Joyce Ong’s Post

Great post on SAFEs by Zaz Floreani. I love SAFEs and we use them a lot at FirstMile Ventures. They work great for getting a pre-seed round done quickly and efficiently. When the next round is priced and the SAFEs convert, it's great, but getting a priced round done is not always feasible. Especially as the bar for Series A goes up and companies raise multiple seed rounds on convertibles with varying caps/discounts, it's easy to lose track of who is going to own what when all those convertibles finally convert to shares. Check out the post for some simple examples and tools to stay on top of that.

Catch another episode of This Week in Startups where Upfront Managing Partner Mark Suster interviews Max Altman and Ben Braverman, two of the three co-founders of Saga Ventures. With Saga’s new $125 million fund, the trio talk about: ➡ Fundraising challenges the co-founders faced as a first-time fund and the playbook of how referrals can be the best leads for increasing the chances of success ➡ Nuances of determining a fund size to maintain competitive advantages in deal strategies ➡ Ben’s learnings from working with Ryan Peterson at Flexport as well as Max’s experience and unique advantages working with his brothers Jack and Sam Here's a short clip below about the attributes of successful founders that they look for, including those willing to take unconventional risks 👇

We had Alex Norman, partner at N49P Ventures, do a Q&A for our cohort at Antler today and address our questions on finding product market fit, what traits distinguish great founders, and how to land investors. It was super insightful! These were my key takeaways: 🔸 Early founders often make the mistake of looking at each venture firm as if they are all one and the same, but that is not the case (you should look at the size of the fund, their portfolio companies, what they typically invest in, etc.) 🔸 If everyone wants to finance you, there’s probably too much competition; find angels or VCs excited about the particular space you're building in 🔸A sure sign of finding PMF is when customers want to literally rip it out of your hands (gave an example of a portfolio company which had 3000 enterprise waitlist sign-ups) 🔸 Sometimes it can be an advantage to not be a domain expert, as it could lead to more unique insights (it's easier to go against the grain of the conventional thinking in the industry) Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today Alex Norman! 😀 ----------- #startups I'm currently part of the 5th cohort at Antler Canada, and I'm sharing my learnings as a first-time founder as I go along this journey 🚗

Lucky to have the founder of Venmo with us at Antler last week, pictured below. Our talk reminded me of the humility and focus of great founders vs. the status games so many others are playing. I wrote about that reflection in this week's MMM, The Rise of the Residency: https://lnkd.in/eahnDgyb You can also read the summary and hear the full talk on the Jelly here: http://jly.co/to2MTY Antler #vc #founders #investing

Get your access (to angel investment education)! Get your access (to Venture Capital analysis)! Read all about it right here (with Brian Nichols post below) to find out how to get you in! Hustle Fund Angel Squad #angelinvestment #angelinvestors #venturecaptial #education

It's been 15 months since Josh Resnick and I started OpenSky Ventures. Now, having been on both sides of the table, here are the top 5 attributes I'd look for in an investor if I were raising today: For those new here, OpenSky is a $10m early-stage VC fund formed by myself and Josh Resnick–the founder of Sugarfina USA LLC. We got started in early 2023 and since then we've invested in over 15 pre-seed and seed stage companies focusing on our two areas of expertise: • 70% - B2B ecommerce software (commerce infrastructure as we call it) • 30% - B2C consumer brands (DTC / CPG) Now onto what I'd look for in an investor today. There are 5 traits: 1. Experience - Did they actually operate in your area of focus? If not, they may have good "pattern recognition" but I prefer someone who's been there & done that so they can truly empathize with your position and speak from a place of experience.   2. Connectivity - What is their network like? Are they a "superconnector" that can get you in front of your ideal customer profile? Are they a thought leader on social? 3. Active - How active of an investor are they? If they only do a handful of deals per year, it's hard to say how engaged they will be. I want someone who's "all-in" on me and my biz. 4. Syndicate - Do they have a strong syndicate of other investors that they can not only refer, but "influence" to invest? I bucket this differently than customer connectivity given how valuable it is. 5. Empathy - My best investors became close personal "advisors" through my decade-long journey. I could call them day or night - weekday or weekend. They understood what I was going through and I had their cell on speed dial. You want someone who is available! The journey as an investor so far has been incredibly rewarding and I want to do more. If I can be helpful, comment below and I'll do my best to make a connection for you. PS: Anything else you'd add to the list of 5 here? Let me know.

More LPs should invest in software-driven early-stage VCs. The majority of new fund managers are technical or have built startups before. Gives them an opportunity to grow their 1st or 2nd fund with tools built in-house driven by their thesis. We are seeing founders appreciate that more when it comes to pre-seed or seed stages. We are exactly doing this with Founders Committee Ventures. We have built sets of tools in-house for streamline what otherwise would have been thousands of dollars per year in SaaS subscriptions and CRMs.

Check out Antler, a day zero investor. Twice a year they hold a program for potential new Founders.  Program is ~ 7 weeks, the Antler team assists Founders with locating a co-Founder(s) and coaches the Founders through starting a company. Lisa Potocsnak #venturecapital #investing #startup

This is how founders can pivot themselves (and not run with the herd) during fundraising. As a co-founder of Qubit Capital and with over 12 years of experience in the startup ecosystem, I get to observe countless investor pitches closely and interact with many startup founders and investors. This has inspired me to curate a series that could assist my fellow founders in various areas. Sharing the first one in the series with you, and would appreciate your feedback on how I can enhance its value. If you have any concerns about your fundraising, shoot in the comments and we shall make a video regarding the solution. 👇

What I wish that I did day 1 as a Venture Builder... Focused on lead gen with VC's, Family Offices and institutional investors who 1. want access to round 1 deal flow with a ton of meat on the bone. 2. can write big checks fast. 3. don't like to share their inside gold mine. 4. want access to a diversified portfolio of startups. I went the other route and pieced together seed capital from the crowd first instead of having them come on second or later in the round. Speed is key and when you need round 1 money fast, so go to the big players that you have in your pocket first and then close out the round with the crowd. If the round get's fully subscribed with the big investors, oversubscribe or spin out a side offering as long as it doesn't effect the original investors. The big investors get what they want and the crowd get's to come in with the same terms as the big investors, so it's a win win!