Investors provide vital funds so that companies can achieve their next level of growth, whether it’s making the next important version of a product or a key hire that will unlock the company’s potential even further.

But in a time of economic uncertainty, where we see layoffs, budget freezes, and falling tech industry stock prices, venture capital investors are putting the brakes on aggressive funding for early-stage growth companies. According to a Crunchbase report, in the last quarter of 2022, investments in startup companies in North America fell by 63% compared to the same period a year earlier.

In this episode of The Role Forward, Scott Stouffer, the CEO and founder of scaleMatters, gets into fundraising during a recession and why people are hesitant to invest in new companies. Scott and our host Joe Michalowski discuss what makes a company investible and what companies can do to become more efficient with their go-to-market motions.

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Guest-at-a-Glance

💡 Name: Scott Stouffer

💡 What he does: Scott is the CEO and founder of scaleMatters.

💡 Company: scaleMatters

💡 Noteworthy: Scott Stouffer is a serial tech entrepreneur, 5x CEO, and 3x founder. He took his first company (Visual Networks) public in 2001 and grew it to a peak market cap of $3 billion. Since 2011, Scott has focused on early and growth-stage tech companies, building quantitative data and process models that uncover waste, inefficiency, and friction in the customer acquisition function.

💡 Where to find Scott: LinkedIn

Friends & Fiction with Tess Gerritsen