
How I Raised It - The podcast where we interview startup founders who raised capital.
Produced by Foundersuite.com, makers of the leading software stack for raising capital: Investor CRM + VC/Angel database + Pitch Deck Hosting + Investor Update tools. Used by startups to raise > $2.5 Billion.
Latest episodes

Nov 14, 2022 • 25min
Ep. 248 How I Raised It with Mariusz Adamski of ffVC Blue and Yellow Fund
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Mariusz Adamski of the ffVC.com "Blue and Yellow Heritage Fund," a venture capital fund that invests in startups led by Ukrainian founders, startups relocated from Ukraine and startups that employ Ukrainian refugees. See https://ffvc.com/ukraine/
In this episode we talk about the Ukrainian and Polish startup ecosystems, why Ukraine's startup scene is developing rapidly, what stage and type of startups that ffVC is seeking, and more.
The ff Blue & Yellow Heritage Fund has received early commitments for $30m from institutional, family offices and corporate investors. The Fund is targeting $50mm in total.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $9.7 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Oct 13, 2022 • 52min
Ep. 247 How I Raised It with Raj Nathan of Startup Hypeman
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Raj Nathan of Startup Hypeman (https://www.startuphypeman.com/) a pitch deck and presentation coach and consultant.
In this episode we go deep into pitch decks, including what makes a bad deck, Raj's process for creating a deck, examples of a killer elevator pitch, why you should teach an audience how to measure your success, how to make your pitch be entertaining and memorable, tips for pitching on Zoom, and more.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $9.7 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Sep 30, 2022 • 37min
Ep. 246 How I Raised It with Eva Dobrzanska of True Altitude
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Eva Dobrzanska of True Altitude (https://www.truealtitude.com/) a consulting firm that helps startups raise capital and scale up.
In this episode we talk about how to figure out how much to raise, determining valuation, tips for maintaining a dialogue with investors, tips for pitching, what metrics to show, and more.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $9.7 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Sep 14, 2022 • 40min
Ep. 245 How I Raised It with Paige Finn Doherty of Behind Genius Ventures
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Paige Finn Doherty of Behind Genius Ventures, a pre-seed / seed VC Fund investing in the future of work and the future of play. See https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/
In this episode we talk about her clever and scrappy path to becoming a VC, her investment thesis and what Behind Genius is looking to invest in, why the concept of “execution velocity” is so important, and much more.
She also shares tips for how to get a job in venture capital, and advice for raising a first time VC fund.
Behind Genius Ventures raised capital from LPs including Tribe Capital
Bonfire Ventures, Andy Weissman (Union Square Ventures), Heather Hartnett (Human Ventures), Anne Lee Skates (A16Z), Katie Stanton (Moxxie Ventures), Bobby Goodlatte (Form Capital) and others.
Paige wrote a book that explains venture capital to children called Seed To Harvest. It can be found on Amazon.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $9.7 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Sep 13, 2022 • 31min
Ep. 244 How I Raised It with Biju Ashokan of Radius Agent
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Biju Ashokan of Radius Agent (https://www.radiusagent.com/), a platform and tools for real estate agents.
In this episode, Biju talks about the evolution of his business, how to position yourself as an industry expert (and why it will improve your odds of raising capital), how to use feedback to initiate relationships with investors, how many meetings it takes for pre-seed, seed and Series A, tips for recruiting a strong team, and more.
Radius Agent most recently raised a $13 million Series A round led by NFX. Other investors include Crosscut Ventures, Sixty Degree Capital, Cota Capital, VTF Capital, AngelPad, InnoSpring Seed Fund and others.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $9 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Aug 25, 2022 • 34min
Ep. 243 How I Raised It with Richard White of Fathom.video
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Richard White, CEO of Fathom (www.fathom.video), an app that plugs into Zoom and helps you recall and share important moments from your meetings.
In this episode, we talk about his previous company Uservoice, the pros and cons of strategic investors (in his case, Zoom invested in Fathom), why he raised funds from 90 investors over multiple smaller rounds with no lead investors, why he decided to go through Y Combinator even though he's a seasoned (3x) entrepreneur, tips for getting into Y Combinator, and more.
Fathom most recently raised a $4.7 million seed round from over 90 early-stage investors. Zoom’s Apps Fund was a strategic investor. Other funds include Maven Ventures, Character.vc, Active Capital, Global Founders Capital, Rackhouse.vc, Soma Capital, BoxOne Ventures, Quiet Capital, Immeasurable, Liquid2 Ventures, Valley Oak Investments, Hashtag Blessed, Whoa.vc, and Friale.
Individuals include Bill Tai (Angel Investor in Zoom), Matt Ocko (Angel Investor in Zoom), Oleg Rogynskyy (CEO, People.ai), Steve Huffman (CEO, Reddit), Emmett Shear (CEO, Twitch), Justin Kan (Co-Founder, Twitch), Kyle Vogt (CEO, Cruise), Daniel Kan (Co-Founder, Cruise), Finbarr Taylor (CEO, Shogun), Immad Akhund (CEO, Mercury), Viral Bajaria (Founder/CTO, 6sense), Parm Uppal (CRO, DataRobot), Aaron King (CEO, Snapdocs), Aaron Rankin (CTO, SproutSocial), Jay Jamison (CPO, Quick Base), Alex MacCaw (Founder, Clearbit), Arram Sabeti (Founder, ZeroCater), Josh Buckley (Former CEO, ProductHunt), Rich Liu (Former COO Lattice), Chris Fanini (Co-Founder, Weebly), Nick Raushenbush (Co-Founder, Shogun), Jacob Rosenberg (Co-Founder, LendUp), Mikhail Seregine (Co-Founder, Outschool), Vikas Gupta (CEO, Wonder Workshop), Jinal Jhaveri (CEO, enable.us), Jeff Whitlock (Founder, Pingpong), Adam Michalski (CEO, Partnered), Andrew Chen (Co-Founder, Explo), Cedric Dussud (Co-Founder, Narrator.ai), Dwight Crow (Co-Founder, Whisper.ai), Jamie Quint (Uncommon Capital), Benjamin Bryant , Chris Evans, Jason Hunt, Maggie Gryko, Matthew Fong, Michael Keller, Nitin Shantharam, Shaan Puri, Leslie Lai, Zach Sherman, Zach Waterfield, Reza Hussein, Kutta Srinivasan, Jaclyn Kossmann, Eugene Zarakhovsky, Mujtaba Wani, Will Laufer, Eleanor Dorfman, Rustam Lalkakaas well as the CEOs of Reddit, Twitch, Cruise, Mercury, People.ai, Snapdocs and Shogun.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $9 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Aug 18, 2022 • 44min
Ep. 242 How I Raised It with Demetrius Gray of Captain
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Demetrius Gray of Captain (https://captainhq.com/) a platform that helps contractors get paid faster so homeowners can rebuild sooner after a disaster.
In this episode, Demetrius talks about why he shut down his previous startup instead of pivoting it (and how he explained that to investors), how he used "Tier 3" investors to train up his pitch, how he used "super founders" and VC scouts to get introduced to investors, how to do "YC style" networking (even if you are not in Y Combinator), tips for pitching over Zoom, and more.
Captain has raised $4 million in seed capital from NFX, GGV Capital and Red Swan, as well as $100 million in debt financing from CoVenture.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $9 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Aug 5, 2022 • 33min
Ep. 241 How I Raised It with Mike Bell of Miso Robotics
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Miso Robotics (https://misorobotics.com) makers of robotic arms for the food service industry - for example, to run the french fry or chicken wing fryer.
In this episode, Mike talks why the company raised its Series A and Series B rounds from traditional VCs, then changed gears and switched to Crowdfunding for its C, D, and E rounds. We talk about the advantages and challenges of raising large amounts via crowdfunding, how to leverage a digital marketing team to drive potential CF backers, the cost to acquire a CF investor, and much more.
Miso has raised $75MM in crowdfunding to date and recently closed its Series E round. The company has over 25,000 shareholders.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Aug 2, 2022 • 45min
Ep. 240 How I Raised It with Michael Bamberger of Tetra Insights
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Michael Bamberger of Tetra Insights (www.tetrainsights.com), a platform that helps companies turn user research into actionable insights.
In this episode, Michael talks about running a fundraising process and creating urgency, the Boulder Colorado startup scene. advantages of raising from a smaller VC fund, and more. We also talk about how cold email can work really well when you've done the proper investor research and targeting, and we go through the exact Subject Line and Email of the cold email that landed his lead investor.
Tetra Insights most recently raised a $5 million round of Series A funding led by Access Venture Partners with participation from Next Frontier Capital and Active Capital.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Jul 28, 2022 • 37min
Ep. 239 How I Raised It with Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan of Chief
Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan of Chief (www.chief.com), a private membership network focused on women executive leaders.
In this episode, Carolyn and Lindsay talk us through each round of financings, from Seed to Series A to Series B and they share exactly how they did it and what level of traction they had at each stage. They also provide tips for raising capital, managing a rapidly growing startup, and more.
Chief has raised $140 million over three rounds:
1) Chief announced its $3 million seed round in October 2018, led by Primary Venture Capital and Flybridge Capital Partners, with participants including Accel, Box Group, Able Partners, XFactor Ventures, Silas Capital, BBG Ventures, and Alexa Von Tobel.
2) In June 2019, Chief raised a $22 million Series A, co-led by General Catalyst and Inspired Capital, with previous investors and GGV Capital participating. Ken Chenault, chairman and a managing director of General Catalyst, and Alexa von Tobel, founder and managing partner of Inspired Capital, joined the board of directors. Chief also announced an additional $15 million extension in June 2020, led by GGV Capital.
3) In March 2022, the company raised $100 million in Series B funding at a $1.1 billion valuation, bringing its total funding to $140 million. The round was led by CapitalG, the independent growth fund of Google parent company Alphabet, and General Partner Laela Sturdy joined the board of directors. Previous investors General Catalyst, GGV Capital, Inspired Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners, and BoxGroup 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 $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.
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