How I Raised It - The podcast where we interview startup founders who raised capital.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Zuleyka Strasner of ZeroGrocery.com which offers a grocery delivery platform that provides shoppers with a convenient and plastic-free delivery service. In this episode, Zuleyka talks about how she started the business and validated the market with $2,500 from her apartment building, what it's like navigating Silicon Valley and raising capital as a Black, trans, woman immigrant (and why resilience is key), why it's important to not waste time on investors who are "just not that into you," how COVID19 has dramatically changed the landscape for her business (in a good way), and much more. The Company most recently raised $3 million of seed funding in a deal led by 1984 Ventures. Luma Launch, GingerBread Capital, Forward Venture Capital, Chingona Ventures, Concrete Rose Capital, INCITE, MaC Venture Capital, Gaingels Syndicate, Cleo Capital, Bluestein Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group, VitalizeVC, WOCstar Fund, Precursor Ventures, SGH Capital, City Light Capital, Kapor Capital, Vitalize Venture Group, Tina Bou-Saba, Basecamp Fund, and Arlan Hamilton also participated in the round. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Michael Bloch of Pillar Life (www.pillarlife.com), an online platform to store, organize, and share information with your family. In this episode, Michael talks about how he used cold emails and persistence to land his first angel investors, how he got Kleiner Perkins to lead his seed round, and how (and why) he completely pivoted his business when COVID19 hit. The company raised $6.53 million of seed funding in a deal led by Kleiner Perkins. Red Dog Capital, Day One Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Rainfall Ventures, Kairos HQ, K50 Ventures, Financial Venture Studio, Patrick Kavanagh, Adam Nash, Zachary Weinberg, Nathaniel Turner, Misha Esipov and Noah Weiss also participated in the round. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Brian Vallelunga of Doppler.com a platform for managing environment variables (e.g. API keys) for developers. In this episode, Brian talks about raising a pre-seed round from Kleiner while he was still working at Uber, applying to Y Combinator for the 6th or 7th time, pitching a long-term massive vision (even in the early days), resisting the temptation of initial offers and the search for "partners not capital," how he made his investor intros go viral, pitching Peter Thiel, the importance of managing dilution, and much more. The Company raised raised $2.3 million in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital. Abstract Ventures, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Soma Capital, Nat Friedman, Aaron Levie, Dylan Field, Ben Porterfield, Jeremy Stoppelman, Kevin Hartz, Jeff Holden, Greg Brockman, Jeffrey Queisser and Peter Thiel also participated in the round. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Jonathan Siddharth of Turing.com, a platform to hire the world's best remote engineers. In this episode, Jonathan talks about how he's building the "talent cloud" of 180k global engineers, his journey from EIR at Foundation Capital to startup founder, running a serial vs. parallel fundraising process, how he plays the "long game" and cultivates relationships with VCs, and much more. The Company raised $32 million of seed funding in a deal led by Foundation Capital on November 12, 2020. Adam D'Angelo, Cyan Banister, AltaIR Capital Ashu Garg, Beerud Sheth and other investors also participated in the round. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Matt Gillis of Clean.io which makes security technology that prevents "malvertising" threats. In this episode, Matt talks about what "malvertising" is, how raising capital is an emotional process, what he did differently to raise money during COVID19, how to leverage LInkedIn effectively to generate investor leads, and much more. The Company raised $5 million in venture funding in a deal led by Tribeca Venture Partners. Real Ventures, Inner Loop Capital and Grit Capital Partners also participated in the round. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Jack Conte of Patreon.com, a platform that allows creators to monetize their work through a direct relationship with their fans. In this episode, Jack talks about how and why he came up with the idea for Patreon, how he turned rejections into tips for improving his pitch deck, how he uses his personal story as a key component of the pitch, the difference between raising early rounds and late stage rounds (e.g. Series B, C, D, E), and much more. The Company has raised over $240 Million in total, and most recently raised $90 million of Series E venture funding in a deal led by New Enterprise Associates and Wellington Management. Glade Brook Capital Partners, Index Ventures, Thrive Capital, DFJ Growth and Lone Pine Capital also participated in the round. This is #3 of 3 in our "Music Tech" series. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Milana Lewis of Stem.is, a platform that helps musicians distribute their music, automate splits, and get paid. In this episode, Milana talks about how she informally socialized her deal with investors (but ran a process), what discovery questions to ask prospective investors, what her investor funnel metrics looked like, how to prioritize investor leads, and much more. The Company most recently raised $10 million of venture funding in a deal led by Slow Ventures. Upfront Ventures, Aspect Ventures, Mark Gillespie, Baron Davis and Kevin Lee (Coach K) also participated in the round. This is #2 of 3 this week in our "Music Tech" series. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Paul Wiltshire of Songtradr.com, a music licensing platform that helps artists and songwriters license and monetize their content. In this episode, Paul talks about how the music industry works, why he decided to raise only what the Company needed to hit incremental milestones, his largely Australian cap table, raising capital from a family office, and more. The Company most recently raised $30 million of Series C venture funding in a deal led by St. Baker Family Office. This is #1 of 3 this week in our "Music Tech" series. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Justin Mast of Bloomscape.com, an online marketplace for fully grown and potted indoor plants. In this episode, Justin talks about his family's 5 generations in the garden supply business and how he evolved it into an online company, how he bridged the gap between local Detroit investors and VCs based in San Francisco, the risks he took when he launched without the capital he needed, tactics for finding a lead investor and attracting strategic investors, and more. The Company raised $15 million of Series B venture funding in a deal led by General Catalyst. Ludlow Ventures, Revolution, Bob Mylod, Jeffrey Boyd and John Replogle also participated in the round. This series is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Ameeth Sankaran of Religion of Sports (www.religionofsports.com) a sports media platform that produces content to explore greatness and human potential. The site features top athletes like Tom Brady ("Tom vs. Time") and Michael Strahan. In this episode, Ameeth talks about the greatness code and flow states, turning the business from a production company into a destination site, the nuances of pitching media venture firms, why raising capital is a long-term play (and you should start building relationships in advance), the importance of "structured serendipity" and more. The Company raised $10 million of Series A venture funding in a deal led by Elysian Park Ventures. CourtsideVC, Advancit Capital, Alexandre Icaza, Felipe Andreoli, Daniela Klabin Basilio and Marcelo Franco also participated in the round. This series is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com