Welcome to The AFT Podcast!

Episodes

May 20, 2022

Running a company out of Ukraine and preparing to raise. By Alyona Mysko

Alyona Mysko, CEO & Founder at Fuelfinance in this episode talks about the story of her company and the effects that the war has on it and its future plans. Hint: no giving up in sight and Fuelfinance is preparing to raise soon while expanding!
Guest: Alyona Mysko
May 12, 2022

Building EVERYTHING in-house and raising. By Sharmin Ali

Sharmin Ali, Founder and CEO of Instoried tells her story of helping others write good stories. In this episode we go in-depth into the reasons why Instoried built all their tech in-house from scratch and how they use it as their competitive advantage to secure funding for the expansion. Sharmin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharmin-ali-5b6b4237/ Instoried website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/instoried/ I forgot what else I wanted to include in the description so here is the li...
Guest: Sharmin Ali
May 1, 2022

What is a down-round and how to survive one? By Russ Wilcox

Russ Wilcox, Partner at PillarVC talks about his experience running startups himself. Throughout his career he raised 10 times and 3 times these were down-rounds. In this episode Russ explains what down-rounds are bad, how they happened to him and how he managed to survive and thrive! Russ' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-wilcox-2005/ Pillar VC's website: https://www.pillar.vc/ For people who want to understand how to get in touch with the right investor, a course developed by Fund...
Guest: Russ-Wilcox
April 18, 2022

20 Years in VC, unlocking growth and supporting startups, by Tae Hea Nahm

Tae Hea Nahm, Managing Director and Co-Founder at Storm Ventures in this episode talks about his experience working as an attorney and helping startup founders raise money for their companies, and eventually starting a VC fund of his own. We also spoke about his book "Survival To Thrival", why he wrote it and what was the affect on his fund. Tae's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnahm/ Storm ventures: https://www.stormventures.com/ Here is the list of podcasts about fundraising (some of...
Guest: Tae-Hea-Nahm
April 1, 2022

The story of three pivots and growth management. By Koby Conrad from Rupa Health.

Koby Conrad, Head of Growth at Rupa Health and Founder of Channels of Growth talks about his experience building a company and pivoting 3 times. He also explains what growth management looks like and who should be dealing with that field. Koby's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kobyconrad/ Subscribe to Channels of Growth here: https://channelsofgrowth.substack.com/ Course on fundraising by Fundraising Radio team: https://fundraising-courses.com/ Rupa Health's site: https://www.rupahealt...
Guest: Koby Conrad
March 8, 2022

Raise through an SPV-syndicated round. What does that mean? Jeremy Neilson from Assure will explain

Jeremy Neilson, CEO and Co-Founder of Assure in this episode explains how SPVs work and what they are, how founders can use them to make their rounds easier and what are the expected costs of creating an SPV and syndicating your own round.
March 3, 2022

Raising and selling - no bootstrapping, why? By Nick Desai

Nick Desai - Founder and CEO at HeyRenee in this episode talks about how he started 5 companies and how many of them actually made it. He also explains why he chose to raise money from VCs for all his companies and how that decision affected the business. HeyRenee site: https://www.heyrenee.co/ Nick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickdesaiheal/ Can your investors fire me? Here is an episode of Fundraising Radio explaining this question: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Jeb-Banner/ If...
Guest: Nick-Desai
Feb. 22, 2022

Fundraising for non-profit is easier than for a for-profit company? HOW? Dylan Kendall explains

Dylan Kendall - candidate for Los Angeles City Council District in 2022 and a Founder of a for-profit and non-profit in this episode shares her experience of being a founder in Los Angeles. She explains how did it happen that fundraising for a non-profit turned out to be easier than for a for-profit company and how she got into politics. Learn more about Dylan as a candidate here: https://dylankendall2022.com/ Relevan episode where Claudine Emeott explains how impact funds work: https://www.f...
Guest: Dylan-Kendall
Feb. 13, 2022

Can you get fired from your own company? Jeb Banner explains how governing boards work.

Jeb Banner, CEO and Co-Founder of Boardable explains how the governing boards really work and how founders can make sure that they don't get fired from the companies that they have started. He also spoke about the first steps that early stage founders should take to establish the board and explained the legal requirements around the board management. Jeb's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jebbanner/ Boardable: https://boardable.com/ Course by Fundraising Radio's team: https://www.fundrai...
Guest: Jeb-Banner
Feb. 5, 2022

How to invest in wine and how Vinovest itself raised money. By Anthony Zhang

Anthony Zhang, Co-founder and CEO at Vinovest talks about how his company helps "regular" people invest in wine - an asset class that was previously only accessible to the wealthy people with free time on their hands. He also spoke about their most recent Series A and how they had to change their business model to close the round successfully. Anthony's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-zhang-988a2375/ Link to Vinovest that will get you 3 months of no management fees: https://vino...
Guest: Anthony Zhang
Jan. 26, 2022

Lawyer free and charge free fundraising tool - Party Round. By Jordi Hays

Jordi Hays, Co-Founder & CEO at Party Round in this episode talks about the legal side of fundraising and how it looks like now VS what it actually should be. We've also discussed the need for actual lawyers in some fundraising rounds and the importance of friends and family round in a life of a startup. Jordi's email for those who want to skip the line of over 30k users and use Party Round now: jordi@partyround.com Jordi's LinekedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordi-hays-559199113/ And of c...
Guest: Jordi Hays
Jan. 20, 2022

Build a financial organization in 3 weeks. By Duy Vo at Productfy

Duy Vo, Founder and CEO at Productfy talks about being a sole founder and yet having great Co-Founders (in a way) who have helped him lead the company to the success instead of selling early on. He also explains how Productfy works and how it can transform any organization into a complex financial organization in a span of a few weeks. Duy Vo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duybvo/ Productfy's site: https://www.productfy.io/ Course on fundraising for early stage startups: https://www....
Guest: Duy Vo
Jan. 11, 2022

Raising a Series D. By Sid Viswanathan, Co-Founder at Truepill.

Sid Viswanathan Co-Founder & President at Truepill talks about raising a Series D and how it is different from earlier rounds. We've also touched onto the story of how prior to Truepill, Sid founded CardMunch, a business-card scanning app that was acquired by LinkedIn soon after its founding. Sid's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidviswanathan Truepill's site: www.truepill.com And of course, link to our course on fundraising at 70% discount (only until the 15th of January): https://bit...
Dec. 20, 2021

Finding a co-founder by CEO of Opal

Stephen Cobbe, co-founder and CEO at Opal talks about his journey with Opal, ups and downs and how to handle them. He also shares some recommendations on how to find a good co-founder and shares his personal experience in that field along with two great books. Stephen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scobbe/ Opal's website: https://opal.dev/ Two great books in question: 1. Never Split the Difference: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805 2....
Guest: Stephan Cobb
Dec. 5, 2021

Raising $200k through a Twitter post. By Alex Simon with Elude

Alex Simon, CEO Co-Founder of Elude in this episode talks about the new strategies that modern founders can employ while fundraising for their startups. We also spoke about some key things that founders should have on hand before starting to raise and about other things that I forgot to write down. Alex' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexnsimon/ Elude website: https://elude.co/ Episode with the founder of DocSend: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Russ-Heddleston/ 70% off (for less tha...
Guest: Alex Simon
Nov. 26, 2021

1-month accelerator - how does it work? By Brett Goldstein

Brett Goldstein, Co-Founder at Launch House talks about focusing on the new values instead of pushing old shit through accelerators and how exactly he approaches it. We spoke a lot about how the fundraising field has changed over the past years and why many accelerators are going obsolete with founders needing a better alternative. We also discussed some of the fundraising tactics that Launch House implements to help its participants fundraise. Brett's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bg...
Nov. 22, 2021

Charity fundraising and non-profits. By Amy Malin from Trueheart

Amy Malin, Co-Founder at Trueheart talks about how by making simple search requests you give money to non-profits instead of monopolistic corporate giants. We spoke about how fundraising for non-profits looks like and how is it different from fundraising for for-profit companies and how should one approach fundraising for such projects. Amy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amymalin/ Trueheart - change the world with every search: https://trueheart.com/ SMB bonds that we've touched on d...
Guest: Amy Malin
317
Nov. 13, 2021

DocSend - how increasing prices increased conversions. By Russ Heddleston.

Russ Heddleston, Co-Founder and CEO talks about the story of DocSend and how the decision to increase their prices led to an increased conversion rate for their customers and how exactly this magic worked. We've also discussed how DocSend became so essential for the startup founders and how was the product taking shape. In this episode Russ touched onto the acquisition of DocSend by Dropbox and explained how exactly they got to a $150 million acquisition with just $15 million raised.
316
Nov. 5, 2021

Fundraising for an open-source startup, how do you explain it to investors? By Michel Tricot, Airbyte

Michel Tricot Co-Founder at Airbyte talks about raising capital for an open-source startup. We talked about how Airbyte plans to monetize and how they managed to get into Y-Combinator. We also touched onto the effect that a good background in a relevant field has on your fundraising efforts (spoiler: it makes fundraising too easy) Michel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micheltricot/ Airbyte's website: https://airbyte.io/ Link to our course on fundraising - The Science of Getting in fr...
Guest: Michel Tricot
315
Oct. 23, 2021

9 year overnight success - how bootstrapping pays off in long-run. By Bryan Clayton

Bryan Clayton, CEO and Cofounder at GreenPal talks about how his company outlived dozens of his competitors by NOT raising money from investors. We also discussed the future plans of the company and why their strategy might change and actually include fundraising in some form. But the major focus of the interview is on the reasons to not fundraise and on discussions of cases in which it is applicable. Bryan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-clayton-a96b33214/ GreenPal's website: h...
314
Oct. 16, 2021

You don't want luck-based marketing - Karl Hughes about proper content marketing.

Karl Hughes, Founder and CEO at Draft.dev talks about content marketing, specifically focused on targeting developers. We discussed some strategies that can be applied and budget for good content marketing along with some use-cases.
Guest: Karl Hughes
313
Oct. 6, 2021

2X valuation in 4 months - how and why? Kirk Marple about Unstruk Data

Kirk Marple, Founder and CEO at Unstruk Data talks about their fundraising round and how they doubled their valuation in less than 4 months. We also spoke about some useful techniques that can help founders fundraise. Kirk's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkmarple/\ Unstruk Data: https://www.unstruk.com/
Guest: Paul Martino
312
Sept. 28, 2021

What is post-seed, how is it different from bridge round and is it really bad for founders to "fall out of pattern". By Paul Martino, Bullpen capital.

Paul Martino, founder at Bullpen capital talks about investing in founders who are "falling out of pattern", making post-seed investments and how such investments are different from bridge rounds. We also spoke about how founders should view such post-seed rounds and how to approach them. Paul's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljmartino/ Bullpen capital: https://bullpencap.com/ Work is still very much in progress, but you can preview the upcoming course on outreach to investors creat...
Guest: Paul Martino
311
Sept. 19, 2021

Gathering feedback to build the company on - the story of Till Financial by Taylor Burton.

Taylor Burton, Co-Founder of Till Financial talks about the creation and fundraising of it and how they have gathered analyzed and later presented the feedback to the investors. Taylor also touched onto the major problems that they faced while building the company and some mistakes they've made early on.
Guest: Taylor Burton