Middle Tech

In this episode of The Startup Fundraising Journey, we discussed what happens after the investment takes place in the final installment titled “The Partnership”. All the stresses related to the transaction have passed and now you're faced with executing on the growth plan you put in front of your investors. It is always a challenging and stressful job to grow a business, but now that you just closed a funding round, you have someone new in your corner to help you navigate uncharted waters.  

Visit Poplar Ventures at poplarventures.com

Visit us at MiddleTechPod.com

Watch the episode on YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Evan's Twitter

Logan's Twitter

In this episode of The Startup Fundraising Journey, we cover what happens once you get a term sheet. We’ll walk you through what goes into a company’s valuation, what kind of additional due diligence is necessary, and what the approval process looks like to move forward with the investment. This stage of the process is often the one entrepreneurs know the least about, so we hope to provide an inside look into how to prepare for this stage of the process.

Visit Poplar Ventures at poplarventures.com

Visit us at MiddleTechPod.com

Watch the episode on YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Evan's Twitter

Logan's Twitter

Middle Tech was founded in order to grow the startup ecosystem in Kentucky and Middle America using digital media to educate, entertain, and inspire all entrepreneurs, current and future, as well as people working in the technology space. One area we’ve wanted to shed more light on recently is the process of raising venture capital. We’ve found that many first time founders have questions around the topic with few readily available resources, so they find themselves seeking help from a coastal firm with limited familiarity with this region’s entrepreneur ecosystem. We wanted to fill the void, so we partnered with Louisville, KY based venture capital firm Poplar Ventures to create a three part series covering what it is like to raise money in venture capital in middle America. In this series, John Wilmoth and Christian Miller will walk you through the entire journey. We hope this helps founders go into the fundraising process with the confidence and knowledge required to raise the money needed to scale their businesses.

This first installment is titled “The Hunt.” This will cover how a venture capitalist (“VC”) firm finds entrepreneurs to invest in and vice versa. We wanted to give entrepreneurs an idea of how to approach VC’s and insights into how VC’s use networking and other strategies to find good entrepreneurs and companies to invest in.

Visit Poplar Ventures at poplarventures.com

Visit us at MiddleTechPod.com

Watch the episode on YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Evan's Twitter

Logan's Twitter

On this week's episode, we sat down with a Ray & Sawyer White, the 5th generation of their family business - a lumber company. While most people would not associate lumber with technology, our conversation with the Whites focused on how new technology is allowing for a shift to sustainability in an industry that's thought to be the opposite. Ray and Sawyer also share what it's been like to grow a business in Kentucky through 5 generations of their family and where they hope to take the company once it's their turn to run it.

Visit us at MiddleTechPod.com

Watch the episode on YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Evan's Twitter

Logan's Twitter

On this week's episode, we sat down with Bradley Davis, the founder and CEO of Podchaser. Described as the IMDb for podcasts, Podchaser allows users to discover new shows, leave ratings & reviews, find guest appearances, and much more. For podcasters, Podchaser can also aggregate data to show episode analytics and audience demographics. We discuss Bradley's background, how he started the company by posting on Reddit, and where he sees the podcast industry going into the future.

Visit Podchaser at Podchaser.com

Visit us at MiddleTechPod.com

Watch the episode on YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Evan's Twitter

Logan's Twitter

On this week's episode, we sat down with David Willbrand, a Startup & Venture Capital Lawyer at Thompson Hine. David provides a unique perspective on this region and it's startup ecosystem as he has been working in it since 1996. In addition to acquiring a great deal of experience helping founders navigate the legality of starting a company, David has also had a front row seat to watch this region's startup ecosystem grow & evolve over time. We discuss the role that law plays in starting a company, the legal implications of big tech turning into monopolies, and what David has observed during his time serving this region.

Learn more about Thompson Hine LLP at thompsonhine.com

Visit us at middletechpod.com

Watch the episode on YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Evan's Twitter

Logan's Twitter

We wanted to rebroadcast this episode now that AppHarvest has completed their Morehead facility and announced two additional facilities in Richmond & Berea, Kentucky. Additionally, AppHarvest has also announced recently that they will be going public via a SPAC (a full blog covering that announcement can be found here). At the time of this recording, AppHarvest had just broke ground on their Morehead, KY facility. With several environmental and political threats to our food supply, AppHarvest is hoping to make Kentucky the AgTech Capital of the World by creating fresh, quality produce that can be grown efficiently and safely within a day's drive of 75% of the US.

Visit AppHarvest at appharvest.com

Visit us at middletechpod.com 

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Evan's Twitter

Logan's Twitter

This week, we sat down with Kendall Weihe. Kendall graduated from the University of Kentucky where he studied Computer Science with a focus on Machine Learning. Kendall loves solving problems with software and has had the opportunity to work for two of the top technology companies in Kentucky, Appriss and El Toro, before eventually landing at Yum Brands to build enterprise applications. On this episode we dove into his background, artificial intelligence, and several other culturally relevant topics related to technology like free speech, censoring, and government regulation.

Visit us at middletechpod.com

Watch the episode on YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Evan's Twitter

Logan's Twitter

On this week's episode, we sit down with Alex Lazarow to discuss his new book, Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs--from Delhi to Detroit--Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley. Alex lives in Silicon Valley, where he is a venture capitalist with Cathay Innovation, a Kauffman Fellow, and an adjunct professor specializing in social-impact investment and entrepreneurship at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. During our conversation, we discuss the primary theme of Alex's book; that innovation is happening everywhere and it might be different than the innovation and practices happening in the Valley.

Find Alex's book on Amazon here

Visit us at middletechpod.com

Watch the episode on YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Evan's Twitter

Logan's Twitter

On this week's episode, we sit down with Kevin Kasey, who is the father of Landon Kasey. Landon founded Reach shortly before passing away. Reach is a platform that allows businesses to connect with "micro-influencers", allowing people with an average social following to get paid for promoting businesses that they're passionate about. We discuss Reach's progress, why Kevin wanted to continue building his son's business, how the Live Like Landon foundation came to be, and how Kevin wants Landon's legacy to be remembered.

Visit Reach at reach-influencers.com

Visit us at middletechpod.com

Watch the episode on YouTube

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Evan's Twitter

Logan's Twitter