Startup Corps Episode 9: Laura Simione, Founder of Fundshare

[00:00:00] This podcast is brought to you by Vizzer.ai As far back as I can remember, I have wanted to be an entrepreneur. Now, I am here to guide you through the intricate paths of building your business, embracing emerging technologies and navigating the startup world.

[00:00:21] I am Saul Tarazona and this is Startup Corps, your go-to podcast for entrepreneurial insights and tech-driven success. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Startup Corps, the podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. We have an amazing guest today, Laura Simione, speaking to you from Miami, myself and Laura from New York.

[00:00:51] Laura, please introduce yourself. Tell us what's exciting on your world. Sure, sure. First of all, thank you, Saul. Thank you very much for having me on your podcast. Very much appreciate it. And thank you everyone for taking the time to listen today. With that being said, I feel like I have always been building transformational relationships with buyers and people in general

[00:01:18] and building relationships with people since I was a child. I am the founder of FunShare today. I also started an olive oil business when I was 25 years old. But really just to go back and get a better understanding of who I am and what I do. When I was younger, I decided to knock on all of my neighbors' doors to get them to buy as many Girl Scout cookies as they possibly could.

[00:01:46] And I wouldn't leave their homes unless they bought a minimum of 10 boxes. So safe to say I have been doing sales and business development for over 20 years today. And I feel like it's just been ingrained in who I am as a person since I was a child. Fantastic. So one of the first skills you got was sales. Yes. Yes. Yes. Which I feel like a lot of people might be afraid of, but it's don't be afraid.

[00:02:14] You got to go out there. The worst thing that can happen is that they say no. And they you may be able to hear no many times until you get a yes. But I love the persistence, which is another thing that you just touched on how to build relationships. I'm blown away by your experience, by the way I did a little bit of our research for for a few hours. So I'm very impressed, very impressed. Thank you so much for joining us today.

[00:02:43] Absolutely. Absolutely. Laura, from your experience, I noticed a few things and is the building relationships. So how important was that on your career on your success? It's been the most important aspect of my business.

[00:03:03] And I very much enjoy getting to learn what motivates people, what drives people, how they got into the industry that I currently work in and how they differentiate their own business and how they think about their business as well is also super interesting to me. And something that I get to be involved in and learn about when I am building relationships with people.

[00:03:29] But if you don't have relationships with people, you have very little. And, you know, it's we do we do business with people, not not buildings. Right. And it's just it's so crucial to build meaningful ones and really get to know people beyond just being in the boardroom. But it's kind of hard sometimes. And many entrepreneurs are a little bit shy. And that take them back.

[00:03:58] Honestly, they don't move them forward. So what would be your advice for people on how to go out there and really build relationship? How maybe one one advice on how to start? Practice. And I would go to a store. It could be a furniture store. It could be the Apple store. I practice all the time and I ended up convincing an Apple employee to give me a 10 percent discount. But just talk to them.

[00:04:28] Start asking them questions. And I think the biggest thing that you could do is ask questions, ask questions and get to know who they are and listen. Those are the two most powerful things. And really just don't be afraid to step up, step outside your comfort zone because it can be so scary at times. And we have our our comfort blanket, so to speak.

[00:04:52] But it really can be rewarding when you have someone else that's reciprocating on the other side. Very good. So why don't you tell us a little bit about your startup, because now you have more than 20 years of experience on venture capital and then you move to be an entrepreneur yourself. Please tell us. Sure. So I work with GPs as well as founders. I help them nail their narrative.

[00:05:21] And I also help them put together their pitch decks. I also will help with a go to market strategy for fundraising. And and so essentially what ended up happening was I started to see that there were a lot of people that struggled with the ability to hone in their narrative and talk about what makes them so unique and different.

[00:05:46] And, you know, it's just super crucial to be able to tell that story and and and have it resonate with potential investors. And so that's something that I wanted to change and I wanted to help people be able to craft a compelling story that does resonate with investors. So there is there is the power of.

[00:06:10] Of of knowing what makes you unique and different compared to everyone else that's out there to separate yourself from the back. And on the storytelling part, is there a structure that you like to use, for example, in videos or in movies, there's an apparent structure that works very well with people. But do you use any kind of a structure or any approach that is different from others?

[00:06:35] You would say just knowing really what your origin story is and your impact story. And and also I would just say those are the two most important ones. But there is there is a process, especially on the founder side, when you're looking to raise capital from venture capital firms.

[00:07:01] What you should really be focusing on is what's the market? What's the problem? What's the solution? And lastly, what's your progress? What's the problem?

[00:07:25] all day long, you want them to walk out of that room and say, this is so unique and different and so memorable that I have to invest. So you want it to be, the story should be so compelling that they can't forget you. That's fantastic. So on your experience as investor relations or IR,

[00:07:50] what was the play that you worked? What was your experience there? What was your lessons learned of dealing with investors day and night? So my investors, on the investor relations side, it's a little bit different because I am working with family offices and endowments and foundations and the institutional investors. And then if you're a founder,

[00:08:20] you're probably working on building relationships with VCs and private equity firms. But I would just say, it's just important to know your why now. It's important to know what makes you unique and different and also understand how they think about their investment portfolio and their investment process. So if I'm a founder and I'm going to meet with a venture capital firm,

[00:08:49] I don't, you shouldn't start the conversation by wanting to go over your, who you are and going straight into your company. It just, you really want to get to know the person, build rapport a little bit, talk about the, what you did for the weekend, and then ask them questions about their investment process. What's important to them? What are they excited about? What are they seeing in the market with other founders? And what is their investment criteria? And getting a better understanding of what it is

[00:09:19] makes them tick. And then incorporating that and weaving that into your pitch when it's your turn to talk about who you are and what you do. I love this. Very good advice. So, but the hardest thing for the startup entrepreneurs, for founders, is that they try to reach investors, but they don't pick up the phone. They don't pick up their emails. You apply a thousand times into their website. They never, nobody picks it up.

[00:09:46] To be honest, I start doing knocking doors or their offices and that works. So, what do you think that people can do better to approach investors? I would say do your homework and understand the cycle. And I, what I mean by that is you have to,

[00:10:10] when, when I'm, if I'm a venture capital firm, there is a cycle that kind of goes into this, which, which is I'm investing for four years and I might have some follow-on investments, but then after investing for four years, we are then capital raising and investing for the next fund. So, if I'm investing, if I'm looking to cap to fundraise for the next vintage and I'm only doing

[00:10:36] follow-on investing, I'm most likely not going to invest in a startup at that given point in time. So, sometimes it's the matchmaking of the timing. In addition to that, I would also make sure that it's, the person focuses on your particular sector, whether it's fintech, whether it's cybersecurity or AI or, or SaaS, whatever it might be. I would also make sure that that's relevant to what,

[00:11:04] what it is that they do. But I would be persistent and I would be quick in your communication and outreach. I would say there's a, there's actually a really, really good book called Influence by Robert Cialdini. Robert Cialdini and actually a lot of very well-known hedge fund managers. I think it's actually Ray Dalio and Warren Buffett have read this book. It's a really,

[00:11:30] really good book, but it just talks about the power of inviting people. So, when it's the language you use in the communication. So, when you say, we invite you to be a valuable partner, you're inviting them, you're welcoming them. That makes people want to be a part of what you do. And then in addition to that, you should also say, I'm reaching out because,

[00:11:54] I'm reaching out because I saw that you focus on fintech investing. And I thought this was such a unique idea that I'm putting together that you would be interested. I thought you'd be interested because of X. Do you have a couple of minutes to meet? And it just, that right there is the, when you tell people you're reaching out because they talk about this in the book and people are much more receptive and they've done studies on this, by the way, they're much more receptive when you

[00:12:24] say, I'm reaching out because, or I'm doing this because, then just, here's who I am. Here's my product. I mean, there's so many. Yes. What's going to make you stand out from the pack and be different? No, that's the great value that you bring, that you're just breathing out your knowledge. So, thank you so much for sharing so much. This is very, very important, very relevant for the people

[00:12:49] that are listening. By the way, they're listening to us on, on many different podcast platform and YouTube. So, the people are really going to appreciate this. So, I got another question. So, about the human connection. Now, on the, on the human connection with an investor, sometimes people might think that they're a little bit hard to get, to break through

[00:13:14] the personality because they know you're selling something and they know they have the money. So, they have the power, they have the ego and they have the, hopefully the will. So, it's a very hard relationship actually, way harder than picking up a girl in a bar or the opposite in the other sex, because at least you know who you're talking. At least you know you're at the same level and what

[00:13:39] you're selling maybe is something fun. But founder to investor is, is a unleveled playing field. So, what, what, what are your take on that? What are the comments on that? Do your homework and do your due diligence. And it's, while it is time consuming. So, there's a really good book that talks about this, but it's, it really talks about spending the

[00:14:08] majority of your day on the top 20 to double your productivity. And go, it's going from 2x to 10x. So, what part, what can you focus on today that's going to give you a 10x in the future? And so, it really should be one narrowing down a list of prospective venture capital firms that could be the right fit, not just any, you know, that not, not just any VC, but a VC that's going to be the

[00:14:37] right fit for the founder. And then, do your homework on the person. Have they been on a podcast? And by the way, I do this all the time. Have they, I listen to podcasts and, and I say, or did they go to a school that I went to? How can I find some commonality with this person that I'm about to meet and go from there? And if I can't find anything, it could be something that they wrote, an article that

[00:15:05] they wrote, it could be a podcast, it could be a school, or I read that they like running. And I, and, you know, it's, I could say, Oh, you know, my mother runs, she really enjoys running. It definitely keeps her in great shape. It's a great cardio exercise, you know, just things like that, that you just build rapport with someone. And you're not just a robot, so to speak, where you're just here to pitch. It just shows that you're relatable. And it shows that you're able to communicate and relate.

[00:15:32] And, you know, people want to do business with people at the end of the day, they want to do people business with people that they enjoy working with people that they enjoy communicating with, and having that commonality or building that rapport. And also trust, trust is huge. Trust is huge. So be transparent, always in good times and bad times. And I've been there through

[00:15:56] 2008, 2009. And I've also been there, you know, during COVID when the markets corrected, and you really have to earn your stripes, but they they trust you so much more when you are straight to the point and you're not sugarcoating it. I love that. That's kind of how I am. I'm very direct.

[00:16:19] Sometimes I get punished by being so direct. I think analogies to use analogies in your, you know, tell stories, use analogies, they're going to remember that so much more than than anything else. Like I talked about how I was a girl, I was in second grade, knocking on every single neighbor's door in the beginning of this podcast, selling Girl Scout cookies. Why? Because I wanted to win. Two, I was the underdog. But three, I said, I'm not going to leave every

[00:16:49] person's house unless they buy a minimum of 10 boxes. And I would get creative in terms of, oh, this is such a great new flavor, you should try it. Like, whatever it might be. But you know, I mean, that those are the kind of things that you know, that that are important. No, very, very important, actually. So let me let me switch gears. So why do you do all this on the big vision? Why you do what you do?

[00:17:16] My favorite part about what I do is building relationships with people and learning about what motivates them and how they've built their business. And I also love seeing the transformation, the transformational growth of people, and having that impact on helping them grow. That's great. So that you personally, and on the previous jobs, when you were building your career,

[00:17:46] what was your vision? How you ambition yourself to be in the future? You mean in the past? Yes. When you were an employee and you were working for a GP, what was your vision in 10, 5 years? Actually, you were looking at yourself that you will be doing what you're doing today or maybe something different?

[00:18:11] I never thought that I would be 39 years old starting my own company called Fundshare. But I felt that there was so much out there and so much more that I had to share with the world. And I felt like I, I wanted to be great, not just good. I wanted to be great. And I wanted to be different. And I've always been that way. I just I've always been a hustler. And I've always been a

[00:18:41] grinder. And so I think that that's something that has really taken me through, taking me to where I am today throughout my career. But yeah, it's, it's, it's interesting. I mean, I just, sometimes you just feel like you're destined for greatness. And you may not have the platform to do it or the lift. But every once in a while, there's someone that comes along that is willing to help you and is willing to

[00:19:07] give you the lift. And so actually, what ended up happening right before I started my own company, is my old boss had offered me my job back. And I wasn't happy with where I was currently at. And that spoke volumes to me because I was with this company for seven years. And they were so good to me. And I'm still so grateful for them for giving me the opportunity. But it spoke volumes that they

[00:19:37] thought so highly of me that they wanted to offer me my job back because they knew how unhappy I was at my current situation. With that being said, I was in the process of talking to a couple of other people about my business that I was looking to start. And you know what there, someone came in and entered my life and said, No, I think you should start your business. And I'll help you. And let's partner

[00:20:02] together. And that's how I ended up starting it. So someone was willing to give me the wings, so to speak to fly. And sometimes you just need that little lift to power and take off. Because it's harder to fund something yourself many times, right? Maybe you have an idea, maybe you have the one expertise, but you may not have technical expertise. So joining forces is very advisable for

[00:20:28] many people, right? It is. And the other thing is, when I started an olive oil business, I asked questions. And I spoke to people that were in the food industry. And there are resources in New York, I don't know if it's like this worldwide, but there are small business associations. And based off of your particular sector that you're looking to start a business in, you can talk to a subject matter

[00:20:56] expert. And at the time, the subject matter expert said, I recommend I was doing olive oil distribution. And he said, I think you should just start your own store. And the reason and at that time, I didn't take his advice, but he was right. Because you have to think about you have to think bigger than you're currently thinking. And the scalability and the margins were so small going selling directly to

[00:21:22] the grocery stores. So it's just super crucial to talk to other people that have been in the industry for 20 plus years, and get multiple different feedback from get feedback from multiple different people, and really make your own analysis. But I think that advice can be very valuable as well. Of course, people that have more experience than you, you should honestly listen to them.

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[00:22:41] highlight is how to make yourself different. So Lauren, you know, there's other companies doing pitch text. There's of course, they might not have your experience. They don't have your connections, but it seems like you, you might be doing or thinking of doing what others do, which is, of course, yes, you're going to have entrepreneurs build a powerful story, the presentation, the decks, some video content, et cetera. But with all your connections, are you maybe thinking

[00:23:11] of helping to the next stage, which is to present those startups to the investors? So I, because I only started the company a couple of months ago, I, you know, it's very much like you said. And in this book that talks about going from 2X to 10X, they say being unique is indispensable.

[00:23:37] Right. And there is that power, you having a subject matter expertise provides unique insight, but it's also, you are not your resume, you are your work. And, and so I just think if you have a very good quality product or quality service, you should always be looking to improve on that

[00:24:02] and take it to the next level and, and really just provide the highest quality product or service that you can potentially offer. It's super, super crucial. I'm always thinking of new ways to innovate. I've, I've even thought about different avenues that I wanted different organizations that I want to start to build a community of people who can connect even more on a deeper level, on a more personal

[00:24:31] level in person with investors and founders. So it's, I'm thinking of building an organization around that where it's maybe just a connected community of thought leadership. I don't know what that would look like, but it's something that I'm, I'm thinking of. All right. All right. Call me in whatever I can help you with. Yes. Yeah. And use this platform for whenever you, you feel like launching it. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:24:59] Laura, let me do a little bit of summary. So important skills. Oh, by the way, I want to ask you, so Grant Cardone 10 X is the book that you're referring to? Yeah. So going from 2 X to 10 X, I might be butchering the actual name, but it's, it's such a good, good book. And, you know, it's just talks about the importance of focusing on the top 20%

[00:25:26] to get you from, to get you to 10 X. Thinking of 2 X, how you could 2 X your business. There, there are so many different solutions for that, but you, if the more specific you are on your goals and how you can get to 10 X, there might only be two to three strategies to get to 10 X, but there could be a hundred different strategies to get you to 2 X. And so you should really just

[00:25:53] hone in on what are the strategies that are not just going to take you to 2 X, but what are the strategies that are going to take you to 10 X? And there's actually a good analogy in the book that they talk about. And I'll stop talking after this. Sorry that I'm going off on a rant here. Kimberly Clark, they were in the paper mills business for a hundred years and a new CEO took over

[00:26:19] and the CE. And by the way, this bit, the paper mills business, they were in this business for a hundred plus years. It was a large portion of their revenue, but what they also had was another product that was award-winning, which was Kleenex. So the founder decided to go all in and take the company from good to great. What I mean by that is he quit what they were good at. And he, and he took the

[00:26:48] revenue and sold the paper mills business and, and put all of it into the Kleenex business. So he took what was a good business into a great business. And 25 years later, they beat Procter and Gamble. So I just say that because it's a, it was such a gamble and such a risk, but he saw that going

[00:27:11] from that, they not, no longer focusing on the bottom 80% and quitting that 80% really took their company to the next level. Yeah. So sometimes companies are just thinking, you know, they're going into the comfort zone. Yes. It's a solid business. Yes. It's generating revenue, maybe growing 5%. And people are amazed at that not in the startup world. You're just growing 5%. You're dying.

[00:27:37] So, so thinking too small is, is one of the scenes of, of startup entrepreneurs at the early stage. And sometimes thinking too big and not being able to successfully get to those levels is the other scene, but good balance is always advisable and a great example. Thank you so much for sharing that, Laura. Laura, so why don't you take us into the process of how you bring startups in?

[00:28:05] More or less, we don't reveal in secrets, more or less how the startups are, have some idea, but they're really not sure what they, what is their market feed. Maybe they don't know anything about financials. Maybe they just have an amazing idea, very early stage, idea stage. How would you help them solidify this into something that is going to sell?

[00:28:31] I have a questionnaire and it's a questionnaire that basically says, why do you need to, why does your company need to exist? Who are your competitors? What is your vision? And things like that. I mean, there's, it's, it's an in-depth questionnaire for founders, but it really helps me get the founder to be more specific. And even if you want to go to 10 X, how do you get there?

[00:29:00] Right. And so it's just being specific as much as you possibly can be on, on what your go-to-market strategy is today and what your vision is today. And, and also being able to, I think, change with the times because, and pivot, pivoting can be hard, but sometimes pivoting can take your company

[00:29:23] from 5 million to 20 million in revenue. I go 10 is a primary example of that, um, where a venture capital firm helped them pivot. And I think, you know, it's, it's one of those things where I think as a founder, you want to focus on, I, as a founder, we have this big idea and this big vision for the company, but then we kind of have to dial that back in terms of how, okay, what is it today

[00:29:52] and how are we going to get there? And, and, um, so I think just really honing in on that and also put people in the state of your world because you've got to, you've got to grab them. You've got to grab people from across the table and, and hook them. And if you're not doing that, it's, it's kind of like, okay, if I want to start a dating app, if I want to start a dating app and I'm the founder

[00:30:17] of this, of this dating app, okay, well, what, what, how am I going to put you in the state of that world? Well, swiping now feels like a chore and it's become a swiping game. But what if there was a solution that gave you the optionality to that, that made it seamless to schedule a date, connect with a person instantaneously, and you would go out on a date that night and connect with each other.

[00:30:45] And, you know, I mean, I'm, I'm kind of paraphrasing and this isn't the full story of how I helped this one founder refine their narrative, but I mean, things like that, where you're just kind of putting them in the state of your world and the pain points of what people are seeing today and the solution that you're going to provide and, and the problem that you're going to solve. So Gary V says, attention is the number one asset. So that's definitely what you're doing there. Yes. Yes.

[00:31:15] So lots of strategies, lots of communication sales. So all these skills, are you, how many people do you have on your team? Who else is part of the founding team? I am a one man show or a one woman show. I should say, I do have a team of two other

[00:31:36] designers that work for me that helped do deck design, but otherwise I am the sole person of the business today, but hopefully in a year or two, maybe my company will be, will expand and I'll have a bigger team. So you're, you're only starting. So with your own capital, I guess, or friends and family. Correct. I bootstrapped my business. Very good. So very advisable. So you don't get

[00:32:05] money, a small amount of money or big amount of money too early, or otherwise you will have to dilute yourself. So that's another thing that I guess you, of course, with your experience, you know that very well. Yeah. And I would also say for founders, I think we're, we think we have such a great idea and we're very focused on the product and developing the product that I feel that

[00:32:30] sometimes people, once they have this great idea and they put together their product, they kind of get frozen with the go-to market strategy and the go-to market strategy is crucial because you need to show traction. Venture capital firms want to see traction. They do want to see revenue. And even

[00:32:54] at the seed stage now, I'm seeing it more where they, they want to see traction, even if it is a seed stage business and it just becomes super competitive, but being able to show that there's traction for your company, I think is crucial and not being afraid to step out, step outside your comfort zone, put yourself out there because it is also a numbers game. And also just talk to people

[00:33:22] who are specialists in this field who have, have done a go-to market strategy or have done a go-to market strategy for a dating app or people who have done a go-to market strategy for a fintech wellness, a financial wellness platform. Right. I mean, these are all the things, you know, just constantly asking questions and connecting with people who have the subject matter expertise and gathering all

[00:33:48] as much information as you can before you do have a go-to market strategy. But a lot of times I think that's what falls flat for founders, because once they've developed the product, they're like, well, now what, how do I go-to market? How do I really do this and infiltrate the market? How to get these numbers are so important, especially with SaaS and apps and all this type of,

[00:34:13] they download all the numbers, even the followers on social media are good numbers to show. But revenue for hardware companies is hard to get to revenue until they get a full-size product or something that they can sell. But for apps, at least it's a little bit easier. So what do you think about it takes money to make money saying?

[00:34:41] I disagree. Well, it's all relative. Because yes, it takes money to make money. Yes, I will agree. But if you're taking the money and you're using it for the wrong things, then are you making money? And are you profitable? Right? So I don't know if it takes money to make money. I mean,

[00:35:09] I know other people who bootstrap their business and are now at 10 million in revenue. It really just depends on the business that you're entering. And it's tough. It's tough. I think, who is it? The founder of Bumble, right? It was a woman who used to work for Tinder. So maybe she, I don't know if

[00:35:37] she bootstrapped, she might have bootstrapped her business. But she also had that subject matter expertise. So I think it just, it goes beyond just the money. You have to be able to have the vision. You have to be able to execute. And you have to be able to sell. You know, it's, I have, I'm selling to my brother. I'm selling to my sister. I sell to my father. It's, there's a book

[00:36:01] in, um, a Warren professor talks about this. He used to teach this sales class, uh, or what was it? It was a negotiation class, but in his book, he talks about how we're always selling, whether we're selling to our partner, we're selling to our parents or our friends, we are selling who we are as a person. But I would just encourage you to not be afraid to put yourself out there and to really just go for it and don't get discouraged with people that say, no, it's onto the next. And also ask for

[00:36:30] the feedback, right? Because you want to elevate your standards. You want to elevate your process and the quality of your process. No, very, very interesting aspect. So one thing that is a challenge, um, on the communications is that it's hard to connect with people. Uh, well, I find that, uh, even here in Miami with everything is so warm party, people want beach kind of thing. Everybody's on the

[00:36:58] pool. You'll have naked. Yeah. It's, it's kind of hard to connect sometimes, uh, on a serious kind of thing. Right. As a friend, no problem. But so that, that I find that challenging events is a, it's a good way to connect with people. Um, I was wondering, I want to begin a double click into, into your

[00:37:20] experience in the past. So you were basically finding investors for your funds or, or finding entrepreneurs to invest in them. What was your role? So my role was focused on, I was at this venture capital firm. I was head of investor relations and my role was spearheading all of capital development

[00:37:46] and capital formation. What that entails is one building relationships with LP investors to making sure that we have the whole infrastructure in place to be able to resonate with LP investors. So what do I mean by that? Making sure that we have a deck that resonates with LPs, making sure that our narrative

[00:38:10] is strong and compelling with LPs, making sure that I'm up to speed with what's going on in our portfolio companies and, and the updates on that for continuously providing updates with the existing investors. And, and also coming up with ideas on how we can be different and resonate with, with our investors.

[00:38:34] So part of that, I also came up with this idea called founder spotlight that I thought that they should add to their website and it's actually on their website now, which is really, really cool. Um, but it, it essentially is the, the venture capital firm interviewing one of their founders that they invested with and, or invested the company that they invested in, but just talking to the founder

[00:39:00] and doing an interview with them in terms of how that venture capital firm helped them the background on the, on the founder and things like that. And it just, you know, I think it's just another way for people to relate. It's another way. It's another way to share thought leadership content that isn't just about, Hey, here's our fund. And this is why you should invest, right? It's sharing why you were

[00:39:26] super excited about this opportunity and this founder, why you, how you help them get from two X to 10 X or whatever it might be. And, and, and, you know, how they're, they're doing currently today in the state of the world. So, you know, I think it really is about just, um, so, so that was my role. I just, I focus on many different aspects of the business in order to build relationships and connect with people,

[00:39:55] but thought leadership content and convening coming up with ideas on micro meetings. And what I mean by micro meetings is hosting. You could be hosting a dinner at a special place with some founders and some venture capital, uh, some founders and some LP investors and have a dinner that way. Um, that to me is so much more impactful in terms of building relationships than just going to a

[00:40:21] conference. That sounds like, is it possible to share what was the name of that company? It was called Nika. Nika is a fintech venture capital firm. They manage about a billion in assets under management. And the founder is Hans Morris and Hans Morris was the former president of visa. So he helped take visa public and, and IPO when he was, when he was the president there. Wow. Amazing profile. Amazing.

[00:40:50] Yeah. Yeah. So on the VC world, uh, can you tell us a little bit what kind of investment investments they do? What, what is the range? Um, what are they looking at? What stage of the startup cycle they actually invest in? For Nika, they did early stage, primarily early stage fintech investing.

[00:41:13] And it was, um, seed and series a for the most part, there could be follow on investing, obviously. Um, but primarily early stage fintech. So is it true that this is, uh, out of, let's say a hundred percent budget they have for the investment or that investment cycle, is it true that they keep like 50% for, for the winners to reinvest on the winners?

[00:41:44] It depends on the venture capital firm, which is why you should ask what their investment process is. Because sometimes the, the venture capital firm will save 30% of their fund for additional investments that they have high conviction in. So if they have high conviction in the founder, the company is doing

[00:42:08] well, and now the founder's raising series B or series C, they might want to come in and add, add on, on, on top of that. In addition to that, they also don't want to, they also don't want to be diluted. So there's also that aspect of it too. You can also have, you know, rights that you sign on and so forth to just continue to get the pro rata rights of, of a deal. Um, but a lot of times if there is a

[00:42:37] company that, uh, that they have high conviction and they typically will add in, add an addition to that. Um, it depends on the venture capital firm though. So some venture capital firms will do 40 to 50%. Others could do 30. It just depends on what they, how they've identified their investment criteria. All right. In order to find out for the entrepreneur to find out what is stage of their investment cycle

[00:43:05] they are, usually the investment funds, the startup fund, let's say they started in 2020, there will be a closing that fund and giving our returns and everything 10 years after. Is that accurate? Typically it's 10 years after typically. So usually they invest for four years and then that, so their

[00:43:28] investing period is usually four years. And then the whole term of the fund is 10 years. So they let the companies grow for the next six years. All right. So how, how we figured this out. So I'm an entrepreneur. I know they just raised half of their funds. So then now they kind of start deploying capital. So on the, on the first three years is, is that good? What is the sweet spot to

[00:43:55] approach those funds? So if I was a founder, here's what I would be looking for. I would be looking for the venture capital firms that closed their fundraising. So that just had, had a vintage year year of last year, maybe they closed in, you know, in, in 2023. Um, or maybe they closed in the middle

[00:44:21] of this year even. And, and so those are the people that are going to be, if they close their, their fundraising and their vintage years, 2023 or, or they just closed their fundraising and they're done with fundraising, um, and they, they're finished, you know, I don't know, maybe, maybe some of them finish in Q1 of, of next year. And if they do, that means that they are actively looking to

[00:44:49] invest active, very, very active. That is like the sweet spot because they're just, they're actively looking at that given point in time. And for the next few years, this is gold. Thank you so much for, for sharing that. Will that, with that being said, then the, the hardest thing I believe is to find what are the sources where on internet,

[00:45:16] we can go and find out, oh, this fund is on this stage, or maybe they just finished their fund raise. Um, they are in this industry and they're looking for this or that stage, but what do you, what do you believe is a good source for information? There are lists that you can,

[00:45:38] that you can get. Now I have access to the data. So you would either call me, um, because I have access to a very large database, but I'm just trying to think of

[00:45:56] a source that might be cheaper. I'm thinking I, I, it's very, very hard to be able to pull a list unless you have a significant and robust system of a robust system. I, I need to come back to you on

[00:46:20] that there. I'm just thinking the answer is really no, unless you, unless you have access to a prequel or a pitch book, which costs $30,000. Yeah. You know, it's expensive. Um, I have to think about it. Well, but what I, so for example, if there is an entrepreneur out there and they will be

[00:46:48] looking to, to get at least a list of 10 investors to start approaching, would you be able to do that? Something that you would like to do as part of your package that, Hey, pay me this much, and we're going to be able to give you 10 investors and it's up to the entrepreneur to approach them. Or maybe you do, I, I do it for you. You do it on your own, et cetera. So I don't raise capital for founders,

[00:47:13] but what I can do is I can help with it. So I can help create a targeted list of people that have just closed their last fund raise and are looking to invest and then do the due diligence and, and provide the contact information for you. That, I thought it would be great benefit because

[00:47:38] what happened with some, not, not pitch book is a fantastic, it's expensive, but it's fantastic. It works every time. Um, and they always keep up to date all the information. So that's pretty good. They have an army of analysts asking me, I have a couple of startups. So they always ask me, Hey, what is the phone stage and everything? They're always in touch. Always. Yeah. Yeah. They're very active. And, but there are other leads that, you know, you find these excels for, I don't know, a thousand dollars,

[00:48:07] two thousand dollars. I have tried them 80% don't work. Nobody picks up the email or maybe the message is not as well written as they should be, especially with people like me that English is not the first language. Or we basically, we are into other things that we don't know storytelling. We don't know how to assemble a proper story or finding out what are the hooks that people need to buy them and get into

[00:48:35] this side of the table. So Laura, this is, this is really, really fantastic board that you do for entrepreneurs and your experience is great. Thank you so much for sharing. Is there any final comments, anything that you would like to share with us? Yeah. I would just say, if you're a founder and

[00:48:55] you're looking to fundraise, I would make a list of 10 potential investors and I would see and try to find if anyone knows them in your network, check on LinkedIn, check on LinkedIn sales navigator, see if there's some type of commonality that you can find. And, and if not, I would just Google a

[00:49:21] podcast or something. And at least it makes you more relatable that way. And you have a better relationship rapport with, with the potential investor and, you know, and, and just build relationships. You should always be building relationships, whether it's now, even if you don't need to raise capital today, build relationships with people in the industry. Always, always. It's so

[00:49:47] important and you should just always be connecting with other people because you never know who knows who. Yeah. Next time and effort, you is an investment. What you're doing, there is an investment on your network. Your network is your net worth. So very, very, very important advice there. Laura, thank you so much for sharing this gold information knowledge that you have accumulated for all these years. Thank you so

[00:50:17] much for adding value to the entrepreneurs. Being part of a female entrepreneur is very, very interesting, fresh, and very, very encouraging to other women entrepreneurs that are looking to start. Well, thank you so much for having me on your podcast today. I'm honored to be a part of it. And yeah, I mean, if there's anything else I would leave you with is just create transform, create transformational

[00:50:44] relationships where all parties are a buyer. Oh, fantastic. Thank you so much, Laura. Have a great night. Thank you. Take care. Bye.