation's security, and advances knowledge to sustain global leadership.

With an annual budget of $8.5 billion (FY 2021), the NSF is the funding source for approximately 27 percent of the total federal budget for basic research conducted at U.S. colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science, and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing.

Andrea joined the National Science Foundation (NSF) in May 2019. Previously, she served as Vice Dean for Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, as well as Entrepreneur-in-Residence (Technology) of Industrial and Systems Engineering. She was previously a Visiting Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. From 2014 to 2019, Andrea was the Founding Director of Innovation Node-Los Angeles, a regional hub for the NSF I-Corps program. She has worked with many university startups and investors, most recently representing a major angel investing group on the board of a Caltech spinoff laser manufacturer until its acquisition in 2018. 

For nearly 20 years, Andrea has advised universities, corporations, and other organizations on commercialization opportunities as managing member of the Belz Consulting Group. Her recent research has focused on technology ventures, from startups through publicly funded launch programs to private funding. Andrea has authored or co-authored dozens of refereed articles, peer-reviewed conference presentations, and proceedings on technical topics and innovation, and she authored a book on product development. Belz earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Maryland at College Park and doctoral degree at the California Institute of Technology, both in physics; she earned her master's degree in finance at Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business.

Andrea discusses the state of startup investing, the biggest change she expects to see in the next 12 months, and some of the challenges entrepreneurs and investors face.

You can visit the National Science Foundation at www.nsf.gov, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/national-science-foundation/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/NSF.  

Andrea can be contacted via email at abelz@nsf.gov, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/andreabelz/.  

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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

Startup founders need to develop leadership skills to run a startup.

Here are some key skills to have:

Know your market and research the competition well.

Demonstrate confidence in difficult situations and be able to make decisions and see them through.

Ability to build a strong team and support them.

Encourage entrepreneurship and innovation within your team and provide compensation accordingly.

Bring a strategic mindset to the group and show others how to think strategically.

Be honest with your team and others.

Maintain humility by admitting you don’t know everything.

Show empathy to your team to demonstrate you understand the challenge they face.

Be accountable for the results even when things go wrong.

Spend more than half the time listening rather than talking when engaging the team, customers, and others. 


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Krishna Srinivasan, Founding Partner at LiveOak Venture Partners.

LiveOak Venture Partners is a venture capital fund based in Austin, Texas. With 20 years of successful venture investing in Texas, the founders of LiveOak have helped create nearly $2 billion of enterprise value. While almost all of LiveOak's investments begin at the seed and Series-A stages, LiveOak is a full life cycle investor focused on helping create category-leading technology and technology-enabled service companies headquartered in Texas. LiveOak Venture Partners has been the lead investor in over 30 exciting high-growth Texas-based companies in the last seven years including ones such as CS Disco, Digital Pharmacist, OJO Labs, Opcity, and TrustRadius.

Krishna has been investing in early-stage Texas-based companies and entrepreneurs since 2000. His current and past board involvements at LiveOak include CS Disco, Hive9, Homeward, Imandra, OJO Labs, Rollick, Telestax; Digital Pharmacist, Opcity, and StackEngine.

Prior to co-founding LiveOak, Krishna was a Partner at Austin Ventures. There, he worked with companies in enterprise software and infrastructure solutions segments. Prior to that, Krishna was with Motorola where he wrote large-scale optimization software for supply chain planning and worked with a variety of business units on strategic and operational issues.

Krishna received his MBA from Wharton where he graduated with the highest academic honors as a Palmer Scholar. He holds an MS in Operations Research from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, having graduated with the highest all-around honors.

Krishna currently serves as Chairman of the Miracle Foundation board, an Austin-based organization that supports orphanages in India, and is one of the founding members and a past board member of TiE Austin. He is a board member of the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas.

Krishna discusses his investment thesis and some of the companies within his portfolio that fit the thesis. He advises startups and investors and shares some of the challenges they face.

You can visit LiveOak Venture Partners at www.liveoakvp.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/liveoak-venture-partners, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/liveoakvp?lang=en. 

Krishna can be contacted via email at krishna@liveoakvp.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/krishnasrinivasan1/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/krishnasrini?lang=en.  

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

Startup founders need conflict management skills to run a startup.

Conflicts arise among the team members for the following reasons:

They come from differing beliefs and viewpoints.  

In the short term, the founder can separate the team members to reduce the friction.

They also come from team members who feel their input has not been heard or valued.

The founder can take steps to show how the work and input of the team member has been heard and has importance.

The team member believes they’ve received an unfair evaluation.

The founder can standardize the evaluation process and show specifically how the team member is doing.

The team member believes the manager has unrealistic expectations.

The founder can show how others are handling the tasks and suggest ways to accomplish the work.

The team member doesn’t receive any feedback and comes to believe their work doesn’t count.

The founder can set up regular meetings to review the team members' work and give feedback.

The role of the founder is to encourage the team members to join in a collaboration to work through the problem.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Kevin Kaylakie, Founder & CEO at SineCera Capital.

Located in Austin, Texas, SineCera Capital is a boutique multi-family office and wealth advisory firm focused on delivering sophisticated investments, independent advice, and trusted relationships to a select group of ultra-high net worth clients.

SineCera Capital provides families with access to an ecosystem of solutions and skilled professionals that help bring clarity, confidence, and purpose to their financial decision-making process. 

Kevin has spent the last decade of his career working exclusively with high-net-worth families and business owners. He currently oversees both the investment advisory and wealth management functions for SineCera Capital. He attended Auburn University where he earned his BSBA in International Business. He has also earned the Certified Financial Planner and Certified Private Wealth Advisor, designations through advanced studies at The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

As a native and dedicated Austinite, Kevin has volunteered with many local organizations including Hospice Austin, The Capital Area Dental Foundation, The Seton Fund, Austin Opera, The Mary Claire Project, Emmaus Catholic Parish, and The Diocese of Austin.

When he is away from the office, he enjoys spending time with his wife and their five children. Kevin is an avid reader, marginal golfer, amateur woodworker, and enjoys recharging at his family’s ranch in the Texas Hill Country.

Kevin advises investors and entrepreneurs, discusses what excites him now in the industry, the state of investing in startups, and his investment thesis.

You can visit SineCera Capital at www.sineceracapital.com/, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/sineceracapital.

Kevin can be contacted via email at kevin@sineceracapital.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/kevinkaylakie.

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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

Startup founders need human resource skills.

Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup:

Can identify talent that matches the company’s strategy.  

This includes defining the jobs with roles and responsibilities.

Ability to find and recruit the right people for the position.

This includes assessing the skills candidates have.

Can craft employment agreements. 

This includes defining compensation, benefits, and other concerns such as intellectual property protection.

Can set up a program to onboard employees.  

This includes setting them up with the company systems, introductions to other employees, and access to their workspace.

Can set up programs to engage the employees.

This includes establishing all-hands meetings, group functions, and weekly social activities.

Can set up programs to retain the employees.

This includes regularly scheduled performance reviews and employment issue management.

Even in the early stages of a startup, these are important steps to take.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Ryan Falvey, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Financial Venture Studio.

Financial Venture Studio invests in the best early-stage fintech companies and provides the access and insights founders need to build transformational companies. They provide a bespoke program when investing at an early stage, introduce seed-stage portfolio companies to leaders in the financial services, regulatory, media, and venture capital communities and it’s working:

- FVS companies have raised nearly $200m in follow-on capital since they launched in late 2018.

- Within 6 months of completing the program, 88% of their portfolio companies raised follow-on capital at an average valuation increase of over 2x.

- FVS companies have grown to serve millions of consumers and tens of thousands of enterprise and SMB customers.

Financial Venture Studio is also raising its second fund and recently launched its latest cohort of startups.

Ryan has spent the last 15 years identifying, supporting, and leading market-changing innovations in technology. Since 2015, he's invested in 40 early-stage fintech firms, which have grown to represent approximately $3 billion in aggregate equity value. Prior to founding Venture Studio, Ryan led the development of the Financial Solutions Lab, a partnership between JPMorgan Chase and the Financial Health Network. Before managing the Lab, Ryan worked with leading tech firms to develop payment solutions at Silicon Valley Bank. He also served as Strategy Group Lead at Enclude Solutions, overseeing global strategy consulting work around mobile-enabled financial products.

Ryan discusses how the Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) industry is evolving. He advises investors and entrepreneurs and shares some of the challenges they face.

You can visit  Financial Venture Studio at www.finventurestudio.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/financial-venture-studio/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/financialstudio?lang=en. 

Ryan can be contacted via email at ryan@finventurestudio.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-falvey/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/ryan_falvey?lang=en.

Music courtesy of Bensound.

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

Startup founders need some technical skills.

Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup:

1. Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets - you’ll use this for budgeting, forecasts, and numerous other applications.
2. Data analysis - you should be familiar with Google analytics and other basic analytic tools to gather information about your sales and marketing efforts.
3. Basic coding skills - you should be able to read HTML to make changes and update your website.
4. WordPress - you may outsource the design and setup of your website but you should know enough about the backend to make text changes and minor updates.
5. Design tools - you need to be familiar with design software for making logos, presentations, and other content pieces.
6. Cloud - you should have a working knowledge of cloud tools since it’s the place you store your documents, run applications, and host your data.
7. Collaboration tools - you should be able to use collaboration tools as it’s the primary method for communicating with others. 
8. CRM automation - you should be able to set up emails and responders.

A founder does not have to be a specialist in technology but should have basic technical skills to run office automation, websites, and other systems.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Lucas Caneda, Global Team Lead & Director at Uniqorn Incubator.

The largest rural incubator-accelerator of its kind in the world, UNIQORN features an eclectic team of seasoned professionals with a proven track record in taking technology startups from inception all the way to exit.

UNIQORN's attractiveness is built around comprehensive incubation and acceleration services for technology startups. They encourage project leaders from all over the world to come and settle in Sarlat, a fascinated ecosystem for startups to succeed. They also act as a potential media investor in the startups they accept to incubate and accelerate.

A student of engineering, management, economics, and self-taught in nutrition and fitness, Lucas has always had a very keen interest in business, entrepreneurship, and personal development

He is a professional rugby player for Sarlat Rugby Team. Lucas grew up as a die-hard rugby fan and started playing at the tender age of 5. Despite suffering what many thought would be a career-ending knee injury, he moved to France and built a career as a professional rugby player. After a few years in France, Lucas joined the Sarlat Rugby Team and the incubator's rugby program.

Lucas discusses his background, his criteria for startups, and some of the challenges he faces running an incubator.

You can visit Uniqorn Incubator at https://uniqornincubator.com/, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/uniqorn-incubator/mycompany/. 

Lucas can be contacted via email at lucas@uniqornincubator.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/lucascaneda/,  

Music courtesy of Bensound.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Lee Shapiro, Managing Partner at 7wireVentures.

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, 7wireVentures is dedicated to building and investing in early-stage digital health companies supporting an informed connected health consumer.

Lee served as Chief Financial Officer of Livongo Health until November 2020. He serves on the boards of Senior Connect, a special purpose acquisition company focused on the aging space, Clover Health, and Click Therapeutics. He is also active with and serves on the board of many of the 7wire portfolio companies.

Prior to stepping in as CFO of Livongo and leading its 2019 IPO, Lee served on the board of the company since its launch, chairing the audit committee and as a member of its compensation committee. During his tenure as CFO, Livongo also had a successful secondary offering, raised $550M in convertible debt, and entered into a merger agreement at the highest valuation of any healthcare technology deal, based on revenue multiples.

Lee served as president of Allscripts from 2001 through 2012. He is a co-founder and board member of The World Innovation Network, the University of Chicago Innovation Fund Advisory Committee, and the Samsung Digital Health Advisory Board. Based on his industry experience, he is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and a published contributor to the Forbes Business Council.

Lee has been a member of the National Board of Directors of the American Heart Association for a number of years and is currently its treasurer. Lee earned his JD degree from The University of Chicago Law School and a BS in Accounting from The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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

You can visit 7wireVentures at www.7wireventures.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/7wire-ventures, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/7wireventures?lang=en.  

Lee can be contacted via email at lee@7wireventures.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/leeshapiro/.  

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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

Startup founders need some accounting skills.

Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup:

Accounting vs. bookkeeping - bookkeeping is entering revenues and expenses into the proper accounts. Accounting is generating the income statements and balance sheets, along with filing tax returns.

Accounting methods - know the difference between cash vs. accrual accounting.

Cash-based accounting recognizes revenues when it is received, while accrual accounting recognizes it when it is earned. 

Recurring revenue businesses need to watch for this as annual subscriptions should be recognized over each month the service is provided.

Record keeping - you should be able to enter transactions, reconcile accounts, pay vendors, and review outstanding invoices.

Have an accountant set up the system with the chart of accounts, but know how to run the system and read the reports.

You should be able to calculate your runway, cash burn, and cash balance at all times.

Payroll taxes - you should know how payroll taxes work and how they impact your cash flow.

Income taxes - you should know the taxes you’re required to pay and when and how that impacts your cash flow as well. 

Workforce commission - you should know how the workforce commission works for your area and the laws around it.

Basic accounting is important in understanding how to generate and read the documents that show the health of your business. 


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Gerard van Swieten, Managing Partner at LvS Partners.

Laursen van Swieten (LvS) specializes in funding and executing the international expansion of innovative growth-stage companies. They are especially active and experienced in Asia/China expansion. They make active expansion investments to establish footholds outside of home markets. LvS works in 3 fast-growing sectors: healthcare and biotechnology, industry 4.0, and media & entertainment.

Mr. van Swieten is a Dutch national and has been working and living in China/Asia for 12+ years. He has extensive experience in cross-border trade and investment in FMCG, manufacturing, IT, and finance.

Before founding LvS Partners, Mr. van Swieten was a partner at Mandarin Hill Capital and IJK Capital. During his tenure at both Mandarin Hill Capital and IJK Capital, Mr. van Swieten led the China expansion for multiple portfolio companies in solar, healthcare IoT, and media and entertainment sectors. Prior to that he served as Head of Legal of BRF SA for Asia, Europe and Africa after having worked as an attorney in Amsterdam at Clifford Chance and in Shanghai at HIL.

Mr. van Swieten holds a Masters in Dutch law from Maastricht University, a Masters in Chinese law from Hong Kong University, and an MBA from Tsinghua-MIT Sloan.

Gerard discusses expansion investment, advantages of this strategy over other value-added strategies, the primary trend in Asia/China expansion for ‘Western Companies’, and changes he expects to see in the coming 12 months.

You can visit LvS Partners at www.lvspartners.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/lvs-partners.  

Gerard can be contacted via email at gerard@lvspartners.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/gerard-van-swieten  

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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

Startup founders need some financial skills.

Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup:

1. For business modeling - ability to calculate the unit economics of your business model including cost of customer acquisition and lifetime value of customer.
2. For fundraising - ability to calculate pre and post-money valuations and the impact of dilution on the investors.
3. For forecasting - ability to generate a three-year financial forecast showing the fixed and variable costs and the impact at various revenue levels.
4. For budgeting - ability to set up a monthly budget matching the forecast with indicators of over and under.
5. For performance monitoring - ability to capture key performance metrics.
6. For cash-flow management - ability to capture all cash inflows and outflows to determine the runway and monthly cash burn.
7. For financial controls - ability to set up credit limits and other stopgaps on spending.
8. For profitability - ability to calculate gross margin and profit margins and set plans to improve over time.
9. For financial literacy - ability to read an income statement, balance sheet, and capitalization table.

For startup founders, these are the basic skills you’ll need to master to run your business in the early days.  


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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

Startup founders need some legal skills.

Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup:

1. Legal Entity - ability to set up an LLC or C-Corp for your business with proper articles of incorporation.
2. Cap Table - ability to set up the cap table with initial ownership of the founder, co-founder, and seed investors.
3. Trademark - ability to trademark the company name. 
4. Web Domain - ability to find and register the company domain name.
5. Family and friends funding - ability to take funding from non-accredited investors with SEC compliance.
6. Tax IDs - ability to set up a bank account with tax ID information for the company.
7. Employee vs. Contractors - ability to distinguish between an employee and a contractor for classification and tax treatment.
8. Legal Support - ability to identify the proper legal support needed for contract law, employment law, and other.
9. Legal Documents - ability to set up employment agreements, contracts, stock options, and board and shareholder resolutions and reports. 
10. Intellectual Property - ability to file a provisional patent in advance of filing design and utility patents.
11. Terms of Service - ability to create terms of service agreement for clients and customers.
12. Employment Agreement - ability to create an employment agreement with confidentiality and invention assignment contracts.
13. Recruiting requirements - knowing how to avoid asking questions that are prohibited by law.
14. Firing employees - ability to know how to fire an employee staying within legal requirements. 

For startup founders, these are the basic skills you’ll need to master to run your business in the early days.  


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Andreea Danila, Founding General Partner at Global Millennial Capital.

Global Millennial Capital was established by Andreea in 2019, backed by the Al Attiyah family office. It is the first female-founded venture capital investor from the Middle East to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) in the investment process. They invest in global scalable, tech-enabled, and highly transformational consumer-centric early-stage opportunities in Silicon Valley.

The fund is expected to have 50 bets and uses the Rounding Theory to make investments. 

Andreea is an award-winning entrepreneur, venture capitalist, investor, and board member of various portfolio companies in Silicon Valley including Envel, Unifymoney, Elly Health, Blue Studios, PathBooks, Millennial Beauty among others. She is the Senior Executive Officer within the Qatar Financial Center and Private Investment Fund Director with the financial services commission in BVI. Andreea is a Harvard Business School alumni and holds an MBA from HULT International Business School, Finance and Entrepreneurship, and a diploma from MIT Sloan School of Management. 

Andreea discusses what excites her now in the industry. She advises investors and entrepreneurs and shares some of the challenges they face.

You can visit Global Millennial Capital at www.globalmillennialcapital.com/, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/millennialcapital/.

Andreea can be contacted via email at andreea@millennialvc.co, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/andreea-danila. 

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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

Startup founders need recruiting skills.

Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup:

1. Ability to define the jobs to be done with the requisite skills.
2. Ability to identify qualified candidates in the market that meet the requirements.
3. Can engage the candidates to discuss a position in your startup.
4. Ability to evaluate skills and assess fit for the company.
5. Can rank order the candidates.
6. Can negotiate compensation and employment agreements.
7. Ability to onboard the candidate and integrate into the company.
8. Can help the new hire pick up the position and be successful in it.
9. Ability to help the employee reach their full potential.
10. Can set up a program to retain the employee. 

These skills are necessary to grow your business as the company depends on the employees it hires.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Pano Anthos, Founder and Managing Director of XRC Labs.

XRC Labs is a startup accelerator and venture fund dedicated to fostering the next generation of disruptors in the retail technology and consumer goods sectors. 

The NYC-based company launched in 2015 with its founding sponsor, the Parsons School of Design at The New School. Having invested in nearly 100 startups, XRC Labs has built a world-class ecosystem with corporate sponsors including Mastercard, The Estée Lauder Companies, CVS Health, and more than 330 business mentors.

As the former leader of the digital practice at Eaglepoint Advisors, Pano enjoyed the challenge of understanding how far retail was from digital excellence and served in a number of interim roles from CEO, to Chief Product Officer and Chief Digital Officer for media companies, retail, consumer durable goods, and industrial companies.

Under Guided Launch, he advised or co-founded 4 digital media and software companies. including Gather Education, an ed-tech company building virtual reality classrooms that serve the 3G market. Prior to co-founding Gather Edjucation, Pano co-founded Hangout Industries, which was the first to bring video game technology and name brands to Facebook in 2007 and grew the Hangout Facebook apps to millions of users, leveraging: media brands (e.g. NBA, Conde Nast); fashion brands (Steve Madden, Abigail Lorick, Rich and Skinny Jeans), and lifestyle brands (Red Bull and Skull Candy). They were a Techcrunch 50 finalis,t and MITX Digital Media winner for "Best Use of Technology" in 2008.

Previously, he co-founded two enterprise software companies, Pantero, which sold to Progress Software at 13x trailing revenues & Syntra/Clearcross, bootstrapped to over 1000 customers in 30 countries with one of the first commercially available web services (1999) that was licensed into Oracle ERP and embedded in their ERP suite.

Pano discusses his investment thesis, advises startups and investors, and shares what he thinks are good opportunities for investors to pursue.

You can visit XRC Labs at www.xrclabs.com/, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/xrclabs, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/xrclabs/.  

Pano can be contacted via email at www.xrclabs.com/contact, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/panoanthos/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/ptanthos.  

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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

Startup founders need marketing skills.

Here’s a list of skills to bring to your startup:

• Ability to analyze and choose a market segment to pursue
• Can create a story around your startup that sells
• Can define a position in the market and communicate it
• Ability to contrast and compare the company to the current competition
• Can generate content relevant to the target market for blog posts and social media
• Ability to set up the website for SEO
• Can track marketing programs with conversion to sales
• Ability to leverage email for marketing the company
• Can leverage social media for the target market
• Ability to build and leverage an influencer network
• Can write and launch a press release

Marketing is key to branding the company and selling the product.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Graham Forman, Founder and Managing Director at Edovate Capital.

Edovate Capital is a seed and early-stage venture capital company whose leadership invests in companies that lead innovation in the education market. They know firsthand the pains and gains of growing early-stage companies into successful firms and they have passion and experience in the education market. They look for outstanding people to partner with for the long term who have products or services that will transform education.

Edovate Capital partners with social entrepreneurs to scale companies solving education’s hardest challenges. They identify capital-efficient education technology companies tackling education’s hardest challenges, fund their growth, and help increase their impact. They have backed industry-leading K12 companies including Pear Deck, LearnPlatform, Paper Education, Kiddom, and BookNook Learning.

Graham spent his career in education, entrepreneurship, and investing. The first phase of his career was in education policy where he worked for U.S. Senator Paul Simon and former California State Assemblyman, Senator, and Community College Chancellor Jack Scott. He worked with school leaders addressing some of their biggest challenges in leading large school systems.

The second phase of his career was as a startup operator serving as head of sales, marketing, business development, and customer success in impact-focused SaaS companies serving education. His last role included leading sales and business development for Netchemia. During his tenure, the company grew to serve more than 2,400 school districts and 20,000 schools in the U.S. with a best-in-class talent management suite. Netchemia was acquired by People Admin (backed by Vista Equity Partners) in 2015, which kicked off Graham’s third career phase where he founded Edovate. In this role, he backs impact-focused seed-stage K12 companies with investment and advisory support.

He lives in Denver with his wife and two children and enjoys travel, tennis, the outdoors, and cooking.

Graham discusses the rise of the edtech sector, classroom engagement, next-generation school segments, the primary trends in the sector, Edovate Capital’s participation thus far, and more.

You can visit Edovate Capital at www.edovatecapital.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/edovate-capital/.  

Graham can be contacted via email at graham@edovatecapital.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/grahamforman/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/grahamforman. 

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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

Startup founders need sales skills.

Here’s a list of sales skills to bring to your startup:

1. Can craft a compelling story about the startup to sell to investors, prospective employees, partners, and others. 
2. Knows the competition and the other choices the prospect has.
3. Knows the customer’s language, whether it be company-specific or industry-specific.
4. Understands the customer’s problem. 
5. Spends twice as much time listening as talking.
6. Ability to probe for the customer’s careabouts.  
7. Ability to set up a sales funnel and bring prospects through it one step at a time. 
8. Ability to ask for the sale.
9. Can generate social proof to show how others have succeeded with the product.
10. Can turn sales into a repeatable process that becomes a core system within the company.
11. Can set up sales compensation plans with proper incentives.

Many investors look for basic sales skills in the founder before funding the startup.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Elisa Miller-Out, Managing Partner at Chloe Capital.

Chloe Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in women-led innovation companies.

Despite recent progress, only 2% of female founders receive venture capital funding, with only 0.2% going to African American founders.

Chloe Capital is on a mission to change that in partnership with foundations, universities and corporate innovators. They travel across the U.S. as part of the #InvestInWomen Tour, moving capital to female founders in each city we visit. Their fundraising experiences for women entrepreneurs and impact investors spotlight innovation, connect founders and investors to resources, and build community.

The firm invests in seed-stage companies with at least one woman in the C-suite receiving a fair amount of equity. Companies should have a working prototype, with the potential to disrupt macro industries including SaaS, blockchain, AI, VR/AR, IoT, cleantech, agtech, hardware, edtech, wearables and/or robotics.

Elisa is an exit-tested serial tech entrepreneur, investor, board director and community builder. She has over 20 years of experience, including 10 years in the software product space. She’s had 2 exits and 2 acquisitions and has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, The Washington Post, TechCrunch and more. Her career spans multiple startups and global fortune 500 companies. She serves on the board of Women 2.0, Singlebrook and BAX and is co-founder of PollQ, a chatbot startup for higher ed. She’s a graduate of Columbia University.

Elisa discusses her investment thesis and advises startups on what to do before raising funding.

You can visit Chloe Capital at www.chloecapital.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/chloecapital/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/chloecapital. 

Elisa can be contacted via email at elisa@chloecapital.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/elisamillerout/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/ElisaMillerOut.  

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

Writing is a key skill every entrepreneur should have.

Email, social media, website copy, and more, all rely upon good communication.

Here are some key points to remember:

It’s not about you, it’s about your reader and what this will do for them.

Write the way you talk in a normal, conversational tone.

Summarize your message in just one or two sentences.  

If you can’t sum it up, then you don’t have a clear message to communicate.

Gain clarity on your message then rewrite it.

Avoid the story format as it takes longer and buries the lead.

Write it once, and then review and rewrite it several times. 

Remove adverbs and other extraneous words.

Use numbers where possible as it makes the message stronger and more compelling.

Writing takes practice and is a skill that will help you greatly in your fundraise.


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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Kim Banham, Principal at Connetic Ventures.

Connetic Ventures is an early-stage VC that uses proprietary data and machine learning to remove bias, increase efficiency, and create transparency. They view themselves as a data company that happens to invest in startups. Venture capital is inefficient, biased, and relies heavily on human capital, which makes it nearly impossible to scale. To solve this issue, Connetic Ventures created Wendal. Wendal is their AI bot that helps them analyze companies and teams. Wendal is reinventing venture capital by removing 'The Pitch' and giving all founders and companies a fair shot at being funded.

Kim is responsible for investments in the United States, Europe, and Israel. Her background in organizational communications and business finance allows her to build relationships with investors as well as startup companies. Kim enjoys traveling, but after living abroad in Slovenia, Croatia, Switzerland, and Hungary for 8 years, she is happy to call Northern Kentucky home. Kim is passionate about funding female and minority founders and treating all founders equally. 

Kim shares what excites her now in the industry. She advises investors and entrepreneurs and shares some of the challenges they face.

You can visit Connetic Ventures at www.connetic.ventures and https://wendal.io/, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/connetic-ventures/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/conneticVC.  

Kim can be contacted via email at kim@connetic.ventures, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/kim-banham-05b039138/.  

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

In managing deal flow, the key to winning the best deals is responsiveness.

Startups submitting their deal are looking everywhere for funding and you’re just one option among many.

Here are some key points to consider:

Automate the initial response to a deal submission with an email acknowledging the sender.

Customize the follow-up with the sender’s name.

Make clear how your deal flow process works. 

Set expectations as you proceed as some startups get overly excited when they’re only 10% through the process.

Provide a point of contact for the startup in case there’s a breakdown in communication.

Once qualified, set up a call with the startup to discuss their deal.

Make clear what information you need for diligence.

In each step, provide timely information about the process with the next steps.

Apprise the startup of their status with your group to reduce the “where are we at” calls.

Maintain responsiveness throughout the process.

A quality deal-flow process burnishes the reputation of the firm and generates more deal flow.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Riley Oickle, Owner and CEO of Riley Oickle Investments.

Investing in real estate can be a stressful endeavour. Without systems and processes in place, chaos can set in quite quickly and money can be lost. For those of you that are ready to do your first investment deal but are fearful of the unknown, a joint venture is a fantastic option. Becoming a joint venture partner with Riley Oickle real estate investor is a great opportunity to get an understanding of real estate investing, while also owning equity in a property.

Riley Oickle is a graduate from Western University where he studied Business & Kinesiology while competing in Varsity Track & Field.  From the age of 18 to 24, he started multiple businesses including ‘Home Maintenance London’ & ‘RO Business Consulting’ which combined,  surpassed $2 million in revenue. Since then, Riley still operates his businesses from afar, and now focuses his career in real estate investing full-time. He is passionate about helping people take their first step toward financial freedom through the investment vehicle of real estate.

Riley advises investors and discusses where he sees the real estate industry going. He speaks about his investment thesis and some of the challenges investors face.

Riley can be contacted via email at info@rileyoickle.com, via his website at www.rileyoickle.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/rileyoickle.

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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

In running deal flow, here are some best practices to consider:

Automate your deal flow process as much as possible by capturing consistent information into one application.

Track deal flow sources and analyze on a regular basis.  

This shows where the best deals are coming from and where to spend time.

Use online data sources to augment your deal flow information.  

This step helps make follow-up decisions easier to figure out.

Monitor your deal flow activity for changes.  

This shows the impact of the market and conditions and signals for a change in follow-up.

Set up workflow processes so the deal goes to the right people in the proper sequence. 

Flag your most important deals to make sure they don’t fall through the cracks.

Optimize your system for your deal flow by gathering only the relevant information.

Connect your deal flow system to your email and other systems to integrate into the overall workflow.

Deal flow can be expensive in time and money, so it’s important to apply these steps to reduce the cost.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Gaston Eguren, Investment Analyst at Proeza Ventures.

Proeza Ventures is the largest mobility-focused VC in Latin America. They are based in Monterrey, Mexico, and Houston, Texas, looking to invest in companies focusing on industrial tech, smart components, new vehicles, MaaS, and digital data services. They are backed by the Proeza Group, a portfolio management company with two global platforms operating in the mobility and agroindustry sectors.

Proeza Ventures’ mission is to discover and invest in visionary founders building early-stage revolutionary startups transforming the way in which they think about mobility and with whom they can partner to make a more sustainable world.

Gaston started his career working at IGNIA Partners doing impact investments on the emerging middle class of Latin America, and then worked at Latitud Capital, a search fund looking for mid-market companies in Monterrey. He graduated from ITESM having studied business administration. 

Gaston discusses growth, trends, his criteria for investing, changes expected in the next 12 months in the mobility industry, and more.

You can visit Proeza Ventures at www.proezaventures.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/proezaventures, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/ProezaVentures.  

Gaston can be contacted via email at gaston.eguren@proezaventures.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/gaston-eguren/.  

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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

Deal flow is the lifeblood of the startup investor.

It’s important to assess the deals in short order to prioritize follow-up.

One way to help this process is to apply a rating to each deal.

Here are some key factors and how to calculate them to use in your rating:

Revenue run rate - take your current monthly revenue and multiply by 12 to annualize it.

Gross Margin - take your Cost of Goods Sold, divide by the revenue, and subtract 1. 

Burn Rate - monthly cash expenses minus monthly revenue.

Cohort Analysis - take the number of users who join the program and track the outcome of each. 

Cost of customer acquisition - monthly sales and marketing expenses divided by revenue from the customers signing up that month.

Payback - number of months of recurring revenue to cover the cost of customer acquisition.

Magic Number - revenue over two months multiplied by four and divided by sales and marketing costs over the same timeframe.

Sales Cycle - average number of days from first contact to customer signing up.

Lifetime Value - the total amount of revenue generated from a customer.

Total Available Market - the total amount of money spent in a target market.

Give each factor a score, say 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.  

Add up the factors to give the deal a score on a scale of 1 to 100.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Mia Urman, Founder & CEO of AuraPlayer.

AuraPlayer was founded in January 2013 by Mia, an Oracle veteran with over 20 years of Oracle Forms experience, and Java Guru Yossi Nakash, CTO. AuraPlayer’s founders built a modernization solution for Oracle Applications that would activate and communicate with Oracle Forms in an automated way, without redevelopment or migration changes. Today, AuraPlayer sells its products and services to businesses and government offices all over the world.

Headquartered in West Orange, New Jersey, AuraPlayer’s goal is that no Oracle Forms customer should be forced to migrate and no EBS application should be forced onto the cloud. AuraPlayer resides alongside your current Oracle applications and helps launch them into the digital world.

AuraPlayer’s mission is to build and deploy enterprise-grade, Oracle-based business applications by using next-generation technologies that will help you take your business to the next level.

Mia is an Oracle ACE Director and a renowned expert on Oracle development technologies and mobility, with over twenty years experience working, presenting, supporting, training, and consulting Oracle products. 

Prior to founding AuraPlayer, while providing consulting services to customers, Mia became intimately familiar with some of the leading challenges facing Oracle Forms/EBS legacy clients and co-founded AuraPlayer Ltd., a development house to provide mobilization and automation solutions.

Mia is a coveted speaker on Oracle technologies at various conferences including Oracle OpenWorld, IOUG Collaborate, ODTUG Kscope, UKOUG, DOAG, and keynote speaker at other Oracle Technology events.

Mia discusses growth, trends, changes expected in the next 12 months in the mobility industry, and more.

You can visit AuraPlayer at www.auraplayer.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/auraplayer, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/auraplayer.  

Mia can be contacted via email at miaurman@auraplayer.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/miaurman, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/miaurman. 

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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

Startup investing requires deal flow and the best deal flow comes from proprietary sources.

Here are some key points to set up your own process:

Contact your attorney and accountant as they are good sources of deal flow that aren’t known by everyone else.

Launch a content marketing program. Your own podcasts, blogs, and more, will build a pipeline of deals.

Organize your own pitch sessions separate from accelerators and incubators. Those groups run pitch sessions, but they are available to everyone so they provide little in the way of proprietary deal flow.

Create a community out of your network and invite them to send you deals. 

Provide mentorship to each startup to make their time with you beneficial to those companies. Those startups will return the favor with their recommendations to other startups.

Start a dinner series and invite investors and startups to share a meal along with their experiences.

Create a brand that fosters community connectedness. The community will respond by sending you deals.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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In this episode, Hall welcomes Jeffrey H. Bunin, Vice President of Commercial Lending at Capital Lending Corp.

Founded in 1995, Capital Lending Corp. first offered commercial property loans. Soon after that, the company began to offer residential financing in Northern New Jersey. In 1996, Capital Lending Corp. added business financing to its offerings. One year later, it became approved by HUD as an FHA lender. Capital Lending Corp. is a licensed correspondent mortgage lender in the state of New Jersey.

Today, Capital Lending Corp. serves New Jersey as a residential mortgage lender and originates commercial property and business financing on a national level. Capital Lending Corp. also serves larger private and public sector customers outside of the United States. The company continues to offer its services with the same business model on which it was founded, without charging upfront fees. Capital Lending Corp. maintains a highly-trained staff of multilingual financial experts. They are your financial solutions provider for the challenges and opportunities you face. They help transform your plans into reality.

Before joining Capital Lending Corp., Jeffrey was the Director of Planning for a major NJ chemical company. In this capacity, he contributed to its success by helping increase sales from $30 million to $350 million. He did the strategic plans, business valuations, M&A, budgets, and board appropriations. He contributed to over $30 million of income through acquisitions, avoiding poor investments, sales and profit improvements, cost savings and improved procedures. Jeffrey also has experience in metals recycling, printing, equipment manufacturing, food processing & marketing, e-commerce, etc.

Jeffrey’s CCNY degree in chemical engineering, plus his Rutgers MBA (President of the Business School Alumni Association 1997-2000), and continuing education has kept him abreast of the latest business trends and financial developments.

Jeffrey advises investors and entrepreneurs and shares some of the challenges they face. He discusses what excites him now in the industry and how he sees the state of startup funding evolving.

You can visit Capital Lending Corp. at www.capitallending.com.

Jeffrey can be contacted via email at jbunin@capitallending.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/jeffbunin/.  

Music courtesy of Bensound. 

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

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. 

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

Deal flow takes a substantial amount of time for the startup investor.

It’s important to organize your deal flow process so it’s efficient.

Use these steps to organize your deal flow.

Set up a separate email for deal flow and use it to capture deals from websites, social media, and other sources.

Have everyone on the team send any new deals to that email address.

Take all submitted deals and place them into a CRM with contact information, sector, stage, and other key information.

Update that record with the deal status and next steps.

Create a series of follow-up emails to send to those in the deal flow pipeline such as how your deal flow process works and when to expect a follow-up.

Develop a process for screening the deals for basic criteria and send “pass” notices to those deals that don’t meet them.

Set up calls with those that meet the criteria to qualify them and move them through your standard process.

Run reports to understand the deal flow and how well it is providing quality deals.

It’s important to review your successfully funded deals for key information so you can prioritize those deals for follow-up.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

Music courtesy of Bensound

In this episode, Hall welcomes Daniel Cohen, General Partner at Viola Ventures.

Viola Ventures is part of Viola, Israel’s leading tech-focused investment group with over $3.5B AUM. Founded in 2000, Viola Ventures empowers early-stage start-ups to become global leaders. The fund manages over $1B and has backed some of Israel’s unicorns such as Payoneer, ironSource, Lightricks, Outbrain, Redis Labs, Pagaya, and more. To date, the fund has invested in 82 companies and has recorded over 40 exits.

Daniel joined Viola Ventures after 11 years at Gemini Israel Ventures where he invested in various companies including Adap.tv (acquired by AOL for $450M), Outbrain, WatchDox (acquired by Blackberry for ~$100M), and Minute Media. Daniel’s investment focus is the B2C market, including consumer internet, e-Commerce, DTC, games, and digital media. Daniel began his career as a developer and product manager in a few Israeli high-tech companies, including Commtouch and Scitex. He has a BA in computer science and psychology from Tel-Aviv University and an MBA from INSEAD.

He currently serves on the board of EX.CO (formerly Playbuzz), Lightricks (creator of Facetune), and Maapilim. He was also on the board of Tapingo (acquired by Grubhub for $150M) and Origami Logic (acquired by Intuit).

Daniel advises investors and entrepreneurs, shares how he sees the industry evolving, and discusses his investment thesis.

You can visit Viola Ventures at www.viola-group.com/fund/violaventures/, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/violaventures/, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/violagroup. 

Daniel can be contacted via email at danielc@viola.vc, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/coheda, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/coheda. 

Music courtesy of Bensound.

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

Running deal flow is a time-consuming process.

There are steps you can take to automate it.

Here are some key points to consider:

Standardize the information you collect by using forms on the website.

Capture referral partners or sources so you can measure the results.

Collect the startup submissions to run metrics and track progress.

Use well-structured data sets so you can apply automation tools for analysis and data pulls from other platforms and software applications.

You can set up search tools to look up the founder and company to provide background information.

With a filled-out dataset, you can run reports on trends on the deal flow such as sector, stage, and fundraise amount.

With work automation software, set up to pull information from your CRM and other sources such as social media.

You can capture information from online databases such as Crunchbase and other tools to fill out more details.

These techniques improve your captured data and help you identify ideal startups to pursue.

Tracking the deal flow will help you identify the best sources of deals.

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.
___________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org 

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ 
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ 
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ 
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ 
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ 

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group  

Music courtesy of Bensound

In this episode, Hall welcomes back Ash Kaluarachchi, CEO at StartEd.

StartEd’s programs are for education innovators with companies around the world with tech-enabled solutions to improve education and workforce learning.

The StartEd Immersion program, which is a 5-day commitment, provides mentorship from the StartEd Network - the most seasoned and supportive network of investors, entrepreneurs, and educators in the world. It is designed to help entrepreneurs with up to $5M in funding or revenue secure their next round of financing and expand their customer base.

The StartEd Bootcamp is a 5-week, flexible part-time program for early-stage innovators, including working professionals, educators, and industry switchers, to test their ideas, build or enhance early products, and gain early customers.

Ash has directly advised and enabled growth for thousands of founders, educators, and investors, solving problems in education and workforce learning. His accelerator programs have resulted in 10% of global EdTech unicorns.

As an advocate for entrepreneurs, he has advised, launched, and operated multiple edtech and workforce accelerators, including for Techstars, the #1 startup accelerator and mentorship-driven seed-stage investment fund in the world, and organizations such as Kaplan, Intel, US News, Google, Amazon, NYU, USC and the University of Pennsylvania.

He is the Producer of EDTECH WEEK (www.edtechweek.com), a virtual distance learning and networking event for global education leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and educations. He was voted one of the Top 100 Influencers in Education Technology by Edtech Digest. Ash has an MBA with a focus on entrepreneurship from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Economics from Grinnell College. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.

Ash speaks about the rise of the edtech sector - classroom engagement & next-generation school segment, the primary trends, what makes for a successful company in this segment, and more.

You can visit StartEd at www.started.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/started-accelerator, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/startedaccel. 

Ash can be contacted via email at ash@startedaccelerator.com, via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/ashanthaik, and via Twitter at www.twitter.com/ashanthaik.   

Music courtesy of Bensound.

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

Deal flow is key to a startup investor’s success.