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

Episodes

Jan. 6, 2021

Money, Data, Product and Healthcare. By Abboud Chaballout

Abboud Chaballout, Co-Founder at Diagnoss talks about working in a heavily regulated field and what it takes to get into healthcare space. We also talked about fundraising for Diagnoss and how he approached it during the pandemic.

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Jan. 4, 2021

Building relationship after the rejection, by co-founder of Toucan - …

Taylor Nieman, Co-Founder and CEO at Toucan talks about raising money from investors who previously rejected her. We spoke how to maintain good relationship with investors and how that can lead to an investment from someone who previously rejected you.

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Dec. 30, 2020

Investing in Fintech by principal at Costanoa Ventures - Amy Cheetham

Amy Cheetham, principal at Costanoa Ventures talks about investing in Fintech during the pandemic (and post-pandemic) and how founders in these fields should work with investors at times like this.

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Dec. 28, 2020

Using referral networks and how to get intros to investors. By Martij…

Martijn De Wever, CEO & Founder of Force Over Mass and Floww, talks about using (and building) referral networks and getting warm introductions to investors you've never met before. Martijn also talks about his experience of raising money during COVID and his advice to founders who want to raise mo…

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Dec. 23, 2020

YC during pandemic - how did it work out? By Vladimir Klimontovich

Vladimir Klimontovich, Co-founder & CTO @ Jitsu (YC S20) talks about how it felt to be in the YC during the pandemic. He explained what major problems he saw in participating in the program fully remotely and also discussed the benefits of remote-YC. We also spoke about creating the momentum for fu…

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Dec. 21, 2020

Raising from overseas investors, by Pascal Unger from Darling Venture…

Pascal Unger, Managing Partner at Darling Ventures talks about raising money from non-US-based investors and who should try this strategy, we also spoke about raising money for funds and how funds approach their fundraising. Touched onto San Francisco being not the center of the startup universe an…

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Dec. 18, 2020

Importance of startup culture and mission statement. By Steve Morin

Steve Morin, Head of Mobile Engineering at Asana talks about the importance of the mission statement of the company and its culture and how it affects hiring talented employees. We also talked about Steve's investment/mentorship thesis and his advice to early stage entrepreneurs trying to create th…

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Dec. 15, 2020

How to conduct customer interview if you don't have much money? By Sa…

Sandy Huang, Head of Product Growth at Alexa Mobile, talks about understanding your customers early on, running individual customer interviews, releasing surveys and doing the customer development in a lean way. We also spoke about how larger companies do that and when a founder needs to hire a pro…

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Dec. 11, 2020

Dave Krauthamer, a digital disruptor for The Band of Angels and a gro…

Dave Krauthamer, Founder and CEO at QuSecure, Founder at Quantum Thought, Founder at Neural Sales and Chair of Digital Disruption Group at the Band of Angels. In this episode he speaks about how the Band of Angels invests, what major metrics do they look at and how to get to them.  We also discusse…

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Dec. 9, 2020

Disruption was disrupted - story of iStrategyLabs. By Peter Corbett

Peter Corbett, founder of iStrategyLabs talks about his journey through the startup world and shares his thoughts on fundraising for early stage startups.

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Dec. 7, 2020

Selling the company and talking to 170 startup founders. By Blake Smi…

Blake Smith, Co-Founder and CEO at Cladwell that exited in 2019 and currently the founder of Jumpdocs.com (formerly named Boilerplate.legal) talks about his previous experiences in fundraising and selling his company. We also spoke about the major problems that startup founders are having and how t…

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Dec. 4, 2020

Pascal Levy-Garboua, angel investor of 120 startups including a few u…

Pascal Levy-Garboua, currently the Venture Partner at Long Journey Ventures, talks about his previous experiences with both - fundraising and building companies in general. We also talked about what Long Journey Ventures likes to invest in and those who are good fit can ping Pascal and LJV using li…

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Dec. 2, 2020

How the seed round was raised. By Drew Moffit

Drew Moffitt, Exited Founder turned Corporate Venture Builder, Mentor at Techstars and a Fledgling Angel, talks about how he raised his seed round for Tailbus and how that company got to an acquisition. We've also talked about how a startup founder can raise a series A round instead of the acquisit…

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Nov. 30, 2020

Raising money through KickStarter - how and who should do it? By Zach…

Zach Cohen, currently the Director of Business Development at Vista Investments and previously the President at Cohen and Sons Apparel that was acquired in 2018. In this episode he speaks about his fundraising experience and specifically about raising money through KickStarter - how did it work for…

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Nov. 23, 2020

How do SAFEs work? By Phil Nadel

Phil Nadel, Founder and Managing Director at Forefront Venture Partners (formerly Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners), talks about the major instrument used for raising money - SAFEs or SAFE notes. We talked about the major misunderstandings about this instrument, who should use it and when is it ti…

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Nov. 20, 2020

Growing a US-based startup in China - how and why? By Victor Zhou

Victor Zhou, Ex Founder & CEO of Sentinel Tec that was acquired by DT talks about how he managed to grow his company in China and why that happened. We also looked into who should try to look abroad while being based in the US and how your startup can prosper in another country.

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Nov. 18, 2020

Senior technology leadership and how are startups built. By Alex Ecke…

Alex Eckelberry is a technology CEO with an extensive background in senior technology leadership, with private, venture/PE backed, and publicly-traded companies. Alex was most recently President and COO of AutoLoop, a SaaS disrupter in the automotive technology space, now merged with Affinitiv

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Nov. 16, 2020

How does reward-based crowdfunding work and who should try it? By Ste…

Stefanie Yu, Partnerships, Strategic Lead at IndiegoGo talks about reward-based crowdfunding and what kind of startup should try to pursue it. We talked about the major steps founders should take while preparing for it and the major mistakes founders make while raising money through this source.

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Nov. 13, 2020

Building scout network - how can it help founders and future VCs? By …

Wade Fletcher, Founder at ScoreTwoMedia that was acquired in 2020 and currently the Founder of UndercoverVC, talks about constructing scout networks and how a high school student can grow a small startup. We've also discussed how can startup founders take advantage of such scout networks and how do…

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Nov. 11, 2020

Daniel McCarthy on growing, funding, acquisition funneling, angel inv…

Daniel McCarthy, Director and Co-Founder of Theta Equity Partners and Co-Founder and Chief Statistician of Zodiac acquired by Nike, talks about building and selling companies, how some funds invest based on stats only and how he personally approaches fundraising and investing.

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Nov. 9, 2020

Guerrilla marketing, mergers and sales, by Jason Myers.

Jason Myers, Partner at CopyPro.ai and Chairman of Various and Guerrilla Marketing Global, talks about how he grew multiple businesses into cash-generating machines and how he managed to get through the very first stages. We also discuss Guerrilla marketing and how it works and other customer acqui…

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Nov. 6, 2020

Two rounds through equity crowdfunding - lessons learned. By Andrew C…

Andrew Christodoulides, Founder & CEO of Moro that has raised one round through equity crowdfunding and is planning to raise the second one through equity crowdfunding again talks about the major lessons he learned in the previous round. We also talked about how his strategy will change in the upco…

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Nov. 3, 2020

Raising pre-seed and seed rounds and surviving golden rush. By Scott …

Scott Schwab, Co-Founder at Bottega, Managing Partner at Aethos Ventures and Partner at Mett Corp talks about his first fundraising experience and how his approach to fundraising changed since then. We also discuss how startups can survive and prosper in heavily saturated markets.

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Nov. 2, 2020

Building advisory boards - how does it work? By Skip Sanzeri

Skip Sanzeri, currently the founder and partner at Multiverse Capital and founder at QuSecure and Quantum Thought, previously the founder with several exits and failures. In this episode we talk about creating advisory boards - how to compensate advisors, what kind of contract should you have with …

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