My cheat question

My cheat question when I am being pitched is...

What don't I know about your business that it would be really helpful for me to know?

It acknowledges I don't know everything, it gives the founder the opportunity to think about what is key and it gets me out of jail when I can't think of a good question.

What questions do you like to ask of founders or to be asked?

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Late update - 26 June 23

#YesterdayI

Celebrated my nephew's bar mitzvah until late.

#ThisMorningI

Got up at 4am to drive to Poole to get the ferry back to Guernsey with my family.

#ThisAfternoonI

Attended lunch break meditation Guille-Allès Library.
Was pitched by Nicky Sevel of Woven Advice.
Chatted with Rupa Ganatra Popat about all things investing.
Spoke with Megha Prakash of Forward Partners.
Was pitched by Andrew Walker of LossBook.

#NowI

Have to cycle home, cook dinner and prep for a call with another VC about a specific investment I am considering.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Very late update - 23 June 23

#FridayI

Shared why you should raise from US investors if your business has a US focus.
Was pitched by Rashid Aliyev of Stackt.
Chatted with Matt Ong of Ctrl Alt.
Had coffee with Conor McKenna of Go Swag.
Was pitched by Artem Kokhan of Bairro.
Had a quick chat with Jamie Beaumont of Playter.
Recorded a podcast for Crown Caste with Nzube Ufodike (pic below) and had a great chat with Jules Hall FRSA BCAe of Ultra Education C.I.C.
Had a family dinner.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

If you have a US focus, find US investors

Founders, if your business has a US focus, try and find US investors. They will value you more highly.

European investors often don't understand how directly tackling the US market means you can get much bigger before you need to adjust your product and go-to-market motion for new geographies.

That can justify a higher valuation.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 22 June 23

#TodayI

Shared reasons why my core principles are transparency, speed and treating people right.
Had coffee and breakfast with Duncan Mann of HoxtonAi.
Chatted with Bernard Yu of Granyt and ZINC.
Spoke with 😃 David Fogel of Alma Angels.
Had a call with Jamie Beaumont of Playter.
Had coffee with Colin Wright of Noetic.
Did a Fireside Chat with Caroline Wright of British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) at the EdTechX summit (pic below). Thank you Caroline for inviting me.

#NowI

Have a huge backlog of emails to get through.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Guiding principles

My guiding principles are transparency, moving fast and treating people right. I need those to compete and they are super important for these reasons:

Transparency forces me to hold myself to account and to think about the whys.

Moving fast because typically I know what I want to do so don't waste people's time.

Treating people right because it's the right thing to do and it's not hard. Why wouldn't you?

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Afternoon update - 21 June 23

#TodayI

Shared my founder mentality approach to venture capital investing.
Cleared some of my backlog.
Had a call with Dr. Dupe Burgess of Bloomful.

#NowI

Am getting on a ferry to the UK ahead of two days in London and my nephew's bar mitzvah.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Product led growth in VC

I am trying to bring a founder mentality to the business of venture capital. For me, a tiny player in the ecosystem, that means product-led growth.

I am the product. My potential clients are founders. I am competing for attention in a space where everyone is 50 times bigger than me.

I have to do everything I can to make the founder experience as good as possible despite the fact I have to say no to 99% of them.

That's why I prioritise transparency, moving fast and treating people right.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 20 June 23

#TodayI

Shared cap table red flags.
Was pitched by a founder who has a VC lead and most his round in place.
Had a call with a fellow VC investor.
Was pitched by Mark Whitcroft of Hazel.
Chatted with Karthik Puvvada about all things building in public.
Was pitched by Kinny Ahluwalia and Vittorio Lovece of Musiqmesh.
Shared that the Primer of my appearance on Aarish Shah's Nothing Ventured podcast was live.

#NowI

Have an early dinner with a friend.
Need to put the bins out.
Have to pack for my trip to the UK tomorrow.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Podcast Primer with Aarish Shah of Nothing Ventured

Very happy to have been invited to talk with the wonderful Aarish Shah on his Nothing Ventured podcast.

We spoke about:

👼🏾 Investing as an angel versus out of a fund structure.
🏗️ The importance of portfolio construction and pacing how you deploy
📽️ My vetting process for investments I'm considering
🤖 My opinion of where we're going with AI having built in the space before

You can check out the Primer now on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen 🎧

YouTube below, other links in the comments 🔗

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Cap table red flags

Q. What are red flags on a cap table?

A. The negatives are a long tail of small investors and ex-founders who own a large share of the business.

The former is bad because sometimes you need to ask all shareholders for approval. The latter is bad because you may need approval and you don't know how good the relationship is with the remaining founders. Also, the remaining founders may not own enough of the business.

Q. How can you prevent these?

A. Bring smaller angel tickets in via SPV using Vauban from Carta or Odin and make sure you have reverse vesting if you have co-founders. Then you are protected if one of you leaves. If you raise a round with a VC lead they will generally insist on reverse vesting anyway.

Q. What is reverse vesting?

A. Typically you will accrue the rights to your shares over four years. This protects investors against founders raising a round and then leaving the business and protects founders against co-founders leaving.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 19 June 23

#TodayI

Ran to Pilates (thank you Runna) with Maria Jose Freeman (Fernandez) of Pilates Core Club.
Had a call with Kiran Mehta of Mercia Asset Management PLC.
Shared what I need to see if you are in a competitive market.
Was pitched by Edward Page and Seb Cohen of Paace.
Was pitched by Daniel Marrable of Forumm.
Attended lunch break meditation at Guille-Allès Library.
Belatedly called my father to wish him happy fathers day.
Chatted with Alice Garnier of Capsule Insurance.
Was pitched by ⚡️Dora Palfi of imagi.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Competitive spaces

Q. What am I looking for in a competitive space?

A. Differentiation that matters and how good are you at executing vs your competitors.

Q. What is differentiation that matters?

A. If it could make all the difference - a must have and not a nice to have. The differentiation is the product rather than a feature.

Q. And execution?

A. Execution matters in all startups. In a competitive space what matters is how well you execute compared to your competitors. If your competitors are great at execution it will be hard to win, no matter how good you are.

This is often why people prefer to compete with incumbents rather than other startups but there are counterexamples. Microsoft is executing really hard right now on adding AI to all their products, for example.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Help me solve a problem

Current struggle - help required:

I'm starting a monthly newsletter for people who don't want to read every post.
I want an additional newsletter for angels who want to know when one of my businesses is raising.
I want to charge $1 a month for the latter to filter out timewasters.
Both Substack and beehiiv use Stripe which isn't available in Guernsey.
Substack has a minimum $5 monthly subscription.

Help me, please! I'm open to other ways to solve the timewaster problem.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 16 June 23

#TodayI

Shared my red flags when receiving a pitch deck or video pitch.
Had a call with Sarah Wernér of Husmus to discuss how we might collaborate to support black female founders.
Had a meeting at our house build site.
Had lunch with my wife.
Met Matthias Plunser of Channel Islands Workation for coffee.
Was pitched by Adam Engberg and Rik Yapp of Kirmada.

#ThisEveningI

Am on taxi duty for my wife.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Early red flags

Q. What are early red flags when you receive a pitch deck or video pitch?

A. In a video pitch, an inability to sell. You can tell this really easily in a video, you can't in a pitch deck.

The other is a tarpit idea.

Q. What is a tarpit idea?

A. A tarpit idea is one everyone thinks is a great idea. If everyone thinks it's a great idea that means either there are twenty other people already doing the same thing or that many people have tried and failed for reasons you don't know. Avoid these like the plague.

They are called tarpits because it is so easy to get stuck in them because by definition you get a lot of positive reinforcement on your idea.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 15 June 23

#TodayI

Shared how you make a good impression with investors.
Finally set up my unbundled vc founder WhatsApp group.
Shared Richard Lee of Venyu's video pitch.
Chatted with Greg Mccallum of Think Work about a project he is working on.
Had my Important not Urgent day.

#NowI

Am heading to an improv drop-in and the first part of a standup comedy course with Sarah Hansmann Rouxel. The former I've done before. The latter is terrifying.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Public pitch - Richard Lee of Venyu

Delighted to share, with permission, Richard Lee of Venyu's video pitch.

Venyu is your copilot for organising corporate events.

Please let me know if you would like an intro or feel free to reach out directly.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

How do you make a good first impression with investors

Q. How do you make a good first impression with investors?

A. Tell your story compellingly and concisely.

Q. Why does that matter?

A. A compelling storytelling skill correlates strongly with sales skills and sales is one of the most important founder skills because you have to be able to sell your product, to raise from investors and to persuade people to work for you who have many choices.

The ability to tell your story concisely means you understand your business well. It's often said that if you can't say it briefly you don't understand it.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic

Evening update - 14 June 23

#TodayI

Shared my most triggering statement.
Was pitched by Leon Wilson and Ashley Crane of PollenPay.
Took some docs to the bank.
Was pitched by Chris Moore and Philip Godden of Kikapay.
Prepped for a Hotbed SaaS investor tips session
Answered lots of questions at the Hotbed SaaS investor tips session. Thank you Perdie Alder and Margaret Anne Coyle for including me. Video below.
Met with Jo Stoddart and Emma Shell of Locate Guernsey to prepare for a Fireside Chat.
Collected the kids from school and took them for ice cream.

#founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic