1Mby1M Udemy Courses with Sramana Mitra: Financing

Raising money to build a startup is a huge challenge. To be able to raise any money at all, you must first understand how investors think. We have developed the following courses catering to entrepreneurs in different stages of their entrepreneurial journey.

378th 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording On December 14, 2017: With Ken Elefant, Sorenson Capital

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:

Featured Videos

277th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Greg Sands, Costanoa Ventures

Greg Sands, Founder and Managing Director at Costanoa Ventures shares his investment focus.

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377th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Anirudh Suri, India Internet Fund

Anirudh Suri, Founding Partner at India Internet Fund, about the funding trends in the Indian startup market.

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Roundtable Recap: December 14 – Please Do NOT Assume Concepts Can Be Funded

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Ken Elefant, Managing Director at Sorenson Capital, who discussed at length the investment thesis of his firm.

OkiDoki
First, Elena Avramenko from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pitched OkiDoki, a Slack-like app for family collaboration.

Aponia Data
Next, Jason Wisdom, New York, New York, pitched Aponia Data, a risk management application for enterprise and mid-market clients in Financial Services.

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Seed Investor Podcasts On Which Startups They Invest In

If you are an entrepreneur in the market for raising financing, you need to understand your segment and the investors that align with it. As I keep pointing out, the early stage investment process has segmented significantly into Pre-Seed, Seed, Post-Seed, Pre-Series A, Small Series A, Large Series A, and firms and individual investors have started to specialize in a subset of these various stages. This Fall, I’ve asked many seed investors, VCs and Angels, how they decide which founders and startups they will invest in. Please have a listen to these 30-minute podcast interviews to learn which might be a good fit for you.

Amir Banifatemi, Founder and Managing Partner of K5 Ventures, a fund focused on pre-seed, seed, post-seed and early-stage investments from Southern California. Amir is also a Board Member and former President of Tech Coast Angels, a group of 340 angel investors from Southern California.

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Angel Investors Discuss the Startups They Finance in Podcasts

For entrepreneurs, there may no longer be as many wide-open opportunities out there to build a startup venture around. However, there remain many, many niche opportunities. Some of these businesses need to be built for very small amounts of capital – $1-2 Million, and sold for $10-15M. Is there appetite among Angels for this type of investment? What about a notch smaller? Invest $250k-$500k and sell for $5-$10M?

For Angel investors, shifts are happening in the world of seed investing, and questions emerge. How do you process the current investment climate where capital is moving further and further upstream? How does an Angel investor (or an entrepreneur, for that matter) mitigate the Series A gap? How do you parse Unicorn mania? As an Angel investor, you could get buried under later stage liquidation preferences. How do you protect yourself?

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5 Seed Investors Discuss Trends They See in Their Dealflow in Podcasts

Entrepreneurs interested to learn more about raising funds for their startups need to keep up with what is happening with seed investors today. The seed eco-system has become a 5-stage process, spanning pre-seed, seed, post-seed, pre-Series A, small Series A, big Series A. To provide a deeper look, I’ve recently asked several seed investors what they are seeing in their current dealflow. Have a listen to the following 30-minute podcast interviews to learn what a variety of seed investors are currently looking for in startups and the types of ventures that are making their way through their offices.

Jon Staenberg, Managing Partner at Staenberg Venture Partners – Jon has been a Seed Investor in over 300 ventures over the last 30 years. Jon draws from his long background and discusses some of what interests him to invest in a startup. He also reflects on the question People or Market: Which takes priority?

Vinny Lingham, Managing Partner at Newtown Partners – Vinny, also Co-founder and CEO, Civic.com, discusses his investment thesis in B-to-C seed ventures. We also discuss the role ICOs are playing in filling the gaps in certain seed-stage ventures.

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What Are Seed VCs Looking For With Sunil Bhargava, Tandem Ventures

We’re doing a deep dive into the current seed investment eco-system and talking to our investor friends about what they’re looking for. The Seed eco-system is now a 5-stage process, spanning pre-seed, seed, post-seed, pre-Series A, small Series A, big Series A.

Here, you can hear the perspective of Sunil Bhargava, Founder and Managing Partner of Tandem Ventures on all that and more:

Come talk to me to brainstorm, strategize, weigh your funding options.

375th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Vinny Lingham, Newtown Partners

Vinny Lingham, Co-founder and CEO, Civic.com, and Managing Partner of Newtown Partners, discusses his investment thesis in B-to-C seed ventures. We also discuss the role ICOs are playing in filling the gaps in certain seed-stage ventures.

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374th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Jon Staenberg, Staenberg Venture Partners

Jon Staenberg, Managing Partner at Staenberg Venture Partners, has been a Seed Investor in over 300 ventures over the last 30 years. Jon draws from his long background and discusses some of what interests him to invest in a startup. He also reflects on the question People or Market: Which takes priority?

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6 Women Investors Discuss Ventures They Find Interesting in Podcasts

As the numbers of women who are VCs and Angel Investors continue to grow, the startup ecosystem continues to evolve. Will a female perspective be an asset to your startup? Might the influence and support of a strong woman lead your venture to success? Have a listen to the following 30-minute podcast interviews with a variety of Angels and venture capitalists to learn if your business might be of interest to them.

Ann Winblad, Co-founder, Hummer Winblad – Ann is one of the most successful women VCs in our industry, and as I mentioned in my introduction, I have never heard her whining about bias against women. One of the most encouraging things she discussed today is how her firm is sourcing interesting ventures from all over the world, not just Silicon Valley. Mulesoft, one of their hot portfolio companies, had its CEO based in Malta, originally!

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Roundtable Recap: November 16 – Market Size Matters

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Ashmeet Sidana, Chief Engineer at Engineering Capital. Ashmeet shared a wonderful presentation on Market Sizing.

M2M One
As for the pitches, Krishna Guda from Auckland, New Zealand, pitched M2M One, a company that provides IoT solutions to SMEs in New Zealand and already has a nice chunk of revenue. In its quest to find the growth path, we advised Krishna to figure out what his company is actually focused on, ranging from being a distributor of SIM Cards, to offering integration services, to selling technology.

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280th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Bernard Moon, SparkLabs Global Ventures

Bernard Moon, Co-founder and Partner, SparkLabs Global Ventures, discusses their seed investing activities.

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283rd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Jake Seid, Stone Bridge Ventures

Jake Seid, Managing Director, Stone Bridge Ventures, talks about trends, AngelList Syndicates, ICOs and more.

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What are Indian VCs Looking For with Naren Gupta, Nexus Ventures

We continue our deep dive into the current seed investment eco-system and talking to our investor friends about what they’re looking for.

Here, you can hear the perspective of Naren Gupta of Nexus Venture Partners on Indian startups:

Come talk to me to brainstorm, strategize, weigh your funding options.