Welcome to The AFT podcast: At the Forefront of Transactions | Previously known as Fundraising Radio.!

Venture Capital Episodes

March 22, 2021

Student-led Venture Capital, how is it different from other VCs? Stor…

Hunter Babcock, Managing Partner at Atland Ventures talks about the structure of Atland Ventures, their fundraising and their major differences from other VC firms. Hunter also spoke about who should really try to work with student-led organizations and who should aim for standard funding sources.

Listen to the Episode
March 17, 2021

Changes in VC landscape over the past 20 years. By Steve Miller

Steve Miller, Founding Partner at Origin Ventures talks about the changes that he saw in the VC landscape over the past 20 years that he had spent running the fund. Steve also talks about investing nationally without focusing heavily on the coastal regions and the benefits of that.

Listen to the Episode
March 15, 2021

Building and funding ventures with relatives and selling startups. By…

Rob Weber, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Great North Labs talks about his path into VC, how he managed to build and sell multiple businesses with his twin brother and how it affected their ability to raise money in the past. We've also discussed the startup ecosystem in Midwest and Rob's advic…

Listen to the Episode
March 12, 2021

Founder VS Investor POV - answering the same questions from different…

Val Gui, VP of Automotive Lending at Upstart and Brittany Yoon, Principal at NFX talk about investor outreach, company valuation and early fundraising from two different perspectives - Val from the founder perspective, Brittany from the investor perspective. See how much overlap there is!

Listen to the Episode
March 10, 2021

How do you pitch yourself to an investor? The essentials of talking t…

Alyson DeNardo, partner at Mac Venture Capital, founder and CEO of Alden and partner at M Ventures talks about first time chats with investors, what kind of mistakes does she see founders making the most and what you, as a founder should pay attention to prior to the meeting.

Listen to the Episode
March 8, 2021

Operator, angel, advisor - Nick Cobb about investing as an operator t…

Nick Cobb, Senior Software Engineering manager at Aurora, active angel investor and an advisor to multiple startups talks about operators as angel investors and why most operators join syndicates/funds rather than investing by themselves.

Listen to the Episode
March 1, 2021

Rolling funds and how they are different from regular funds. By Jonat…

Jonathan Wasserstrum, CEO and Co-Founder at SquareFoot and lead of a syndicate and a rolling fund talks about running a rolling fund, how it is different from a regular VC or a syndicate and also what difference does it make for the founder which entity invests in them. We also discussed Jonathan's…

Listen to the Episode
Feb. 19, 2021

How to break into VC and how Array ventures invests in solving big pr…

Shruti Gandhi, General Partner and Founding Engineer at Array Ventures talks about how she managed to get into the VC space and what are the most valuable skills needed to do so. We also discussed investing in Deep tech and the big problems that it's solving and how Shruti approaches it.

Listen to the Episode
Feb. 17, 2021

How to accelerate the due-diligence process? By Michael Proman.

Michael Proman, Managing Director at Scrum Ventures talks about the due-diligence process and why some investors like to "take their time" while doing it. We also discuss what should founders do if an investor is already 2 months into "due-diligence" and still didn't give a definite response.

Listen to the Episode
Feb. 15, 2021

Testing out the idea for market disruption - how FidoCure made it. By…

Christina Lopes, Founder and CEO at FidoCure talks about how she came up with an idea, how she tested it out and raised her first rounds of funding. She also explained how she managed to get the attention of such notable investors as a16z, Tau ventures, YC and Lerer Hippeau.

Listen to the Episode
Feb. 12, 2021

SPACs, how they work and where is the consumer space headed. By Joe T…

Joe Tonnos, principal at Mistral Equity Partners and Co-Founder at Ketch Ventures talks about his experience of creating SPACs and how founders can benefit from them. We also spoke about the general structure of SPACs and how they differ from other options of going public. We also discussed the fut…

Listen to the Episode
Feb. 10, 2021

Fair insurance - fundraising in InsureTech. By Carey Anne Nadeau Co-C…

Carey Anne Nadeau, Co-CEO of Loop talks about what it means to be a Co-CEO and how that works, how Loop managed to raise over $3 million in such a short time and what led her into this field. We also spoke about diversity (the lack of it) amongst founders and specifically founders in the InsureTech…

Listen to the Episode
Feb. 9, 2021

How to choose the right growth investor and difference between early …

Mary D'Onofrio, Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners (the oldest VC firm in the US) talks about choosing the right growth investor for your company and about the preparation to that stage (explaining how to get in touch with growth investors early). We also spoke about the major differences …

Listen to the Episode
Feb. 5, 2021

What do you do after you raise your Pre-Seed round vs Seed round? By …

Jonathan Anderson , Co-Founder & CEO at Candu talks about what happens after each round of fundraising and what are the major differences between the pre-seed and seed rounds. We also spoke about how Candu came up with its pr...

Listen to the Episode
Feb. 3, 2021

When technical risk outweighs the market risk it's the true deep tech…

Ryan Li, Co-Founder at Deep Ventures talks about the deep tech investing and how he sees it. We also spoke about how he managed to raise and run a syndicate while being a college student and how investors reacted to this. And we discussed what Deep Ventures' team looks at while evaluating a startup.

Listen to the Episode