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

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

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

  • Identifying Sales Talent the right way. By Lucas Price

    Lucas Price, Founder and CEO at Yardstick in this episode talks about asking the right questions, using structured interviews and scorecards to identify sales talent.


    Who by Geoff Smart and Randy Street https://a.co/d/fBJf66l

    A VP of Sales Hiring Scorecard For Startups…Get it Right the First Time https://avenuetalentpartners.com/2021/06/27/vp-sales-hiring-scorecard-startups/

    What to Know Before You Interview Your Next Sales Candidate https://www.yardstick.team/post/what-to-know-before-you-interview-your-next-sales-candidate

    32 min
  • Selling early - 1st episode of the new season of Fundraising Radio!

    For our long-standing followers asking if we haven't released any new episodes in the past 8 months because we died - no we haven't, still kicking it! This new season of Fundraising Radio will be still catered to our old listeners but this time the focus will be on sales for early stage startups that have nothing to their name. Why? Because with the ongoing recession and great fears for the future of the US economy, more and more investors become conservative and want to see sales before they invest in you.

    Let us know how you like the slightly updated format and most importantly - the subject!


    Links that I've promised to include in the episode description:

    1. Lisa Falzone - Co-Founder and President Athena Security.
    2. Athena Secruity's website
    3. Book recommended by Lisa: The Four Steps to the Epiphany
    4. Chat GPT for google sheets
    5. Fundraising Radio's Substack: we cover A TON of very-very specific strategies there
    6. 28 min
    7. Equity crowdfunding explained by VP at Community Round Fundraising (WeFunder), Jonny Price

      Jonny Price, VP of Fundraising at Community Round Fundraising (WeFunder) in this episode talks about equity crowdfunding, process that founders need to undergo to have a successful crowd-funded round and more. We've also talked about the major pitfalls in said process and how to prepare for those.

      Jonny's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnyprice/

      Community Round Fundraising's site: https://wefunder.com/

      SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) explained by the CEO of Assure: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Jeremy-Neilson/

      Extra resources that Jonny shared with me:

      Blog on how to raise $1M on Wefunder: https://twitter.com/JonnyCPrice/status/1503515916285493255

      Podcast episode on fundraising strategy: https://www.spreaker.com/user/wefunder/justin-renfro

      Community Round website: communityround.com

      Wefunder Raise page: wefunder.com/raise

      Wefunder PBC charter: wefunder.com/charter

      Twitter: @jonnycprice; @wefunder

      29 min
    8. Hiring fundraising advisors. By Hall Martin, TEN Capital Network

      Hall Martin, Founder and CEO at TEN Capital Network that raised over $900 million for its clients, in this episode talks about hiring fundraising advisors who can connect you to the right capital. We spoke about different regulations around fundraising and of course, about hiring experts for your fundraising round and whether it's worth it or not. 

      Hall's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/halltmartin/

      TEN Capital Network - connecting investors with startups: https://tencapital.group/

      27 min
    9. Running a company out of Ukraine and preparing to raise. By Alyona Mysko

      Alyona Mysko, CEO & Founder at Fuelfinance in this episode talks about the story of her company and the effects that the war has on it and its future plans. Hint: no giving up in sight and Fuelfinance is preparing to raise soon while expanding!

      Fuelfinance website - https://fuelfinance.me

      Support Ukrainian Busines - here

      Here - how to open in Delaware a company, but it is in Ukrainian. If you want to read another way of opening a company (with Firstbase of course), you can check out our website: https://www.firstbase.io/

      Here is the video Spend with Ukraine.

      23 min
    10. Building EVERYTHING in-house and raising. By Sharmin Ali

      Sharmin Ali, Founder and CEO of Instoried tells her story of helping others write good stories. In this episode we go in-depth into the reasons why Instoried build all their tech in-house from scratch and how they use it as their competitive advantage to secure funding for the expansion.

      Sharmin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharmin-ali-5b6b4237/

      Instoried website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/instoried/

      I forgot what else I wanted to include in the description so here is the link to our course about fundraising for early stage startups: https://fundraising-courses.com/

      28 min
    11. What is a down-round and how to survive one? By Russ Wilcox

      Russ Wilcox, Partner at PillarVC talks about his experience running startups himself. Throughout his career he raised 10 times and 3 times these were down-rounds. In this episode Russ explains what down-rounds are bad, how they happened to him and how he managed to survive and thrive!

      Russ' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russ-wilcox-2005/

      Pillar VC's website: https://www.pillar.vc/

      For people who want to understand how to get in touch with the right investor, a course developed by Fundraising Radio's team and myself: https://fundraising-courses.com/

      Some topics we have covered in this episode:

      - your fund invests in three fields, which one of those do you specialize in?

      - you've raised 10 rounds of funding and 3 of those were down-rounds with an eventual happy ending, can you tell us a bit more about that experience?
      - the unique trait of your fund is that most of your managers have experience building their own companies, how transferrable is that experience?
      - you're an investor who likes patents, why is that and when o you think it makes sense to patent an idea/technology?
      - you've recently closed your own raise for your 3rd fund - how did that go? How does that experience compare to fundraising for your own company?
      - are there any deep tech investments that you've recently made that excite you the most?

      28 min
    12. 20 Years in VC, unlocking growth and supporting startups, by Tae Hea Nahm

      Tae Hea Nahm, Managing Director and Co-Founder at Storm Ventures in this episode talks about his experience working as an attorney and helping startup founders raise money for their companies, and eventually starting a VC fund of his own. We also spoke about his book "Survival To Thrival", why he wrote it and what was the affect on his fund.

      Tae's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnahm/

      Storm ventures: https://www.stormventures.com/

      Here is the list of podcasts about fundraising (some of them are non-profit fundraisings but still) - https://blog.feedspot.com/fundraising_podcasts/


      30 min
    13. The story of three pivots and growth management. By Koby Conrad from Rupa Health.

      Koby Conrad, Head of Growth at Rupa Health and Founder of Channels of Growth talks about his experience building a company and pivoting 3 times. He also explains what growth management looks like and who should be dealing with that field.


      Koby's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kobyconrad/

      Subscribe to Channels of Growth here: https://channelsofgrowth.substack.com/

      Course on fundraising by Fundraising Radio team: https://fundraising-courses.com/

      Rupa Health's site: https://www.rupahealth.com/


      Some topics we have covered in this episode:

      - what does your day-to-day as a growth manager look like?

      - what do you think are the essential skills for a good growth manager to make growth really happen and to run a successful growth team?
      - you were previously a founder, your company got into YC and then you've raised $2 million for a completely different company, why did you decide to pivot?
      - how much of the current knowledge of the growth management field did you have back then?

      35 min
    14. Raise through an SPV-syndicated round. What does that mean? Jeremy Neilson from Assure will explain

      Jeremy Neilson, CEO and Co-Founder of Assure in this episode explains how SPVs work and what they are, how founders can use them to make their rounds easier and what are the expected costs of creating an SPV and syndicating your own round. 

      Assure's site: https://hubs.li/Q015d7j-0 

      Jeremy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyneilson/

      Assure's bootcamp: https://boomstartup.com/

      Assure's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4LhtX361MEw5l6nenLkWQ

      Some topics covered in this episode:

      - you've been the co-CEO of Assure for over 10 years until 2020, why did you decide to co-CEO a company and how did that play out?

      - Assure is best known for serving investors, but your head of partnership reached out to me to talk about founder-led SPV, how do those work?
      - why does such an SPV makes sense and what are the major benefits of it? Any downsides? Pricing?
      - does it work post-friends and family?
      - a lot of founders who have sold their previous companies frequently start investing in companies that align with the goals of their newly created startups, how would you recommend those founders structure such investments?

      P.S. Fundraising Radio is a non-profit organization, this episode is not sponsored by Assure. We are running ads for this particular episode as a part of the testing campaign to discover their effectiveness of increasing the number of active listeners of FR and that campaign is indeed sponsored by Assure.

      34 min

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

    From the publisher's feed

    The AFT podcast is focused on explaining the operations of payments ecosystems in the US. Each episode will bring deep insights into selected topic, no fluff.