The AFT podcast: At the Forefront of Transactions | Payments | Fintech | Pay-tech | Banking

Grant Newlin, Founder and General Partner at Newlin.vc tells us about investing in ag-tech and cross-border investing. We discuss how founders in ag-tech should approach fundraising and how their startup strategy should be different from SaaS startups.

Newlin.vc: https://newlin.vc/

Grant's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantnewlin/

The Full Ratchet: https://fullratchet.net/

Today’s guest is Marcelo Franco, founder at Verve Capital and previously the co-founder of Sacks.com - the largest e-commerce company in South America at the time that it was acquired. Marcelo explains how his company managed to survive the dot com bubble burst and how he eventually sold Sacks.com. We also discuss what Verve Capital is investing in and why Marcelo likes to invest in founders from outside the United States.

Marcelo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelofranco70/

Verve Capital: https://www.vervecapital.us/

Fundraising Radio's official website: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/

Paul Powers, Founder & CEO of Physna talks about the beginnings of his career in startups and the challenges he faced. We talk a lot about NDAs, IP rights and how important those are for startup founders. We also touch on how deep-tech startup founders can prevent their IP from being stolen without involving or bothering investors. If you are a deep-tech founder, this episode is for you.

Physna: https://physna.com/

Find 3D things on thangs: https://thangs.com/

Paul's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/techlab/

This educational episode is about constructing financial models on early stages - what exactly do you need to have, what do your investors expect to see on the pitch deck and what are the major mistakes that founders make while constructing financial models? All this is discussed in this short educational episode with Rami Essaid from Finmark.

If you are one of those who need to get a decent financial model for your startup, here is the link to Finmark: https://finmark.com

Rami Essaid, CEO at Finmark, venture partner at Pioneer Fund and partner at IDEA fund partners and previously the founder of Distil Networks that was acquired for over $100million tells the story of Distil Networks. Absolutely insane similarities between the story of Distil Networks and Silicon Valley show, great advice from Rami to early stage founders and much more in this episode.

Rami's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramiessaid/

Pioneer Fund: https://www.pioneerfund.vc/

IDEA fund partners: https://www.ideafundpartners.com/

For those who need to build a financial model for their startup, Finmark: https://finmark.com/

sxsw pitch competition we discussed in the first episode: https://www.startupofyear.com/

Victor Gutwein, Founder and Managing Partner at M25 talks about startup ecosystem in the Midwest and how it changed recently due to the pandemic and where will it go once the pandemic is over. He gave a ton of valuable advice to founders located in Midwest and we've touched onto Victor's own experience of starting a scooter company before scooters were a thing.

Victor's email: [email protected] 

M25: https://m25vc.com/

Awesome, extremely detailed book on breaking into VC by Ayushi Sinha: https://docsend.com/view/dvufhb27r5bzrpym

Hunter Babcock, Managing Partner at Atland Ventures talks about the structure of Atland Ventures, their fundraising and their major differences from other VC firms. Hunter also spoke about who should really try to work with student-led organizations and who should aim for standard funding sources.

Hunter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunter-babcock/

Atland Ventures: https://www.atlandventures.com/

Gen Z VC slack: https://www.genzvcs.com/

Henry Pray, Director of Product Management at UpKeep talks about user acquisition for early startups and about the African startup ecosystem and why he personally likes it and sees so much potential in it. We've also talked about the major takeaways that Henry has from his experience in the startup world and what mistakes he made in the past while running his own company.

Henry's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrypray/

UpKeep: https://www.onupkeep.com/

Join Clubhouse: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/ and find Henry Pray and Konstantin Dubovitskiy (your host) there.

Steve Miller, Founding Partner at Origin Ventures talks about the changes that he saw in the VC landscape over the past 20 years that he had spent running the fund. Steve also talks about investing nationally without focusing heavily on the coastal regions and the benefits of that.

Steve's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-miller-220ab62/

Origin Ventures: https://originventures.com/

Book that Steve recommended - innovation stack.

Rob Weber, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Great North Labs talks about his path into VC, how he managed to build and sell multiple businesses with his twin brother and how it affected their ability to raise money in the past. We've also discussed the startup ecosystem in Midwest and Rob's advice to founders there.

Great North Labs: http://www.greatnorthlabs.com

Rob's Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertjweber

Book on sales that I've mentioned - very old school examples, but very applicable to this day.