Seed Money

Getting on an investor's radar, perfecting your pitch, and ticking all the boxes to get funded feels like a tall order for early stage founders. You need to have a story that cuts through the noise of thousands of other startups. You need to build a network of potential investors who align with your business and industry. You need a competitive pitch that wows investors.

Because there's so much involved in getting funded, the earlier you can plan your approach, the better. It's never too early to start looking at who can fund you and nailing your pitch…but where do you even begin? For a startup founder, it can be hard to figure out which facet of getting funded comes first.

That's where Foundersuite comes in. This platform pulls all the resources you need into one place, and makes each step of the fundraising process more efficient. In this episode, I'm joined by the founder and CEO of Foundersuite, Nathan Beckord. After raising $21 billion for other entrepreneurs, he knows a lot about what it takes to get funded. Nathan shares strategies and hacks that will help you get funding faster.

Topics Covered;

• The current state of startup fundraising

• How to pitch your startup via Zoom

• Why you need to have a teaser pitch

• How to get funded before you even pitch

Guest Bio

Nathan Beckord is an entrepreneur, CEO of Foundersuite and Fundingstack and host of How I Raised It. As a startup funding expert who has raised over $21 billion, Nathan has helped startups, VCs, and advisors raise capital faster. Visit https://foundersuite.com/ for more information, and listen to the podcast on your platform of choice.

About Your Host

Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast where she's on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!

Connect:

Website: https://seedmoneypodcast.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaylasiciliano/

Subscribe and watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@seedmoneypodcast/

If you're a startup founder, the last thing you need is a dumpster fire of a digital workplace. You can't find critical documents. You're missing important emails. You constantly find yourself double booked. A lack of digital organization isn't just a minor annoyance, it can really slow your business down.

How do you create a sense of digital peace and efficiency?

The Google Workspace ecosystem is a low-cost way to solve our digital chaos. Most of us are familiar with the Google Tools that we use in our day-to-day lives, but we might not realize all the things Google can do for our startups.

What are some Google tools that help entrepreneurs run their businesses efficiently? In this episode, I'm joined by Google Tools guru, Adrienne Farrow. She shares how to use Google to save precious time in our businesses.

Topics Covered;

• How to set up your email for maximum efficiency

• The power of Google Workspace

• How to use Google Slides for pitch decks

Guest Bio

Adrienne Farrow is a Google Specialist, Digital CEO and Digital Product Specialist. She is passionate about helping entrepreneurs and online business owners leverage technology to work smarter, not harder. Adrienne believes that with the right systems and knowledge, you can transform your Google Workspace from a digital jungle into a productivity powerhouse. Her mission is to ensure that you're not just working in your business, but letting your business work for you. Adrienne is here to help you systematize, optimize, and innovate using Google tools, so you can focus on what truly matters – growing your business and living your best life.

Website: https://www.adriennefarrow.com/

Free Resource: https://shop.adriennefarrow.com/drivehacks/

About Your Host

Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast where she's on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!

Connect:

Website: https://seedmoneypodcast.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaylasiciliano/

Subscribe and watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@seedmoneypodcast/

Please rate, follow and review the podcast on https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seed-money/id1740815877 and https://open.spotify.com/show/0VkQECosb1spTFsUhu6uFY?si=5417351fb73a4ea1/! Hearing your comments and questions helps me come up with the best topics for the show!

The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice.

Running a startup? I bet you feel like a human Swiss Army knife sometimes—doing everything from marketing to operations, while trying not to lose your mind in the process. But here's the thing: doing it all yourself? That's a fast track to burnout city.

Enter: Virtual Assistants (VAs). These people can help lighten the load, but there's an art to finding the right one and making sure you're getting the most out of them.

So, how do you hire the perfect VA? How do you hand off tasks without feeling like things will fall apart? And, more importantly, how do you free up your time to focus on what really matters—like scaling your business?

In this episode, we're diving into how to build a killer virtual team that's got your back. I'll break down how to figure out what tasks to delegate, where to find the best VAs, and how to get them up to speed so they're basically running things while you do the big picture stuff.

About Your Host

Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast where she's on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!

Connect:

Website: https://seedmoneypodcast.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaylasiciliano/

Subscribe and watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@seedmoneypodcast/

Please rate, follow and review the podcast on https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seed-money/id1740815877 and https://open.spotify.com/show/0VkQECosb1spTFsUhu6uFY?si=5417351fb73a4ea1/! Hearing your comments and questions helps me come up with the best topics for the show!

The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice.

In entrepreneurship, success isn't a straight line. Even the most successful business owners have had to deal with losses, failures and pivots along the way.

Building a business from the ground up is hard. Having what it takes to keep going when it gets tough is even harder. You might struggle to raise money, have to build your business in a recession with no revenue, or have to walk away from a company you poured your heart and soul into.

How do you push through these times?

That's where resilience comes into play. Instead of dwelling on a loss and giving up, resilient entrepreneurs turn their biggest failures into fuel. They understand that things going wrong is actually a necessary part of the journey, and they've built up their muscle for falling down and getting back up again.

How do we build our resilience as entrepreneurs? How do you avoid giving up when we face challenges?

In this episode, I'm joined by an inspiring entrepreneur and speaker who knows a thing or two about resilience. John A. Brink grew up in war-torn Holland, but found his way to Canada with $25 in his pocket and built a highly successful business and today is an author, philanthropist, serial entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and competitive body builder. In this episode, he shares his story, and how we can become more resilient as business owners.

Topics Covered;

• John's journey from war-torn Europe to Canada

• Why ADHD is a superpower

• The role of resilience in entrepreneurship

Guest Bio

John A. Brink is a serial entrepreneur, podcast host, ADHD Advocate, mentor, speaker and America's oldest competitive bodybuilder. He commenced his lifelong forest industry career in Holland. In 1965, John arrived in Canada with $25.47 in his pocket. His vision for a prosperous new life burned brightly as he made my way to Prince George. 10 years later, John founded Brink Forest Products. The Brink Group of Companies is a portfolio of companies focusing primarily on lumber remanufacturing and real estate development. Through passion, work ethic and the right attitude, John continues to lead his company, focusing on the production of value-added wood products.

Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnABrink

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/john.a.brink/

Book: https://johnabrink.com/book/

About Your Host

Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast where she's on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!

Connect:

Website: https://seedmoneypodcast.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaylasiciliano/

Subscribe and watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@seedmoneypodcast/

Please rate, follow and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Hearing your comments and questions helps me come up with the best topics for the show!

The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice.

Creating the perfect pitch deck is probably one of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs seeking funding. Investors see thousands of pitch decks, so how do you make sure yours actually stands out and gets your point across? How do you avoid getting dinged for formatting? How do you show the numbers while also telling a story? It's A LOT to think about, but there are simple strategies you can use to craft a great pitch deck that ticks all the boxes. From the start to the end, it's important to make every single slide count. You want your pitch deck to include all the key details about your business while still making it easy for an investor to scan through. In this episode, I'm going to show you exactly how to do that with a live review of a pitch deck an entrepreneur sent to me.

About Your Host

Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast where she's on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!

Connect:

Website: https://www.seedmoneypodcast.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaylasiciliano/

Subscribe and watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@SeedMoneyPodcast

Please rate, follow and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Hearing your comments and questions helps me come up with the best topics for the show!

The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice.

A big part of nailing an investor pitch is making sure it's not just about numbers. Metrics matter, but investors want to feel connected to your business on an emotional level, and customer feedback is key to that.

Lately, I've been noticing that a lot of pitch decks are missing this crucial piece and honestly, it could make or break your pitch.

Sharing customer testimonials, reviews, or even a quick Instagram shoutout brings your business to life and shows investors how it's impacting real people.

In this episode, I'll show you how to weave customer feedback into your pitch deck in a way that's short, sweet, and super effective, so you can hook investors and get that funding!

About Your Host

Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast where she's on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!

Connect:

Website: http://seedmoneypodcast.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaylasiciliano/

Subscribe and watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@SeedMoneyPodcast

Please rate, follow and review the podcast on https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seed-money/id1740815877 and https://open.spotify.com/show/0VkQECosb1spTFsUhu6uFY?si=5417351fb73a4ea1/! Hearing your comments and questions helps me come up with the best topics for the show!

The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice.

One of the hardest things about pitching to investors is keeping your cool when they ask questions. It's really easy to get flustered and thrown off your game when they're hitting you with really hard questions about your business.

What if they ask you a question you don't know the answer to? How do you avoid fumbling or rambling your answers?

With the right framework and practice, you can crush any investor question and boost your credibility and get funded. How do you stay calm and professional under pressure?

In this episode, I share the framework I use to answer investor questions, how to handle the toughest questions without losing composure and the right way to answer questions.

About Your Host

Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast where she's on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!

Website: seedmoneypodcast.com

Instagram: @jaylasiciliano

Subscribe and watch on YouTube @SeedMoneyPodcast

Please rate, follow and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Hearing your comments and questions helps me come up with the best topics for the show!

The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice.

The process of raising capital has so many moving pieces, even the most motivated entrepreneur can find themselves overthinking what they need to do.

The challenge is: overthinking often leads to stalling and procrastination, which then makes us lose the precious momentum we've built along the way.

Learning to push through our own overthinking is a key skill we have to develop. Whether you're stalling on reaching out to an investor, following up with someone, or finishing your pitch deck, it's really easy to find reasons not to take action.

But this is where action is needed the most.

What should we do when we find ourselves overthinking, procrastinating and stalling? In this episode, I share how I push past overthinking and take action.

About Your Host

Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast where she's on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!

Connect:

Website: seedmoneypodcast.com

Instagram: @jaylasiciliano

Subscribe and watch on YouTube @seedmoneypodcast

Please rate, follow and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Hearing your comments and questions helps me come up with the best topics for the show!

The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice.

For consumer products, packaging plays a huge role in your ability to raise money and get onto shelves. Investors and retailers are looking for traction, so you need to have packaging buttoned up before you even approach them.

But here's the challenge: great packaging is expensive, and cheap packaging is very easy to spot and can tank your marketability. Every founder wants their product to be the "best dressed" without breaking the bank, but how do you actually achieve this?

From a packaging perspective, there are a few key things you can do to make sure your product looks good, catches the eye, and stands out on shelves. From branding to form factor, there are plenty of cost-saving strategies that don't compromise on quality.

How can we use limited time offers to get some initial attention, buzz and traction? How unique should our packaging be?

In this episode, I'm joined by packaging expert and President of Global Enterprise at AE Global, Elizabeth Corbett. She shares how CPG founders can set themselves up for success from a packaging perspective.

Topics Covered;

• How to get your packaging dialed in before approaching investors

• How to make your packaging sustainable without breaking the bank

• Why startups should leverage limited time offers and collabs

• Groups/events that startup founders should join/attend

Guest Bio

Elizabeth Corbett is a CPG packaging expert with 25 years of experience, startup mentor/advisor and President of Global Enterprise at AE Global. AE Global (AEG) is a custom packaging design company and supply chain solution provider servicing the Natural Products, Health & Beauty, Cannabis, and Wine & Spirits industries. AEG's innovation lab develops custom packaging products, including EZ-Lock™ and Amplify™, and CuraLeaf's Select Squeeze bottle. With sustainability as a core value, AEG launched Ocean Recovery Group, a joint venture with 4G Recycling, which collects, cleans and recycles ocean-bound plastics. Connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn.

About Your Host

Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast where she's on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!

Connect:

Website: seedmoneypodcast.com

Instagram: @jaylasiciliano

Subscribe and watch on YouTube @seedmoneypodcast

Please rate, follow and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Hearing your comments and questions helps me come up with the best topics for the show!

The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice.

Getting investors or bootstrapping? That's one of the hardest decisions founders have to make. On one hand, raising capital has many benefits - you have a longer runway, more resources, and more cash to hire people and pay them well. It provides enough cash to get through the competitive hurdles to bring your product to market.

But outside capital comes with strings attached and having to please others and conform your business to the expectations of investors. That's why many founders choose not to go down the path of raising money and deliberately decide to bootstrap instead.

While it means you're operating in a resource-constrained environment, you get to retain more control and flexibility in the long-run. Bootstrapping your business means you have to be scrappy and do things a little differently, but it can work.

What are the things you need to stay on top of when you're bootstrapping? Why is product validation so important? How do you determine which funding model works for you?

In this episode, I'm joined by speaker, angel investor and founder of Product Plan, Jim Semick. He shares why he chose to bootstrap instead of taking the venture capital route and how to self-fund successfully.

Topics Covered;

• How to stay on top of your finances in a bootstrapped business

• Why it's critical to validate your product first

• How to hire and pay developers as a bootstrapped business

• Low-cost marketing strategies that don't need a lot of capital

• The value of having co-founder with complementary skills

• The right time to bring on an outside CEO

Guest Bio

Jim Semick is a Product Management Expert, speaker, leader, angel investor and founder of Product Plan. He has over 20 years of experience turning ideas into real products that customers love. Jim's passion is identifying and launching successful SaaS products using a proven market validation process. The products he has helped launch continue to generate over $1 billion of revenue annually. Today Jim writes, lectures, and coaches on entrepreneurship, product management, and career decisions. To learn more visit https://www.jimsemick.com/ and connect with him on LinkedIn.

About Your Host

Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast where she's on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!

Connect:

Website: seedmoneypodcast.com

Instagram: @jaylasiciliano

Subscribe and watch on YouTube @seedmoneypodcast

Please rate, follow and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Hearing your comments and questions helps me come up with the best topics for the show!

The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice.