How I Raised It - The Podcast Where We Interview Startup Founders Who Raised Capital.

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Daniel Liebeskind of Topia.io, a place for people to come together in the metaverse and create interactive social experiences. In this episode, Daniel talks about the dangers of raising too much money, what you need at each round (FnF, Seed, Series A), and why he believes you should build in public. He also goes deep into what to do NOW to prepare for a future fundraise. Topia has raised $5.8 million from investors such as Alexis Ohanian, Bonfire Ventures, 35 Ventures, Rich Kleynman, basketball star Kevin Durant and others. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Nick Cuomo of Allstar, which is building a "TikTok for gamers" (learn more at www.allstar.gg). In this episode, Nick shares his story raising capital from Mark Cuban, tips for pitching NY Angels, how to use Foundersuite to run a tight fundraising process, how to build timelines into the process, and much more. Allstar has raised $4.2 million including a pre-seed round in 2019 from Mark Cuban and angels using a SAFE note, and a seed round in 2021 from New York Angels, Studio VC, and HNW investors from Zynga, Twitch, and other companies. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with John Zeratsky of Character, a Milwaukee based venture fund with an investment strategy focused on Product Design (www.character.vc). In this episode, John shares his 5-day design sprint process, what he's looking to invest in, tips for qualifying and pitching LPs, and more. Character has raised $30 million for its inaugural fund. Previously, John and his co-founder Jake Knapp worked at Google Ventures, where they used their product design skills to help companies like Slack, Blue Bottle, and Flatiron Health through hundreds of 5-day design sprints. They are joined by a third partner, Eli Blee-Goldman. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Ahmed Omar of Odiggo, which makes an NFT marketplace for books. In this episode, Omar shares tips for getting into Y Combinator, finding founder / market fit, doing a major business and market pivot, tips for MENA founders, and much more. The Company has raised over $4 million in two rounds from investors that include Y Combinator, 500 Startups and PlugAndPlay. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com/

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with "Burnt Banksy" a pseudonym for an anonymous founders behind Burnt Finance (www.burnt.com) a marketplace for trading non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Burnt originally garnered fame for burning an original Banksy artwork and then selling higher as an NFT In this episode, he talks about how he used profits from his Gamestop winnings to purchase the Banksy artwork, how he found and pitched crypto investors on Telegram, why he used a SAFT, why he's remaining an anonymous founder, and much more. The Company recently raised $8 million in a Series A round led by Animoca Brands. Other participants in the capital raise include Alameda Research, DeFiance, Figment, Multicoin Capital, Play Ventures, Spartan Capital, Terra, and others. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Jason Yeh of Adamant Ventures (https://www.adamantventures.com/) a firm that provides content and training to entrepreneurs who are raising capital. In this episode, Jason discusses why he believes the best fundraising approach is to demonstrate you have a great business (and then help investors discover you), tips for fundraising preparation and the process, why it's important to achieve "calendar density" with investors and much more. Prior to launching Adamant, Jason founded multiple venture backed startups and was a VC and EIR at Greycroft Ventures for several years. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com/

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Iddo Tal of Raise The Round (https://www.raisetheround.com/) a startup fundraising bootcamp. In this episode, Iddo shares his amazing 7-step process for managing VC meetings, tips for following up after an investor pitch, how to demonstrate traction (even before you have launched your startup), and much muck more. Iddo is a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur. His last startup, invi Messenger, was acquired by Google and merged with Google Messages taking the app to 600M users. In his Raise The Round online course he shares the step-by-step strategy he used to raise money from 100+ investors including Ashton Kutcher, the richest family in Asia, F50 and executives from Google, Facebook, Paypal, Snap, Yahoo and Spotify. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Suman Siva of Marco Experiences (https://www.marcoexperiences.com/), a platform that sells bespoke retreat packages to help foster company culture. In this episode, Suman talks about what it was like when he worked at Softbank Vision Fund, advice for pitching Slow Ventures, tips for building out a network of fellow founders, and more. The Company recently raised a seed round of just under $3M, led by Slow Ventures and Flybridge Partners. Other investors included The Community Fund, Jeff Housenbold (former head of consumer tech investing at SoftBank's Vision Fund), James Beshara (former CEO of Tilt), and Sonia Nagar (General Partner at the Pritzker Group). How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free accoun

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Bunim Laskin of www.Swimply.com, a marketplace for backyard swimming pool rentals. In this episode, Bunim talks about his Ultra-Orthodox Jewish upbringing and how becoming an entrepreneur was "rebellious," how he proved the concept and generated interest before writing any code, how he tapped the "camaraderie of founders" to get intros to high profile angel investors, tips for going on SharkTank, and much more. The Company recently raised $40 million in a round led by Mayfield and GGV. Other backers include Conrad Shang and Collin West at Ensemble Ventures and a high-profile list of validating angel investors including Airbnb co-founder Nate Blecharczyk; Casey Winters, formerly of Pinterest and Grubhub; Lime co-founder Brad Bao; Rob Chestnut, former chief ethics officer at Airbnb and eBay; Instacart CEO Fidji Simo and Shef’s Alvin Salehi. They join e

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Ofek Ron of Plantish (www.plantish.com) an Israeli company making plant-based seafood. In this episode, Ofek talks about how he started with a bold mission, used that to recruit a team, and then used the team to attract investors. He also shares great tips for making a funding round go fast including how to generate "FOMO" among investors, and much more. The Company recently raised $2 million from Sustainable Ocean Alliance, Gil Hirsh, Beni Nofech, TechAviv, VegInvest, Jose Andres and other angel investors. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com/

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Phil Libin of Mmhmm (https://www.mmhmm.app/), a communications company that is creating a better way to communicate via video — both in real-time and asynchronously. Phil previously founded note-taking app Evernote. He was also a VC at General Catalyst and co-founder of product studio All Turtles. In this episode, Phil talks about why he moved to Bentonville Arkansas from San Francisco, how he came up with the idea for Mmhmm, ways to be impressive to investors, thoughts on round timing, why speed of iteration is so critical, what he's doing differently now as an "older" founder, and much more. The Company recently raised $100 million from SoftBank’s Vision Fund, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Mubadala Investment Co., Human Capital, World Innovation Lab and others. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise ca

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Nhon Ma of Numerade.com, an AI powered digital tutoring platform with over 1 million video lessons. In this episode, Nhon talks about the epiphany moment of doing asynchronous tutoring, how he used a "traction story" with investors to pitch the business pre-revenue, why he believes founders must earn the right to pitch investors, how game theory applies to fundraising, and much more. The Company recently raised $26 million from IDG Capital, General Catalyst, Mucker Capital, Kapor Capital and Interplay Ventures, and strategic investors such as Margo Georgiadis (the former CEO of Ancestry), Khaled Helioui (the former CEO of Bigpoint Games and angel investor in Uber) and Taavet Hinrikus (founder of Wise) How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised o

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Jesse Draper of Halogen Ventures, a VC fund that invests in startups led by women. In this episode, Jesse talks about how she leveraged her Valley Girl Show and blog to build her network, how she pitched 500 investors to close 50, tips for first time VC fund managers, advice for courting fund-of-funds and RIAs, what types of startups she is looking to invest in, and much more. Halogen Ventures has raised over $50 million across multiple funds. Jesse Draper is a 4th generation venture capitalist and one of Marie Claire's ‘Most networked women in America’. Draper has invested in over 60 early stage deals including The Skimm (with GV), Glamsquad (with SoftBank), Hopskipdrive (with Greycroft), ThisisL. (acquired by P&G), and Eloquii (acquired by Walmart). How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Paxton Maeder-York, CEO of Alife Health (www.alifehealth.com) a startup building tools to combat infertility and improve IVF through artificial intelligence. In this episode, Paxton talks about raising capital for a startup before a product is launched, pitching vision and a plan, tips for storytelling, and more. The Company raised $9.5 million in one round led by Lux Capital (Deena Shakir) along with angels including Anne Wojcicki, Fred Moll, Dan Nova, Arthur Patterson and others. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com/

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Ben Narasin of Tenacity Venture Capital, a new seed stage fund that invests in FinTech, mobile, marketplaces, gaming, and other categories. In this episode, Ben talks about how he raised 2/3rds of the $50 million target in only 25 days, what multiples on investment he expects at the seed stage, how he plans to use SPVs, how to set a target amount for a new fund, what types of startups he's looking to invest in, and much more. Founders can pitch Ben at... wait for it... https://pitch-ben.com/ How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at https:/www.foundersuite.com/

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Thibaud Hug De Larauze Of Back Market (www.backmarket.com) a marketplace of refurbished electronics such as iPhones, Macbooks etc. -- part of the emerging "circular economy" class of startups. In this episode, Thibaud shares how he came up with the idea for a market for "renewed" electronics, how he got the company off the ground in France, insights into the French startup ecosystem, details on the Series C fundraising process, what it was like to pitch Al Gore, and much more. The Company has raised multiple rounds (angel through Series D) including: $7 million in 2017 from Daphni et Aglaé Ventures (Groupe Arnault) $41 million in 2018 from Groupe Arnault, Daphni and Thierry Petit, co-founder of Showroomprivé $110 million in 2020 from Goldman Sachs Growth, Aglaé Ventures and Eurazeo Growth $276 million in 2021 from Generation Investment Management (

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Garin Toren of Ping (www.pingloud.com), makers of technology that reads aloud your text messages, emails and instant messages from all major platforms while driving. In this episode, Garin shares his detailed (and very clever) strategy for cracking into multiple angel groups at once, why he decided to use a continuous fundraising / "rolling round" approach, how he sources investor contacts on Lunchclub, how to write excellent Investor Updates, and much more. The Company has raised $1.9 million over a 2 year period as a "rolling round" aka through a continuous fundraising process. Investors include angel groups Ash Creek and Jumpstart, as well as numerous individual angels. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016.

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Slava Rubin of Vincent (https://www.withvincent.com/), a search engine for alternative investment opportunities such as crypto, NFTs, real estate, art, collectibles, etc. Previously, Slava was a co-founder of Indiegogo, one of the pioneers of crowdfunding. He's also an active startup investor. In this episode, Slava talks about his process for raising capital from a group of "influencers," how he targeted a very specific list of investor prospects, why the alt investment market is hot, lessons learned from his time at Indiegogo, advice for simplifying the pitch, and much more. The Company recently raised a $6 million Series A led by Jason Calacanis' LAUNCH Fund with additional investment from 8VC and Digital Currency Group (the parent company of CoinDesk) as well as others such as Joe Lonsdale, Barry Silbert, and others. How I Raised It is produc

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Brett Fox, a startup advisor who has also worked in venture capital. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/foxbrett/ and https://www.brettjfox.com) In this episode, Brett talks about what to do if you lose a co-founder while raising capital, how many people to bring to VC pitch meetings, top mistakes startup CEOs make, how establish an emotional connection with investors, how to get investor to compete for your deal, and much more. Brett has advised dozens of startups on strategy, growth, and fundraising. He previously worked as an EIR at Crosslink Capital. See his writings at https://brett-j-fox.medium.com/ How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at https:/www.foundersuite.com/

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Frances Tang of Awkward Essentials (https://awkwardessentials.com/) a a medical-grade sponge made to absorb excess fluid after sex. In this episode, Frances talks about the scrappy ways she got her product-focused business off the ground, the challenges of raising capital for a sex-related business, her process for finding investors that would be a good fit, and much more. The Company recently raised a $2.3m seed funding round led by Unorthodox Ventures. The Company also participated in the Grid110 Accelerator. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at https:/www.foundersuite.com/