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

Corinne Riley, Investor at Greylock talks about how an investment thesis strengthens a VC fund and a founder’s ability to pitch to that fund effectively. We discuss how much time you should spend trying to fit into an investment thesis and if you can expect a fund to make an exception to their thesis on your behalf.

Corinne's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corinne-marie-riley/

Corinne's Twitter: https://twitter.com/CorinneMRiley

Greylock: https://greylock.com/

An overview of investment theses 

Emily Zheng, Growth Investor at Brookfield Technology Partners, Proptech Vertical lead at EVCA and Board member at Nittany Lion Fund talks about what validation capital is and what it means to raise validation capital. We also discuss late-stage investing and the difference between growth investing and seed investing.

Emily's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ezheng3/

Brookfield Asset Management: https://www.brookfield.com/

EVCA: https://www.evca.org/3e7a2f0cac74410cab05b76216846cf4

Nittany Lion Fund: https://www.smeal.psu.edu/nittany-lion-fund

Our Article on SPACs - written by Luis Bravo, based on Joe Tannos' episode: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/blog/joe-tonnos-on-spacs-and-more/

Andrew Unger, Founder and Managing Partner at High Slope and Co-Founder of Better.com talks about early-stage fundraising,  and how Better.com has managed to raise so much money. Andrew also speaks about finding the right partners for your venture and what qualifies a good partner.

Andrew's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewunger/

Better.com: https://better.com/

High Slope: https://www.highslope.com/

For those who already forgot what an ICO is and how fun it can be, click here.

Petra Griffith, Founder & Managing Director at Wedbush Ventures talks about venture debt as an alternative to venture capital, key resources that founders can utilize in their ecosystem, and about Wedbush and what they invest in. Petra also explains staying ‘focused on the product’ and her own experience with product development.

Petra's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petragriffith/

Wedbush Ventures: https://www.wedbushventures.com/

Another episode on the LA ecosystem and resources for startup founders can be found here.

Armando Biondi is the Co-founder and CEO at BreadcrumbsIO and has invested in 150+ startups. Previously he served as Co-founder and COO of AdEspresso which has since been acquired by Hootsuite. In this episode he spoke about his experience with AdEspresso and how his approach to building a company changed for his second venture.

Armando's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armandobiondi/

BreadcrubsIO: https://breadcrumbs.io/pricing/

62 acquisition stories shared on Fundraising Radio: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/category/acquisitions/

Daniel Gould, Alexa Business Development Principal at Amazon, Angel Investor , Band of Angels member and Partner at DV Collective Syndicate speaks on how business development at large corporations differs from small startups and what kind of tools and strategies each should use. We also talk about what Daniel likes to invest in and what DV Collective does.

Daniel's LinkedIn 

DV Collective Syndicate

Band of Angels

Daniel's email: [email protected] 

Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing The Sale— mentioned in the pod

Christopher Hill — strategic advisor at Retina AI, angel investor, and board observer for the city of Los Angeles talks about government support for the startup process, angel investing, and major mistakes founders make on their pitch decks. We also talk about some free resources that founders frequently forget to utilize and about the ways universities support early-stage founders.

Christophter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherahill/

Our interview with the founder of a free accelerator in Los Angeles - Miki Reynolds: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Miki-Reynolds/

Some useful free resources can be found here: https://www.sba.gov/

Scott Krivokopich, Managing Partner at 1982 Ventures talks about qualifying questions that you need to ask your investors in order to understand who they are, how they work with other founders, and what to expect from them when hard times come. We also speak about 1982 Ventures, what they invest in and what their decision making process looks like.

Scott's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skrivokopich/

1982 Ventures: https://1982.vc/

Lloyed Lobo, co-founder and president of Boast.ai talks about his bootstraps story and how he raised VC funding. We talk about Boast.ai’s recent $100 million funding round, which Lloyed secured while battling COVID-19.

For those interested in grant funding: https://www.opengrants.io/

Boast.ai is hiring. Check out the open positions here: https://boastcapital.com/careers/

Check out some hackathons here.

Lloyed's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo/

Jeff Ransdell, founder and managing director at Fuel Ventures talks about how investor outreach works with few or no connections to the world of venture capital. We also debate different approaches to "cold outreach" and much more.

If you work in music tech, robotics, IoT, space tech, marketplace, or big data startups, make sure to reach out to Fuel Ventures: https://fuelventurecapital.com/ 

Jeff's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffransdell/

Confluence, a community for VCs: https://www.confluence.vc/