Max Altschuler’s Post

Few founders are good at everything. Here are some trends I've noticed. See where you fall. - The founders who are good at product and engineering are often bad at go-to market and social posting -The founders who are good at networking and storytelling are often bad at product management and roadmapping - The founders who are good at sales are bad at building out sales teams (because they want to do all of the sales themselves) - The founders with already strong networks rarely spend enough time building out their network further - The founders that are good at managing people and delegating won't dive into the weeds of the customer and the product enough Conclusion: The most important trait in a founder is self-awareness. If you know what you're bad at, figure out a way to solve it. I think the best way to figure out who you are (other than self-actualization, shout out Maslow), is to meet with founders and advisors and industry experts to see where you're falling short. That's part of the reason that we've launched the Breakthrough Founders Group, is for the founders that want to have everything shored up before they raise money and scale. Reach out if you're interested in joining! #founderadvice

Question: What do Leigh Jasper, Rachael Neumann, and Luis F Malaver-Ortega have in common? Answer: They’re all joining our Q&A on the Thursday 12 October (and we hope you are too!). In the second instalment of our ‘Things I wish I knew before I grew’ series, we speak to these three incredible panellists on what they wish they knew about customers as they grew. From the balancing act of customer vs. product to the importance of customer success, we’ll unpack the key lessons that founders and operators learned from acquiring and retaining customers. Interested? Click on the link below to register. PS: If you’re in doubt about whether this is right for you, we leave you with the wise words of Startmate’s Michael Batko - OOO till End of Oct 💍: "Everything else, including in particular fundraising, is a function of how well you understand your customer problem."

👋🏻 Hey everyone. We’ve got a fun one today. All of us at Emporia Research are excited to share the closing of our $4.7 million round. We’re even more pleased to be working with the sharp and genuinely good people at Founder Collective, who lead the round, Data Point Capital, Remarkable Ventures, Revelry Venture Partners, and a select group of individual investor and operators we deeply admire. In no particular order, Jake, Mark and I are grateful for: - Micah Rosenbloom, Geoff Oblak, Haley Farnsworth, and the FC and DPC teams who have all been helpful and collaborative long before closing - Peter Liu, the entire team at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, and our existing investors and advisors for their continued support - Geoff Schwartz, Esuga Abaya, and Ted O'Connor, CIPP-US who have guided us through this process and many others - Our friends and families for all of the life stuff we’ve tackled together over the past few years - The entire Emporia Research team who we wouldn’t be anywhere without and of course our customers who continuously put their trust in us Over the last two years it’s become increasingly more evident to us that B2B companies, and the agencies that support them, just don’t have the data collection and decision making tools of the same caliber as their consumer-focused friends. If you know the space well, you know that working on running high-quality B2B research is notoriously slow, expensive, and what’s worse above all, fraught with fraud. We’d like to reimagine how a lot of that work gets done today. The team here is committed to designing delightful insights solutions that assist in B2B decision making – we really do all step back from the day and appreciate that it’s pretty fascinating stuff to work on. If you’re a B2B company, a market research agency, or are curious about joining the team, give me a shout!

The Power of Cold Emailing: How We Raised $7.4 Million in Funding - https://bit.ly/9000vc Excited to share a milestone in our journey: $7.4M raised, largely thanks to cold emailing! Strategy: We targeted specific investors known for their interest in our niche. Personalized emails detailed our unique value proposition and growth potential. Key Lessons: - Research Matters: Understanding each investor's focus was crucial. - Clarity & Conciseness: Clear, concise pitches got more responses. - Follow-Up: Persistence paid off. Regular, but respectful follow-ups made a difference. Results: - Over 5000 emails sent. - Engaged with 50+ investors. - Secured 15 meetings. - Closed funding with 5 investors. This success demonstrates the effectiveness of well-strategized cold emailing. It's not just about the numbers; it's about the right message to the right people. Thank you to our team for their hard work and our investors for believing in our vision. #innovation #management #digitalmarketing #technology #entrepreneurship

Only someone who has been through the zero-to-one journey understands the ups and downs of building something from scratch. There's nothing like connecting with other founders who've been there, done that. They can give you advice, support, and a sense of community so you don’t have to navigate it alone. I’m excited to share that I am a founding member of the Zero to One Collective Forum Ventures! I’m bringing my expertise of Product Development and Sales Enablement/ Talent Development to the stellar community of advisors to give back to the awesome B2B SaaS founders. DM me if you're a zero-to-one builder interested in joining the community because together we can ensure that new founders have the resources they need to make outstanding products that benefit us, our society and our economy. #forumventures #startupecosystem #advisory 

Yesterday 👏 was 👏 EPIC 🤯 The Rare Founders Investor Conference and Demo Day was an absolute success. 🚀 (Which I do *not* say lightly, I'm usually very critical 😅) 👉But when one of the founders said they had 8 (EIGHT!!) investor conversations after their pitch 😱 👉And another founder literally got chased 🏃♀️down by an investor who wanted to make sure they got a chance to talk (how often do things happen that way around) - you know you did something right. In the short time I've had the pleasure of working with Vasily Alekseenko, I've been witness to his incredible hard work, dedication, and creativity. And it all paid off yesterday. 💪 We had: ✅Over 200 investors 📈 ✅Over 300 founders 🚀 ✅Over 700 day tickets ✅Another 120 evening reception tickets 🍻 ✅4 sponsors, 4 partners ✅40 investor partners ✅25 community partners If you're part of the startup ecosystem and weren't there - why??? 😂 In all seriousness, I could not be more thankful for the incredible community and the team we had around us. Over the next few days, I'll be shouting 🗣️ them out in more detail - stay tuned. But for now, I'm buzzing for one *main* reason: The FEEDBACK 🔥 🥺It seemed to far surpass everyone's expectations. People did NOT expect that some scrappy founders could deliver something so different, and get so many people in a room together. 💯 If you were one of those people, make sure to tag us - the more that people know how great it was, the better we can do next time, and the more accessible we can make it too. 🎉 And THANK YOU for being a part of the journey. It means more than you could know. Stay tuned! 👇 Love and luck!!  Seven 💜

Sales and engineering your sales plan are huge keys to any startups/business' success. I HIGHLY recommend attending this webinar next week hosted by our friends at Sales Primer to learn how you can get started. Something like this is ALWAYS a "sooner the better" situation. Registar today!

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Driving enterprise adoption through sales and community by Bogdan Iordache, solo GP at Underline Ventures. 👇 Why it matters.👇 Pavel Dolezal's journey with Keboola, from bootstrapping to securing a $32M Series A, showcases the power of founder-led sales and community building. By leveraging hackathons and focusing on real-world problems, Keboola connected with users and discovered new use cases, propelling its growth. VCs should note the importance of community engagement and design partners in scaling enterprise solutions, as well as the balance between top-down sales strategies and bottom-up adoption. Pavel’s insights highlight the nuanced art of enterprise sales and the critical need for a predictable sales function to ensure long-term success. Read the full article on EUVC Insights! 🔽 https://buff.ly/3zNx9cQ #venturecapital #startupfunding #Europe #EUVCInsights

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐩 5 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞 Every technical founder knows the road to success is paved with challenges. Here are the top 5 you're likely facing: 👉 Breaking into the market 🎯 👉Winning your first customers 🤝 👉Securing the right funding 💰 👉Crafting a winning strategy 📈 👉Managing your equity wisely 📊 With Fractionally, you're not alone. Let's tackle these challenges together. #StartupChallenges #TechFounders #BusinessSolutions