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 Lewis Gersh of PebblePost (www.pebblepost.com), a New York-based startup pioneering programmatic direct mail. The Company recently completed a $25M Series C venture round led by Advance Venture Partners (AVP). Previous investors include ffVC, RRE, Greycroft, Tribeca Venture Partners and strategic investors and angels. In this episode, Lewis talks about his journey from founder to VC and back to founder, his "7-syllable pitch for a $Billion opportunity," the inspiration for coming up with programmatic direct mail as a marketing vehicle, why he believes continuous investor development is essential, and much more.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Alex Kubicek of Understory Weather, a Wisconsin-based weather analytics company (www.understoryweather.com). Understory recently raised $7.5 million in new funding. The round was led by 4490 Ventures. Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund also joined the round. Other existing investors include Monsanto Growth Ventures and Silicon Valley-based True Ventures. In this episode, Alex talks about the challenges of raising capital for a hardware startup, going through accelerators including Gener8tor and Bolt, why the Midwest is an exciting place to build a startup, why actionable weather data is increasingly valuable, and much more.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Susan Ho of Journy (www.gojourny.com), a startup that offers custom travel planning services in 75+ destinations around the world. Journy recently raised capital from Menlo Ventures, Pear VC, and Jason Wang (founder of Caviar). Previous investors included Resolute Ventures, Arena Ventures, 500 Startups and others. In this episode, Susan talks about pitching to Gwyneth Paltrow, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Jessica Alba while riding down an escalator, talking to 1000 customers and running 90 marketing experiments to drive revenue, lessons learned from working at Fab.com in it's growth phase, the importance of unit economics, and much more.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Campbell Brown of PredictHQ.com, a San Francisco and New Zealand based startup that combines real-world events into one data source to help businesses better understand demand and plan for the future (for example, Uber could see how an upcoming Taylor Swift concert will increase demand for drivers). PredictHQ recently raised a $10 million Series A led by Aspect Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Rampersand VC, and AddVenture Fund. In this episode, Campbell talks about moving the company HQ (and his young family) from New Zealand to San Francisco, cracking into the Silicon Valley ecosystem, maintaining confidence during the fund raise, tips for your slide deck, and more.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Brent Pearson of Enboarder.com. Based in Sydney, Australia, Enboarder makes a cloud HR-technology platform for employers to create engaging onboarding experiences. The Company recently raised capital from Greycroft and Our Innovation Fund. In this episode, Brent talks about the changing Australian startup scene, what to do when due diligence drags out, trusting your gut on "investor fit," raising a bridge round, and more.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Stefan Hraber of Emesent.io, makers of drone technology to map underground caverns and other subterranean passages. The Company raised $3.5M from Main Sequence Ventures. Stefan talks about commercializing technology spun out of CSIRO (the Australian National Lab), making the transition from scientist to startup founder, applying scientific methods to the entrepreneurial process, the Brisbane startup scene, and more.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Allie Sutton of June.ai which makes an AI-powered email communication hub organized around people and conversations. In this episode, Allie talks about raising capital on a concept (pre-launch), the New York startup scene, elements of the pitch, leveraging early "yesses" to get more intros, and more. June.ai previously raised a $1.5 million preseed funding round led by a group of investors that includes John Suh, CEO of LegalZoom, and Marc Michel, a partner at Runaway Venture Partners. To access the New York investor list, click here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1khvSN2pcnsc7O5dr9mq8TwJv0h_zJJYLzhiZZ_KDmfM/edit#gid=1550181509

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Avi Meir, CEO of TravelPerk (www.travelperk.com) a Barcelona-based startup that is re-inventing business travel. TravelPerk recently raised a $44 million Series C led by Sweden’s Kinnevik, Russian billionaire and DST Global founder Yuri Milner and Tom Stafford. Prior investors include Target Global, Felix Capital, Spark Capital, Sunstone, LocalGlobe and Amplo. In this episode, Avi talks about building to be global from day one, questions to ask investors to ensure the vision and exit expectations are aligned, how the Company is using it's location in Spain as a recruiting advantage, and much more.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Keith George, CEO of CoEdition.com which makes a retail fashion marketplace for plus-sized women. CoEdition raised a $4 million round led by New Enterprise Associates along with General Catalyst, Primary Venture Partners and BBG Ventures, In this episode, Keith talks about identifying an underserved market (plus-sized fashion), "selling the dream" to investors vs selling on data, compressing the fundraising timeline, how he apprenticed at a startup before starting his own, and much more.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Steve Gutentag, CEO of Thirty Madison which is rebuilding the healthcare experience for the modern consumer, starting with the brand Keeps.com (consultations and treatment for hair loss). The Company raised a $15 million Series A led by Maveron and Northzone Ventures along with ERA, Two River Capital, Greycroft, First Round Capital, Steadfast Venture Capital and others. In this episode, Steve talks about applying the direct-to-consumer model to disrupt and improve the healthcare industry, raising capital with a product MVP + vision + plan, how getting a term sheet is a "forcing function" for moving investor discussions along, whether to talk to VCs in between rounds, and much more.