When you’re a startup, asking for money is complicated. So complicated that in recent years a cottage industry has formed with the specific purpose of helping companies go out for rounds.

Here to tell us about it is Zach Grosser, founder & CEO of Zacht Studios, a presentation design agency that’s worked with clients like Nextdoor, Square, Adobe, Dropbox, among others. Zach and his team help companies prepare for the most important (and oftentimes, most secretive) presentation they’ll ever give. Today we peel back the curtains, asking questions like: 

How big should the font on your fundraising deck be? What’s it like working with Elon Musk? How has the pandemic changed the way companies fundraise? 

Join us in finding out the answers to these and much more in this week’s episode.

Highlights include: 

-What is a presentation design studio? 

-Are most presentation designers in-house? How do you hire a presentation designer? 

-How has COVID changed the way startups go out for fundraising rounds? 

-What is it like running a global business during BREXIT?  

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Zach Grosser is the Founder and Managing Director of Zacht Studios. Based in Amsterdam, he wanted to blend his coveted knowledge of VC priorities and design to build best-in-class services in the medium of presentations, now known as Zacht Studios.

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he’s not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

Find Zach Studios on Rocketplace: https://rocketplace.com/profile/zacht-studios.

Voilá. It’s the perfect name for a recruiting company. And for Victoire Duprez, it’s a one word story about who she is and where she’s been. 

Victoire, who is french, rose through the ranks at the global recruiting firm Michael Page, working for powerhouse french brands like Chanel, and ultimately landing in Los Angeles, where this January, she decided to do something kind of crazy: start a recruiting outfit of her own. 

Louis & Victoire talk about how it’s going, the specifics of the Los Angeles tech scene, and the ways the pandemic has changed the way companies hire. 

Highlights include: 

-Victoire’s story of coming to America and the difference in recruiting here. 

-How is the D&I conversation different in Europe vs. the U.S? 

-What is a recruiting warranty and should you ask for one? 

-How should companies select a recruiter that is a match for their needs? 

-What should companies be paying a recruiter — & how to know whether it’s too much or too little?

-The future of technology, including NFTs and brain-computer interfaces. 

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-25-recruiter-victoire-duprez.

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Victoire Duprez is a recruiter and the founder of Voilà, a Talent Matching Agency. Though she was born and raised in France and has travelled all around the world, Victoire’s agency is based in sunny Los Angeles. 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he's not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

Find Voilà on Rocketplace https://rocketplace.com/profile/voila

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This week we give you nine stories from The Startup Stack archives about startups that looked failure in the face and lived to fight another day. 

These companies have the right stuff. Sweat, grit, smarts — & adaptable business models. 

Join us in learning from their lessons. 

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-bonus-episode-the-comeback-kids/

[Guest / Host bios] 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he’s not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

http://www.rocketplace.com/podcast

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Can technology make us better humans? 

Greg Buckner has made it his job to find out. As partner and CTO of AE Studio, Greg and his team blend data science, computer vision and machine learning to help design and develop products that aim to further human agency. 

Greg and Louis talk about AE’s clients — Samsung, Walmart & Ritual to name a few — and nerd out over neuroscience, NFTs, and why brain-computer interfaces are coming sooner than you think. 

Highlights include: 

-Why do software design & data science go hand-in-hand? 

-How technology can further human agency? 

-What is the Steel Man theory & how does it work?

-Tips for hiring a software development partner. 

-The future of software development as a service. 

-The future of technology, including NFTs and brain-computer interfaces. 

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-24-developer-greg-buckner.

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Greg Buckner is a two-time startup founder and web developer. He’s partner and CTO at AE Studio, a product design and development firm based in Los Angeles. 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he’s not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

Find AE Studio on Rocketplace https://rocketplace.com/profile/ae-studio.

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In today’s digital world, why is it still so time consuming to find great talent? Between LinkedIn searches and asking your network for recommendations if you’re still drawing a blank it might be time to consider a recruiting agency.

But then how do you pick the right recruiting agency that will make finding top notch candidates feel like a walk in the park and what makes recruiters good at what they do? We found out it’s a combination of hustle (yes a lot of cold calling) and knowing how to connect experts with experts.

This week on The Startup Stack Louis talks to Jay Berard, founder and CEO of Jagger. A modern talent solution agency based in Toronto, Canada. They chat about Jay’s (bartending) rags to riches story, overcoming imposter syndrome, the future of work, and how to create office culture in a Zoom world.

Highlights include: 

– When to find candidates via your network vs. hire an agency?

– Why being an industry generalist is valuable.

– What to look for when evaluating a recruiting agency?

– How long a typical search should take.

– Who has the real power; a candidate or the company hiring?

– What are the new, new trends in an almost post-COVID world?

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-23-recruiter-jay-berard/.

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Jay Berard is the founder & CEO of Jagger, modern talent solutions for the new world of work. His agency has filled over 500 searches in only 5 years in business. Fun facts, Jay’s originally a bartender from Winnipeg, Canada. He’s traveled to over 45 countries including running with the bulls in Spain and bungee jumping and skydiving in the Swiss Alps (in the same day). 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he’s not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

Find Jagger on Rocketplace @ https://rocketplace.com/profile/jagger.

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This year, the business heroes are…accountants! Move over Superwoman and Batman for the CPAs sweeping in to make sense of deadlines, acronyms, and forms to save companies from imperial doom (i.e. the IRS). Businesses need these accounting heros more than ever to help navigate one of the most confusing tax years on record.

On this week’s special episode of The Startup Stack, founder and CEO Justin McLoughlin of airCFO decodes what you need to know about filing 2020 taxes. Also making his debut this week is Rocketplace co-founder Ben Hutchenson (full time COO and unofficial bookkeeper).

All of the tax questions submitted by you, our readers and listeners are answered so get your calculators and spreadsheets ready!

Highlights include: 

– Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines — what are the important filing dates?

– PPP versus EIDL loans? Who qualifies and who doesn’t?

– What are the commonly overlooked deductions and new tax rules that early stage companies should be taking advantage of?

– How to claim R&D tax credits.

– The best software solutions for startups.

– Can companies file extensions after closing their 2020 books? Hint: the answer is yes, but there’s a caveat.

More on today’s episode, including a full transcript @ https://rocketplace.com/blog/podcast-episode-22-accounting-justin-mcloughlin/.

[Guest / Host bios] 

Guest: Justin McLoughlin is Founder & CEO of airCFO, a cloud based accounting, tax and finance firm that serves as a fractional and remote team for startups. Justin is a midwesterner who fell in love with the tech startup scene and turned entrepreneur when he realized nobody wants to do payroll. 

Host: Louis Beryl is the founder and CEO of Rocketplace. A 3x founder, investor, and board member, Louis began his tech career as a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. When he’s not building businesses (or talking about them!) Louis enjoys cooking for his family and talking at length about it to anyone who will listen. 

https://rocketplace.com/podcast