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

  • Raising and selling - no bootstrapping, why? By Nick Desai

    Nick Desai - Founder and CEO at HeyRenee in this episode talks about how he started 5 companies and how many of them actually made it. He also explains why he chose to raise money from VCs for all his companies and how that decision affected the business.

    HeyRenee site: https://www.heyrenee.co/

    Nick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickdesaiheal/

    Can your investors fire me? Here is an episode of Fundraising Radio explaining this question: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Jeb-Banner/

    If you choose to go the other route, check out our course about reaching out to investors! https://www.fundraising-courses.com/

    31 min
  • Fundraising for non-profit is easier than for a for-profit company? HOW? Dylan Kendall explains

    Dylan Kendall - candidate for Los Angeles City Council District in 2022 and a Founder of a for-profit and non-profit in this episode shares her experience of being a founder in Los Angeles. She explains how did it happen that fundraising for a non-profit turned out to be easier than for a for-profit company and how she got into politics.

    Learn more about Dylan as a candidate here: https://dylankendall2022.com/

    Relevan episode where Claudine Emeott explains how impact funds work: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Claudine-Emeott/

    Some of the questions covered in this episode:

    - you said that fundraising for your non-profit turned out to be easier than for a for-profit, how did that happen?

    - can you briefly tell us about your experience while raising for your for-profit? If you could go back in time and change that raise, what would you do?
    - you are the candidate for Los Angeles City Council District in 2022, how did you get into politics?
    - what do you think is the major strength of LA as a tech hub? Are there any particular government programs in LA specifically that can help startup founders at the early stages?
    - you've mentioned that one of your frustration with city of LA is that it's government is very slow and falling behind the development curve, how do you plan to fix this?
    - do you think there are any particular cities that have done a better job at this? (not necessarily in the US)

    53 min
  • Can you get fired from your own company? Jeb Banner explains how governing boards work.

    Jeb Banner, CEO and Co-Founder of Boardable explains how the governing boards really work and how founders can make sure that they don't get fired from the companies that they have started. He also spoke about the first steps that early stage founders should take to establish the board and explained the legal requirements around the board management.

    Jeb's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jebbanner/

    Boardable: https://boardable.com/

    Course by Fundraising Radio's team: https://www.fundraising-courses.com/

    38 min
  • How to invest in wine and how Vinovest itself raised money. By Anthony Zhang

    Anthony Zhang, Co-founder and CEO at Vinovest talks about how his company helps "regular" people invest in wine - an asset class that was previously only accessible to the wealthy people with free time on their hands. He also spoke about their most recent Series A and how they had to change their business model to close the round successfully.

    Anthony's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-zhang-988a2375/

    Link to Vinovest that will get you 3 months of no management fees: https://vinovest.co/signup?grsf=lr4ndv&utm_campaign=Dec_2021_LTO_Referral (this episode is not sponsored by Vinovest and the referral link yields no commissions for Fundraising Radio)

    Get our course at a huge discount here: https://www.fundraising-courses.com/

    Some of the questions covered in this episode:

    - tell us a little bit more about how vinovest operate

    - you said that your series A was much easier than seed, why is that?
    - when you "removed yourself from the day to day operations" in order to raise  series A, who replaced you?
    - on our pre-interview you've mentioned that you got a few counter-offers on your initial round in series A, how did you manage to do that?
    - why didn't you follow the same strategy for your Seed?
    - how did your pre-seed round go compared to the two following?
    - you said that on your series A you had to switch your customer acquisition model and switch from the organic to paid, why is that?
    - when did this transition happen and how do you feel about it

    26 min
  • Lawyer free and charge free fundraising tool - Party Round. By Jordi Hays

    Jordi Hays, Co-Founder & CEO at Party Round in this episode talks about the legal side of fundraising and how it looks like now VS what it actually should be. We've also discussed the need for actual lawyers in some fundraising rounds and the importance of friends and family round in a life of a startup.

    Jordi's email for those who want to skip the line of over 30k users and use Party Round now: [email protected] 

    Jordi's LinekedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordi-hays-559199113/

    And of course, Party Round's website: https://partyround.com/

    Our course on fundraising for early stage startups can be found here for only $19.99: https://www.fundraising-courses.com/


    Here are some of the questions asked in this episode:

    - you've mentioned the importance of social capital in fundraising - how does partyround help with that?

    - many founders try to avoid raising from friends of family out of fear of ruining relationships, do you think it's worth the risk?
    - many of our listeners are already over the friends and family round, is partyround applicable to later stages or do you recommend founders to reach out to lawyers to draft more custom documentation?
    - you've mentioned that you've gone viral numerous times on twitter, how did you do this? Was it worth it?
    - pricing of partyround. It seems like you've taken the non-traditional approach to your go-to-market strategy, how did it help you with your fundraising?
    - you've raised from a16z, how long did it take you to close the round and how did this process look like?

    31 min
  • Build a financial organization in 3 weeks. By Duy Vo at Productfy

    Duy Vo, Founder and CEO at Productfy talks about being a sole founder and yet having great Co-Founders (in a way) who have helped him lead the company to the success instead of selling early on. He also explains how Productfy works and how it can transform any organization into a complex financial organization in a span of a few weeks.

    Duy Vo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duybvo/

    Productfy's site: https://www.productfy.io/

    Course on fundraising for early stage startups: https://www.fundraising-courses.com/

    23 min
  • Raising a Series D. By Sid Viswanathan, Co-Founder at Truepill.

    Sid Viswanathan Co-Founder & President at Truepill talks about raising a Series D and how it is different from earlier rounds. We've also touched onto the story of how prior to Truepill, Sid founded CardMunch, a business-card scanning app that was acquired by LinkedIn soon after its founding.

    Sid's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidviswanathan

    Truepill's site: www.truepill.com

    And of course, link to our course on fundraising at 70% discount (only until the 15th of January): https://bit.ly/StartupFundingCourse

    Questions covered in this episode:

    - you've spent 4 years at linkedin, when was the moment when did you decide to start the second company and how did you bump into the idea?

    - how did you meet your co-founder?
    - you recently raised a round D of 142 million dollars, how did you get there?
    - at round D, what's the major problem for a company?
    - looking back at your post-YC seed round, what do you think was your major mistake while raising it?
    - how much of Truepill's success is due to the fact that it got into YC a year after it was started?
    - you've recently expanded into diagnostics, did you raise any money to fund the expansion specifically?

    26 min
  • Finding a co-founder by CEO of Opal

    Stephen Cobbe, co-founder and CEO at Opal talks about his journey with Opal, ups and downs and how to handle them. He also shares some recommendations on how to find a good co-founder and shares his personal experience in that field along with two great books.

    Stephen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scobbe/

    Opal's website: https://opal.dev/

    Two great books in question:

    1. Never Split the Difference: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805

    2. The Founder's Dilemmas: https://www.amazon.com/Founders-Dilemmas-Anticipating-Foundation-Entrepreneurship/dp/0691158304

    The course on reaching out to investors that Fundraising Radio's team is developing: https://bit.ly/FRpodcast101

    24 min
  • Raising $200k through a Twitter post. By Alex Simon with Elude

    Alex Simon, CEO Co-Founder of Elude in this episode talks about the new strategies that modern founders can employ while fundraising for their startups. We also spoke about some key things that founders should have on hand before starting to raise and about other things that I forgot to write down.

    Alex' LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexnsimon/

    Elude website: https://elude.co/

    Episode with the founder of DocSend: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Russ-Heddleston/

    70% off (for less than a month) Fundraising Radio's course on how to get in front of investors: https://bit.ly/FRpodcast101

    33 min
  • 1-month accelerator - how does it work? By Brett Goldstein

    Brett Goldstein, Co-Founder at Launch House talks about focusing on the new values instead of pushing old shit through accelerators and how exactly he approaches it. We spoke a lot about how the fundraising field has changed over the past years and why many accelerators are going obsolete with founders needing a better alternative. We also discussed some of the fundraising tactics that Launch House implements to help its participants fundraise.

    Brett's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bgoldstein3/

    Brett's Twitter: https://twitter.com/thatguyBG

    Launch House: https://www.launchhouse.co/

    Fundraising Radio's course on how to get in front of investors: https://bit.ly/FRpodcast101

    27 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.