Scale By Numbers

The Overview:

How to find investment opportunities? How to prepare for an investment? What are the barriers to growth and how do you scale?

In this episode of Scale By Numbers, we are excited to talk with Robin Bruce, president of the Dovetail Impact Foundation, where the team invests their time, treasure, and talent into organizations that promote human flourishing. They have supported numerous causes and organizations for over 25 years and have plentiful experience funding and scaling organizations.

Robin explains the foundation's investment model and how she applies it to achieve sustainable partnerships, giving insight into the growth indicators her team looks for before investing in a business, such as their vision, budget and projections, and more.

She also describes how they often have to dig deeper than the surface level before understanding all sides of a business. She discusses some internal choices they make to ensure they don’t have to interfere with an organization's mission as a financial investor. 

Highlights:

• What is impact investing / social impact funding?
• Preparing your business for scale & managing budget.
• Expansion opportunities and blockages to growth.
• Business models that have evolved over the past 5 years.
• Determining high potential investment opportunities
• Keeping up with budget, financial analysis and projections.
• How to get involved with impact investments?

Want to learn more about Dove Tail : Start Here

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Running a company is just about the most difficult thing you can do. So when we get a hold of someone who has done the work and knows what it takes, we listen. 

Jared Dillian is an author, the creator of the Daily Dirtnap, and the host of The Jared Dillian Show and 'Be Smart" Podcast. He is here to join us as we talk about market psychology, from creating your own luck to what it takes to run a podcast.  

What You’ll Learn:

• How to create a niche for yourself
• The ins and outs of the recession narrative
• How a CEO should think about the current market with inflation
• What younger entrepreneurs should know about risk taking
• How your comfort zone can differ and how it comes into play when running a company
• The top 3 most interesting people Jared has interviewed
• What bonds look like these days
• Chances of a recession on the horizon
• How to build a strong inner circle

Interested in Learning More about Jared Dillian? Start Here
Subscribe to the Daily Dirt Nap: Start Here
Subscribe to Jared Dillians 'Be Smart' Podcast: Start here

Need CFO-level support and strategic advisory, but are not ready for an interim CFO?

• The Vanreusel Ventures Pro Membership Plan could help! Start Here
• LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesvanreusel/
• Twitter:https://twitter.com/JamesVanreusel
• Youtube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7-6z47BPMnY9eJn0gCha6gv1WtquitMm
• Website: www.vanreuselventures.com

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Owen is an investment manager at Jasmine Social Investments. Jasmine model is supporting and funding non-profits that focus on social impact issues surrounding health, education, and livelihood.

What You’ll Learn:

• The investment process
• What Jasmine looks for in the companies they invest in
• Owen’s view on projections of the exponential takeoff of impact at scale
• The time commitment it takes to find new companies to invest in
• How many companies a year does Jasmine add?
• How to deal with growth
• Themes/Industries they focus on
• Business models, he wish worked better
• Where the gaps are in the market
• The ecosystems they play in
• How to get the attention of Jasmine (or any other investment company)
• The move from a for-profit focus to a social impact focus
• Choosing for-profit VS nonprofit 

Want to learn more about Jasmine Social Investments: Start Here

Need CFO-level support and strategic advisory, but are not ready for an interim CFO?

One of our membership options may be able to help. Start Here

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesvanreusel/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/JamesVanreusel

Youtube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7-6z47BPMnY9eJn0gCha6gv1WtquitMm

Website: www.vanreuselventures.com

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Venture Capital Studios are a rather new way to tackle the sticky situation around funding. Learn from someone with major studio experience on how it differs from other forms of funding. 

Jake Horowitz started his first company at 8 years old, a skateboard repair company. It failed miserably. But at 18 he started a design agency and made his way into the venture studio space in 2017. In 2018 he started the Global Startup Studio Network, which later sold to the Global Accelerator Network. 

He now consults with about 120 studios around the world. He’s here to teach us all a lot about the studio space, and why it has changed SO much in the past 6 months alone. 

Keep up with his thoughts through his newsletter The Co-Founder on Substack, or hear his thoughts on Linkedin. 

What You’ll Learn:

• The kind of avatar venture studios target
• Why should you look at a studio? 
• Studios VS Accelerators.
• Where to go if you’re starting from scratch.
• How much equity studios take in a company.
• How much studios can provide in terms of support and funding.
• If studios are just another trend.
• Why “studio” is such a polarizing word.
• How the venture world has changed post-covid.
• Why geography matters so much in the venture capital world.
• What role crypto plays in the studio world.
• How community affects venture capital.
• How to build a community and why it’s SO important.
• How to avoid all the crap in the market.
• Why you should build a community first, and a product second.
• Why breaking down barriers and building trust is so important.
• How NFTs and Tokens can be adopted by organizers, and their place in the future of VC. 

What to learn more about the studio model?  Start Here
Want to Join the Gallery Partner Venture Studio Membership? Start Here




Need CFO-level support and strategic advisory, but are not ready for an interim CFO?

The CFO thinking partner may be able to help.  Learn more here:

http://products.vanreuselventures.com/cfothinkingpartner

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesvanreusel/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/JamesVanreusel

Youtube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7-6z47BPMnY9eJn0gCha6gv1WtquitMm

Website: www.vanreuselventures.com

Ready To Scale?
But not ready to invest in a CFO? One of our bespoke packages can help you.

• Free Starter Membership
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What does it take to win as a business owner? Education? Experience? Funding? Yes, Yes and Yes. 
You can have all of those things but still struggle with focus, exhaustion, mental health, and physical health issues. As business owners, we are nothing without a focused mind and healthy body.  

How can we access the winning state of mind and maintain it? A healthy body, a healthy mindset. Listen as we discuss some best tools to perform better mentally.

In this episode of Scale By Numbers, we are going to take a deep dive into how YOU can set yourself up for success by focusing on nutrition and lifestyle.  We will dig into how investors look at a startup business and CEO mindset, and what it takes to keep your body strong and mind sharp even during the most stressful times. 

Today our special guest is Kassandra Hobart, she is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (aka Nutrition Coach) providing expertise on overall health and wellness to business owners. Kassandra is a partner at M2 Performance Nutrition with former experience in banking and if that wasn't enough, a former Crossfit Games athlete.  Outside of being a busy nutrition coach, she is also currently working on a project called OMMYX whose mission is to to "radically increase people’s healthspan by developing frameworks for a functional lifestyle." 

What you will learn in this episode: 

• Tips on how to properly feed your body and feed your mind. 
• What is a winning mindset and what are the tools to obtain it?
• How to increase longevity in overall health and wellness.
• How a healthy mindset relates to your business. 
• The importance of nutritional value. 
• How sports and business are similar. 
• How being an athlete is similar to that of a business professional. 
• How a healthy mind relates to healthy business success.

Want to connect with  Kassandra

Looking for a nutrition coach?  You can start here.
www.kassandrahobart.com
Need Nutrition Hacks, and Wellness Tips, visit Kassandra on Instagram
@kassandrahobart
Get on the Waitlist for Kassandra's Health and Wellness app OMMYX.
 www.ommyx.com 

Connect with Vanreusel Ventures

Need CFO-level support and strategic advisory, but are not ready for an interim CFO?  The CFO thinking partner may be able to help.  Learn more here:
http://products.vanreuselventures.com/cfothinkingpartner 

Connect With Us on Social and catch one of our Monthly Q and A sessions:

• LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesvanreusel/ 
• Twitter:https://twitter.com/JamesVanreusel 
• Youtube:

Ready To Scale?
But not ready to invest in a CFO? One of our bespoke packages can help you.

• Free Starter Membership
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Connect with us because we love new friends!
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Venture Debt can be confusing if you aren't well versed in its complexities! So to educate you all, we talked with Kevin Zeidan, a venture debt mastermind from Trinity Capital Inc. With 24 years in venture debt, it's safe to assume he knows what the heck is talking about. 

Kevin has worked with Promerica, Hercules Capital, Silicon Valley Bank and helped support some companies at their early stages like Uber, Twitter, Twitch, Planet Labs, and other companies at the Seed stage all the way to pre-IPO. 

Currently, he is working with Trinity Capital Inc as a Managing Director, where their mission is to support all founders, and are both stage, and sector agnostic. 

If you want to connect with Kevin to learn more about him or Trinity Capital, you can reach him at [email protected]. Thanks, Kevin for making us that much smarter.

What you will learn:

• Venture Debt VS Traditional Debt
• The truth about Venture Debt Vs Traditional Debt.
• How Venture Debt Companies Structure their Loans 
• How the Timing Matches-Up Between Venture Capital Funds and Venture Debt
• What happens If a Company Has Not Reached Exit,
• How Equity Investors and Venture Debt Funds Look at Traditional Loans
• How a Founder Wanting to Understand Venture Debt Better, understands who to work with, how to originate deals, and where the money comes from. 
• What Could Go Wrong with Having Venture Debt?
• Since Venture Debt is Growing In Popularity, Who Are the New Models? How do they Compete With Incumbents? Should Early Stage Companies Look at Those?
• What Would Happen if I Have a Venture Debt Loan, and the Fund I Got The Loan For Collapsed?

Need CFO-level support and strategic advisory, but are not ready for an interim CFO?

The CFO thinking partner may be able to help.  Learn more here:
http://products.vanreuselventures.com/cfothinkingpartner

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesvanreusel/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/JamesVanreusel
Youtube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7-6z47BPMnY9eJn0gCha6gv1WtquitMm
Website: www.vanreuselventures.com

Ready To Scale?
But not ready to invest in a CFO? One of our bespoke packages can help you.

• Free Starter Membership
• Non-Profit Enterprise Package
• For-Profit Enterprise Package

Connect with us because we love new friends!
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Nicole Glaros was the first non-founder at TechStars. She joined when the company was at about ten companies in the portfolio, 250,000 under management. Now, TechStars has over 2,500 companies in the portfolio (growing 500 companies per year), and ¾ of a billion dollars under management. She has mastered the world of team building and accelerating. 

What Advice Do You Give The Companies in Your Accelerator? One element Nicole uses to screen companies surrounds team cohesion. Meaning asking questions like "What are the founder dynamics?" and "What is the relationship at the executive team level like?". Communication between founders is massive. She'll note if they're respectful to each other if there is any tension, if they are engaging in difficult conversations, or if they choose to ignore their problems.   Why? Because it makes or breaks companies. 

This stuff shines through pretty fast once you start looking for it. Nicole works with teams on how to build a constructive dynamic.   The bottom line, it takes three things to set your company up for success. It takes awareness, attention, and responsibility. If your team doesn't engage in these three things, your business will suffer. 

How Do You Test for The 3 Things Before People Come on Board and Mesh with a Larger Team?

Nicole recommends that founding teams and executive leadership teams get coaches. Coaches help keep people honest; it's like low hanging fruit thing if people don't know where to get started.  Personality tests are helpful for other people to understand you, so they know how to relate better. There's no correct answer here.  A big part of this is finding out what people's values are. Seeing what their core and aspirational values are will help you know how the team meshes together. Core values are how you already behave; they come easy to you and can be unconscious. Aspirational values, on the other hand, are what you're trying to be. You can probably be only 2 or 3 aspirational values as an individual or a team. 

As long as your core values are in alignment, the rest will come. 

Let's Talk Philanthropy 
Philanthropy can be a core value. The way Nicole sees it, the best thing she can do is give back 10x what she's been given.  It doesn't have to be just about money; it can be about time or attention if cash isn't a resource you can give. Youths today are even demanding that their employers do this kind of work; it will help attract great talent. 

How do You Cope With Feeling Like You Need To Go Outside of Yourself and Your Team to be Successful?  Most of the time, if you've gone through multiple accelerators and have not accelerated, the problem is with the company, not the accelerator. Some things you need more than ANYTHING are creativity and self-confidence that you can figure it out. And it would help if you built a great team.  There is no "quick fix" that will solve all of your company's problems. Failure for entrepreneurs is so high because there is no guidebook for this stuff.  Keep in mind; you should focus on the outcome you want, not the probl

Ready To Scale?
But not ready to invest in a CFO? One of our bespoke packages can help you.

• Free Starter Membership
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Lots of talk in this industry sounds like people just yelling “GO GO GO!”. As CEOs and business owners, we would work ourselves to death if we could. Our James VanReusel sat down with Lately CEO Kate Bradley Chernis to talk about how the world of marketing and fundraising intersects with the difficulties that can come with this industry, financially, physically, and mentally. 

What Is Lately?

Lately is a social media management platform that atomizes any video and turns it into mini movie trailers automatically. No more sifting through longform video content by hand, Lately’s AI takes out all the best chunks for you. The AI is soooo smart that it can do the same thing with blogs and podcasts!

How Does Lately Prep a Company to Go Fundraising? 

“If you build it they will come” IS NOT TRUE.

Lately markets Lately, 98% sales conversion all because the AI is smart AND because we can do it all by hand (but don’t need to). Lately gives you another FULL TIME employee who just does marketing… except it's a bunch of code

What Have You Learned on Your Journey?

Kate has raised 3.23 million from some of the top investors in Silicon Valley AND New York, and yet has raised no venture money. 

Truth is,the goal posts keep moving for women. Even if you check all the boxes and are by far the best in the room (as Kate is), it's still about a billion times harder to raise capital for women than your male competitors. 

Kate’s mindset around fundraising is that the venture capital world is mostly broken. She’s met with over 614 investors in 2 years ALONE and only 2 or 3 have taken the time to not “science the system” to death. Thanks Shark Tank. 

People forget you’re more than just an elevator pitch full of BS buzzwords. We’re human.

Being a Woman Sucks Sometimes

Male investors LOVE to waste womens time. This business world does not operate like the rest of the world. In this world, no one says what they want and when they are bored with you they just disappear. 

At the start of her journey, Kate wanted to come across as a professional, briefcase and all. Now, she’s realized that people want you to OWN them. Confidence that crosses the line over to arrogance, even if you come across as a “bitch” because you’re a woman. 

Every meeting is a demo day, not a coffee talk. They want a show, they want you to dance. 

How to Stay Sane

All of this is easier said than done, right? But here are a few things Kate touches on that help keep her going amid all the chaos.

Gym and meditation are something that she does daily, as well as focusing on getting the best sleep and diet as possible. One thing to keep you sane is finding a Who for the How. Who can do this for you, who can help with that. Create an army of Whos! 

Bottom line: IT'S HARD. 

One nugget of truth she’s had to learn along the way is to grant herself the grace to say no, which is sooo much harder than expected because the pressure is so great. It is essential to acknowledge when it’s not working. Whether it’s your hea

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Ben Quazzo is a growth specialist at Accel, at the intersection of tech and finance. Accel is a venture capital firm based in silicon valley, boasting 16 million under management! 

We get the opportunity to pick his brain about what his work life is like, and what we can do as marketers and businessmen to better ourselves and our companies. 

What’s Life Like in San Fran?

When Ben started out at Accel he had 0 responsibilities and spent 90% of his time shopping around for new opportunities and building them around new categories. He would speak to around 20/25 founders a week and find pockets where he knew Accel had an interest in building a hypothesis and an investment. 

Fast forward to today, he manages 14 companies. His time is split 50/50 between thinking about what new investments look like and how he can make sure that all 14 companies are getting what they need from Accel. He's the point guard, the problem solver! 

How Do You Filter Through Companies AND Not Get Intimidated When Going Through A Series A?

Two very big questions, let's see how he handles them.

On the side of the venture capital partners, they take a step back and think about their own responsibility. They are backing partners and NEED to be supportive. Partners need some experience in the category, vertical, or stage of the business the potential customer is in. You can’t be everything to everyone!

For the person shopping around for a partner, look within their portfolio. What companies has the partner or firm invested in? Are they similar to your business? 

The biggest tip, do NOT cast a super wide net, find companies that cater to you.  One of the myths you may hear about this period is that you need an introduction to a partner or firm, that is not true! Capital is a TOTAL commodity

The Next Step

When it comes to business proposals, getting to the point will put you MILES ahead of the person who sends in a 25-page business proposal. There is an inverse correlation with level of excitement about a company and the number of pages. 

Don’t stress too hard about cultivating relationships with potential partners. It’s better to send out a message once a month for a year than to try and bombard someone when it comes down to crunch time and you need them. With technology moving everything at such a fast pace, it's SO much harder to get close with a founder, which is why Accel likes cultivating long relationships. 

Building an Ecosystem

  There are three big buckets we’ll break down:

• International: 15 years ago, it was GREAT to be completely U.S. based. Now, with the boom of technology and social media, even if you are a tiny store based in your basement; you are universal.
• Hiring: With SO much capital, it has made the hiring market more competitive than ever before.
• Board strategy/composition: People aren’t thinking about this as much right now, but it is VERY important. Getting to an exit or to a public company is something you strive to accomplish; a lot of this is

Ready To Scale?
But not ready to invest in a CFO? One of our bespoke packages can help you.

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💡 Who is Brett Sharenow?
Brett is a trusted advisor in the world of strategy and raising capital from Venture Capitalists, Angels, and Private Equity Investors, making him a true fundraising specialist. He focuses on strategy and capital raising for startups and high-growth companies. With three decades of experience under his belt, he has raised upwards of $800 million for his clients.

You can learn more about Brett via his website: https://www.broadscope.com/
And you can follow him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/broadscopeconsulting 

💡 Brett is helping to kick off the second season of the Scale By Numbers podcast. Because the focus of this new season is fundraising, we had to bring on an expert who knows the ins and outs of raising money. This is only part one of Brett’s interview, so stay tuned for part two coming soon.

 In this first part, we discuss:
•   The ideal time to start raising money
•   Strategy gaps to be aware of when it comes to fundraising and scaling a business
•   Key questions to ask and necessary criteria to meet before seeking money from investors
•   Whether or not you should raise debt in order to maintain more equity
•   Why advisors are critical in the early stages of raising capital for your business

💡 Highlights From This Episode
When do people typically reach out to someone like Brett to begin raising money? Unfortunately, many people wait until it’s too late. A lot of business owners have fallen victim to believing a myth that it takes only 90 days to raise capital. Brett says the ideal time to reach out is about 12 months before you need the money. This provides enough time to go through the entire raise process, which involves coming up with what Brett calls the 3C’s℠: your compelling case for customers℠, financial model, raise strategy, and pitch deck.

When raising capital for your business, there are a few important questions to ask yourself. How will I raise money? How much money do I actually need, both now and in future rounds? What’s the potential ROI of that money? Will the business return the amount the investor needs so they’ll put money in? And will it return that money in the timeframe the investor needs? Answering these questions will help you determine if you should bootstrap or raise venture, angel, or private equity money, or if you should seek another option.

How do you find the right investor for your business? You need to look for the lead. The lead is the investor that’s typically putting in the largest amount of the round, but most importantly, is also setting the terms for the round. They’re going to issue a term sheet, which states how much of the ownership percentage the investors will get from the business owner for the money given along with many other conditions for the raise.

Finally, If you want expert support with your next capital raising efforts or business strategies Brett Sharenow wi

Ready To Scale?
But not ready to invest in a CFO? One of our bespoke packages can help you.

• Free Starter Membership
• Non-Profit Enterprise Package
• For-Profit Enterprise Package

Connect with us because we love new friends!
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