Okay.
Hey everyone, welcome to our GVR masterclass.
We are in week five and I am so excited to be here.
We have another amazing masterclass and you are going to want to tune in.
Cameron is going to give you so much information around how to get in front of investors, where
are they and where you need to be hanging out.
So without further ado, Cameron, we're going to go ahead and bring you up.
Perfect.
Thank you for having me, Siobhan.
It's a pleasure to be here on behalf of the Fearless Fund and then also just being able
to add value to you all means a lot to me and I hope that you receive the value as well.
Once again, this is how to get discovered by investors.
Here's a sort of walkthrough of the agenda today.
We'll start off with just a little bit about me, talk about the life of an investor, what
this means for you as a founder, and then we'll go through some of the key points that
I'll talk about, such as be active on Twitter, looking at pitch competitions, accelerators
and grant programs, connecting with other founders, attending in-person conferences
and a lot more.
So without further ado, let's go ahead and get started and definitely feel free to chime
in with any questions.
I'll try to pause briefly after each slide.
So just starting off with a little bit about myself.
I'm originally from Houston, Texas.
I went to school in Philadelphia, where I spent half of my time majoring in biology
and then the second half of my college career majoring in economics.
I also founded a scooter sharing company in college.
I was the first sort of, I guess, experience for me into like what entrepreneurship looked
like for myself.
And then really just, I guess, kind of pivoting from there and going fully immersed into the
tech and entrepreneurship world as a whole.
So before joining the Fearless Fund, I was most recently on the growth platforms team
at Stripe where we worked with platforms that were processing anywhere from about $50 million
all the way up to a billion dollars in payments.
And I would help them with their go-to-market strategies related to payments, thinking about
monetization, thinking about international expansion and so many other things.
And then really realized that I loved working with founders.
I didn't want to hand off the relationship.
And obviously, that's something that you do in sales.
And so that was a good and a bad thing for me.
And I ended up making the move to Fearless to not only work with founders, but be super
mission aligned in my effort.
And so I now sit as an analyst on the investment team at Fearless Fund, working with our associate
and senior partner to meet with potential portfolio companies, sort of walk them through
the diligence process, as well as lead them through what we sort of consider as far as
criteria.
And then just given the size of our team, I play a pretty active hand in sort of the
decision making process as well, which I'm extremely grateful for.
So yeah, I will be speaking to you on the topic of how to get discovered by investors
as a former founder myself and also now as an investor.
So let's start off with the first just, I guess, kind of bubble of context.
So what the life of an investor looks like.
It's really a tough sort of environment, especially for smaller funds and teams, just because
these investors obviously have limited capacity, but they have to focus on doing so many different
things.
The first is obviously reviewing deals.
So kind of to the point that I mentioned, reaching out to portfolio companies, getting
connected with them, scheduling time to meet with them.
For some other funds or firms, they have a great deal of inbound deal flow.
And so the life of an analyst or associate may look a little different and they may spend
their days during the week only looking at pitch decks, only looking at videos, only
looking or reading memos and everything else.
The second sort of aspect of the life of an investor is really just supporting portfolio
companies.
And that can range from personal things all the way to business things.
So thinking through things of in-person conferences, supporting them at demo days, ordering merch
from them, which is something that we like to do to represent our portfolio companies,
talking with them through their business model, revamping their financial model, walking through
go-to-market strategy or product launch strategy.
It really ranges from all of these different things.
a personal aspect all the way to the business aspect, since
this is a long term relationship. I'd say the third
thing is fundraising, which is actually something that fearless
fund is going through right now. So just, you know, similar to
you all have having a fundraising process, fearless,
and other funds and firms also have to fundraise. And they do
so in a way it's very interesting, actually, they do
so in a way that we're actively fundraising as we're deploying
capital. So even though we are investing in companies, we're
still working to hold a first and second close and third
close. For our funds, you don't raise like the entire you see
like a $300 million fund, you don't raise that all in one
book, you have once again, the first close the second close the
third close, even if you have some actual commits. During
these, you know, individual closes, you have these actual
calls that happen a year or two years later down the line to
where you're actually getting the capital, you know, for that
fund. So that is a product, you know, process in itself in the
same way that you all have to pitch to us, we have to pitch
to these LPs about, you know, the sector that we're focusing
on the founders that we'll be working with, from a capital
efficiency perspective, how fast or how quickly we're looking to
allocate this capital, what does it look like from an initial to,
you know, a follow on perspective, and so on and so
forth. And then I would say the last thing is really just
networking with other investors, LPs, and, you know, accelerators
and incubators and more. And I think this is really important,
just because we're always trying to find ways to increase our
deal flow inbound deal deal flow, that is, and that's
something that we'll talk about later down in this presentation.
And so, as you can see, the life of an investor is pretty
multifaceted. It requires a lot of different things. And once
again, as an investor, you really have to figure out ways
to prioritize what takes up your time, what takes up your
capacity. And for you, for you as a founder, I think what this
means is you really have to be strategic about how you're
connecting with investors. Obviously, there are only so
many investors in the United States and in the world alone.
And there are a lot of founders that are building new businesses
coming out with new and exciting technologies and new and
emerging markets. And so really just figuring out a way to stand
out is important from the get go. Because oftentimes, a lot of
things get get lost in, you know, the inbox, they get lost
on LinkedIn, they get lost in, you know, the mentions on
Twitter, and so on and so forth. And so really just figuring out
a way to stand out from the jump is important. So just thinking
about like, ways that you can do that utilizing different
communication platforms and channels that have been
historically overlooked. I think now we're starting to see that,
you know, venture as a whole is becoming more of this true like,
relationship, sort of leveraged, I guess, like market or just
profession. And so I mean, you really aren't starting to see
the typical, like, hey, I'm emailing you or co emailing you
all the time, you'll see a Twitter DM, or I've gotten
Instagram DMS, or obviously LinkedIn DMS. And then
obviously, meeting people in person or asking for warm
introductions is extremely important. And then I would say
the last is true point, and this is more general, but really just
being comfortable with being uncomfortable. I think that's,
you know, very cliche, but it's really important, especially
when it comes to cold outreach. Because if you're not able to
get out that comfort zone, then I don't think you're able to
properly, you know, talk about like, what the exciting thing
that you're doing is, or, you know, depict that in a way that
will really grab an investor's attention. So the first way that
I think, you know, we can really do that you as a founder can
really do that is really be active on Twitter. I would say
that Twitter is arguably the most useful, if not just one of
the most useful platforms for one building a brand, but to
also building your network. And so some of the founders that
I've seen utilize Twitter, the best are ones that are
consistently tweeting about what they do, consistently tweeting
about what their business is, whether that's new metrics,
whether that is just, you know, signing new customers or
bringing on a new potential partnership, or just once again,
tweeting about the day of the day in the life of a founder, I
think those are always interesting things. And just
because you are a founder, you obviously have an association
or attachment to another founder, which investors really
care about, they're always looking for that direct
connection or association. And I think being on Twitter is sort
of low hanging fruit. From that perspective, just listing some
of the pros of being on Twitter. Once again, there are a ton of
investors that check their Twitter every day, myself
included is probably the first thing that that I do in the
morning. And probably the last thing that I do before I go to
bed. Secondly, there's an opportunity to connect with
founders and other potential customers. We've seen once
again, Twitter be used as a as a tool and platform to, you know,
find a co founder, as well as, you know, land potential
customers. There are some some really prominent VCs that I've
actually
who did at the end of this deck,
that have gone above and beyond to essentially tweet,
like, this is like a founder sort of roll call,
this is an investor roll call.
Like, let's go ahead and list your name,
list your location, list your sector focus,
list what your business does,
and we'll try to find you customers,
or we'll try to find you investors.
Those little efforts have gone so far,
and there are obviously other efforts that investors,
you know, continue to do and provide
that sort of, like, mimic, or excuse me,
mimic, like, similar benefits for founders.
But I think, like, those little things,
once again, they're really low-hanging fruit.
And I know that I personally have reached out to founders
who have responded to those threats.
It's really low-hanging fruit for us.
And I think, like, in the same way
that you all are trying to, you know,
find other, once again, investors,
other founders, other customers,
we are also trying to do the same thing.
And so we utilize Twitter similarly to how you utilize
Twitter.
I would say the second, or excuse me, last opportunity
is there's an abundance of opportunity
to gain feedback on your pitch
and anything else you may be thinking through.
And I think this kind of really goes back
to the point of, you know,
getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.
For me as a founder, it was always super hard
to just take 100% constructive criticism.
And I think as a human, it's always really hard to do that.
But I think what we're starting to see now
is just that, you know, effort become more normalized.
And so, you know, once again,
some of these VCs that we really work closely with
and that are super aligned with us,
they're creating like Twitter spaces and voice rooms
to think every Tuesday or every Wednesday
to provide founders with a platform to pitch,
have a 30 second or a minute pitch
and get feedback from their community
or have investors ask questions
or have other founders ask questions.
I think those are always valuable ways
for you to get feedback.
They're always valuable ways for you to, once again,
just, you know, introduce yourself to other investors
and founders within the network.
And then, you know, possibly gain a warm introduction
to an investor that's really interested in your idea.
So once again, this is the really, you know,
I would say one of the most arguably used platforms
that has been of benefit to us as investors,
but also can be as a benefit to you as a founder, Twitter.
I'll pause there for any questions.
Let me check the private chat.
I think we are good, so I'll go ahead and continue.
I would say the second thing to, you know,
really get discovered by investors
is applying to pitch competitions,
accelerators, grant programs, so on and so forth.
I think all of these, you know, once again,
different channels, different opportunities
for you as a founder, it's obviously great.
I think in multi, you know, sort of multiple aspects,
one gives you an opportunity to get possibly like
non-dilutive funding for your business,
which is the number one way, you know,
to go and leverage before you sort of look to scale
through venture funding, but also as an investor,
sort of thinking about the other side of the table,
we are literally trying to attend any pitch competition
that we can come across.
We are checking these pitch competitions,
these accelerators, these incubators,
especially the pre-seed and seed ones, which are, you know,
where we see the most underrepresented founders,
we're checking them on a weekly basis,
on a bi-weekly basis, on a monthly basis.
I personally have this carved out in my calendar
to check these specific, you know, incubators, accelerators,
and some of them have structured themselves in a way
to where it's really beneficial for the founder.
Visible Hands is one accelerator and VC fund
that we have started, begin to work more closely with.
They are working with founders at a super early stage,
whether it's like idea validation,
or you have some initial signs of traction,
whatever the case may be,
they offer 25,000 as an initial investment,
and then you have an opportunity
to go through their accelerator
with the chance of getting up to 175K in funding.
This is not non-dilutive though, I will point that out,
but I think what's unique about them is
they're essentially positioning themselves
as an accelerator, but also a VC fund,
and providing an opportunity for founders
to sort of have this experience,
even if they are not full-time
on, you know, their venture or business.
So if you're working a nine to five or something else,
which we see a lot of founders do at this point,
especially the pre-C stage,
I would recommend an opportunity like that.
And then thinking about, once again,
we like to find these companies and founders
at a super early stage,
especially, you know, a company like Fearless
that has a seed focus.
We're often doing a lot of our scouting,
a lot of our sourcing and prospecting
at the pre-C stage.
We can, well, we can begin.
in to formulate these conversations,
sort of be able to track your progress
and developments over time,
and then possibly be your lead investor
when you think about having that T-stage.
So just thinking about, once again,
pitch competitions, accelerators, grant programs,
you know, these are all a benefit.
Grant programs, I think, are another sort of benefit
for founders, and really trying to apply
to as many grant programs as possible,
I think, is really important.
One, it's another source of non-dilutive funding,
but two, usually, a lot of these grant applications
and their programs are being reviewed by investors.
I know that's the case with a lot.
I will not say which ones, but it is the case with a lot,
and I think, like, you know,
just finding a way to stand out in those,
whether it's through your messaging,
whether it's through, you know, a pitch deck,
if you have one, will be really important,
because, once again, if it's being reviewed
by an investor that may have a specific focus,
or even if it's just an investor in general
that may not have a focus that,
or may have a focus that you're not currently operating in,
they're able to relay that information, you know,
through a different channel
or connect you to another investor.
And so, really thinking about utilizing these,
not just for capital, but really finding ways to, you know,
go above and beyond, whether it's connecting
with a program director,
whether it's asking the right questions,
whether it's about, you know,
attending every meeting or session
in these accelerated programs or in these grant programs,
I think these are easy ways to start to get on the radar,
or at least make progress
on getting on the radar of investors,
because, just like myself,
I'm obviously wanting to sort of provide value
in this type of environment,
and I'm always looking for ways to connect with founders
that, you know, fit our investment criteria.
So, this is the second big point for us,
applying to pitch competitions,
accelerators, and grant programs.
It's not just capital.
It's often a lot more in the form of relationships.
We'll pause there as I transition the slides.
If you have any questions, definitely feel free to chime in.
Perfect, I think we're good right now.
We'll say the third, you know,
thing that I've sort of thought about,
and this is one of the really underrated ones,
and I would sort of consider this more scrappy,
but really just connecting with founders of, you know,
a VC fund or firm, their portfolio.
So, if you narrow down your list to a specific investor
or firm or, you know, group of investors or firms,
or even really just the company,
but we'll start on the firm side,
find and connect with founders
of their portfolio companies.
This can be through LinkedIn.
This can be through Twitter.
It can be through IG, any way that you see fit.
I think this is really important for multiple reasons.
One, it allows you to understand
their investment and diligence process.
I know that you all may have had
a couple of previous talks
about what to include in the pitch deck,
about what to, you know, just venture one-on-one
as a whole, understanding terms and stuff like that.
I think, you know, sort of aligned with that type of like,
I guess just knowledge and value,
you'll find a lot of just knowledge and understanding,
or value of understanding and speaking
and having conversations with the founders
of these, you know, portfolio, of these venture portfolios.
And that's mostly because they've gone
through this process before.
They've gone through the investment and diligence process.
They've been asked, you know, this blueprint of questions.
They've catered their pitch deck
to the liking of this certain investor.
And I think like, one, it becomes increasingly handy
when they then turn around and start
to uplift other founders in the same way
that they were, you know, sort of experienced this process.
I think two, it obviously allows you to gain insight
into, you know, which investor at the firm
is most appropriate to connect with.
I think oftentimes what we see is,
and this is less representative with smaller funds,
but more representative with larger funds.
But oftentimes we see like, oh, we have this, you know,
this specific fund or firm
that we're interested in chatting with.
Can you help us get connected with just that fund or firm?
But there are like 20 different partners.
There are 20 different associates.
And I think what's important to think about
is especially at the larger firms,
these different partners, these different principals,
associates and analysts have their own specialties.
And I think like, you know, just once again,
being super strategic about, you know,
who you're connecting with can obviously be very beneficial.
So if you're looking at, you know,
a technology or software focused firm,
and you know that you're operating
in a consumer, you know, technology sector,
you're not gonna reach out to the FinTech guy.
You're not gonna reach out to the, you know,
healthcare or med tech guy,
or you're not gonna reach out to the CPG person.
And so just once again, being super strategic about that
is obviously very important.
I think usually founders tend to connect other founders
with the person that they've had the best experience with,
and the person that, you know, outside.
of capital feels like they add the most, you know, valuable
feedback, or just most value, whether that's connecting another
founder to another VC, or whatever the case may be,
usually, these are great ways to get, you know, sort of in the
door with these VC funds. And then obviously, even if it's not
just a situation where, you know, I'm reaching out to a
founder at this specific portfolio company, just to get
an intro, you know, to this specific investor, have like be
be intentional about building a relationship over time. I think
the best calls that I have had with founders, you know, that
we've chatted with have been ones that have not revolved
around funding, they've just been like, Oh, you're not
raising, okay, let's just have a conversation. Those have been
the calls that are supposed to be 30 minutes, but they've been,
you know, 45 minutes or an hour. And they've been just a lot more
intentional, a lot more genuine. And I think like, once again,
if venture, the venture landscape as a whole has
historically been inhumane, I think a lot of, you know, firms
and funds that, you know, have a focus like fearless or a focus
like precursor or Harlem Capital, we, you know, we just
maintain the humanity in our relationships, we don't try to
do anything differently than how we live outside of, you know,
our professional jobs. But that's just how the landscape
has been historically. And so if you're able to be super
intentional about building a relationship, building a candid
relationship, whether that be through feedback, whether that
be through, you know, complimenting this person, or
complimenting this company on their product, and say, like,
Hey, I saw you did this, how did you like, what was the sort of
breakdown? Or what was the strategy behind this? What were
you thinking? What did this look like? Who's the best co packer
to work with, like, you know, those are just, you know, just,
I guess, a variation of ways that you can be intentional
about building a relationship. And I think that, you know,
those have often led to just the best warm and shows that we've
received. And, you know, we've gotten some through, you know,
portfolio founders that we really admire and respect. And I
think, once again, I'm pretty sure there are some stats on
this by tech stars, but the majority of deals that are being
done, are often being done through a warm intro, which, you
know, is really tough for a lot of people. But it's just the
nature of the game. And so there are some other funds that don't
accept warm intros at all overlooked found, overlooked VC
is one, but the majority of funds, you know, do do
appreciate warm intros, and a bulk of their deals come from
those. And so just being super intentional about that being
super intentional about connecting with the right
portfolio, you know, company, I think can often lead you to a
warm intro that is very greatly appreciated by the VC. We'll
pause there for any questions. Okay, I think we're good. Um,
yeah, and this is a fourth thing right here. So trying to attend
in person conferences, I will say these conferences have been
some of the most beneficial and just positive experiences of my
life. I've been able to meet founders, I've been able to meet
investors, I've been able to meet just like think partners,
mentors, people that I now text, you know, if I have like a
career decision that I'm like contemplating or something like
that. And these are just a list. But once again, for a founder, I
think these conferences are by far the best way to connect
directly with an investor. I mean, they can't like just walk
away from you. Hopefully, they're not doing that. You
know, connecting directly with an investor or giving a chance
to make a memorable first impression, whether that's
through a pitch competition, whether that is through a, you
know, just kind of like an introduction circle, or whether
that's through you going up to that, you know, investor
directly, I think these are often, you know, super
underrated. Obviously, some of them are more on the expensive
side. And I think there are great ways that you know, some
funds or angels or any other people in the industry are sort
of offering better opportunities for those from a financial
perspective, or I would say sort of get them on your radar super
early. Usually they have sort of like a discounted price or
something like that. But here are just some of the examples
South by Southwest was one that I attended for web three or
crypto focused companies, NFT, LA, NFT, New York, NFT, I don't
even know whatever other city those are obviously have, you
know, those are obviously some great ones that have been super
beneficial for creators and builders in the space. Art
Basel is another sort of crypto focused one. Afro tech, I think
is always great, especially for underrepresented founders, and
founders of color specifically, because you'll see a lot of
people and it's really encouraging. You'll start you'll
see a lot of people that that just look like us. You know that
you that you don't know or you don't think they exist in a
landscape, but they do. There's so many investors that I met at
South by Southwest. I was like, wow, like, where have you been?
Like you're not on Twitter.
you're not on LinkedIn, you're not in these super popular channels, but they do exist.
And then this is a shameless plug, but Fearless Fund VC Summit in Atlanta, August, I want to say
25th to 27th. That's another great opportunity to connect with some of our portfolio companies,
to connect with other investors, to connect with some bigger corporations and really just
seek value. So aside of the, once again, seeking value, going to some of these keynotes,
these are great ways to meet these people in person. And I think oftentimes we sort of forget
about how valuable these in-person interactions are. And I think those are the ones that stick
the most. So if you're able to attend some of these in-person conferences and really meet some
of these investors, obviously be able to have a face to the name and vice versa, then really do
that and make the most of that first impression because they really go a long way, whether that's
having a business card, having a mobile business card where it just scans or just getting the
LinkedIn, just find ways to just stick and sort of hold real estate in that investor's mind.
And then I will say the last aspect is really just being persistent. I will say sometimes
from an investor, like don't be too persistent where it's like, I'm getting an email a day if
I don't respond. But if you don't hear back a couple of days, definitely send another email.
Oftentimes, once again, you saw the life of the investor, the fundraising, the networking with
other investors, the LPs, the deal sourcing, writing memos, reading memos, so on and so forth.
We have a lot on our plate, but don't get me wrong, it is an opportunity to work with a founder.
And I think for most of us, we're doing the best that we can, but we do get a lot of inbound. We
do get a lot of emails, we do get a lot of just messages across different platforms. And so if you
don't hear back, just simply message us again. There are many times that I have not seen a
message or I opened it at 3am on accident, and it just completely got lost in my inbox,
or I was prioritizing other tasks. Or, you know, and this is something that, you know,
people don't realize being super strategic. I took a look at an email that, you know, didn't really
give a great description or didn't really have anything that stood out. There was no traction,
there was, you know, this or that. It wasn't structured correctly. And so, you know, those
are many reasons why an investor like myself or any other investor may not respond. But if a week
goes by and you haven't heard from, you know, myself or any other investor, don't take it as a
negative sign. I would say simply message them again until you're able to get their attention.
There are some investors that simply will not respond. At Fearless, we try to respond to every
single company. And this is something that, you know, just being super frank, everyone cannot do
and not everyone cares to do. Hopefully, that trend is changing for the better. But I think,
like, once again, it is an opportunity to work with the founder, there's an opportunity to be
able to partner long term with the company. And so you should not be just afraid or uncomfortable
to continuously message an investor, you know, multiple times if you don't hear back from them.
The worst thing they can say is no. And I would say getting that no is better than,
you know, not having anything or not having any closure at all. And so, you know, it's perfectly
fine to send multiple messages. It's perfectly fine to, you know, send one email and then send
a LinkedIn and then send a Twitter DM. I've gotten once again, I've gotten Instagram DMs as well.
Um, you know, just try not to be like, too. Once again, like just too consistent. I shouldn't get
all those messages within the span of an hour within the span of a day. But you do have to
be creative. I think we've seen like, I've seen crazy things like Venmo requests. It's like,
you know, can I have your two cents on this? I thought that was super creative. But those are
like easy ways, once again, to just be super creative, diversify your communication, utilize
different platforms for communication, and then really just find a way to stand out, you know,
and this sort of sea of other founders. I think the fundraising process for founders is like sales,
you are literally selling your vision, you are selling your, you know, just like mission,
all the initiatives that you're trying to accomplish to this investor who has not,
you know, they're looking for a company to invest in, but they haven't necessarily,
you know, thought of your company yet. And so I think that you have to be super persistent,
you have to be comfortable with like cold calling, or cold outbounding, or outbound emailing,
whatever you want to call it. And then, you know, obviously, once again, it's kind of like a process
from there, if they don't message the first time, or if they don't respond the first time,
find another partner to contact, find another platform to leverage. You know, if they have a
tweet that resonates with you respond directly to that tweet, they'll maybe remember the
name and be like, Oh, I forgot to respond. That has happened so
many times to myself, or just different investors that we work
with. And I think oftentimes, you'll see, you know, an
investor maybe being like, hey, this founder is like pretty
interesting, or they're building a really great company. You
know, like, they'll reach out to someone in their network, like,
hey, can I get connected to them? And we'll get on a call.
And it's like, hey, we already, you know, we reached out to you
like a month ago. I'm like, okay, sorry. So just being super
persistent. You know, just don't leave it to one form of
communication, don't leave it to only one email, I think, you
know, you'd be cutting yourself short if you're doing that. So
once again, just be super persistent. And then lastly,
was just including these investors to follow on Twitter,
this, this list is not all encompassing or expansive. You
know, when I was first getting started out with my journey in
venture capital as a whole, these are the people that I
really found the most value from. And I think like, they all
do a great job of providing questions, answering questions
from different people in the community, as well as once
again, I mentioned Visible Hands VC, Daryl Frater is, I believe,
an associate there, a senior associate there. You have a
people, couple of people from Harlem Capital, they're just
different people in the industry that are offering like pitch
feedback. I think Daryl is one who hosts like the weekly pitch
competitions for investors. Brandon right here, official B
Brooks, he has also sat on some of those investor calls. Trying
to go through the names here. Nicole de Tomaso, she works at
Harlem Capital. She's a senior associate, she's literally
posted, she's probably like the founder, like the guru from like
the founder side of things. She's answering all these
founder questions. She posts different career opportunities
for people that are looking to get an adventure. She posts
different investment opportunities for people that
are looking to get funded. She answers questions about terms,
she answers questions about diligence, why a founder may get
passed on just different things. So I would highly encourage you
to start, once again, building your network on Twitter,
building your brand on Twitter, starting to follow these people,
maybe interact with them a couple of times during the week,
whether that's to a question, whether it's to a DM, whether
it's liking their stuff, all that stuff really sticks to an
investor. And I think like, once again, these investors are here,
you know, they have this certain platform today, because of
founders in the industry. And I think they do a really great job
of being intentional about just, you know, adding value and not
being, you know, just completely removed from the from the
venture landscape as a whole. And so, you know, once again,
interacting and finding a way to engage and stand out to some of
these investors at a super early stage could really benefit you,
you know, greatly, I think all these investors are also people
that we've either co invested with, or they shared, or they
shared deals with us. So definitely take a look at them.
And I believe that that is it. So I will open the floor. I
think we have 15 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes for questions. But I
appreciate it. Thank you.
Question 1, are there are there websites that lists grants and
accelerators? That is a great question. There definitely are.
And there are some Wikipedia websites that have some serials
about it. And my ownership here is at the two that says,'
some websites and once again, there are some VCs that also
list these accelerators and grant programs. I will follow up
with that I can follow up directly with Siobhan and she
can share that, that resource with you. But I'll definitely
scrape together some of the websites that we've utilized.
And I think like also thinking about utilizing things like
Crunchbase, you know, to look at like the earliest stages of
funding for different companies and or founders, we've often
utilized that. And I think, you know, that's one of the better
tools in terms of like financial accessibility. I think PitchBook
is probably the most effective, but it costs so much. So a lot
of founders don't use it. And we as investors definitely don't
spend our money on that as much. But utilizing something like
Crunchbase, going to like funding history, and then seeing
like the different especially for a company within your
specific sector, seeing like the different, you can see an angel,
you can see like a specific family office, firm or fund or
accelerator grant program. And you can take it from there.
Question number two, would you say it would you say it is
better to be on Twitter as your business, or be on Twitter as
yourself, but as a CEO?
CEO, or founder of your business? That's a great question. I think that I mean, I would
say having just a personal identity is easier to relate to as another human. But I think,
I mean, it's kind of like a simultaneous effort. I think you definitely want your brand to
have like an identity as well. You want to be able to, I guess, just like personalize
your brand as a whole. So I would say definitely do both. If it's kind of like a one or nothing,
I would say like be on Twitter as yourself. I think there's benefit in both. But once
again, when you start to just interact with other founders, interact with potential customers,
you want to sort of have a voice on like multiple platforms. And then I think as it relates
to like advertising, especially with like consumer facing companies, you want to be
able to do that directly through like a business account, I'd say, because there are a lot
more and a lot better analytics. This is mostly on, I guess, like Facebook and Instagram.
I know Twitter hasn't really been utilized as like an advertising platform yet. But on
IG and Facebook, I think that having a business account is a lot better. On Twitter, being
a CEO, like joining calls, I think it's a lot easier for people to just be like, oh,
I, you know, I recognize who this person is. I see like what their business is. You can
obviously have that in your bio. But for the sake of like remembering a name, it's going
to be a lot easier for them to remember you as a person and then connect you to that business
rather than like vice versa, seeing the business and be like, oh, this is a CEO and founder,
you know, and their followers or something like that, or go on the website or something.
Are there great Twitter accounts or hashtags that you would recommend?
Hashtags? That's a great question. I'll have to think about that. Accounts, definitely
all of the accounts that I like listed in the slide deck, those are great VC accounts.
Some of the accounts that I guess outside of venture capital specifically, I will say
that a lot of the topics on Twitter, I didn't include this in the slide deck, but a lot
of the topics on Twitter are absolutely great. I use Twitter as like a newspaper, like I
don't read the newspaper at all. I rarely read like articles. I rarely get on CNBC. I
just get everything on Twitter. And so depending on like one, what business your sector is
operating in, you can follow specific topics, whether that be fintech, whether it be
cryptocurrency, whether it be, you know, any other topic at all, really. And those will
serve as sort of a way for you to get like the most popular, I guess, like activity and
or like news that's going on a specific area. In the same way that you do that, you can
also follow like a specific keywords with if it's like startups, or if it's like
accelerators or incubator, I'm not sure if accelerators, incubators are specific ones, but
startups is definitely one. And you can kind of stay in the loop with what's going on in
startup world, whether it be like the super popular, you know, grant programs or
accelerators, or anything else. And then I would definitely recommend like, on top of
following these specific investors, follow their follow the funds and or firms that
they're working at, like they also have sort of this obligation and moral duty to be
super active on Twitter as well, because they're trying to, in the same way that you're
trying to find them, they're trying to find you. So they also post like their own blog
post, excuse me, they also post their own blog posts, or they're also, you know, sort of
like interact with just the community in a more of like a general capacity, whether that be
through once again, holding Twitter spaces, and or engaging in conversations and or just
adding input to any other like relevant situation, I think, you know, as a whole, like
they have to be active on Twitter, just to sort of main like maintain their brand,
reputation and identity. Question four, what is a small firm versus a large firm? That is a
great question as well. I would say a small firm, like the way that we think about like
small firms, or like micro firm, micro funds is technically like the I guess, like VC coin
lingo, I will say is like, funds that are typically say typically, like, they have like
less than like 15 million in assets under management. So their fund size is like
anywhere from like 1 million to 15. That's that's considered like the smaller side of
things. Usually, because the way that it works is like a fund has, you know, 2.5% and
management fees every year that the fund is operating. And so if I have a 10 million $10
million fund, and I'm taking 2.5% of management fees, that leaves me with 250,000 a year to like
pay people or like pay legal and you know, other things. And so usually that can only be, you
know, kind of split up by like one or two people at most.
So usually that's when you start to see the smaller funds.
I would say once you get closer to like 20, 25,
it's technically can still be considered a smaller fund,
but I think that, I guess like more correct lingo
is just like a micro fund.
You don't have like as big of a team.
You aren't deploying, once again,
like million dollar checks, like twice a month.
You know, usually you're earlier,
usually when you see like the smaller funds,
like less than 30 million, they're earlier
in their, I guess just like venture or firm career.
So that's usually like their first or second fund
and you'll scale upwards from there.
And then once you get to upwards of 50,
you know, closer to 100 and 200 and 300
and you know, a billion potentially,
those are like super large firms.
So the Andreessen's of the world,
the Harlem Capital is one now, they're a large firm.
They have, I guess, hundreds of millions of dollars
under management now.
Insight Partners is another one.
They raised, I believe a billion dollar fund
three months ago and they're all raising
another billion dollar fund this month.
So those, I guess like that's kind of how I would think
about small firms versus large firms.
You know, just thinking about like assets under management
and there's ways for you to find that information on Google
or on the fund or firm's website.
That's really important for you as a founder
because oftentimes one of the reasons
that a firm may not invest is just because
they're doing or deploying, they're doing too many deals
or deploying too much capital at one time.
And so just being super strategic about that
or if they're in between funds,
it may be really hard for them to invest
because they have to focus on the fundraising
side of things.
Is there any hope for non-tech companies in VC?
Yes, I would definitely say so.
There are a lot of great companies and great funds
and firms that are investing only in CPG
or only in like consumer spaces,
which isn't necessarily non-tech, but CPG obviously is one.
So Fearless especially invest in CPG.
Skewed Ventures is another company.
I don't know if I can type in this chat,
but S-K-U and then apostrophe D, Skewed Ventures.
That's another company that writes microchecks
and CPG companies.
And the guy who is partner there,
his name is Kofi Impadu.
He also works on the Andreessen TXO team.
So it's Talent Times Opportunity
where they work with underrepresented founders
and sort of like help them at a super early stage.
So we've also invested in a few companies
that have gone through their program.
A lot of those companies are CPG focused.
So those are two great avenues for you as a non-tech
founder and or a company in the venture capital landscape.
And then really thinking about,
I'm trying to think about some other ones.
There's another person, his name is Brian,
I think his name is Brian Fulmer.
I think his handle is like First Look VC
or that's his website.
So First Look VC,
they, I don't know if they invest directly in companies,
but they offer like a subscription box kind of model
where they charge VCs that invest only in CPG companies
to try out these actual products.
So like beverages, food, makeup, like clothing,
whatever the case may be.
If you're a CPG company, like he'll put you into this box.
Obviously there's like some criteria and selection process,
but he'll get you into this box
and he'll ship your stuff out to, excuse me,
different investors in the hopes that,
they're trying it and they're using that or leveraging that
as like another way to sort of like,
I guess like critique your business
or think about your business.
So I would say, yes,
there's definitely a lot of hope for non-tech companies
and please do not get discouraged.
People always talk about tech, tech, tech,
software, software, software,
the most active corporations are the biggest corporates.
I mean, Walmart is obviously the biggest one,
like Amazon is another big one, Apple.
These are all, I mean, they have a mix of tech and CPG,
but they do the most acquisitions,
the most acquisitions in order of shorter timeline,
all of them happen in CPG.
So a lot of like beauty, health and wellness companies,
a lot of food and beverage companies,
they're being acquired by the General Mills,
the Mondelez's, the Procter and Gamble's.
Software acquisitions take a lot longer.
And so I think for companies that have a specific
or funds that have a specific sector focus on CPG,
they're kind of using that as a reasoning
from an LP perspective,
it's like you want an acquisition.
And the quickest way to do that is through a CPG company
and or a consumer facing company versus like a B2B.
of like sass play. Um, what is not struck, not, excuse me, what
is not being structured correctly mean? Does it mean
incorrect valuation? No. So I think that was referencing the
email is it's like, literally, you know, like, if you said,
like, dear Cameron, and then there was no space in between,
you know, the deer Cameron in the first sentence, and like,
there's no spaces in between paragraphs, or there's some type
of like, you know, there are multiple typos and stuff like
that, like, it's not necessarily, you know, it like
it looks like spam. And so for the sake of our own time, like
we have to be cognizant about like, how much attention is
that specific email, because there, we do get a lot of spam
as well. How much attention is that specific email getting? So
just, you know, just like, once again, going, going above and
beyond being creative, but also just, you know, doing the bare
minimum and like structuring an email correctly, just making
sure that it's not like, like a run on sentence, or once again,
there are no spaces at all between paragraphs. Or like,
there's no, you know, not any punctuation or stuff, because
one, that stuff gets flagged by Google as spam. But then also,
like, if I open it up, and it's like, no punctuation or no
spaces at all, I'm also gonna think it's spam, and I probably
won't look at it. So that's what I meant about like, not being
structured correctly. If your social media account is, is
followed by some key players in the market, how do you recommend
showing this value to potential investors? That is a that's a
great company. That's a great question as well. Um, I think
like social media following as a whole, is always a good initial
indicator. But I think you always have to go a step
further, and figure out a way to depict what this social media
following means for you. And so you know, obviously, once again,
if you have, like, just this, I guess, platform that has brand
awareness. And, you know, once again, you have like this huge
social media following on Instagram, like, what does this
mean for you? Like, are you advertising to these, you know,
communities of people that follow you? Are you advertising
to this group of followers? Like, does this convert to
sales on, you know, your website? Does it convert to
traffic? Does it? If you're like an ad tech platform? Does this
following convert to like clicks for advertising? So I
think like, that's how I would think about showing value is
like, what actions are being taken from this following? Like
how am I enabling my followers? How am I empowering my followers
to support me as a business? Are they buying my product because
they follow me and they resonate with me as a brand as a person
as a business? Are they spreading the word? Are they,
you know, referring their friends to follow my my profile
is just leading them to traffic. So I think it's a
little bit like you want to take another step and like, think
like we see a lot of like, oh, we have, you know, 15,000
followers or so like, what is that 15,000 followers doing? Are
they like, all on subscription based plan? Is it $15,000? And
like monthly recurring revenue? Just that's how I would think
about like the value behind like social media account and like
following. Question eight, how would you recommend scouting
finding non tech, industry specific VCs, or angels or
firms? That's a great question. I'm actually pulling up
something that I'll also follow up with. But I want to see if I
can follow it really quickly. So there's a think there's this
company called signal.nfx.com. I think that is a great way to
look at like angels or specific, you know, like VC funds or
firms. And then once again, like, don't like over, I guess
like, just forget about like the crunch based method. So like
actually going like, you know, for us, for instance, like we
just invested in partake foods, Denise Woodard. So like, you
can literally go to crunch base, you can click partake foods, or
you can look them up. And then you can look up funding history.
Or you can like find the article and look at all the VCs that
participated in their round, whether that be seed or series a
or any other round, like all that information is public. And
the great thing about the fundraising aspect and VC is
that like, there's a lot of PR and hype around it. So usually
they're trying to use that to an advantage. I think like it
gives you a great opportunity, you know, to just once again, be
able to find these names and see which which people or funds or
firms are active at like each individual stage. So once again,
crunch base, there are different websites like signal.nfx, as
well as like literally looking on Twitter, CPG investor, there
are people that like, once again, if you follow Lolita
Taub, who's like
super big, kind of like community VC person in the, in
the space, like she's always like, creating these threads
where VCs can chime in on their sector focus. So looking up CPG
investor or like Femtech investor or healthcare invest,
whatever the case may be, you know, I think those are also
great ways. And yes, I can definitely do. I can follow up
with this, and I'll provide the information to Siobhan. I'll
create an action list for myself, but I can provide some
links to the people on the firms. I can also provide, once
again, the screenshot of all the people that I recommended
following. And I think that's a great starting point, but it's
not all encompassing. And then I can also follow up with some
precede accelerators that we've sort of thought about or work
with, as well as like some of the other, I guess, just like
grant programs and or pitch competitions that we think about
that are like, not just kind of like in the mainstream world, I
guess. I think that might have been the last question. So yeah,
just want to take take the time to thank you all again. I
appreciate the questions. Thank you to those who asked and, you
know, thank you to everyone who sat here and listened to me
talk about, you know, how to get discovered by investors. I hope
that you know, you all find have, you know, found some
value in this. But I hope that this is not like the end of our
conversation and or relationship. So definitely feel
free to add me on LinkedIn. It's my full name, Cameron
Hippolyte, investor at Fearless Fund, please add me if you have
any additional questions, happy to answer them. It may take some
time. But I will definitely get back to you. And once again,
just thank you. And I hope that you continue to find value in
these presentations and also the GVR program as a whole. Stay
tuned for Fearless VC Summit as well. That will be in Atlanta in
August, be a lot of publicity around that in the in the coming
weeks, but shameless plug again, and thank you again.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai