About
I invest in, advise, and build capital-efficient, high-growth, profitable SaaS & Consumer…
Articles by Josh
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4 Leadership Lessons for Founders After Running a Startup for 5 Years
4 Leadership Lessons for Founders After Running a Startup for 5 Years
This time five years ago, I founded StackSocial, what is now StackCommerce. Each year for the past four years, I’ve…
22 Comments -
The Heart and the Hammer
The Heart and the Hammer
When you are grounded, believing you can compete in the realms of greatness is audacious. Think about it….
5 Comments -
Founder Feedback Year #3: Go Big or Go Home
Founder Feedback Year #3: Go Big or Go Home
It’s hard to believe that another year has passed since my last post…clearly I failed to follow up on my pledge to blog…
12 Comments
Activity
38K followers
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Josh Payne posted thisEvery time I meet with a B2B founder, they want to know one thing.... “What are you doing for GTM that’s working right now?” For Onward - it’s been asking ourselves the same question:: “how can we drive more value to the merchant for the same cost?” Our answer: We started with one product: Checkout+ Last quarter we launched 3 new products: • Returns management • Branded order tracking • Order editing We’re not making money directly from these new products. We just believe we’ll drive more value. And after 90 days, a double digit % of Onward merchants are using three or more products. As we get embedded deeper, that drives higher retention which drives higher LTVs. That’s how you become irreplaceable. The best GTM hack is innovation.
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Josh Payne posted thisEveryone looks the same: - AI-built MVP - AI-built deck - AI-built brand - AI-built outbound Your competitors can clone your features in weeks. But they can't clone your: • Audience • Distribution muscle • Credibility with buyers GTM is the product now.
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Josh Payne posted thisSecond-time founders be like... > GTM > PMF > Go fully remote > Profitability is king > Must have a Big TAM > Outsource non-core tasks > Have great advisors/investors > Prioritize customer conversations > Focused on retention over growth > Hire fewer, more experienced people > Document everything on Notion/Slack > Thinking in decades and acting in days None of this stuff came from a book. It came from living through the first company. The price of admission was worth it.
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Josh Payne posted thisEvery quarter, we parse 30+ reports from our OpenSky Ventures portfolio. What separates the top 15% from the bottom 15% is almost never what founders expect. First, we have a team of three - two partners & one principal. • Myself • Josh Resnick • Stephanie Nwokolo 1. Here is what we typically pay most attention to: • Payback periods by cohort • Cash position and runway trends • Acquisition efficiency relative to prior periods • Contribution margin improvements month over month • Subscriber or customer retention data and what's driving it 2. From that criteria we select the outliers: • Top 15% • Bottom 15% 3. Then we sync with this set of founders 1-on-1. On these calls we try to understand: • What's the difference maker here? • What’s happening in what channels? • How are you investing? • Who are you hiring? • What's driving this? 4. Last, we evaluate the founders themselves. There is one pattern the best founders share: Founder GTM capability. Explaining your GTM advantage is your top priority when raising. We check with these two questions: 1. What makes your background / experience /relationships the best in the world to sell this product? 2. How your business model facilitates no. 1 You can read every metric and still miss what's actually driving the company. That’s why our process evaluates the business and the founder. And it’s been the same process since 2022. In the past few years, we’ve written 30+ checks at $100-$200K investing in the future of commerce. Fund II is now open and we're writing more at $200K-$400K. If you're a founder building in commerce, DTC or ecom enablement, shoot me a DM so we can talk.
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Josh Payne posted thisA lot of people shout “GO BIG OR GO HOME!” from the sidelines. But how does that play out in reality when things go sideways? Well, I watched a founder bootstrap their ecom business from zero to nine figures in rev within four years. Two years later, they lost it all. They had raised a round not too crazy for their size - around eight figures in equity. But then they also raised another eight figures in debt. They were tripling every year and their projections had them continuing in that direction. With the new funding, they made a big bet. They tripled the spend. The team went from 100→300. Their product line expanded from 2-3 SKUs→20+. It was a fundamentally sound business. Then the market took a turn. Facebook changed the algorithm. Organic social no longer worked. And once they took on that capital, they couldn't undo it. Debt is already more risky than equity - especially when you mix the two. The debt holders had a certain mindset about how they wanted things fixed. The equity holders had a different mindset. Ultimately it just became overhead - managing investors and debt holders instead of working their way out of it. It was a situation where you make a massive bet, you're wrong, and you're done. But the thing they should've avoided the most was tripling the team. In hiring so many people, they were too slow to reduce costs and complexity once they saw things weren't working. It can be easy to slip into “go big or go home” - where you just keep trying to be a big company no matter what, but there’s a path where you can modify and stay alive. Sometimes the smartest move is finding the gray area between go big and go home. I call it seed-strapping.
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Josh Payne posted thisGrüns recently sold for $1.2B in under three years while SaaS valuations are having complete meltdowns. AI can't replace better-for-you protein. That’s why investors are treating consumer brands as an AI hedge. But what's currently happening with SaaS valuations is an overreaction. Because when you’re really looking at enterprise customers, they're too busy to maintain vibecoded apps over time. Not to mention all the security issues. Enterprises need a lot more service than most AI companies can offer today. The smart SaaS companies know this. They’re becoming AI-enabled at rapid speed to catch up. And in many cases, their revenue numbers are actually accelerating. Consumer brands will keep crushing it, but SaaS will definitely make a comeback within 12-18 months.
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Josh Payne posted thisTHE MOST SIMPLE GTM PLAYBOOK TO REACH AN 8-FIGURE RUN RATE IN 5 YEARS Onward's first merchant was my best friend. Three years later we hit a $20M+ run rate profitably and completely bootstrapped. If I had to do it again, this would be the playbook I’d run: Phase 1: The first handful of customers (1-10) Forget even trying to “start a company” yet. Just build a v1 of your product and see if you can be at parity with the incumbents. Then get your close friends, or friends of friends to use it. Don’t try to make money or even charge them. This is purely about getting into the game and getting user feedback... Phase 2: The perceived value unlock As you go to market, you'll realize that if you don't change something fundamental with your pitch, you're going to be competing on price - and that's a race to the bottom. Ask yourself: how can I create an experience customers actually love? Who would have ever thought people would pay $700/yr for a credit card when you can get them by the dozen for free?? But ask anyone with an AMEX Platinum and it’s their card of choice regardless of the annual fee. That’s because they perceive they’re getting more value than they’re paying - Amex Platinum gives out $3,000 in credits. It’s a win-win. Make that feeling your North Star. If your customer is only willing to pay $50, use their feedback to roll out features that give them $200-300 in value. Phase 3: Getting to 20 customers Everything up to and including this phase will be a lot of hustling with some differentiation. Keep rolling out new features. Keep getting feedback from merchants and users. Keep shipping with that perceived value mindset. Eventually you should have a fully differentiated product. Phase 4: 20 to 100 merchants This is where go-to-market fit kicks in. Now you can: • Move from founder-led sales to referral-based. • Incentivize your first 20 partners through relationships and better deals. • Get on sites they respect The next 80 will come fast. Phase 5: 7-figure to 8-figure run rate Stop trying to control every aspect of your business. Go find top talent who can expand your vision outside of your: - Own capabilities - Founder-led sales - Founder-led content You need people with their own networks and their own playbooks who can expand that core vision out for you. The playbook is simple. The patience to follow it is the hard part.
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Josh Payne posted thisI get dozens of cold inbounds every week. 95% miss. The ones that land share three things: ~~ Josh Resnick and I just made our 30th investment at OpenSky Ventures. This is the most straightforward breakdown I've ever written on how a VC actually says yes to new investments. WHAT WE'RE ACTUALLY FUNDING We back founders building for a strategic exit in the $50M to $500M range, writing checks between $200K to $400K, split between: - 50% DTC consumer brands. - 50% B2B commerce infrastructure. We launched Fund I in 2022. Now we’re starting to deploy Fund II. Here’s exactly what we look for: ~~ WHAT GETS A DEAL TO YES 1) A warm intro with impact Every interaction with an investor is measured. It’s like a series of “gates” you need to get past and the first one (the introduction) is probably the most important. A warm intro is table stakes. And not only do you need a warm intro - but it’s important who that intro is coming from - another founder is great, another investor (assuming they invested) is even better. Lastly - don’t waste your time on cold outreach. If you can’t find a mutual between us – it’s likely already not a fit. 2) The founder sold me before they pitched me. When we met Becca Millstein from Fishwife, we weren't sure about investing in tinned fish. It’s about as unsexy of a category as it gets. But the branding hit before the pitch did. The authenticity was obvious, and that's the signal we look for. 3) Alignment on the exit path. I ask every founder how they want to build. If the answer is scorched-earth spending without fiscal discipline simply burning through VC rounds to grow at any cost, we're not aligned. If it's a focused business that can exit strategically and long-term efficiently, we're in the same movie. ~~ WHAT KILLS A DEAL Any one of these is usually enough: • No paying customers • No path to profitability • Founder scared of sales calls • "Like XYZ, but cheaper" as the strategy • No urgency • Needs VC to even get off the ground • No GTM plan (first-time founders obsess over features; second-time founders obsess over distribution) • "I'll hire someone to do that" said too early • Can't attract great first hires • Won't take a pay cut / put skin in the game ~~ WHAT CHANGES AFTER THE CHECK CLEARS Every OpenSky portfolio company at the pre-seed stages hears the same four things in the first 90 days: 1) Hire efficiently: overseas/agencies > local 2) Try raising prices. Better products → higher margins. 3) Your first customers should come from referrals / organic / partnerships. 4) No SDR’s. Learn from founder-led outbound sales for the first 12 mos. ~~ If this reads like the operating system you want to run, OpenSky is actively deploying Fund 2. We’re looking for: - Capital-efficient founder - Approaching your first institutional raise - Building in ecom & B2B ecom enablement Hit me up in the comments or DM me so we can talk.
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Josh Payne shared thisEvery SaaS founder knows the secret: your customers will tell the truth about you on G2 whether you want them to or not. Founders focus so much on “building with AI as a superpower” - but often forget true scale comes from retention. And retention is ultimately a function of trust. Trust that you will: 1. Ruthlessly reduce, attack, and resolve issues immediately 2. Create new products that add true incremental value 3. Do more, for less Onward just picked up 5 new G2 badges for Spring 2026. -> High Performer. -> Easiest to Use. -> Most Likely to Recommend (SMB). -> Easiest to Do Business With. -> Best Support. These badges come from merchants who use the platform day in and out. A few other numbers worth noting: Onward ranks 16th out of 1,070 products in our category on G2, and holds the #1 spot in shipping protection across the industry. We've built something brands trust. See what merchants are saying: https://lnkd.in/erp-A5Xb
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Josh Payne liked thisJosh Payne liked thisBe Amazing is officially LIVE in Target nationwide! I've never been much of a LinkedIn poster, but this one felt worth it. I'm insanely proud of this moment, our team, and the focus it took to get here. It didn't happen overnight. It happened because of 5+ years of heads down work, Michael, Tarun, and myself saying no to retail opportunity after retail opportunity, and staying primarily DTC until the timing felt right. That simple (but difficult) discipline is what took Be Amazing from 0 to eight figures annually in just 5 years — without a dollar of outside funding. We wanted to bootstrap this brand until we had a proven, scalable model before taking on capital (which we're now doing). Huge thank you to every single person who has believed in and supported us along the way — and a MASSIVE thank you to Target for the love and belief in the Be Amazing brand.
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Josh Payne liked thisJosh Payne liked thisThe OuterSignal team is heads down right now, but very cool for us to see moments like this. Huge props to Josh Payne and the gentlemen at Ecomm Cowboy for this shoutout last week: “OuterSignal is about to go on a generational run.” I’d have to agree. Also loved what Josh said about brands giving vendors organic love on social. That’s not normal. But for us it’s happening almost weekly. A big thank you Chris H. and Colin Dougherty for the recognition. We’re only just getting started.
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Josh Payne liked thisJosh Payne liked thisEcommerce fraud is a real problem. But the way most brands respond to it is quietly punishing their best customers. A blanket returns or refund policy doesn't know the difference between a loyal customer of three years and someone running a wardrobing scheme. It treats them exactly the same. And that's the problem. The customer who has ordered 40 times, never disputed a charge, and emailed once about a missing package shouldn't be getting the same friction as someone who has returned 80% of everything they've ever bought. Behavior is data. Most brands just aren't using it. Fraud prevention doesn't have to mean making the experience worse for everyone. It means getting smarter about who you're actually talking to. A first time buyer with no history gets a different flow than a high value repeat customer. Someone flagged for chronic return abuse gets a closer look. Someone who has never caused a problem gets the benefit of the doubt, fast. The brands that figure this out stop leaving money on the table in two directions at once. They stop absorbing fraud losses and they stop silently churning good customers who hit a policy wall and never came back. The technology to do this exists. The bigger shift is organizational. It means moving away from policies designed to protect against the worst case and building experiences designed around who your customers actually are. Are you treating every customer the same? Because they're not :)
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Josh Payne liked thisJosh Payne liked thisIt's Black Friday in the Fizzzy office. Does this feel familiar? 🙃 The SEASON FINALE of Skeptics is out now! Thanks for watching with us over the last month. Have enjoyed all the feedback along the way.
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Josh Payne liked thisJosh Payne liked thisBrian Tsang has joined Onward as Merchant Success Manager. The best Merchant Success Managers have sat on the merchant side of the table. Before joining Onward, Brian led growth at a scaling DTC brand, then moved into customer success at a Shopify ecosystem platform. He knows what it's like to be the one staring at the dashboard, fielding the support tickets, and trying to make the numbers work. Now he's helping Onward merchants do the same. Welcome to the team, Brian!
Experience
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Education
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Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business
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Activities and Societies: President - Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Club, Fuqua Merit Scholar, Duke Venture Fellow, Entrepreneurial Fellow
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Honors & Awards
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EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2021 Greater Los Angeles Finalist
Ernst & Young
The Entrepreneur Of The Year program, founded by EY, has recognized the endeavors of exceptional men and women who create the products and services that keep our worldwide economy moving forward. Since its inception, Entrepreneur Of The Year has grown dramatically and now includes programs in more than 140 cities and more than 60 countries worldwide.
https://www.ey.com/en_us/entrepreneur-of-the-year/greater-los-angeles/finalists -
Conference Speaker
Affiliate Summet West
Affiliate Summit West held in Las Vegas is the performance marketing industry's premier global event. With over 6,000 marketers gathering it is a great opportunity for advertisers, influencers, brands, and other industry assets to network in one place.
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2019 Digiday Award Winner for Best Commerce + Content Platform
Digiday
The Digiday Awards is the media industry's annual recognition of the companies, campaigns and creative modernizing media and marketing. Over the years, these awards have honored leading work from brands, agencies, publishers and tech providers.
https://digiday.com/awards/adobe-hypr-xaxis-and-more-are-this-years-digiday-technology-award-winners/ -
2018 Best CEO Award Winner (Small to Medium Sized Business)
Comparably.com
The top-ranked CEOs from Small/Medium and Large Companies who were anonymously rated by female employees on Comparably.com from May 23, 2017 to May 23, 2018.
https://www.comparably.com/blog/best-ceos-for-women-2018/ -
EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 Greater Los Angeles Finalist
Ernst & Young
The Entrepreneur Of The Year program, founded by EY, has recognized the endeavors of exceptional men and women who create the products and services that keep our worldwide economy moving forward. Since its inception, Entrepreneur Of The Year has grown dramatically and now includes programs in more than 140 cities and more than 60 countries worldwide.
http://www.ey.com/us/en/about-us/entrepreneurship/entrepreneur-of-the-year/la-2018-finalists -
Conference Speaker
Recurring Revenue Conference
Welcome to the Recurring Revenue Conference 2018 presented by Sutton Capital Partners. The RRC's purpose is to provide unique opportunities that give you key insights into disruptive technologies that are shaping our tech ecosystem.
Join over 600 industry leaders to discuss the subscription economy and how recurring revenue – a steady stream of customer dollars – can reshape the future of your business. -
Conference Speaker
The Next Web
The fifth edition of TNW New York is designed for decision-makers looking to explore the digital technologies transforming Tech, Communication and Media businesses.
This year we're keeping it cosy and curated by operating an invite-only policy. If you want to be one of a thousand industry leaders discovering, discussing and shaping what’s Now and Next in digital this December, then apply for your invitation now.
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Conference Speaker
Content & Commerce Summit
Content & Commerce Summit is 3 full days of actionable, proven, strategic content from experts (and a few celebrities) that have been in your shoes and have turned their businesses into juggernauts.
https://www.digitalmarketer.com/blog/best-of-content-and-commerce-summit/ -
EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017 Greater Los Angeles 2017 Finalist
Ernst & Young
The Entrepreneur Of The Year program, founded by EY, has recognized the endeavors of exceptional men and women who create the products and services that keep our worldwide economy moving forward. Since its inception, Entrepreneur Of The Year has grown dramatically and now includes programs in more than 140 cities and more than 60 countries worldwide.
http://www.ey.com/us/en/about-us/entrepreneurship/entrepreneur-of-the-year/la-2017-pr-finalistannouncement -
2017 Digiday Award Finalist for Best eCommerce Strategy
Digiday
The Digiday Publishing Awards recognize the best global digital publishing innovation by publishers, brands, agencies and technology platforms. Over the years, the awards have honored leading work from companies like The Atlantic, BuzzFeed and more.
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Conference Speaker & Mentor
Two12
A hands-on conference and mentorship experience with the best entrepreneurs
and business leaders in the world. https://two12.io/
Organizations
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Tiger 21
Member
- PresentTIGER 21 is a peer learning community that takes on topics that matter most to our Members. Fellow visionaries, entrepreneurs, investors, and executives from an array of industries comprise each Members’ personal peer Group. Our network of Members effectively serve as legacy planning partners who help each other improve their investment acumen, tackle common issues of wealth preservation, manage family-related challenges, understand estate planning options, and share ideas on philanthropic…
TIGER 21 is a peer learning community that takes on topics that matter most to our Members. Fellow visionaries, entrepreneurs, investors, and executives from an array of industries comprise each Members’ personal peer Group. Our network of Members effectively serve as legacy planning partners who help each other improve their investment acumen, tackle common issues of wealth preservation, manage family-related challenges, understand estate planning options, and share ideas on philanthropic endeavors.
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Young Presidents' Organization - YPO
Member
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Other similar profiles
Explore more posts
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Kal Amin
I’m thrilled to officially announce our $3M seed investment in Propel People, a company we built inside the 1848 Ventures studio to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the #construction industry today: the skilled #labor shortage. For small and medium-sized contractors, hiring isn't just a challenge. It's the number one threat to their growth, profitability, and safety. With 94% of contractors struggling to find qualified workers, it’s clear that traditional hiring methods aren't built for the trades. That’s why we built Propel People. It’s a mobile-first, AI-powered hiring platform designed for how construction actually works: in the field. By leveraging smart candidate ranking, instant #SMS-based screening, and a fully #bilingual interface, Propel helps contractors build great crews faster and more efficiently. I’m also thrilled to formally announce that industry veteran Dexter Bachelder is at the helm as CEO. Having worked with Dexter and the team over the last few months, we've already seen the impact of his leadership. His 25 years of experience scaling construction tech companies will be instrumental as Propel People enters this initial stage of growth. This investment reinforces our core thesis at 1848 Ventures: building AI-native companies that solve fundamental pain points for the #SMBs that form the backbone of our economy. A huge congratulations to Dexter and the entire Propel People team on this milestone. We are incredibly proud to partner with you to support the people who build our world. Read the full announcement below. #constructiontech #venturecapital #seedfunding #ai #skilledtrades #smb
14 Comments -
Weston Ginn
Great overview of the Florida VC ecosystem 👇 What stands out is not just the ~$2.85B raised, but how distributed and specialized each region is becoming. • South Florida → crypto, fintech, LatAm access • Tampa Bay → strong early-stage pipeline • Orlando/Space Coast → deep tech, defense, space • North Florida → emerging operator-led funds Tax advantages help, but the real story is growing density of founders, angels, and operators building locally. Still early compared to SF and NY, which is the opportunity. Who are the next Florida-based funds or angels getting active?
3 Comments -
Brad W Burns
Too many founders still buy into outdated financing myths like waiting on SBA loans that won’t come, refusing to lease equipment, or avoiding debt like it’s toxic. The truth? Smart businesses use capital to move faster. Debt isn’t the enemy. Waiting too long to scale is. Don’t let pride in bootstrapping hold you back when the market’s moving. Financial literacy is as critical as your product. Know your numbers, challenge the myths, and grow with intention. #SmallBizFinance #FoundersMindset #Entrepreneurship
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Jeremiah Owyang
VC schedules, and thoughts on being a VC noob. -- VC schedules to know -- Most venture capital firms hold partner meetings on Mondays. This is typically when the investment committee votes on new investments and other key decisions. Savvy founders learn the exact timing and may need to provide additional data over the weekend to stay in motion. It is also well known that many venture capitalists observe a “European summer,” with August often being light or fully off. Similarly, the winter holidays reduce activity across much of December. That said, data from Carta shows a meaningful year-end push to close deals in December, followed by a flurry of activity in January. Founders should be cautious about kicking off fundraising during these slower periods. You do not want a raise to go stale and fall apart. VCs talk to each other, the industry is highly interconnected. -- I’m a mid career Noob! -- I am an “emerging manager,” effectively a new VC, less than three years in. In venture capital, the timeline is long. On my Linkedin you'll see I have two roles at Blitzscaling: Limited Partner means I put money into a fund, but have no decision making ability, and General Partner means I'm actively finding startups, bringing them to the partnership, and funding. As a General Partner, you are often considered an emerging manager for close to a decade, as it takes years for a fund to fully mature and establish a VC track record. Investing is a long game, but the upside can be extraordinary. Fortunately, I entered this role with a positive angel track record from my own bank account, which is often a good idea to have as a VC. When I learn a new VC concept or term, I’m an AI first, I’ll link to my post a few days ago in the comments, I totally live for constant growth and learning, if you’re not growing you’re dying. Fun fact: Many/most start their VC career in their 40s, as they need to have enough tech and biz cycles, a broad enough network, resources, and a platform to stand upon. As we end the year, I'm sharing more career thoughts, and productivity thoughts, rather than industry trends and market maps and frameworks and forecasts. I wrote all of this by hand myself, but used AI to edit some of it.
17 Comments -
Jonny Price
"Don't listen to the ecosystem. Listen to the founders." I've worked to get more capital flowing to founders for the last 15 years -- seven years at Kiva, and eight years at Wefunder. I've seen thousands of people and organizations ("ESOs" -- I have always hated the acronym) try to empower entrepreneurs and build thriving local startup ecosystems. Most "practitioners" get it horribly wrong. Zap ⚡️ gets it right. If you're working to build your local startup ecosystem, I would highly recommend watching this discussion, which I had with her last year. A big part of her success -- listening to what *founders* want, and trying to serve them. A customer-centric approach to her mission. It's not rocket science, but it's sadly far too rare in this field. https://lnkd.in/ervE8UHS
4 Comments -
Walker Deibel
You can turn $100,000 into a $50 million business through acquisitions. This is closer to capital allocation than traditional entrepreneurship. Here's the deal structure. First, the capital stack. You buy a business the same way you buy a house. Equity in, bank covers the rest. With SBA loans: 90% loan, 10% equity. A million dollar business might require $100K to $200K down. Target companies with $1 to $3 million in earnings. Go to sellers that are NOT at market. Brokered deals are competitive and sellers want cash at close. This only works off-market. Here's what you propose: Seller keeps 20% equity in a new entity. Asset sale, their company moves into newco, they keep running it at fair market salary. You write them a check for 60% via bank loan. Remaining 20% is a seller's note: 10% straight note, 10% performance earnout. From the bank's perspective, you created 40% equity. The truth? It's really only 20%, and it's the seller's. Your money in? Approaching zero. But you own 80% of Enterprise Value. Why would a seller agree? Tell them: my goal is to make your 20% as valuable as the 80% we're giving you today. What are the odds you double the value on your own in 3 to 5 years? Now stack earnings. $2 million average per company. Buy 10 just like this. $20 million combined earnings under one entity. Centralize marketing, accounting, HR, governance at HQ. You bought each at 4 to 4.5x. A $20 million earnings business sells for 7 to 7.5x or more. That's multiple expansion, just by combining them. Close the first one. Negotiate the next $100K for the next business. Then newco sells to PE for 7, 8, 9x your $20 million in earnings. That's the path from $100K to $50 million. If you're considering buying a business in the next 12 to 24 months, we built Acquisition Lab for exactly this. walkerdeibel.com
26 Comments -
Craig Bristol Dixon
Founders, your Ideal Investor Profile (IIP) is as important as your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). While many founders are using ICP frameworks to find product market fit, I find almost no startups are using a similar framework for fundraising. Which investors are most likely to: - Convert? - Send $ on the timeline you need it? - Be a good long-term partner? I see early stage startups meeting with VCs who either do not have a mandate to invest in their geography or else are unlikely to convert soon (most common). I see founders meeting with investors who do not invest in their industry. If you are fundraising you are selling. Your product is your equity and your customer is the investor. Treat the process almost the same as you would when selling your startup's product/service. Design your IIP, go to market, get feedback, iterate, repeat.
4 Comments -
David Cohen
Check out the latest funding news from across the Techstars portfolio. → Zipline (Techstars 2011), a drone delivery and logistics startup, raises more than $600M in new funding, boosting its valuation to $7.6B, as it expands commercial deployments. → Language learning startup Preply (Techstars 2015) raises $150M and becomes the 23rd known unicorn from Techstars accelerators. → Hydrosat (Techstars 2019) raises $60M in Series B funding → Tive (Techstars 2017) receives a $20M investment, valuing the shipment-tracking systems developer at slightly more than $500M. → Parambil (Techstars 2023) raises an additional $6M in seed funding ($8M to date). → Seasats (Techstars 2021) receives $24M in Department of War APFIT funding to accelerate the fielding of its autonomous surface vessels. → Hawaiian Airlines’ newly announced $600M Kahuʻewai Hawai‘i Investment Plan features a strategic investment in Ampaire (Techstars 2018) to support hybrid-electric aviation in the islands. → Fintalo (Techstars 2025) secures $500K+ in oversubscribed Pre-Seed funding. → PraxisPro (Techstars 2024) closes an oversubscribed $6M seed round. → Samara Aerospace (Techstars 2024) closes $10M seed round to help bring more stability to sats in orbit. → MyARC (Techstars 2022), a platform that enables fitness creators to train their communities at scale, secures £1.5M investment. Massive congratulations to these incredible portfolio companies! 🔗 Read more at https://lnkd.in/dxtCTvrg
7 Comments -
Patrick Henry
Startup Founders: this is the secret 🤫 to raising money for your startup: Investors are desperate to find great companies to invest in. Angel investors put money into founders and business ideas that solve a big problem for customers that could be potentially huge and explosively growing market. VCs want to deploy capital to help companies grow. Companies the have proven their business at a basic product-market fit level. If you cannot get investor interest in your company, there is usually one of three reasons: 1) You are too early for the investors that you’re pitching to. 2) You don’t have a solution that addresses a big customer problem in what could be an large and explosive market, where you have an unique value proposition, and a sustainable competitive advantage. At least from the investors perspective. So this could be true, or a perception based on your inability to convince them with evidence. 3) The investors don’t beleive in you and your team. This can be hard to swallow. But not all investors are the right fit for every team. And you may need improvements in your team. There can be a number of reasons behind this one including: (a) they don’t think you have the business, technical, and/or market domain expertise to win; (b) they don’t know, like, and trust you; (c) they don’t think you have the ‘right stuff’ to stick it out when things get rough. You can mitigate or eliminate ALL of these issues. It comes down to the secret: Build better companies. A lot of ‘entrepreneurs’ don’t want to hear this: The problem isn’t the investors. It is you. Great businesses with great teams and stellar leadership always get funded. It may take creativity and tenacity and a lot of investor ‘NO’ answers, but they ALWAYS get funded. Agree or disagree?
12 Comments -
Frank Tighe
Resale is one of the fastest-growing sectors in commerce, but scaling it is complex. Product intake, authentication, pricing, and listing are still largely manual, slowing growth and limiting margins for retailers entering the resale space. HAMMOQ Inc. solves this by automating resale operations. Their AI-powered platform handles product listing, content generation, pricing optimization, and marketplace management, enabling retailers and recommerce platforms to scale sustainably and profitably. At Silicon Road Ventures, we invested in Hammoq because they’re powering the operational backbone of the circular economy, making sustainability not just a value, but a viable business model. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gyeuJgu9 Discover the exceptional founders who are forging the future of commerce: https://lnkd.in/gyikTJ3c #PortfolioCompany #CircularEconomy #AI #RetailTech #Automation #Recommerce
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Lucas J. Pols
30+ VCs Backing Marketplace Startups Below is a cross-stage, cross-sector mix of firms that back marketplace and platform companies early and support them as they grow. Consumer and platform investors Upfront Ventures 1752vc (Formerly Pegasus) BAM Ventures Forerunner Brand Foundry Ventures Maveron BoxGroup Greycroft Alumni Ventures Marketplace natives and network effects specialists FJ Labs NFX Great Oaks Venture Capital RiverPark Ventures Left Lane Capital First Round Capital Lerer Hippeau Precursor Ventures Seed partners building two-sided platforms early Founder Collective NextView Ventures Uncork Capital Slow Ventures Bling Capital Gaingels Initialized Capital Felicis Multi-stage firms backing marketplace winners at scale Accel Bessemer Venture Partners Lightspeed General Catalyst New Enterprise Associates (NEA) Kleiner Perkins Bain Capital Ventures (BCV) Founders Fund
16 Comments -
Jeffrey Berman
Really don't like reposting (thanks LinkedIn algo!) so I'll probably write a separate post about this at some point. But for now... Camber Creek portfolio company Flex is expanding their industry - leading flexible rent product to move-ins. This is another step Flex is taking to add flexibility (and affordability) to non-discretionary spend. #venturecapital #multifamily #realestate #fintech #innovation
5 Comments -
Jeff McDermott
If your local startup ecosystem doesn't run its own capital as a fund, it's not a complete ecosystem. Internal capital is key for these to work because just making intros to local Angels who see 50 deals per month isn't a strategy. Do some work without internal capital? I'm sure they do, but are they as efficient as they could be? I doubt it...
1 Comment
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