Lorna McAdoo’s Post

In our first Founder Satisfaction Survey, 100% of founders said it was helpful to hear other founders pitch. TGR sessions feature three founders and three panelists, so founders can learn from each other, in addition to hearing advice from industry experts and active VCs. If you want to apply, head to pitchtgr.com

For those entrepreneurs, I encourage you to check out this "Funding Accelerator" program by Steve Walsh Here are few things I've learned from reading this and following Steve over the years! Embrace the Journey: Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. Be prepared for the long and often challenging road ahead, but remember, every setback is an opportunity to learn and grow. Know Your Investors: Research your ideal investor profile thoroughly before reaching out. Understanding their interests, past investments, and preferred stage can significantly increase your chances of securing funding. Quality Over Quantity: When crafting your pitch deck, remember that brevity is key. Keep it concise, focusing on the most compelling aspects of your business. Aim for around 10-12 slides to maintain investor interest. Customer First: Your product or service should solve a real problem for your target audience. Before investing time and resources into development, conduct thorough customer interviews to validate your idea and ensure market fit. Stay Connected: Communication with investors is crucial for building trust and maintaining support. Provide regular updates on your progress and challenges, demonstrating your commitment to transparency and accountability.

We kicked off our exclusive founders roundtable events series last week in London together with sclr labs and it was a hit! I want to share some practical learnings and advice from the day: 💰 Consider the country in which you raise your particularly earlier rounds in carefully. We spoke at length about the differences between the US and UK investment market and the different expectations each market holds. Speak to Patrycja Maksymowicz for more info. 🔭 An investor search engine to start your investor outreach shipshape.vc (however, meeting investors at events or getting a warm intro always trumps!) 📚 Want to take advantage of the UK's SEIS/EIS advance assurance initiative? Speak to Sam Simpson from FounderCatalyst to get support. 💻 Ivy Tech's CTO Oleksii Shykov 🇺🇦 made a great point to look if there is any existing software out there you can utilise for your product idea. Not everything has to be build from scratch and not everything requires complex code!

Sometimes the cap tables do get messy! I'm in the process of entering a startup which already has another 7 shareholders including 3 angel investors. At this stage, it really is crumbs from the pie that you're going to end up with at an *eventual* sale but for most that's plenty. My first considerations when looking at a startup like this to join are always about the business - less about the number of shares. 1) Is the value proposition strong enough? 2) Is there a pain we are solving that is strong enough to require a purchase. 3) Has the marketing research and analysis been completed already and what do we see in terms of clients, competitors and potential buyers. 4) Core team expertise. 5) Scalability - for any business that wants to get sold, it needs to be able to survive without any or even all of the original founders. Luckily enough, the SaaS product developed by this company seems to tick all boxes for now. The announcement is expected in September so stay tuned! 🙌

Cap tables: 🦄 Instagram vs. #Reality 🐴 Ideally, #founders keep cap tables clean and hold the majority post-Series A. But this is far from reality, #CapTables are never perfect... The biggest task of #founders and #investors is to minimize “#deadequity,” i.e., #shareholders who contributed to the company's past but are less relevant to future value creation. #Universities, #accelerators, and #exfounders can all belong to this “past contributors” category. Thanks to Yair Reem for this great share and visual! What's your take on this? Your feedback and shared experiences are highly valued and appreciated :) Join 80,000+ founders and #VCs who receive these insights in my weekly newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dCpgAYjt #isapinvestments #isapgroupinvestments #petisap #starthubagency www.isap.investments www.petisap.com www.starthub.agency iSAP Group Investments ltd PETISAP StartHub.Agency Tino Herold

Common pitch fail I see among founders. Complexity obscures value. If someone can’t understand something. If it takes a half hour just to explain it. If the pitch is jargon filled… Don’t be surprised when nobody “gets it” Or “Sees the value” Because if the founders can’t even explain their vision in a simple way… How will potential partners or investors tell their team about it? How will the community tell their friends about it? Simplicity and clarity is an area not focused on enough in our space. 👉 Follow Tony Drummond or repost ♻️ if you found this helpful.

Exceeding the ideal means one can be selective.

PHENOMENAL FOUNDERSSSSS!! Seeing FoundersBeta Top 100 announced by so many just shows the depth of our community. In case you haven't seen it, check our annual Top 100 Companies: foundersbeta.com/top-100

Hey founders, we've done the heavy lifting for you 💪 Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing our top ten resources from Open Source VC to help founders shortcut company-building firsts. Up first is our SAFE Template, featuring: 🔑 A rundown on key terms 💭 Example scenarios ⚖️ Pros & cons 📄 Pre-Money and post-Money templates Check it out and get set up ahead of your seed round via the link in comments 👇