#AskAVC with Ryan Floyd

In this episode, I share with you 8 ways to finance your startup - and that doesn't include venture capital! It might seem odd coming from a VC investor. However, my goal for you as a startup founder is to be aware of all the options that are available to finance your business - along with their respective pros and cons. When you do partner with a VC like myself, you need to be sure that it is, in fact, the best way forward for your startup.   

Listen to the episode to get the answers to all these questions - and get the full list of 8 ways you can go about financing your startup!   

Make sure to also:

About Ryan Floyd

Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures where he invests in and works with, early-stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure-related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He’s written for Techcrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and is a regular contributor to The UK Newspaper. He’s the host of the recently launched #AskAVC YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as how to pitch to an investor and how to combat sales churn.

When he’s not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally he finds time for surfing!

As you grow your enterprise SaaS startup, opportunities to engage various sales channel partners will most certainly come your way. The prospect of partnering with a leading telco or some other big corporation might seem very appealing. However, there is a lot you need to know before entering any agreements - and to make sure it works out well in the end.   

Watch my full interview with Christof Baumgärtner, ex-Chief Revenue Officer at MobileIron, one of the leading enterprise security companies today. Christof did an outstanding job of finding & partnering with the best sales channels that fueled the growth of MobileIron.

Make sure to also:

About Ryan Floyd

Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures where he invests in, and works with, early stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He’s written for Techcrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and is a regular contributor to The UK Newspaper. He’s host of the recently launched #AskAVC  YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as how to pitch to an investor and how to combat sales churn.

When he’s not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally he finds time for surfing!

Startup equity and convertible notes are about to be fully explained! Early-stage entrepreneurs have to learn a lot of new vocabulary, technical & legal details, to ensure their initial rounds of outside financing go well. In this video I am being interviewed by Fellows at ASIF Ventures, European micro-VC, focused on student-led startups, and we do a deep dive into:  

... and much more!

Make sure to also:

About Ryan Floyd

Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures where he invests in, and works with, early stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He’s written for Techcrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and is a regular contributor to The UK Newspaper. He’s host of the recently launched #AskAVC  YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as how to pitch to an investor and how to combat sales churn.

When he’s not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally he finds time for surfing!

"How much to pay startup advisors" is the question I often get asked by even experienced entrepreneurs. In one of my previous episodes, I gave an intro to the topic of startup advisors - what do they do, how to find them, etc. In this one, I dive deeper into the specifics:  

After listening to this podcast, you will have answers to all these questions - and a pretty good idea of how much to pay your startup advisors!

Make sure to also:

About Ryan Floyd

Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures where he invests in, and works with, early stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He’s written for Techcrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and is a regular contributor to The UK Newspaper. He’s host of the recently launched #AskAVC  YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as how to pitch to an investor and how to combat sales churn.

When he’s not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally he finds time for surfing!

This episode is something I have not tried on my channel before. This is a deep dive into a specific concept - in this case, enterprise automation - from a technical point of view. We dive deep into the idea of workflows automation, talking about its definition and benefits, as well as giving specific examples. In the 24th episode of the #AskAVC

... and much more! Tune in to my interview with Markus Zim, head of the strategy and business development at Workato, a portfolio company of mine that recently became a unicorn. 

Make sure to also:

About Ryan Floyd

Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures where he invests in, and works with, early stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He’s written for Techcrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and is a regular contributor to The UK Newspaper. He’s host of the recently launched #AskAVC

When he’s not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally he finds time for surfing!

As your startup company will become more successful, naturally there will be more and more people eager to share their advice with you. It's a smart strategy to surround yourself with people who know more than you in various business areas - be it sales or security. There are a few things any founder needs to keep in mind, however, to make sure that taking advice will help their company as opposed to hurting it. As a startup CEO, you must figure out:  

There is no question that the right set of advisors will make your startup stronger. Watch this video to get answers to the questions below - and much more!   

Make sure to also: 

About Ryan Floyd  

Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures where he invests in, and works with, early stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He’s written for Techcrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and is a regular contributor to The UK Newspaper. He’s host of the recently launched #AskAVC YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as how to pitch to an investor and how to combat sales churn.   

When he’s not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally he finds time for surfing!

In this video, I talk about the biggest enemy of all SaaS businesses - customer churn. It is safe to say that nearly every single startup faces this problem at some point or another. As scary and uncomfortable it might be, having customer churn is not the end of the world - but you do need a war plan. Have you asked yourself:   

Watch the video to get answers to all these questions - and more!   

Make sure to also: 

About Ryan Floyd  

Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures where he invests in, and works with, early stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He’s written for Techcrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and is a regular contributor to The UK Newspaper. He’s host of the recently launched #AskAVC YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as how to pitch to an investor and how to combat sales churn.   When he’s not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally he finds time for surfing!

There is so much content out there about the legal language of term sheets, valuations, etc. However, it would be a mistake to see your interactions with potential investors as purely transactional. The key is to build a relationship with a person on the other side of the table. And a lot of goes into it:   

- Should you be spending time with junior team members at VC firms?  

- How much info do you share with potential investors?  

- Can you negotiate a term sheet?   

Watch the video to get answers to all these questions - and more!

Make sure to also:

- Follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/RyanFloyd) for a lot more content on building SaaS B2B startups, as well as venture capital and entrepreneurship in general

- Subscribe to my blog at http://ryanfloyd.org/, where I talk about why I invest in certain companies and broader tech industry issues

- Check out my #AskAVC podcast based on this channel (https://anchor.fm/ask-a-vc)

About Ryan Floyd

Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures where he invests in, and works with, early stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He’s written for Techcrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and is a regular contributor to The UK Newspaper. He’s host of the recently launched #AskAVC YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as how to pitch to an investor and how to combat sales churn.

When he’s not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally he finds time for surfing!

When you are ready to raise some outside capital to scale your business, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered to make the process successful. For example, there are many different types of investors you can turn to. One of the most frequently asked questions I get is - what is the difference between angel investing and venture capital? In this episode I address topics like: What do angel investors look for? Are angel investors a good idea? How much do angel investors invest? Listen to the episode to get answers to all these questions - and more!

Make sure to also: 

- Follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/RyanFloyd) for a lot more content on building SaaS B2B startups, as well as venture capital and entrepreneurship in general 

- Subscribe to my blog at http://ryanfloyd.org/, where I talk about why I invest in certain companies and broader tech industry issues 

- Check out my #AskAVC YouTube channel that this podcast is based on (https://www.youtube.com/askavc)  

About Ryan Floyd  

Ryan is a founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures where he invests in, and works with, early stage enterprise SaaS startups. His primary focus is applications and cloud infrastructure related companies. He is always interested in hearing from passionate technology entrepreneurs. Ryan is a skilled writer and commentator on all things SaaS. He’s written for Techcrunch, Sifted, Thrive Global and is a regular contributor to The UK Newspaper. He’s host of the recently launched #AskAVC YouTube channel aimed at enterprise entrepreneurs. In each episode he tackles a different issue relating to building and scaling B2B startups - topics such as how to pitch to an investor and how to combat sales churn.   

When he’s not working with his portfolio founders, Ryan is active with Code2040, a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities. And occasionally he finds time for surfing!

The prospect of asking for multi-million dollar investment in a cold email to someone you never met is undoubtedly daunting. Do cold emails even work? Believe it or not, but that's how we met one of the most valuable investments in Storm Ventures' portfolio! Even if you do manage to get a warm introduction to a potential investor, principles and techniques outlined in this video will still be very valuable to you. Crafting effective cold emails is not easy, but absolutely doable!  What three elements are critical to include in your cold email? Which service you should never use while sending out cold emails? How to follow-up properly? Listen to the episode to get answers to all these questions - and more!