Off the Record with Aram

Before you take off...

Want to see future episode highlights? You can add me on Linkedin here.

Episode Description

“Don’t chase the investor, chase the customer. You’ll have a more compelling story to tell”.

Key talking points:

• Why entrepreneurs need to chase a business model and then investment, not the other way around
• How Vanhack started as a company before becoming a marketplace
• How Iliya changed his “be a nice guy” mentality

About Ilya

Ilya Brotzky is the CEO and Co-Founder of VanHack. He is building a company that promises the fastest way to hire tech talent. Today, employers can access a community of 200,000+ highly-qualified tech professionals from 100+ countries - the largest such community in the world! 

He has several articles on Forbes, Betakit & The Globe & Mail, he’s very active on Linkedin, with a network of 32,500 followers and raised very little money, around 120k - Ilya Brotzky. Great to have you on - welcome!

Before you take off...
Want to see future episode highlights? You can add me on Linkedin here.

Episode Description

As a founder, ask yourself - “can I live with these terms?”. 

Everything comes with the terms and cost and it’s the ability to understand what you are willing to bear (and what not) is what matters.

 Here are the main talking points: 

• How Nishaant found the right investors for Energy X
• How to think about capital allocation after you have raised the money
• What to pay attention to in managing relationships with your VCs
• How Nishaant approaches taking salaries post-raise

About Nishaant:

Nishaant is the Co-Founder and CEO of EnergyX, a high growth start-up with offices in Toronto and Halifax, that has successfully raised millions of dollars in financing and posted 100% growth year after year. Prior to founding EnergyX, Nishaant was leading global business development and marketing teams across North America and Europe.

Your next raise doesn’t have to depend on your runway. If fact, it’s better if it doesn’t. 

Instead, getting to your next milestone is a much stronger reason to structure another round and raise. 

You can tell the right story and show VCs motivation for raising again. 

Compare that with “I’m running out of cash, help” narrative when you have 3-4 months of runway. 

 Here are the main talking points: 

• How to structure your future financial round
• When is best time to raise money as a founder
• How serial entrepreneurs look at valuation & raising money vs first-time founders

About Lu:

Lu Zhang is the Founder and Managing Partner of Fusion Fund, a renowned Silicon Valley based investor, a serial entrepreneur and a Stanford Engineering alumni. Fusion Fund is active in supporting early-stage entrepreneurs who are looking to build globally disruptive companies using innovative technologies to drive systemic change originating from the U.S market. For the past couple of years, Lu leads the Fusion Fund team funnels exits of multiple portfolios’ IPO and M&As.

Lu received the title of 2018 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (Davos). She has also garnered other accolades including the Featured Honoree in VC of Forbes 30 Under 30 (2017), Silicon Valley Women of Influence (2018), Town & Country 50 Modern Swans – Entrepreneurship Influencer (2017) and Top 10 All America Chinese Youth (2018). Prior to starting Fusion Fund, Lu was the Founder and CEO of a medical device company focused on non-invasive technology for the early diagnosis of Type II diabetes (acquired in 2012). 

“It’s a cardinal rule - you never want someone to buy your product, you want someone to own your product. 

And why (!) would they want to own your product?”

- Jillian Manus

Main talking points: 

• Concept of pausing and why it’s something that propels you forward
• How Jillian structures businesses right now: pause, pivot, propel
• Jillian’s thoughts on mental health and practices that will benefit founders

About Jillian:

Jillian Manus wrote the third investment check that Uber raised and has now backed a total of about 71 companies. 

She is an experienced banking and media executive, a technology investor and entrepreneur. She is Managing Partner of an early stage Silicon Valley venture fund, Structure Capital. 

Structure Capital has invested more than $100 million over the years, focusing on very early stage investing.

She has a podcast and it’s called The Pitch, produced by Gimlet Media, that is sort of the antithesis of Shark Tank.

As a founder, are you optimizing for greed or fear? 

Each of use inevitably does one or the other. 

In the first case, “I want the least dilution so I’m going to fundraise in increments”.

The latter is “damn, what if I can’t raise again? Let’s get as much cash in the bank as a we can”.

Here are the main talking points: 

• why raising the money is not always the answer
• what are the risks of raising too much capital too early
• how to make decisions that extend your runway
• how Troy evaluates each company before investing

About Troy:

Troy Henikoff is Managing Director of MATH Venture Partners. Additionally, Troy is an active mentor with Techstars. Troy was the Co-founder of Excelerate Labs, which became Techstars Chicago in 2013. He also helps manage the FireStarter Fund, teaches Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business and is on the board of the Chicago-land Entrepreneurial Center. Prior to Techstars Chicago, Troy was the CEO of OneWed.com, the President of Amacai, and co-founder and CEO of SurePayroll.com.

Resources mentioned on the show:

Troy's investment & startup advice videos on vimeo.

Before you take off...
Want to see future episode highlights? You can add me on Linkedin here.

Until you went public and found liquidity, you can’t say you’re company has been a success. 

Focus on execution and don’t get too confident.

 Here are the main talking points: 

• What companies always need to keep an eye on in-between their capital raises
• What’s SeventySix Capital methodology in helping companies they invest in
• How should you spend the money after the raise

About Chad:

Chad is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist. He oversees business operations, investments, finance and administration at SeventySix Capital. Chad also runs our internship program, which currently has over 100 alumni to-date. He works with the partners of SeventySix Capital to support them with investor relations, fundraising and company investments. 

Chad was awarded the 2018 Philadelphia Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 and the 2018 Southern New Jersey Business People’s 40 Under 40.

Prior to SeventySix Capital, Chad worked for the Philadelphia Flyers, Comcast-Spectacor, led a sports accessory startup and interned for the Philadelphia 76ers and The Walt Disney Corporation. He currently sits on the boards of Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, Challah for Hunger, Tribe 12 and is an advisor to New Leaders Council Fellows. Chad is a graduate of James Madison University and received his master's degree from East Stroudsburg University.

All business (and life) success is in cliches (if only they were followed). 

Time is more valuable than money? Yes, you’ve heard that one. 

If you are an early stage founder, before you accept an investment into your company, think about the value of your time. 

You are committing the next 5-10 years of your life to it.

Think about your company as a way to validate progress for yourself first and for investors second.

Main talking points: 

• Why you don’t have to over index on “smart money” as a founder
• How Armando and Gary find the balance between giving away too much of their company and scaling fast
• How to manage your board effectively and don’t give away too much control as a founder

About Armando:

Co-Founder at Breadcrumbs. Previously co-founder and COO in 6 different tech/non-tech companies. His focus has been: fundraising, operations, team mgmt, biz dev... all in a hypergrowth context. Some numbers: raised $4M funding in aggregate, grew teams to 65 people and beyond, directly managed a $10M P&L. Armando served as a Mentor/Advisor for more than 15 startups.

About Gary: 

Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Breadcrumbs. Brings over 15 years of experience working with clients and employers in SaaS/Tech, Financial Services, Retail, Pharma and more.

Want to see future episode highlights? You can add me on Linkedin here.

Don’t be blindsided to where you spend your early capital as a founder. 

Mark Morissette has raised 1 million dollars at Foxquilt.
But instead of using their early-stage capital to win the praises of your VCs, they invested money into the backend and data science.
It’s their core differentiation as a tech company, but they are doing it frugally, with off the shelf components.

It looks weird and the code is miles from being perfect, but it’s good enough to test and validate.

About the guest:

Mark Morissette spent 15+ years in leadership roles covering areas like operations, sales & distribution for Canada’s premier carriers and fin-tech organizations including, Aviva and Real Matters. Now he is building a company called Foxquilt.

Here are the conversation highlights:

- How to spend the capital you raise in the early days of your company
- What founders should not be spending the money they raise on
- How Mark is allocating 1 million dollars he raised at his company: secret sauce vs off the shelf technology/components
- What entrepreneurs Mark meets don’t do and he wish they did

Want to see future episode highlights? You can add me on Linkedin here.

The better your company performs, the longer honeymoon with your VCs lasts.
Then the inevitable conflict arises. You deal with it by planning for it.

You plan for it before VCs invest.
Before a raise you prepare your company for capital injection. You do whatever you need to almost hire people. You have a marketing campaign planned out, ready to go. 

Once they money arrive you trigger a series of quick wins.
You execute what you have control over: marketing, hiring, product development.
If you do it right, you score wins. VCs see you as capable.

When a big obstacle shows up (aka COVID lockdown) and you need to pivot there’s a much higher chance VCs will agree with you.

Because you were executing like crazy.
Effective management of VC relationships is about thinking and planning ahead of time and having a series of quick wins so they trust you.

About the guest:
Henry previously launched Leap Ventures, an entrepreneur-led Venture Capital firm based out of Beirut and Dubai.
Has 20 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur focused on internet-related businesses and has particular expertise in relation to algorithmics and computer science. He was the founder of Bizrate.com/Shopzilla, acting as CTO until its sale in 2005 for US$569 million.

Here’s what you’ll hear about in this conversation:

- How do you manage relationships with your VC effectively and proactively
- Why Henry went back to being a founder after being a successful VC
- Advice to founders who will be raising money in the next 6 months
- How Silicon Valley investors differ from other countries

Want to see future episode highlights? You can add me on Linkedin here.

Here’s what you’ll hear more about:

- What is the one thing CEO’s don’t ask Geoff (while raising money) and he wish they did
- How not to be taken advantage of when you are raising capital as a CEO
- How to make sure you are not raising too much capital and not giving away too much of the -ownership of your own company
- How to avoid spending wrong marketing dollars if you are B2C company
- Mistakes B2B founders make after raising money and how to avoid it

Want to see future episode highlights? You can add me on Linkedin here.