"Tech Finance" with Sasha Orloff: B2B Fintech | AI | Finance Tech E63: Reverse Engineering Venture Capital with Metal's Usman Gul
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Dec 17, 2025 Usman Gul, Founder and CEO of Metal, discusses his journey of creating an AI-driven fundraising operating system. He shares insights on avoiding common fundraising mistakes and the importance of targeted investor selection based on data. The conversation delves into the principles of effective fundraising, AI's role in storytelling, and evolving market dynamics that affect founders today. Usman offers practical advice for first-timers, emphasizing thorough preparation and relationship intelligence in securing funding.
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Targeted Investor Changed Our Round
- Usman recounts raising a Series A where targeted investor choice changed the round outcome dramatically.
- After engaging First Round they secured a term sheet in 13 days and an oversubscribed round.
Context-Driven Investor Discovery
- Metal builds a context window from founder inputs and matches it to 500k+ historical venture rounds.
- This enables data-driven investor discovery tailored to a company's profile and growth signals.
Measure Opt-In And Call Conversions
- Do track and optimize investor opt-in and first-to-second call conversion as KPIs during a raise.
- Diagnose low opt-in (<20%) or low first-to-second conversion (<10%) to fix targeting, blurb, or deck issues.