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

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

Latest episodes

undefined
Dec 8, 2022 • 39min

Ep. 250 How I Raised It with Abhishek Nayak of Appsmith

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 Abhishek Nayak of Appsmith, an open source workbench for building internal software tools (https://www.appsmith.com/). In this episode, we discuss his time as EIR at the VC firm Accel India, the Indian startup scene and how it's different from the USA scene, tips for raising capital, and more. We also go deep into how to engineer growth for a startup without paying for marketing (highly valuable tips!). Appsmith has raised $52 million over three rounds, including a $41 million Series B funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from Accel, Canaan, OSS Capital, and angel investors including Jeff Hammerbacher, co-founder of Cloudera, and Abhinav Asthana, co-founder of Postman. 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.
undefined
Nov 30, 2022 • 36min

Ep. 249 How I Raised It with Celeste Ford of Stellar 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 Celeste Ford of Stellar Ventures. a woman-led venture capital firm investing in early-stage, mission driven technology companies and entrepreneurs focused on space. In this episode we talk about the investment opportunities in space tech, what types of deals she's looking for, what it was like to be a woman in the space industry, how she raised her fund from individuals and family offices, how to overcome the challenges of raising a first-time fund, and more. Stellar Ventures' first fund, the Andromeda Fund, has $23 million in capital to invest into startups. 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.
undefined
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.
undefined
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.
undefined
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.
undefined
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.
undefined
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.
undefined
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.
undefined
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.
undefined
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.

The AI-powered Podcast Player

Save insights by tapping your headphones, chat with episodes, discover the best highlights - and more!
App store bannerPlay store banner
Get the app