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

Michael Proman, Managing Director at Scrum Ventures talks about the due-diligence process and why some investors like to "take their time" while doing it. We also discuss what should founders do if an investor is already 2 months into "due-diligence" and still didn't give a definite response.

Michael's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-proman-a2a52b7/

Scrum Ventures: https://scrum.vc/

Debt financing for startups: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Reza-Sabahi/

Christina Lopes, Founder and CEO at FidoCure talks about how she came up with an idea, how she tested it out and raised her first rounds of funding. She also explained how she managed to get the attention of such notable investors as a16z, Tau ventures, YC and Lerer Hippeau.

Christina's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-lopes-8679455/

FidoCure: https://www.fidocure.com/

Episode of Fundraising Radio with the founder who had multiple exits in pet-related field.

Joe Tonnos, principal at Mistral Equity Partners and Co-Founder at Ketch Ventures talks about his experience of creating SPACs and how founders can benefit from them. We also spoke about the general structure of SPACs and how they differ from other options of going public. We also discussed the future of consumer startups and how it looks like with the new vaccines being distributed.

Joe's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joetonnos/

Mistral Equity Partners: https://mistralequity.com/

Ketch Ventures: https://www.ketchventures.com/

Article about SPACs.

Carey Anne Nadeau, Co-CEO of Loop talks about what it means to be a Co-CEO and how that works, how Loop managed to raise over $3 million in such a short time and what led her into this field. We also spoke about diversity (the lack of it) amongst founders and specifically founders in the InsureTech and how founders can use it to their advantage.

Carey's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/careyannenadeau/

Carey's Twitter: https://twitter.com/canadeau?s=20

Loop insurance: https://www.loopinsure.co/

Episode by Katelyn Johnson, investor in InsureTech: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Katelyn-Johnson/

Mary D'Onofrio, Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners (the oldest VC firm in the US) talks about choosing the right growth investor for your company and about the preparation to that stage (explaining how to get in touch with growth investors early). We also spoke about the major differences between fundraising on early and growth stages.

Mary's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-d-onofrio-a125b2154/

Mary's Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcadonofrio?lang=en

Bessemer Venture Partners: https://www.bvp.com/

10 laws of the cloud, by Mary D'Onofrio: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/10-laws-of-cloud

Jonathan Anderson, Co-Founder & CEO at Candu talks about what happens after each round of fundraising and what are the major differences between the pre-seed and seed rounds. We also spoke about how Candu came up with its pricing and discussed the ways founders of startups can price their products.

Jonathan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathankanderson/

Candu: https://www.candu.ai/

Techcrunch on Candu: https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/10/candu-raises-5m-to-help-software-companies-onboard-users-intelligently/

Ryan Li, Co-Founder at Deep Ventures talks about the deep tech investing and how he sees it. We also spoke about how he managed to raise and run a syndicate while being a college student and how investors reacted to this. And we discussed what Deep Ventures' team looks at while evaluating a startup.

Ryan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-d-li/

Deep Ventures: https://angel.co/deepventures/syndicate

Slack channels Ryan recommends: 

Altum (deep tech focused, started by Jai Malik of Countdown Capital)

Gen Z VC (name self-explanatory) - I'm personally part of this one too, great place!

Amit Garg, Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Tau Ventures talks about deep tech investing and the AI field. We discussed how VCs make their decisions while evaluating complicated deep-tech startups. We also discussed how AI is used now, where it is going and what are the major misconceptions that people have about this field (hint: Terminators won't kill us any time soon).

Tau Ventures: https://www.tauventures.com/

Amit's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amgarg/

Is Silicon Valley Dying - article by Amit about the future of SF: https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/is-silicon-valley-dying-no-and-why-it-still-makes-sense-for-entrepreneurs-84c276cae104

Laurent Grill, partner at Luma Launch and we spoke about the use of operational experience in startup investing. We also discussed which companies shouldn't try to raise money from VCs, what are the alternative sources of capital and what are the major mistakes that Laurent sees student founders making.

Laurent's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurentgrill/

Luma Launch: https://www.luma.inc/launch

USC Marshall Venture Fund: https://www.marshall.usc.edu/

Episodes about alternative sources of capital: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/category/alternative-sources-of-capital/

Ali Jamal, Growth and Product Executive, Founding Partner at First Check Ventures, Angel Investor and a Startup Advisor talks about the major mistakes that founders make while pitching their ideas. We also spoke about what qualifies as a competitive advantage for a startup and how to present it to others.

Ali's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mralijamal/

Ali's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrAliJamal

First Check Ventures: https://angel.co/first-check-ventures/syndicate?utm_campaign=syndicate_direct_link