
Fundraising and Venture Capital in 2023 with Julian Weisser
The Deep End by ODF
The Different Models of Fundraising for a Company
On Deck co-founder and CEO of On Deck, John Defterios. He says things have not really changed that much in the funding environment for startups. Most people who fundraised did have traction or momentum, he says. Having paying customers is truly a very good test for whether you're building something worthwhile, defterios says.
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Speaker 1
Here, I want you to write this down. What good is it to no purpose if you ain't
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got no
Speaker 1
power? It's because you know why something was created. Does not mean it has the power to do what it was created to do. And we could sit up here all day explaining the nuance of a drill, the many capabilities of a phone, and the simplicity of a flashlight, and be able to articulate and communicate and post how much you know your purpose. And it would not matter at all because you do not have access to actual power. Thank you very much. There are many believers today walking around with knowing their purpose, saying, this is why I'm created, this is what I'm going to do, this is how I'm going to make a difference, this is how I'm going to be a part of a holy rebellion. And absolutely my deepest desire is that every single person would come into contact with Jesus in such a way and he would unwrap the box of purpose so clear to you that you would know exactly why you were put on this planet. And I want you to know the enemy is not afraid of you just knowing your purpose. The enemy is not afraid of you being able to say your once in its purpose by itself because he knows just because you know the purpose does not mean you have access to power. And in today's culture, one of the most culturally rebellious things you could do is realize that you ate the
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source of your own
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power. In today's culture, here's what we do, and this is how we're going to walk into this today because in today's culture you are your own power. Does it mean myself or not? I got myself here. I'm going to work harder. I'm going to be stronger than everybody. I'm going to work harder than everybody. I'm going to have that if a better marketing plan. And it's you mustering up your own energy to do your own plans that you've sent out in front of you. And here's what I want to acknowledge. You can have with your power, you can have a good purpose. This is true. I want to acknowledge this. There are many people in the earth today doing amazing things that are very impressive under their own power. They've got a good idea. They've got some good marketing. They've got a good strategy. They're a really disciplined person. And they walk out a good purpose. But I want to be very clear today. If you want to walk out the God purpose for your life, if you want to do something that is not within your own ability, if you want to live the way he spoke to you and told you that dream, if you want to stand up and stand out in a way that is not in your own ability, trust me. You're going to need access to some power that is not come from you. You're going to need access not to just some power. You're going to need access to a person called the Holy Spirit. I want you to know today I came on assignment for every person who has gotten purpose but then felt so frustrated because it doesn't, you don't feel like it's working. This is what has happened in church. We have told people Jesus will give you purpose and make you feel like you have purpose in the world, which is a true statement yet an incomplete statement if I do not tell you and clarify where the power for this purpose comes from. And what happens is you can listen to a sermon about the Holy Rebellion. You can hear somebody give a good talk and you leave thinking, okay, here's how I'm going to do it. I'm going to do this and then I'm going to read the Bible this many times a day and then I'm going to do this thing and I'm going to do it. And it's all and if you're not careful, you have slowly slipped into you are your own source of power. And it is, here's what I'm going to do and here's how I'm going to work it out and here's where I'm going to go after this. And here's who I like and we have slowly slipped into the same thing as culture thinking that we are our own power
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supply.
Speaker 1
And I felt such a burden specifically even this last week I was sitting in a youth service. At the end of the service I'm excited to say we're going to take a moment to pray over all of our students and all of our teachers and it's going to be a beautiful, beautiful moment. As I was sitting in that youth service, I felt no matter if you're a student or not, I felt the only thing that is going to make you stand out and have the courage to stand up in today's culture is not going to be you being your own power. And we have for so long taught people that you need to have the fruit of the spirit in your life. Okay, cool. How do you, we just got to be patient? You got to be kind. You got to have long suffering. You got to have joy. Okay, dope. Where's that coming from though? Does anybody ever not felt those things and then feel like you're supposed to be those things? Let me just read you the scripture so we all know what we're talking about. Galatians 522, Galatians 522, this is the fruit of the spirit. Here we go. Where is it at? Oh, this is one of them old books where you got to turn the page. I don't know if y'all got one of those. But the fruit, but the, listen to this, but the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is no law against these things. If this is how you're, if we said you want to be crazy, you want to stand out, you want to stand up, be kind to people, let me tell you, within yourself is not the power to be kind to people who ain't kind to you. And there's a whole demographic of people that feel so discouraged because you see the purpose. You see what you're supposed to do. You feel like it's gotten clear, okay, this is what I'm going to do for God. And then you get out there and it feels like it's not working. Why? Because you think power comes from performance. You think you get stronger just because you think it's, oh, I get my power from performing for people. And that same mindset drawn into Christianity, drawn into following Jesus, drawn into being submitted and a student of him has you thinking when God asks me to do something, he's asking me to be strong, he's asking me to step up. No, no, no, no, no. He is asking you to access the gift that he gave you, the Holy Spirit, who then stand up and stand out. And the Holy Spirit is not some spooky thing. I know you might call it the Holy Ghost. You might have the spirit of the living. I don't know what it was called to you growing up. But as long, here's the craziest thing. If God knows that you have a purpose, but you also need the power to accomplish, and if you had that power, there would be nothing that would stop you. Doesn't it make sense that somehow the enemy has twisted people to be afraid of the very thing that would give them power? The Holy Ghost, I don't know about that man. There's some weird stuff with the Holy Ghost. And let me just say this, I get it. There's some weird stuff around the Holy Ghost that has happened in church. Let me just admit it. There are some people you meet that be like, oh, I feel the Holy Ghost. And then whatever they say after that is like, I don't know what you feel, sweetheart. But that, let
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me
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tell you this, those weird people that you've met and hadn't expected, they was weird before they got the Holy Ghost. And don't blame him. They was weird, they is weird, and they will be weird. But it was not. But if you just think, well, I just, I don't understand that, I don't really know that, and I'm just going to, you leave out the actual power you need to walk in the way God has called you to walk. And the truth is some of you think you have discovered a God purpose, and the truth is unless your purpose has pushed you past yourself, you just got a good purpose. Because a God purpose will have you realizing, I can't do this by myself. A God purpose will have you realizing, I need something else to raise these kids. A God purpose will say, I'm not qualified to start a business like this. A God purpose will say, I don't speak well in front of people. A God purpose will say, hey, I don't even pass English, but you want me to write a book, okay? A God purpose will push you past yourself. And if you feel like you got an in you to accomplish your purpose, I want to come to challenge you today that maybe you have not received a vision from God, you got a good idea. I'm not mad at your good idea, but I want to invite you into something greater. And it's the purpose that God laid out for your life before the foundations of the earth were formed. It requires a different type of power. You ever got on your phone, there are different like charges, you know, the little charging blocks. I don't know if you've ever done this. There was one time I lost the charging block to my computer. And I didn't know I was like, okay, I'll just use my other. And then I found one of them super tiny boys for like an iPhone, not like the big iPhone, like the little tiny one with the USB board and thought, oh perfect, I got the cord, I'll just use this. When I tell you, it took 68 hours to charge
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up.
Speaker 1
All right, because Apple knows for what this was meant to do, it needs a different output of power that is according to what it was created for. I want you to know some of the frustration you since is because you're not plugged into the right power. Let me tell you, different places we go to get power. People try to give you power. All of us, we feel like, okay, I can do it. If you got enough people around you, I build teams, man, that's what I do. I form a good team and I'm confident. The team is great. I want you to know what God called you to do. It ain't just going to be a team. Some of us find power from different places. We feel like if I'm in a specific place, then I feel power. If I got to go to LA, you know, my dream is in LA and I got to be in LA or my dream is in New York and that's awesome. But I'm telling you, that place is not going to give you the power
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that you
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need. Until you realize, I need something more than this. And here's what the Scripture says and it's so interesting to me. There was a Scripture in 2 Timothy and it says this. It says, but understand this, that in the last days, dangerous times, this is the amplified. So it's got all the stuff in there. Dangerous times of great stress and trouble will come. Difficult days that will be hard to bear. For people will be lovers of self, narcissistic, self-focused, lovers of money, impaled by greed, boastful, arrogant, revelers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, profane, and they will be unlit loving, devoid of natural human affection, calloused, inhumane. There will be malice in gossip, devoid of self-control, immoral, brutal, haters of good, haters, reckless, conceited, lovers of sensual pleasure rather than lovers of God. And then it says this, amongst that list of how hard and difficult the times will be, it says, they will be rather than lovers of God. They will hold on to a form of outward godliness or religion, although they have denied its power for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith. Avoid such people and keep far away from them. I know in church we love to yell about the people at the top of that list. Yeah, people who love themselves, people who are selfish, people who are just lustful, people who also the people you need to watch out for, they have a form of godliness, but they deny the power they're of. They got to list the rules on the outside, they shatata-tata all day, but they have no actual power. They check off their you version plan and post it so everybody know they spiritual, but the truth is they haven't submitted themselves to the Trinity of God, the person of God called the Holy Spirit who can actually give you the power to break the addiction that you got hidden under the covers. Because they have a form of godliness, their church attendance is perfect and they read all the books and they post all the things, but they don't have
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power. It will
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be a part of our whole rebellion. We're not going to walk around powerless. There are so many people that the goal of this series is to equip you, to inspire you, to wake up something on the inside of you, so you would walk out of here knowing that you do need to go into that industry, that your workplace is primed and ready for you to be a messenger of the gospel, for you to go into school this year and it to be an actual different year, but I would be remiss if I sent you out there with a purpose and not tell you that you are not your own power. You need access to the Holy Spirit. You need the one who comes alongside. You need the comforter. We have to have the Holy Spirit. And here's the thing I love about Jesus. He painted this perfectly in Scripture. He gives his disciples purpose. He's very clear on that. Matthew 28, Jesus came and told us disciples, I've been given all authority and heaven and on earth. Therefore, here it is, purpose. Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey the commands I have given you and be sure as this, I am with you even to the end of the age. As Matthew 28, next page in your Bible, here's how it reads, Acts 1, once when he was eating with him, he said, do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So the apostles were with Jesus and they kept asking him, Lord, has the time come to free Israel and restore the kingdom he replied, the Father alone has authority to set those dates. They're not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And then watch this, he clarifies the order, and then you will be my witnesses telling people everywhere about me, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaritan, and even to the ends of the earth. Jesus was very clear with the order. I want to give you purpose. I want you to know you matter. I want you to know you were born for a reason. I want you to know there's something on the inside of you of value. Matter of fact, I'm going to use broken people who are perfect to go into all the world, to go into every industry, to go out and make disciples, baptize them and be the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Absolutely. But please do not leave Jerusalem. Please do not leave this place. Please do not go from here. Please do not go out into that industry. Please don't go into the music industry. Please do not go back to your school. Please do not go back to that marriage. Please do not go back to raising them children. Thinking, just knowing your purpose is all there is. He says, please wait for you will receive power from the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of people who some of us, you lost your power. And all that is you just forgot somewhere along the way. You forgot. Wait, I'm not the source of this. I'm, this isn't me. And some of you, you're in the category that what God has called you to feels so overwhelming. And nobody has opened up the door of access to another power that you have stood at start for so long thinking, I can't do this. I don't know. I'm not, and here's what I want to say. If you're thinking you are your own source of power, you're probably right. Some of the stuff, if I think, oh yeah, you know, being in my position here and my role here and raising four kids and making sure I have a beautiful marriage and making sure I'm being a good friend and try. If I start thinking about all that said and think, Charles got to do all that, yeah, brother, I don't know about that, homie. But when I read scriptures that say the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives on the inside of me, when I become aware that have access to something that is not human, that is not natural, but something that is super natural, something that was in there in the first book of the Bible in Genesis when it says, in beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formless and without void and the spirit was hovering against the waters. There's a picture of the Trinity in Genesis first three scriptures. In the beginning God, there he go and the spirit was hovering above the water. There go the spirit and God said, let there be light. Who's the light of the world? The sun doesn't come for a couple days, but the light was there. Trust me. God the Father and the, and he says, I want you to have access to my power. There's one dude. We're going to get out of here. 13 minutes, 27 seconds. How to get your power? I got three points for you and I'm going to tell a story. So when I, when I first moved out of my parents house, I moved here to Tulsa. I didn't understand, as all 18 year olds or 28 year olds, depending on your predicament of when you got out your parents house, no shade, brother, but for me, it was a little earlier than that. When I got to my apartment, I like, I paid for my rent, paid all the dues to your apartment place and then I walked, I had all my stuff. My little brother helped me move channel and I had all my stuff and I walked up in my apartment and I'm just putting on, and we're just here on a moving day. It's just like you just going. So I'm going, unpacking all of the stuff. We literally, I'm like setting up the furniture because I'm like, I moved a bunch growing up and what I've learned from moving is if you don't set it up immediately, you will be halfway in that house for three years. So you'd be done to have a whole room that's like, yeah, yeah, I'm going to set that up right when I, and so I'm like setting up the bed, putting everything on and literally, I get, I put the TV and plug it up. I hook up. I had like an old Xbox 360. I plugged it up. My little brother's into it. I'm like, oh yeah, let's do it. And literally, we sit there and I go to turn on the TV and I'm like, what the hell? What's the, what's the, what's the, what's the, what's the, what's the, what's the, I'm flipping on lights. I'm like, maybe it's just this outlet and I go test another outlet. Then I start flipping on the switches and I ain't got no power. My little brother was like, well, you mean you ain't got no power. You didn't call it a power place? He like 12 years old. I'm like, what do you mean call the power place? I paid the apartment. They should turn my power on. I didn't understand. You had to set up the power. So I got these three points on what I had to do. Point number one, call. This is, you got to acknowledge and ask. I had to call them, say, hey, my name's Charles and I'm at 5303 South Sheridan and I ain't got no power. And I want to be very practical with you today. If you feel like you've never had power, your power has run out or you're just now realizing that the purpose in front of you has pushed you past yourself. The first thing you could do is call God and say, hey, God, I got to raise these kids and I don't have power. Hey, God, I got to run this business and there's so much pressure for me to change who I am to be successful. I don't have any power. It's about asking and acknowledging. And some of us, this is how it goes against our culture. This is how we rebel because in today's culture, nobody wants to ask for help. You think you get brownie points for suffering and acting like you ain't. How you doing? Oh, I'm listening. How do you favor the Lord? You know, just doing great. And you turn around and you're like, aah! What was that? Oh, that was just the Holy Ghost. No, you have trauma, young brother, and you need help. We can see you're not okay. And you want to rebel? Admit, you need help. Admit, you didn't have a dad, so you don't know how to raise your son. And until you admit that, you will know, admit that you know what, I got this job and I did kind of fudge on the application and I have no idea how to run this program. And that's my whole job. I lied and got, gave me the job just to play a trick on me, but maybe sitting here nine or five and I know. What the heck I'm doing? You got to ask and acknowledge, God, I don't have enough power for this. I thought I could stay pure. But God, I don't, the way these ladies is out here, I just don't know if me personally You have to call and admit, hey, I don't have power. The second thing that I did is sometimes when you move into different places, we moved into a new house recently and there hadn't been a connection ever at that house before. Point number two, there's call, then you have to connect. There has to be a moment, sometimes it's a physical person who has to come, sometimes they have to set up a new account for you, but there has to be a moment of connection. Because just because you called does not mean there is a connection to your house. And what I've realized, and here's what I've read, at any time we lived in one house where the lawnmower went over the thing and it cut the connection, at any time on a daily basis, you can use your connection. You can lose it. So what is this? The first thing we're going to access, there has to be a daily connection. It's not just one time I call, hey Holy Spirit, you can help me out for the next 15 years, I just want to cover all those, that'd be great. Now every single day when you wake up, I'm connecting. God, I thank you that today, I do not have it in myself. So Holy Spirit, just as you did yesterday, I'm connecting with you in this moment and asking you to empower me beyond myself. God, I don't have the patience to be with this man today because you know he's a fool, but I thank you Holy Spirit that
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you would give
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me.
Joining us today in the Deep End is Julian Weisser. Julian is the co-founder of On Deck, and a prolific angel investor with over a hundred angel investments including Loyal, Level, Atmos, and more.
Every few months, we invite Julian to the podcast to get a sense of what's going on in the world of venture, and this conversation is not different.
We look at the growing importance of profitability and revenue generation for investors, as well as the importance of founders aligning their trajectory with investor expectations. We also look at alternative funding models, with Julian discussing Zapier and Bubble’s model of prioritizing revenue and profitability over heavy venture funding.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the evolving venture capital landscape or thinking about fundraising.