FounderTech Decoded

9 | Nick Telson @ Exited Founder of Design My Night, Co-Founder of Horseplay Ventures and Trumpet | Moving Beyond Static Legacy Tools Whilst Still Retaining The Human Side Of Venture Capital

In this episode we talk to Nick Telson to share his experience and insight from both sides of the table - as a new startup founder in 2010 to life as an exited founder and early stage investor in 2022. We talk about how whilst the traits, values and robustness needed by a founder on a character level essentially remain the same, that FounderTech tools and platforms are increasingly changing the agility around framing and also accessing early stage venture capital.
We discuss how it must be remembered that whilst the core act of raising money by an early stage founder is still essentially a very human driven process, it is also underpinned and informed by the metrics and dynamics of an investors deal funnel. 
We explore how the limitations of the pitch deck as a largely static tool designed around product market fit, doesn’t consistently behave very well when trying to amplify and assess those human driven traits. Could we learn from other industries like recruitment, as to how they reimagined static key legacy tools like the CV, into much more dynamic human driven platforms, that better convey the candidates story in a much more compelling way?
Finally, we explore his recent return to being a startup co-founder with his sales cycle platform Trumpet, his own investment in FounderTech platform Landscape and how platforms like AngelList and Odin that enable startups to create their own SPV’s, alongside the rise of founder driven capital and Solo Capitalists might represent key FounderTech market developments that further point to an adapting and iterating new future for early stage venture.
 
Explore further and connect with Nick: 
https://horseplay.ventures/ 
https://www.sendtrumpet.com/ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicktelson/
https://anchor.fm/pitch-deck

8 | Anthony Rose @ Founder and CEO of SeedLegals | When FounderTech Behaves Like A Utility The Rules Can Then Be Reimagined

In this conversation we talk to Anthony Rose who is founder and CEO of SeedLegals. An outsider to the legal and investment community, who ended up building one of the original FounderTech platforms that would go on to ultimately reimagine both of those sectors.
 
We talk about how when you are an outsider, you can sometimes frame and envision possibilities for a problem space in the market completely differently. In Anthony’s case he realised that the main product opportunity for SeedLegals was not - as he initially and reasonably assumed - the faster delivery of a set of legal documents. He came to realise that’s actually almost incidental and a small piece of the puzzle, not the actual puzzle itself. That the real value and opportunity lay in enabling founders to have confidence with how they initially engaged, navigated and progressed through the complexities of the startup venture space. 
 
This led to repositioning SeedLegals as ‘the fastest way to do your funding round’ and the development and introduction of their flagship investment products SeedFAST and Instant Investment. Both of which went onto inform and help frame what they define as agile investment. Both have led to more money now being raised via SeedLegals outside of a traditional funding round than within a traditional funding round.
 
We also explore how there are 4 distinct typical investor personas that inform a funding round which are not the same in intent or capacity and how founders need to calibrate their pitch accordingly to align with these personas. We highlight how all an investor can go on in the early pre-product and pre-revenue stages is teasing out the signals founders have agency over. That one of the only true signals and datapoints an investor can evaluate is the content the founder can produce and put out that creates thought leadership in their space and demonstrates authority over their market sector.
 
Ultimately we focus and hone in on how FounderTech, in order to further rewire and reimagine the rules of the founder investor landscape, has to behave like a series of utilities. Utilities that are designed to increase the fluidity and agility of that founder investor dynamic and conversation. Utilities that continue to erode and reduce the inefficient asymmetries of the early stage startup space so it is ultimately more inclusive and open for everyone.
Connect with Anthony:
Web: www.seedlegals.com 
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anrose 
Widen your perspective with these APIs:
https://mikebutcher.me/2015/07/01/the-press-release-is-dead/ 
https://sifted.eu/articles/interpreting-investor-feedback/
https://www.momtestbook.com/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Western-Philosophy-Routledge-Classics/dp/0415325056

7 | Amrit Sami @ Associate at Symvan Capital | Why SEIS May Be A Key Foundational Piece of FounderTech

In this Episode we have a very open conversation with Amrit Sami diving into and taking the time to understand and explore the human aspects of the early stage founder investor relationship. Amrit is an Associate at Symvan Capital who is focused on identifying and evaluating pre-seed SEIS investments for the venture fund. 
We discuss why SEIS itself is a shining example of innovative FounderTech, that we in the UK should be proud of and actually celebrate more than we do. An innovation that’s helped stimulate many pre-seed investments and make this initial difficult phase of the early stage startup journey much easier over the last decade since it’s been introduced.
We also look at how SEIS capital is best suited to demonstrate a Founder Market Fit, that enables an early stage founder to navigate and traverse that difficult pre-revenue and pre-product phase. How as a founder, demonstrably showing a market authority and thought leadership driven expertise, accompanied by an ongoing deep curiosity around your sector, is hugely important to initially providing critical further data points. Subsurface cues that can help propel you from the pitch deck into a more nuanced level playing field conversation with an investor. 
An open dialogue where you can then be evaluated by more human metrics and dynamics and whether you can then take an investor on a compelling journey with you. That this is the aligned richer conversation that smart forward thinking investors might now want to use FounderTech platforms to help better enable, evaluate and engage in. To accelerate and quickly determine if they are right for you as much as you are for them! 
Connect with Amrit:
Web:  https://www.symvancapital.com/ 
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amrit-sami-4a1baaa4/ 
Widen your perspective with these APIs:
https://readnoise.com/
https://davidepstein.com/the-range/

6 | Eamonn Carey @ General Partner of Tera Ventures and The Fund | How The Rise of Founder Backed Venture Might Be Pivotal To The FounderTech Conversation

In this conversation we talk to Eamonn Carey, formerly of Techstars and more recently a General Partner of venture funds Tera Ventures and The Fund. In our discussion we focus on why ex-founder’s launching and managing funds could be a very emergent piece of the FoundTech puzzle. We touch on how he arrived at this insight after returning from the US, where the emphasis from this founder driven perspective focuses primarily on the potential of a startup rather than initially framing and assessing problems.
 
We discuss how if you’ve sat in the seat of the founder and experienced first hand the problems you face, trying to launch and fundraise for you early stage startup, this gives you a different perspective on how you not only evaluate that startup but also how you are able to better empathise with the actual stage of the journey the founder is currently on.
This stops you from automatically focusing on product driven data points that can’t be demonstrated at this stage and looking instead for other proxies, symptoms and signs that indicate that the founder is currently capable of demonstrating Founder Market Fit. Things like having sophisticated hiring plans in place or also whether the founder has evidently done Due Diligence on the investor to see if they are right for them.
Finally, we get into why language around the investor ecosystem for a founder can often be unnecessarily opaque and how with the recent successful publishing and launch of ‘The Startup Lexicon’ with Ken Valledy he is keen on now demystifying this language so it can be widely accessible and understood. How this in itself is an important foundational piece of FounderTech, because if founders and investors can’t start their dialogue fundamentally and clearly understanding each other, how is that relationship going to then align, bloom and prosper going forward?
Connect with Eamonn:
Web: https://www.tera.vc/
Web: https://thefund.vc/ 
Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/ecarey 
Widen your perspective with these APIs:
https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Lexicon-Demystifying-everyday-language-ebook/dp/B09XG34QXS 
https://www.aprildunford.com/obviously-awesome 
https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/
https://www.theconsumervc.com/ 

5 | Gian Seehra @ Early Stage Investor and Advisor | The True Purpose For Product Market Fit In A Seed Round

In this Episode we have a really great open conversation with Gian Seehra, about his experience post his role at Octopus Ventures, advising and supporting early stage founders. Gian has been a part of over $300m in venture funding in his career and has now helped founders raise raise $80m from pre-seed to Series A since starting advising founders!
We talk about how you square the circle of pre-revenue investment by encouraging VCs not to be weighed down by legacy models and encouraging them to start to use tools that enhance the ability of the founder to be able to demonstrate their validity and worth, outside of and before the metrics of revenue kick in.
We explore how it is not expressed enough in the venture space, that the true purpose and driver of Product Market Fit within a seed round is not to prove and underscore those revenue metrics but instead demonstrate that with this capital injection into a startup, there is a path and a reasonable expectation that the founder can then get to Product Market Fit within the next 2-3 years. A small inflection and nuance but critical point of difference.
We discuss the rise of solo capitalists and how their deep expertise and sector value add could make them increasingly important to recalibrating this conversation. We also touch on how both for an investor and founder building a personal brand is going to become more and more important in order to elevate and differentiate yourself within the emerging FounderTech landscape.
Finally we talk about how Gian’s experience both as a VC and now as an independent advisor has given rise to his unique Fundraising Founder Framework. A framework that he is currently using to evaluate and advise the founders that he now talks to and engages with.
Connect with Gian
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/gianseehra
The Fundraising Founder Framework: https://www.gianseehra.me/the-fundraising-founder-framework 
Twitter: @gianseehra
Widen your perspective with these APIs:
https://www.shortform.com/summary/what-you-do-is-who-you-are-summary-ben-horowitz
https://www.ted.com/speakers/andrea_berchowitz

4 | Neil Dillon @ Head of Equity at Swoop Funding | Why Accessing Alternative Early Stage Capital Can Seem Like Magic

In this Episode we talk to Neil Dillon, Head of Equity at Swoop Funding.
 
We discuss that when almost all founders have all heard of venture capital, how it is that very few early stage startups get access to and a chance to secure traditional venture backing? How, when even with all the mainstream coverage of the startup scene, there isn’t much information or stats on different types of pre-seed capital available to early stage founders?
One reason for this might be the perception that because most of these startups are deemed and expected to ‘fail’, that there is no value in analysing and also empowering them with diverse and agile alternatives to early stage funding.
Building on this, we talk about how proving traction to investors can take on different forms and that demonstrating a track record doesn’t have mean already having a great exit under your belt. It’s increasingly more about showing your resourcefulness in accessing and deploying the most efficient amount and valuable use of capital in the shortest amount of time. 
Finally building on this, how rapidly assessing, accessing and leveraging alternative capital instruments like Asset Finance, Invoice Finance and Startups loans via an early stage investor platform like Swoop, can seem like magic and enable you to get started, determined and informed much more by your startup’s own trajectory and timeline without giving large chunks of your time and equity away up front.
Connect with Neil and Explore Swoop Funding:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-dillon-6a2a0554 
Web: www.swoopfunding.com 
Twitter: @SwoopFunding
Widen your perspective with these APIs:
https://sifted.eu/
https://fullratchet.net/ 

3 | Jonathan Sun @ Founder of Horizan VC | Backing High Pain Points That Are Not Straightforward

In this first Episode of Series 2 of FounderTech Decoded, where we talk to forward thinking and pioneering investors who are helping define the FounderTech space from a venture perspective, we are delighted to kick things off and talk with Jonathan Sun of Horizan VC.
We explore how Horizan is currently pairing two innovative investor instruments - the Future Earnings Agreement and the Advance Subscription Agreement - in order to now increase fluency and transparency in the early stage venture space.
Building on this, we also discuss about how zero sum mentalities might no longer be the best approach to now help develop and nurture the startup ecosystem as a whole and why ‘too early’ as a go-to pass from investors when a founder is pre-revenue, makes no sense when virtually all early stage investments by their very nature, will almost always be largely driven and informed by intangibles.
Finally, we talk about how it’s time to start celebrating, encouraging and backing founders employing and designing no code / low code solutions in order to rapidly and agilely demonstrate and prove high pain points that are not straightforward, in new market opportunities that are not yet saturated.
 
Connect with Jonathan and Explore Horizan:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-sun-652541131/
Twitter: @horizanvc 
Email: info@horizan.vc
 
Widen your perspective with these APIs:
https://horizanvc.substack.com/p/high-pain-points-not-straightforward-fd4?s=r 
https://www.indieldn.com/ 
https://capitalallocators.com/ 

2 | Ifty Nasir @ Vestd | Transforming The Role of Equity in Startups

In this Episode we talk to Ifty Nasir the founder of Vestd.
We explore why if equity is consistently the one thing that focuses and aligns everyone in a startup, how we can start to engage with it in a much more dynamic, active and fluid way.
How we can create tangible, measurable and specific goals within our milestones and KPIs, the value of which can be then reflected and rewarded to the recipient via equity in real time.
This in turn makes founder partnership conversations more agile and responsive and evolves the current cap table from its more often than not static form, towards a more vital and responsive tool within the startup.
Transforming the role of equity from what it has been into what it now could be going forward.
 
Connect with Ifty and Explore Vestd:
https://www.vestd.com 
https://twitter.com/VestdHQ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ifty-nasir-9686139/ 
Widen your perspective with these APIs:
https://slicingpie.com/mike-moyer-slicing-pie-equity-splits-startups/
https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/the-membership-economy/

1 | Adam Barlow @ Landscape | Empowering The Rise of Transparent Investing

In this inaugural episode we talk to Adam Barlow Head of Operations and Growth at Landscape.
We discuss his experience and role at accelerating the first ever “glassdoor for VCs” from the ground up.
We learn how this has also progressed into the more recent additional launch of scouting platform OpenScout.
How both platforms are bringing a much needed radical transparency to the early stage founder investor space. Additionally how that transparency, once in place and when it starts to increase equal accessibility of founder investor information, can help inform a more purpose driven capital rather than just investment with purpose.
 
Connect with Adam and explore Landscape:
https://www.landscape.vc/
https://twitter.com/Landscape_vc 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-barlow-67929117a 
Widen your perspective with these APIs:
https://openscout.landscape.vc/ 
https://anchor.fm/mario-gabriele/episodes/The-Future-of-Solo-Capitalists-e1e5p68