Investor Connect Podcast

How To Invest Using a Fund of Funds Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Investing in a series of venture capital funds is one strategy for venture investing. This is a fund of funds investment strategy. Venture funds give the Limited Partner access to the best VCs in the industry. Each of the funds used will also bring a set of management and carry fees with it. The goal is to model out a portfolio of VC funds that provide the best return. The LP can...

Best Practices for Networking Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Networking is a key skill in startup fundraising. The founder must be able to navigate a community to find investors for their fundraise. Here are some best practices in networking in advance of a fundraise campaign: Always ask for referrals. In each discussion, ask for two names of other people to contact. Instead of pitching what you do, ask for advice on what you should do. This involves the listener in the deal and makes them...

Dilution by Startup Stage Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Dilution is a major issue for founders. Each stage of fundraising causes another reduction in the founder's ownership. Here are the levels of dilution at each startup stage based on current data: Seed round -- 20% Series A round -- 20% Series B round -- 17% Series C round -- 13% Series D -- 11% Series E -- 10% In the early days of the startup, the founder gives up 20 to 25% of the equity to investors. As the rounds continue, the amount...

Problems Are Startups Waiting To Happen Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Ideating a new startup begins with a problem. Here are the steps to ideating your next startup: Scan the market for problems. Review the news to find startup ideas. Review customer reviews of products and services. Talk with others about the problems they encounter. Make a list of problems found and categorize them as small annoyances, medium issues, or major problems. All of the above can be solved with a startup. Match the solution...

In this episode of Investor Connect, Hall T. Martin welcomes Per Nordling, an entrepreneur, angel investor, and SaaS operator who co-founded Medius in 2001, bootstrapped it to about $10M in revenue, raised capital to accelerate expansion, and helped scale the company internationally across Europe, North America, Australia, and parts of Asia before selling his stake. Per shares what founders need before going global, including a verified offer with real customer adoption, a clearly defined ideal customer profile, a deliberate go-to-market strategy, localization and regulatory readiness, and adequate funding. He explains why Partinc Capital focuses on B2B SaaS and AI, how...

High-Value Startups Do Things Other Startups Cannot Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In ideating a new startup, focus on things other startups cannot do. High-value startups do things other startups cannot This value comes from several sources as follows: Technology edge. The startup has technology that translates into higher revenue and/or lower cost of service. Consider what new technologies can be applied to your business that other startups in the space are not using. Network connections. The startup has founders with connections in the...

How To Reach Out to an Investor Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Founders raising funding must first get the attention of the investor. Some connections come through warm introductions. Others can come through cold email. Here are some key steps to take in reaching out to an investor: Research the investor to understand their investment interest. This includes the sector and stage. Find some connection with the investor. This could be a university alma mater, mutually held contacts, or associations that both are involved in...

Preparing Your Network for a Fundraise Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. One often hears of other founders raising funding in a matter of weeks. While it appears the founder raised funding with little effort, this happens because the founder spent years building relationships and curating investors. Before launching a fundraise, be sure to prepare your network. Many founders raising funding go to people they don't know to ask for favors they didn't earn. While a few investors will do this, it won't go very far...

Importance of Warm-Up Meetings Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In preparation for raising funding, be sure to include warm-up meetings. Six months in advance of launching the fundraise, set up meetings with investors to indicate you will be raising funding soon. The purpose of the warm-up meeting is to gauge initial feedback on the idea. It also alerts the investor that a fundraise will be coming soon. In the warm-up meeting, ask permission to keep them informed of the progress. Most investors will agree as...

Require Investors To Track Your Deal Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Founders raising funding pitch many investors. It's often the case that the founder doesn't know who is interested and who is not. One idea is to require investors to track your deal. They must remain engaged with it at some level or they are out. This pares down the investor funnel to a select few who you know have interest. It's best to focus your time on those with interest rather than those who...

In this episode of Investor Connect, we welcome Rene Wiertz, founder and managing partner of Fundracer BV, who shares how his experience building and leading premium bicycle brand 3T led him to launch a micro-mobility-focused fund that he believes has been overlooked by traditional venture capital. Rene discusses the post-COVID stabilization and renewed double-digit growth in cycling and micro-mobility, driven by urbanization, space constraints for cars, and rapid infrastructure changes in cities like Paris, London, and New York. Rene explains how new tech talent from firms like Microsoft, Google, Apple, BMW, and Tesla is bringing advanced technologies into a historically...

The Best Startups Pick the Investors Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Successful startup investing requires a consistent flow of quality deals. The best startups pick the investors. It's the law of supply and demand. Where there are more investors than capital available to invest, the founder chooses. Here are some key steps investors should take to build that pipeline of deals: Build a reputation for being helpful to founders. Startups look for investors who can bring more than just funding. Provide additional services to the...

Founders Should Have a Nationwide View of Their Fundraise Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Founders raising funding should start with family and friends. It's not the amount of funding raised that counts, but rather the fact that one's family and friends support the founder. From there, the founder draws the circle wider to the investors in the local community. This includes the local angel network and any funds in the area. Again, it's not the dollar amount that counts; it's the proof that those in...

Investor Focus at Each Stage of the Startup Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Startup investors invest across all stages of startups. For each stage, the investor should focus on a key point. Here's a list of the investor focus at each stage of the startup: Pre-seed -- focus on the team. At this stage, there's little else to review. It's about the team's insight into solving the problem. Seed -- focus on the product. At this stage, the product has been built. It's about how...

Making Money as an Angel Investor Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Angel investors are high-net-worth individuals who invest in startups for a profit. They make money when the startup exits by selling the business to another company or going public. The vast majority of exits are through sales to another company. The challenge for the angel investor is that most startups will fail or turn into lifestyle businesses. A lifestyle business means the founders make a nice salary, but there's no exit for the investors...

Advantage of Sending the Pitch Deck in Advance Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Investors often ask for a pitch deck in advance of the meeting. Here are the advantages of sending the pitch deck ahead of time. The investor has time to review the deck and prepare for the meeting. If the deal is completely out of scope for the investor, then canceling the meeting saves everyone time. It creates another touchpoint for the founder with the investor. It's an opportunity to engage with the investor...

In this episode of Investor Connect, Hall Martin welcomes Brian Kerns, a mentor, angel investor, and product executive working with VentureWell, to discuss why climate tech can be a tougher fit for traditional angel investing. Brian explains that many climate tech startups involve deep technology that requires more capital, longer timelines, and multiple rounds, and some segments—like ocean and built environment—lack the big "proof point" exits many investors look for. The conversation covers how founders often inflate their capital asks, why the funding gap is widening as VCs move later-stage, and how specialized angel groups with domain expertise can...

The First Call With an Investor Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The first call with an investor is an important one, as it sets the stage for follow-up calls. Here are some key steps to take in the first call: Keep the conversation two-way rather than letting one side or the other monologue. The founder doesn't learn anything about the investor if the founder talks the entire time. Use questions to guide the conversation so it's productive. The purpose of the call is to inform...

Standard Practices for M&A Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Achieving an exit is the final hurdle in launching a startup using investor funding. Here are some key practices in going through the M&A process. The factor driving the entire process is the company's business model and how it will sustain over time. Recurring revenue businesses command higher valuations because of the business model. The stickier the product, the more valuable the business is. Another practice is that the more buyers are interested in...

Validating a Startup Idea Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Before launching a startup, a founder should first validate the startup idea. Here's a list of key steps to validate your startup idea: Is the idea big enough to justify a startup? Many ideas are simple side gigs with little return to the founder. Are you solving a real problem? Without it the startup will not succeed due to a lack of customer demand. Does the problem cause enough pain that someone will pay to fix...

When the Investor Fails To Respond to a Fwup Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The key to a successful fundraise is to follow up with the investor to close. It's important to maintain communication with an investor to carry the funding process through diligence. In some cases, the investor fails to respond to a fwup after a pitch. Here are some key steps to take when the investor fails to respond. After the pitch, ask the investor if you can keep them informed of your...

Highlight the Benefits of the Solution Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In pitching for funding, the founder identifies the problem to be solved. And then describes the solution to be offered. It's important to show not only the solution with its features but also the benefits. Show how well the solution solves the problem as follows: This could be a customer productivity enhancement number. This could be a cost reduction number. This could be a time-saving number. Talk not only about how the product works...

How To Build a Better Product Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Having a better product than the competition is no guarantee of success, but it does help with your fundraise. Here's how to build a better product: First, understand the customer and the work they must do. Know the overall process flow and how the customer's job fits within it. Analyze the customer job to identify how to make it faster, easier, and cheaper to do. This includes time and dollars spent. Identify a key...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Sophie Winwood, venture capital investor, ecosystem builder, and co-founder of UnlockVC. Based in the UK, UnlockVC is a global community supporting women in venture capital and connecting investors across Europe and the U.S. Sophie has spent the past seven years in venture capital, including investing at Anthemus with a focus on early-stage companies and fintech. She co-founded UnlockVC to help expand access, networks, and opportunities for women across the venture ecosystem. Sophie discusses the changing venture capital landscape, diversity in investing, the rise of solo GPs, AI's role in venture workflows...

Startups Fail for Many Reasons Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Startups fail for many reasons. Here's a list of the more common ones: Ran out of cash. This is the most common reason of all. Could not raise additional funding. Lost too much business to the competition. Did not generate enough revenue to make the business model work. Had a too-high cost basis for running the business. Didn't hire the right people. Missed the market opportunity. The founders could not get along with each other...

The Challenge of Angel Investing Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Angel investing can be a rewarding experience, providing not only investment returns but also making the world a better place. It also comes with challenges. Here is the challenge of angel investing: There's a small number of investable startups. There's a large number of startups to comb through to find the fundable ones. There's a substantial number of other investors chasing startups to invest in. This creates a competitive environment for the best deals. Most...

What Are the Odds? Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Early-stage investments require follow-on funding to reach a substantial size, providing a return to the investors that justifies the risk. Here are the odds that a startup will raise its next round of funding. After the first round, about half go on to raise a second round. This is not unusual, as many investors divide their investment allocation in half for the first investment. Of the original funded companies, about 30% will go on to raise a...

Evaluating the Team Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In startup investing, the team is the most important factor pointing to success or failure. Here are some key steps in evaluating the team for your startup investment. Look for examples of execution on the current startup. Execution trumps the idea. If there's no execution, then it doesn't matter how great the idea is. Startups are difficult and often challenging. The team must have the skills to overcome any and all obstacles. Check the team's education to...

In this episode of Investor Connect, we welcome Hemanth Sheelvant, former CEO of Bosch Digital Twin Industries, to discuss how digital twins and AI are reshaping industrial operations and why well-funded projects still fail. Hemanth explains the "iceberg problem" in enterprise and AI deployments, where teams focus on the visible technology while underestimating governance, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, integration, and ongoing operations that drive total cost. He shares how to avoid surprises by starting with customer discovery, aligning early with IT and key decision-makers, defining KPIs and budget for pilot-to-scale upfront, and assessing plant digital maturity through pre-discovery studies. The conversation...

How To Close a Soft Commitment Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Founders raising funding often ask for general interest first with no commitment. A soft commitment is an interest from an investor just short of a commitment. Investors use this to maintain the dialog with the founder as they learn more about the deal. Some use this as a bargaining chip to gain more favorable terms. As a founder, here's how to close a soft commitment. Create a deadline and start driving investors towards it...

How To Expand Product Sales Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Startups raising funding must show a growth story. The best growth story is a revenue curve going up and to the right at a 45-degree angle. For venture, the growth curve must be at least 50% year over year. Here are some key steps to take to expand sales: Increase sales with current customers by selling to more contacts within the account. This means using referrals from the existing users to find new ones. Increase the...

How To Calculate Burn Rate Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Burn rate is a key metric investors use to check the health of a startup. Based on the burn rate and cash in the bank, one can calculate how much time the startup has. Here's how to calculate burn rate. Use incoming cash as the first data point. It's a mistake to use revenue as the timing of the cash received is more important than when the orders are booked. Use outgoing cash as the...

How to Diligence a Crowdfunding Deal Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Angel investors are familiar with startups raising funding who come through their normal channels. Deals are often submitted on their software platform or referred by a trusted source. In the world of crowdfunding, startups come through a new compliance channel called Reg CF. The startup posts their deal on a software platform that allows anyone to invest using the Reg CF compliance rather than Reg D compliance. Investors see an overview of the investment...

How To Be a Good Startup Investor Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Startup investors not only provide capital but also ongoing support to the startup. Here are some key steps to be a good startup investor: Research the market and provide actionable recommendations to the team about customers to pursue. Provide ongoing support through the tough times as well as the bad times. Build a relationship with the team and then grow it. Give credit to the team for their hard work and avoid taking...

In this episode of Investor Connect, we welcome Dave Blivin, founder and managing director of Cottonwood Technology Fund, who shares how he invests at the intersection of science, capital, and commercialization to turn hard technologies into real companies. Dave explains Cottonwood's focus on early-stage deep tech across areas such as photonics, advanced materials, sensors, med tech, energy, robotics, and advanced manufacturing, with a regional emphasis on the US Southwest and an expansion into Northwest Europe through partners in the Netherlands. He outlines Cottonwood's approach of leading rounds, taking board seats, and writing larger early checks (often around $2M within $2–$4M pr...

How To Make Your Pitch More Engaging Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Founders raising funding must capture the attention of the investor. Here are some key steps on how to make the pitch more engaging: Include market research to validate the problem to be solved. This touches on the target market, the competition, and customer needs. Make clear the problem to be solved and the solution offered. It helps to show how the product works at a high level. Show the support for the business...

It Takes a Process Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Investors looking to invest in a startup often look at the revenue as a sign of traction. In the very early stages, the presence or absence of revenue indicates the fundability of a company. As the company grows, one can look at the growth rate as a sign of traction. In addition to the presence of revenue and the growth rate, the investor can also look at the process behind the sales. This process includes generating...

How To Get Your Fundraise Started Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Starting a fundraise can be a daunting task for the first-time founder. Here are some key steps on how to get your fundraise started. Research the market by talking with other founders who are raising funding. Check the current climate for fundraising. Look at their fundraise documents, including the pitch deck and terms sheet. After reviewing four to five fundraises, the content and format of the documents will be clear. Break the fundraise campaign...

Return on Mission Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Startups generate a return on investment for their investors by measuring how much their business generated funds returned compared to investment. For the impact space, one can calculate the return on mission. Here is how to measure the return on mission for your impact startup. Calculate the overhead-to-program expense ratio. See how much of the program cost goes to overhead. Overhead is anything that does not directly drive the cost to produce the product or service. This...

How To Connect With Investors in Your Pitch Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. In pitching investors, founders should strive to connect with them. Here are some key steps to connect with investors: Fit the startup fundraising standards. Too many out-of-standard details such as fundraise amount, terms, and valuation will put off the investor. For example, traditional first rounds are $500K to $1M. Asking for $4M in the first round will have the investor wondering why this is different. Provide the standard information investors look for...