Selling the Dream: Raising Pre-Seed Capital as a First-Time Founder
- Stephanie Roulic
- 3 days ago
- 47 min read
Securing pre-seed funding as a first-time founder is about far more than having a great idea, it’s about telling a story investors believe in, selling a vision for what’s possible, and proving you’re the one to build it. Before traction, before revenue, and often before a finished product, founders must learn how to communicate clarity, confidence, and potential in a way that cuts through the noise.
Recorded live at Startup Boston Week 2025, this session breaks down how to craft a compelling pre-seed pitch, navigate early-stage fundraising mechanics, and position your startup for early belief. You’ll learn how to think about SAFE agreements, identify the right early-stage investors, present meaningful metrics even without traction, and make smart equity decisions that protect your long-term upside.
This conversation offers practical guidance on approaching risk, building credibility from day one, and creating a pitch that resonates before your company is fully built.
Featuring insights from:
Jodi Collier - Executive Director, Launchpad Venture Group
Paul Hayre - Executive Director, Harvard Grid
Sidney McLaurin - CEO, Fleet Robotics
Allison Byers - Founder & CEO, Scroobious
5 Takeaways
1. Raising money is a tool, not the goal
Founders should first ask whether they actually need outside capital, because every funding source - venture, angels, debt, or grants - comes with real costs and tradeoffs. Fundraising should serve the business, not become the business.
2. The best investors are aligned, not just available
Doing research upfront and building an “ideal investor profile” saves massive time. Strong founders target investors whose experience, interests, and motivations align with the business instead of pitching everyone possible.
3. Your job is to lower perceived risk in the first minutes of a pitch
Investors are quickly assessing risk, especially for first-time founders. Bringing experienced advisors, strong team members, and clear thinking around risks helps neutralize concerns early and keeps attention focused on opportunity.
4. Advisory boards should be intentional and credible
Advisors should fill real functional gaps (product, tech, marketing, etc.) and be formally aligned. Listing people without permission or purpose damages trust and signals poor judgment to investors.
5. Relationships close rounds, not pressure
Fundraising is fundamentally relationship-driven. Founders who listen well, understand investor motivations, and stay selective about who they partner with close stronger, healthier rounds and retain more control long term.
Key Quote Highlights
All five of these quotes are direct paraphrases or lightly cleaned for readability
“You can do what you want to do. It doesn’t have to follow the textbook, and you don’t need a lead. You don’t have to close a round the ‘right’ way — you just need to understand who you’re actually trying to get a check from.” — Allison Byers, Founder & CEO, Scroobious
“At the end of the day, this is a relationship game. You are talking to another person, and you need to understand what they need to feel comfortable, instead of trying to force why you think they should invest.” — Allison Byers, Founder & CEO, Scroobious
“You are going to be told no far more than you’ll be told yes — and you also get to choose. If you don’t feel good about a person, don’t close them. There is a ton of capital out there.” — Allison Byers, Founder & CEO, Scroobious
“You have to have a plan. As soon as you create that plan, it becomes obsolete — but without a plan, you’re rudderless and you have no ability to know if you’re hitting in the right direction.” — Paul Hayre, Executive Director, Harvard Grid
“It’s important to think about a bite-sized first raise so you can do what you said you were going to do without giving up too much of your company.” — Jodi Collier, Executive Director, Launchpad Venture Group
Parting Thoughts, Video & Transcript
Raising pre-seed capital isn’t about having all the answers, it’s about telling a clear, believable story about where you’re going and why you’re the right person to get there. This session makes it clear that first-time founders don’t need perfect traction, flashy decks, or insider connections. They need clarity of vision, thoughtful preparation, and the confidence to sell what’s possible before it’s proven.
The best founders approach fundraising as relationship-building, not transaction-chasing. They focus on trust, alignment, and shared belief rather than pressure or hype. And when done right, pre-seed funding becomes more than capital, it becomes the foundation for long-term partnerships that help turn the dream into reality.
Full Transcript Below
Want to revisit a particular quote or share with a teammate? We’ve got you covered. Read the transcript here:
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:01:46,800 ] Um, wow, this is cool. So, uh, my name is Sidney McLaurin, uh, CEO of Fleet Robotics, uh. So I have uh three panelists, uh, they're really awesome today, uh, Jody.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:01:59,130 ] Can you hear me now? All right, good.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:02:02,200 ] Maybe I'll be a bad example for our panelists, so get it out of the way. Yeah, exactly.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:02:08,060 ] Panelists will get to learn on the fly.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:02:10,440 ] So my name is Sidney McLaurin, and the CEO of Fleet Robotics. We have three awesome panelists today, Jody, Allison, and Paul. And so we're going to go through a little bit of a conversation about startup fundraising, sort of early stage startup fundraising. So I'll be facilitating a conversation and maybe we'll dive in with a couple of introductions. Maybe we'll just go in order.
Allison Byers
[ 00:02:30,600 ] Sure. I'll try to make it brief. Hi, everyone. I'm Alison Byers. I'm the founder and CEO of Scroobius. Yes, I know it's a funny name. My background, this is my second startup. first time around. I spun a medical device company out of MIT and the Leahy Hospital system here with a team of scientific co-founders. Raised about 10 million for that company. And we ended up going to early acquisition after I experienced some extreme bias in the fundraising process, which is what caused me to launch Scroobius. And we're a platform that helps funders, founders, and partners connect through education and relationship building to open up access to resources and capital. I'm also a national thought leader in equitable access to business capital. I co-authored the first law regulating venture capital out of California last year. It was SB 54. and I'm working on legislation in multiple other states right now and sit on the board of a couple non-profits all under the space of equitable access to capital.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:03:31,570 ] Thank you. Hi, everyone. Paul Hayre. I did mostly medical devices for about a decade and a half, focused on tissue repair.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:03:41,580 ] uh care delivery and a little bit in pain management non-pharmacological pain management but three years ago joined harvard's engineering school and office of technology development to create an entrepreneurship center within the engineering school to focus on tough tech venturing so hard sciences and engineering and that's what I've been doing for the last three years.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:04:01,050 ] All right, I'm doing it. Hi, I'm Jody Collier. I'm the executive director of Launchpad Venture Group. We are a network of 175 individual angels based here in the Boston area. And collectively, we put about $10 million to work into local startups that are looking for that really early pre-seed funding from individuals. And we're really excited to be in an event like this and have an opportunity to meet so many founders. We have about 56 active portfolios. Companies at the moment and we love to lead rounds, price rounds, in the 1 to 3 million dollar range. So it's it's an exciting place in the market to be, and we typically you know look at companies that are pretty reflective of the Boston area market. So a lot of stuff in sort of med device, in health care and life sciences, roughly, but smaller things that are going to be a little bit less capital intensive, and then we love things in clean tech, we like ed tech, and a lot of B2B software.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:05:12,479 ] Great. Thank you. So, you know, Jody, why don't we start on the, you know, first question on your side. So, obviously, a lot of people... in the room are thinking about raising. One of the big things is fit, right, of finding the right investors for you. Do you have any sort of tactical advice on how to think about who might be the right investor for you or type of capital? Sure.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:05:37,750 ] There's a lot of things to be thinking about at the earliest stage as far as who's going to be an appropriate fit. And really, really do your research. It's going to save you guys. time and it's going to save time for the investors as well just to really look at alignment. You know, there are a lot of ways to think about it. There's non-dilutive capital, there's non-dilutive capital there is going to straight to venture financing.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:06:00,320 ] Angel investing is obviously an area near and dear to my heart that I'd love to talk with you all about. But it's really thinking about how much do you need to raise and what are you going to use it for? And that's going to help you frame who you should talk to from the very start. I'll open it up too.
Allison By
[ 00:06:22,130 ] I mean, I can always add.
Allison Byers
[ 00:06:24,880 ] Thank you. I mean, the way that I like to answer that question is: 'Do I need capital at all?' Because the goal of capital is to build a successful business. It's not to raise. Raising money is not the win. It is just a vehicle and a choice that you need money to grow the company in the way that you you would like to grow it. So before you even think about fit, really question and understand what it means to take money from different capital sources. If it's debt, it costs you something. If it's equity, it costs you something. Even if it's non-dilutive, it's a grant, it costs you something. Those grants are a bitch to get through and then to manage and report. Sorry, I swear.
Allison Byers
[ 00:07:13,870 ] That's the first thing that I always go to is make sure you understand the source of the capital, what their motivation and needs are from whatever you're giving up. Before you decide to go down that road and don't get hyper focused on 'I must raise' or 'I must find investors' because that is often not the right answer.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:07:35,640 ] Yeah, thank you. One of the things we joke internally is it's like being really excited about putting gas in your car.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:07:42,600 ] It's just something you kind of have to do along the way, so it makes sense. Um, but let's say you've decided that. Let's say you've you've now decided uh you definitely need investment. Venture is the way you want to go. Uh, you know how do you think about the elements of a good fundraising process, and maybe Allison sort of talked through that one a little bit since you sort of chimed in on the last one. How do you think about maybe sort of five of the elements of a good fundraising process as you think about that?
Allison Byers
[ 00:08:10,620 ] Sure. So, well, I covered the first one.
Allison Byers
[ 00:08:14,100 ] Do you need to fundraise? Then you've decided that you do. So the next thing is akin to what I said: identify all of your different potential fundraising sources.
Allison Byers
[ 00:08:24,919 ] And I'm not going to do a deep dive here, but I talk about this a lot. We're understanding venture capital is one type. Venture capital is a business. And it is very different from raising from private wealth or from angel investors. They are not a business. And those have deep implications for what it means for you. You to take money from those sources so don't just rush into saying, like, going for a check wherever you can. Really understand what does this means and does it align with how I want to grow my business? Then you think through: okay, how much do I need to build value into my company that will get me to the next stage?
Allison Byers
[ 00:09:06,850 ] A fine amount— it's not I want to raise a million dollars or I've heard pre-seed is this amount. It's what are you trying to do with that money? Because again, the money is for a purpose to build your business. That should increase the value of your business for whatever the next stage is— whether it's raising more, getting revenue, or whatever, whatever it is that you choose to do. Once you've determined that, then it's time to work through your story, which is your pitch, right? How do I describe to someone why I'm raising, why it's a good thing for them, because you're basically offering a chance for investors to make money off of all your hard work if they invest in you. Uh, and put that into the common you know format investors are looking for— the pitch deck, because it is what lets you explain your story in a predictable format. And again, I'm happy to talk anyone's ear off about pitch decks and what goes into a story. And then you have to think through your timeline and really set up a strategy.
Allison Byers
[ 00:10:10,300 ] When are you going to raise? When is it right for your company? And when is it right with investing seasonality? Because it basically follows a school cycle of active periods of investing. So you need to make sure that. You're not going to run out of money for your company if you're trying to raise in the middle of the summer. You got to think about that timing so maybe I'll stop there and let let others let others go.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:10:32,840 ] I think that's very nicely laid out and maybe sort of doubling down on one idea is, you know, when you're talking to investors, you already come to the decision that you decide to talk to an investor when you're talking. To an investor, they're simply trying to answer the question of, 'is this person going to burn my money up, or is this person going to return to me more money than I gave?' I think in one thing that it's sort of a very novice mistake to do is this idea of not really understanding what where are the the deepest risk pockets or profile of what you're doing and understanding how to mitigate that and do that very elegantly and effectively and immediately when you talk to investors.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:11:12,870 ] This panel, as an example, is fundraising for first-time founders. If you think about what's inherent in that topic and maybe why you came here is the idea of the risk associated with a first-time founder. So look at that through the eyes of the person that you're talking to. When they see a first-time founder, they're going to see a lot of risk in that. So your job is to immediately mitigate that risk. And how do you do that? Well, if it's your first time, what does that also inherently mean if you have somebody else potentially either on your on your team or on your advisory board or what supporting you in some way that this is not their first time that might have a little bit of gray hair, only meaning that they might have done some of these things before they understand the market, they understand the customer, they understand the product, then that is a very clear and compelling way to de-risk. this aspect that you're a first-time founder and that you know you might have the technical chops you might have uh you maybe you built the uh the product or you might have the market shops whatever it is bring to the table, there are other slices of what's necessary to get an idea launched. And that's exactly what an investor is going to look at when they first talk to you.
Paul Ha
[ 00:12:16,590 ] So that's what you need to figure out how to do. Mitigate, but knowing that, and coming up with a compelling, but brief sort of response to mitigate that upfront, rather than sort of having a long digestion of the problem, as it were. You need to cover that in good detail and make sure it's compelling. But if that's not really where the risk is, it's being clear and upfront about that. And frankly, that's where you... sort of win or lose the deal. It's in that first few minutes where the investor already has an idea of where they perceive the biggest risk to your idea. And if that's not addressed pretty quickly and effectively early, what you say thereafter is oftentimes wasted.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:12:53,070 ] If I may, Sidney, I just wanted to amplify one thing that Paul talked about, which is a board of advisors. And that is such a critical... Thing to think about at this earliest stage of forming your company. These are people that may really help you to tell that story, like Allison was talking about. About really give you some credibility that might put investors at ease because they can recognize, gosh you know, this person's a first-time founder, but I worked with this advisor before, or I can see that they were really thoughtful enough to surround themselves with some people who have figured out where the are and have experienced that along the way and bring different things to the table as far as experience and connections is the other thing. Not only opening doors as far as investors are concerned but also for customers down the pike, so that's I think just so critical at this point.
Allison Byers
[ 00:13:51,569 ] Can I add on? We're taking a long time on this question, but because I'm me. So just one other element. Uh, a lot of what we're talking about here is about people who already know their investors. Right when you're going to win or lose a deal, or or any of that. For a lot of you, how many people are like, are first-time founders who are figuring this all out right now?
Allison Byers
[ 00:14:14,710 ] Great, spot on topic.
Allison Byers
[ 00:14:18,460 ] One critical thing to understand is when we're talking about angel investors, we are talking about basically anyone. Angels are everywhere. They are not businesses. They don't have to list themselves. Many angels don't even know they're angels. They aren't activated yet.
Allison Byers
[ 00:14:36,960 ] I'm being it sounds silly. I'm—I'm being uh, it's not facetious. And you get to the capital through building a relationship. There is no shortcut. It is not transactional. So by nature of doing things like building out advisors, like coming to events, like finding people who understand what you're doing fundamentally and who you relate to as a person, they can turn into your early capital even if they don't call themselves investors right now. And you're not pitching them. So just think broader about where investment capital might come from. You might be sitting next to an investor right now and you don't even know it.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:15:19,040 ] You know, Johnny, so... Let's stay on this Board of Advisors topic for a little bit longer. I want to dive a little bit deeper because it's a topic that I think people hear a lot about. They're like, 'I should have a board of advisors.' But I think, as a first-time founder, you don't really know where to get a board of advisors. And there's also this little rumor— and sort of, you know, other sort of feeling that comes sometimes when VCs, that they don't really know how close of an advisor they are, right? And so they see an advisor listed, so. Maybe you could talk a little bit about how do you structure that advisor relationship and find ones that are really high value add and that really translate through in the way that you're thinking to really value add in the fundraising process.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:16:00,500 ] I'm so glad you asked that question and I'm just sort of gonna address something that you know has bothered me and probably you guys have seen this: you see a pitch deck and there's a board of advisors listed. And you reach out and you say, 'Hey, I just got this deck. What do you think about this founder? You're listed on the board of advisors.' And they're like, 'I'm what? And it's so embarrassing, right? For the founder. And it's just so yeah— sort of short. The answer is: make sure you have clarity on what it means to be on your board of advisors. Don't just hijack someone's name because they have great degrees and they're well known. That's not going to work for you. Authenticity always matters. I think you guys know that. But as far as getting these relationships rolling, it can be as much as reaching out to people who are in the field.' Maybe it's, you know, if you're a student, it's finding people who, through academia, are connected in a particular environment and saying, 'Hey, this is something I'm working on.'
Jodi Collier
[ 00:17:03,780 ] Do you know somebody who might be interesting to talk to? And then simply asking them if they, what sort of time they have for this and interest they have for this and I would formalize it. You know, I want to be able to bounce things off of you one hour a week, or I want to meet with you face to face. You know, three times a quarter. You can think about what that might mean, but I think having someone who's you can really be honest with, and say, 'I'm not sure I understand this technology' or 'I don't know how to get in front of this type of customer.' I think that's going to really help you to have people that you can really count on, be yourself, and that will really help your company grow. I love seeing people who are exited founders. I know that... They love to help. Like at the end of the day, you know, angels are everywhere. They might not even know that they're an angel. You might be an angel. I love that, Allison. I'm totally going to steal that.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:17:56,720 ] And it's true, but helpers are everywhere, too. And Boston happens to be a really, I think, uniquely rich community of people. Yes, they want to be angel investors. They want to invest in companies and make a nice return. But ultimately, they want to help you out. They want to make sure that you don't fall into the same holes that they fell into.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:18:19,030 ] It's it's really just a question of asking honestly, and people really are more receptive than you might think. Make the ask really small, and you might get a lot more than you would expect.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:18:32,360 ] If I may just do—yes, just double down on everything uh that Jody talked about. Um, and in there's also a risk not only of having— when there's sort of shallow in a relationship with your advisors, but also if you have too many. When we see team slides, as an example, and they go on for two pages, for instance, and they're a lot, it also communicates the fact that there hasn't been been much thinking about what's necessary to get the idea moving forward and that there may be— pardon the term— dead weight you might have heard that used in terms of like cap tables and the where investors look and see who's on cap table as they are thinking about investing a company. So when you think about advisors, the— you know this— I think we overcomplicate this usually tremendously and that we try to surround ourselves with fancy titles in the fancy schools and we think that that's going to carry at the end of the day. But if there's not a direct connection on what each person serves in terms of how. They mitigate major aspects of risk, then it's wasted space and time, and frankly, a distraction to you. So that's we're sort of over swinging— or you know, the pendulum over swinging to having too many people involved.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:19:33,410 ] Also, it's going to be a distraction for you, quite candidly, if that's real. Managing that, but also I think it also communicates that there hasn't been enough clarity in thinking about what are the aspects that are essential. You know, what do you bring and what do you need to have people with you bring to the table to get your idea launching out into the field. And that, if you haven't put that thought in, it's Not clear by how you talk about who the people are and what they're doing, it becomes very evident quickly that there's sort of just window dressing also. So there's sort of two sides of that coin.
Allison Byers
[ 00:20:02,740 ] The way I describe exactly that is: you should be intentional. There's a difference between people who help you build your capital and who are actual advisors to your company. So an actual advisor, you should think through what are the functions that I need extra help in or I don't have the expertise in. And you should not have more than one advisor per function. And you go find those people. I have a marketing advisor. I have a product advisor. I have a tech advisor. Specifically, those are areas I need help in. And then, have your second qualifier. For me, it's: 'Do I feel more energized after I talk to you than when I started?' If I feel drained, 'Not a good advisor for me, right?' So there's the functional element and then there's your fit element and make it official. Use a fast agreement, give them 0. 25% equity, have it be structured so they actually benefit from your company succeeding and they have something in the game. You can have a ton more builder helpers, but have a formal board of advisors.
Allison Byers
[ 00:21:04,320 ] And then they know why they're on your pitch deck slide. Allison, what's a fast agreement? So you can just Google it. It's a free, you can just download it. It's a free agreement. I forget who. Founder Institute, maybe? Well, I forget who originated it, but it's called the FAST agreement. It's a standard agreement that you can use for inviting somebody to be an official board advisor.
Allison Byers
[ 00:21:24,320 ] Or not board, advisor on your board of advisors.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:21:30,240 ] And maybe I'll sort of Clever.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:21:33,870 ] Typically, a board of advisors so you have someone who basically gives you the money right. So then you have uh your board of advisors. Your advisory board is what we're talking about now. So just that, that was the distinction.
Allison Byers
[ 00:21:43,330 ] Uh, yes, I humbled that.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:21:45,630 ] Um, okay, okay.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:21:50,360 ] Fast. Fast. Fast.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:21:53,870 ] Okay, so we've decided we want money. We now have some steps to know we're in a good process. We've got an advisory board and a board of advisors. We're sort of on the right track here. You know, we're now two months into this process, right, and we're trying to assess sort of where we are. Paul, maybe you could talk a little bit about how do you know when it's not going well, and what do you do then?
Paul Hayre
[ 00:22:20,900 ] Maybe I'm the wrong guy to ask because my first medical device startup I started over 15 years ago and I'm still running it. So what that means is—basically, I had difficulty getting traction. I had difficulty raising money for it. So I sort of parked it on the back burner and went off and started other companies and built other ideas. In the meanwhile, but I'm still tinkering with it. So that's what I mean by, and Sydney, this is a very important question: is this idea of sort of... knowing when you are treading water and you're not making progress is very difficult for early stage entrepreneurs. And I've struggled with that and I think a lot of, especially, by the way, And my bias is usually science and engineering tech. I said that earlier. I mean, like hard tech is often what I do. That's my job now is to work with scientists and faculty who are working on trying to get hard tech from labs out to market. So that's my bias. And I think it's especially rampant when you are a technologist also. And maybe get a little bit enamored with your technology as well, then it also, you start to lose clarity in thinking about— are you making progress in getting things built further on.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:23:24,400 ] So this is a very important question. You know, it's very hard to say, you know, here are the tricks and here are the signals that tell you when you are treading water. But a couple things that you certainly should have.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:23:36,430 ] The idea of discipline. Entrepreneurship is not sort of Wild West. I think we all sort of misperceive what really entrepreneurship is about— in being a CEO. It's not really flying by the seat of your pants and, you know, figuring it out every single day. There's an aspect of that. The aspect that it's very unstructured, but that's your job as the CEO of this early-stage startup, is bringing as much structure and de-risking organization as you can, knowing that when you wake up tomorrow, you almost throw much of that organization structure to the wind because assumptions have changed, the world has changed, something didn't work the way you wanted it to, and you, as the entrepreneur, have to figure out that sort of wiggle room to get your idea forward. So that's explicitly, I think, how I've always thought about this problem, which is: You need to have a plan. Again, as soon as you devise a plan, it becomes obsolete because the world changes. But in the absence of a plan, you're rudderless. You really have no direction where you're going and you have no ability to know if you're hitting in the right direction. So you have to have a plan, and that plan tells you, sort of, what are the milestones, and you need this obviously in the pitch deck that we were talking about earlier. You have to be able to... convince somebody else, you know, what the key big steps are, inflection points, milestones, whatever you want to call them. What are the key big steps that tell you this idea can to gain forward momentum? So you need to figure out what those are and you need to have a plan over the next months and you need to plan. That's not only milestone, but that's a timing aspect of it.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:24:56,110 ] And then you hold your own, feet to the fire. And that, by the way, is super hard to do. That's why I have failed in the past, and that's why you have an advisory board, as we talked about, but also maybe a personal advisory board. And a personal advisory board are people that know you, that know you, love you, want to support you in what you're doing. They may not have equity interest in what you're doing, but they will. Someone that you can say, 'Here's my plan, here's what I want to do.' And when those milestones come, they're not going to let you sort of wiggle your way out of saying, 'You know what, that customer deal is just around the corner.' I know I'm going to close it in a few more months. And I'm telling you this because this is exactly what I did. I had customers in the palm of my hand for one month, two months, and then a year and a half. And then they ended up not closing. And that is a perpetual and common risk that you face at the early stage. So I'm sorry I'm belaboring this a little bit, but this idea of planned milestones and holding your feet to the fire. And that's not to say that you pull the plug when you get to a milestone that you didn't hit, but that is to say that you bring the people that [that promise] to hold your feet to the fire that have their own expertise and can say, 'Why are you not on track?' Um, this is something that we can get back on track in a reasonable form and it's the right idea to try to get back on track, or do we need to be on another track? One of the conclusions is maybe it's the time to pull the plug. But that's something that's very difficult to do alone. So you have to have other people that you can rely on to hold your feet to the fire in that way. And keep you honest, because this is why you will be a successful entrepreneur— is because you have that unfettered optimism to say, 'I'm going to make it happen and that customer is going to come through that door and I'm going to make it happen. That's the will that you bring to the table, but that also adds a little bit of blinder.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:26:38,700 ] Yeah, and I'll, you know, Jody Allison, I'm going to close out with a similar question, so no need to chime in on that one.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:26:45,100 ] I spoke too much already on that one.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:26:47,200 ] But you can see the enthusiasm right on this, right? It's, you know, trying to figure out where you are is really difficult, and so it's something where... You know, I think. At the beginning of the process you think, 'I'm gonna get started' and then it's gonna be all good. The middle of the process still takes some management as well, right? So maybe let's talk about the end of the process of, you know, maybe some tactical hints on, you know, you've done all this work and what does it really take to close? What does it feel like? And how do you know you're close to closing? One of the hard things I always, it frustrates me as an entrepreneur when people say, 'Sure, let me know when you have a lead and we're happy to participate,' which everybody hears at some point. You know, maybe Allison and then Jody, you know, maybe sort of speak to a little bit about. What do you see when, you know, maybe some tactical hints about closing and how to get people across the finish line?
Allison Byers
[ 00:27:42,180 ] Sure, I'm going to give a very Allison answer to this.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:27:46,730 ] That's what I hope.
Allison Byers
[ 00:27:47,360 ] The concept of closing also means that you plan to run a somewhat traditional round, right? Where you're setting out to raise a certain amount in a certain amount of time. It's usually referred to more as venture or maybe angel groups or a larger amount of angels. There's no rule that says you have to do that.
Allison Byers
[ 00:28:09,090 ] I'll give you an example even of Scroobius. I've raised over a million on an open safe note for five years from aligned angels and impact investors and I've said no to venture capital. That's how I want to run it. It's sustainable for me and it's what I want to do based on my learnings from my first company where I did things the traditional way.
Allison Byers
[ 00:28:27,390 ] You can do what you want to do. It doesn't have to follow the textbook you're reading, and you don't have to close, and you don't need a lead. That lead is a very specific thing, mainly because someone is going to do all the diligence on you and other people want to follow because they don't want to do all the diligence. That's really what it means. But if you're raising from private wealth capital from the angels everywhere, you think you don't need a lead, depending on how much you're looking to raise and from who. So I do come back to understanding who are you trying to close? Who is the check you're trying to get? Because if it's a fund, that's a very different thing. and happy to well you guys can we can all talk about what it means to actually get a fund to close that's a particular process but if you're just trying to get a person to close that's different and it can happen very quickly and it varies by individual because again they're not a business where a fund
Allison Byers
[ 00:29:29,530 ] or an angel group or some kind of organization has a more structured process that you go through but even then at the end of the day, look everyone is a person and this is a relationship game whether you're talking to a GP or an investment committee or you're talking to me or anybody up here who does private investing you are talking to another person and you need to figure out from them in a very human manner. What do you need to know? What do you need to know to close this? What's holding you back? What has to happen? What has to be true? And understand the other person instead of trying to force why you think it should be true. That's not going to get somebody to feel comfortable parting with their money for whatever their motivation is in doing it. But the other thing to always keep in mind as a founder is you will be told no so much more than you will be told yes. And you also get to choose.
Allison Byers
[ 00:30:30,540 ] Don't make money if they don't invest. You get to choose who you make money for. There is a huge power imbalance in fundraising. If you identify as underrepresented in some way, and I'm happy I brought them with me. Last year at this session, someone just shouted at me, say the stats. So I brought them all, which we can do in questions if you want.
Allison Byers
[ 00:30:52,950 ] I...
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:30:53,930 ] We will have Q &A right after this.
Allison Byers
[ 00:30:55,270 ] But always know, if you are uncomfortable, if you don't want to close this person, don't. Move on to the next person. There is a ton of capital out there. It is not worth your time to fight for capital if they're not looking to invest in you.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:31:11,690 ] Well said, Allison. I might just, you know, jump in— maybe with the slightly more traditional route, although I applaud you for just recognizing that there are so many ways to think about this. And a thread I just really wanted to pull on is listening more than you talk, right? Listening to hear. What is this investor actually looking for? What does she want to gain from this? You know, is she looking just to, you know, make a 10x in? You know, two years all right, well that's gonna maybe be a little bit hard. They all want that, whatever, but if she wants to really help move the needle, because she's passionate about this industry and she has a personal connection, perhaps to ensuring that that problem is solved in a meaningful way.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:31:57,060 ] Keep that going, really. Just try to think really thoughtfully about the cues that you're getting from the investors that you're speaking to.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:32:06,460 ] As far as I can run through a little bit of the more traditional process from the side of an angel group in just a minute or less, if I can, just because that's the world that I do come from. These are individuals putting their own capital to work, as Alison referenced. They are not part of a fund. These are you know, regular people, a lot of them have been really fortunate in their lifetime to have been at a positive exit. A lot of them have had very negative exits, and they can then share a lot of what they've learned along the way. But come at it from a real position of wanting to be— a coach, a mentor, a helper. Ultimately, you know, even potentially sit on your board, sit next to you as you go through those ups and downs. But certainly, as far as um you know, these are people who want to write a check. So, as an angel group, you know, Launchpad is one of those groups that do like to lead. When you hear that phrase, as Allison indicated, it's it's one of those like, yeah, exactly. Call me when you've got a lead. Sydney, right?
Jodi Collier
[ 00:33:06,820 ] So, what does that mean? It means there is an entity of some sort that wants to step up and say we are going to put a lot of work into this to ensure that we can get this company over the finish line. And so, if a company, for example, comes to Launchpad and they pitch, and they're looking for, say, $2 million.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:33:28,890 ] This Launchpad would, at least in theory, be able to produce at least half of that round and then syndicate it to other partners who would then come in on the round. We would do our due diligence, which means... The best way to get to the end, sort of, to talk about closing, is to come in as prepared as you possibly can. Um, for the questions that you're going to get, and we know these are super early companies, and they've got a lot of unanswered questions. That's why we love them, and that's why they're going to be you know valued where they are is because there is so much risk, and there are so many unanswered questions. But as much as you can populate a data room before you get to the point where we're asking you those questions, just help yourselves by doing all of that as far in advance as you possibly can, in order to make the process smooth. And then, you know, stay open-minded. You know, for example, if you come in and say, 'I want to raise $2 million so I can do, you know, X, Y, and Z,' we've all talked about hitting milestones.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:34:29,630 ] That's the point of investing is to help you get to those milestones so that you can be more effective at growing your business and ultimately more attractive to an acquisition partner. But we might say, 'Hey, you say you want to raise two million, but you could do a whole lot with $1 million. You could do a whole lot with $750K.' As Allison said earlier, like, 'Think about: do you really need to raise and raise as little as possible because then you have the opportunity to grow into your capital, to grow into your valuation.' At a rate that's going to really make sense for you, so just to apologize, I'm sorry to ramble. Just some thoughts to consider.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:35:10,790 ] Great, so I think that's the end of our structured questions. So we tried to go through the story arc of, you know, you're thinking about raising capital, and you have your process, and now you've sort of gotten to the closing. We'd love to open it up to the audience, maybe for some questions. And I don't know if we have a microphone or something around.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:35:28,910 ] And I don't know if I'm the best selector.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:35:33,280 ] Maybe if I could have some help selecting.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:35:35,200 ] How about the gentleman, the Duke gentleman had his hand up first in the back. Okay, great, yeah. Let's start there.
SPEAKER_5
[ 00:35:43,310 ] Hello. Thank you all so much for being here. We're a young startup and we're looking at fundraising. And one thing you mentioned, Alison, is that it's very important to build a relationship with investors beforehand. Now, what I often hear is that people who raise especially first-time founders, may go to like 100 or even more venture capitalists in their efforts. So I have a little bit of trouble imagining what that's going to be like. So let's say we want to start raising early next year. How is that supposed to work to build relationships with all these people?
SPEAKER_5
[ 00:36:23,609 ] And how much effort should one put into this? Because, of course, every minute you spend building a relationship is a minute that you don't spend building the product, and so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_5
[ 00:36:35,010 ] I'm a little bit confused by that.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:36:38,200 ] Yeah, maybe I can make it a little more succinct, just because it's a super broad question. I want to make sure we get as many as possible. So maybe we pick part of that and just think about how to think about the strategy around picking who you want to go after in terms of investors.
Allison Byers
[ 00:36:54,100 ] Yeah, absolutely. Um, first you're supposed to develop genuine relationships with 100 people— it's not hard, right?
Allison Byers
[ 00:37:01,740 ] No, so the way that I like to talk about this is a lot of founders appropriately spend time building their ideal customer profile, right? Your ICP. You should have an ideal investor profile. And you should find those people. So map out for yourself, not just the fund, that's part of it as well, if you're going after venture, like you noted. But who are the general partners at these funds? And you're trying to find people who would get what you're doing, based on past investments, based on what career they had before they went into venture, where do they live, how do they understand the problem, do they talk about it publicly, build out. Your investor profile, your ideal investor profile, and go find those people and focus your time there. You're still going to get more no's than yes's. This isn't a one-to-one. You're going to get a check, but I ascribe to that and I think it is worth the time up front versus a boil-the-ocean, just go meet with as many people as possible. I did that for two years and I burned out so hard.
Allison Byers
[ 00:38:04,580 ] That was not the right strategy, at least for me. So that's my best advice.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:38:11,339 ] Maybe I'll do sections a little bit easier for me. I saw your hand in the box.
SPEAKER_9
[ 00:38:19,920 ] I'm wondering, Jody, and each of you could comment on this, and that is that I come from the view of the a little bit opposite what you mentioned, Judy, which is, you know, figure out how much you have to raise and you don't have to usually raise as much as you think. That is, you usually have to raise a lot more than you think. The capital is going to burn a lot faster, and then you're going to be back out on the street trying to raise capital and realize, oh my God, this is crazy.
SPEAKER_9
[ 00:38:47,610 ] So, can you talk a little bit about... How?
SPEAKER_9
[ 00:38:52,220 ] You probably need to raise a lot more. Number one. And if you do, you're going to target different people for that.
SPEAKER_9
[ 00:39:02,060 ] And then...
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:39:03,580 ] If you're, um, maybe we can stick with that one just so we can get as many questions as well.
SPEAKER_9
[ 00:39:08,310 ] This one goes to it, though. If you're going to raise more, it's a little counterintuitive or paradoxical. Oftentimes, you can raise more and get a better valuation.
SPEAKER_9
[ 00:39:17,990 ] Then, when you raise less, you're getting more money. For a better valuation.
SPEAKER_9
[ 00:39:24,450 ] Then... the less.
SPEAKER_9
[ 00:39:27,190 ] I had to add that in there.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:39:30,950 ] Absolutely. So, I mean, listen, your question, your point is well taken. And yes, certainly over the course of building the company, you're gonna need to raise, you're probably gonna need to raise, you know, several times, okay? But I just think it's important that people think about a tranche of capital. That is bite-sized, at least for their very first raise, if that's kind of the context of what we're talking about in this particular session, so that you can do the things that you say you're going to do without having given up too much of your own.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:40:08,460 ] What you are going to either have to pay back if it's dead or giving up as far as equity. I think it's important that you give yourself enough space so that you can come back, and whether it's coming back to the same entity or to other entities.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:40:22,960 ] find important at Launchpad is syndicating with a lot of other groups and individual angels or family offices during that time of that first raise, getting a bunch of people into the pool so that they're hearing the story, they care about it, they're investors, then they're more likely. to participate in a follow-on round when the when the investor, I mean, when the, um, when the CEO inevitably comes back for capital, it's generally 12 to 18 months after that first round, so you're not always in a fundraising mode i mean it's it's hard because it is something that's going to be top of mind but you want to be able to take that initial capital go back and turn it into you know, really important things that are going to grow your company. But we understand that companies are often going to come back, whether it's to the angel groups or, you know, at some points they are going to go on to different stages, to venture groups, private equity, etc. But um, you know, for what we are, what we're thinking about, you're right, is that they're going to need more. But I worry about people taking too much rather than too little personally from my observations.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:41:28,570 ] But I would share it with you guys.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:41:34,470 ] I'll just say quickly that oftentimes, you know, rule of thumb, you're right, is that you often run out of money and it's difficult to make your milestone and your plan match the funding you raise. So that's often the case, which means you run out of money. But this is a very tricky... Question to answer because you, you, fundamentally, it's very expensive money, even if your rounds oversubscribe, that means you're still taking more you know more of the shirt off your back uh in your current round. So it's very expensive. So this is why oftentimes entrepreneurs make that sort of if you want to call it a mistake— which is, they take too little money and it doesn't get them, and they end up in not perpetual, but oftentimes you barely get a breath before you have to raise your next round. But you do that to preserve as much ownership and control of your company.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:42:24,120 ] That's not really an answer to your question, but that's the reason why you want to be very careful about taking too much also.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:42:30,689 ] It's actually over here. I think he had his hand up first.
SPEAKER_7
[ 00:42:37,590 ] Yeah. So I think there's kind of something on address. So basically, let's, especially with the advancement in, you know, with everything getting into, everything being integrated with AI. I'm just taking this example because I'm in that space now where it's integrating AI with a legacy business, with a legacy process or a legacy model. Now the thing is, there are investors investing in, you know, for example, business process consulting, right? Your business process consulting firms and their investors who are investing in AI. Now, you know, they're not mixing, right? So... And all of them are saying, 'Okay, we don't know how this works.' We need at least 10 customers for us to believe that we can invest in you. As a first-time founder, how do you navigate in such kind of a scenario?
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:43:37,549 ] And could you address it to maybe one of the panelists?
SPEAKER_7
[ 00:43:41,170 ] I'll... I'll... Jodi...
Jodi Collier
[ 00:43:46,880 ] Well, is the question about being risky? Yeah, I'm not sure I understand it clearly enough.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:43:52,250 ] May I just, maybe a quick report? We do, you know, obviously in an engineering school where we have a computer science department, we do a lot of a play. Applied AI ideas you know. What I'll say is that, um, maybe I think old school about this, but candidly, nothing has changed. The by the way, the time where if you use the word 'AI' in your pitch deck, you've got funding that's gone right. So we're past that. There's always at the cusp of the wave, a little bit of that, you know, fanaticism where everybody just wants to jump in because nobody understands it. But I think we're past that now. So you're not gonna get funding just because you're clever enough to use the term 'AI' in what you do. So let's start there, but then what does that mean? To your question, that means that the fundamentals haven't changed. It is that if you don't really understand the problem you're solving and how you connect, you know what is your go-to-market. How do you plug something into an environment today? If you're dramatically protocols and you're adding a lot more steps, or you're adding another system on top of what is there, or the agentic aspect of what you're doing is very clunky or difficult to engage with in an environment. These are old-school problems that mean you're not going to get adoption.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:44:55,470 ] So I think you really don't need to think about these things dramatically different than we have before. We have the same fundamentals to apply to. These new AI concepts. And you just have to be very clear about how they fit in. But the challenge with AI is you're going to have to also convince your customer, because in this world, I think it's still not clear to most of us which is how do I protect myself from the downside of having an agent play an active role, and where do you draw the line, and how do you have safeguards so it's that kind of aspect which is you're gonna have to convince that you can have impact with control.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:45:28,160 ] And that doesn't change.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:45:31,080 ] All right, maybe middle section. In the back.
SPEAKER_8
[ 00:45:38,820 ] Thank you all for for being here and presenting today. Jody, you did mention earlier about how first-time founders should prepare themselves to answer questions about themselves and their startups. I was wondering if you could give us a few examples of some questions that investors should be prepared for. Founders should be prepared for. Or what areas about their startup or themselves that they should be prepared to answer questions about.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:46:07,560 ] Sure. You know, briefly, we're looking for sort of why this, why you, why now, okay? So, you know, that's, I would say, the crux of it. And that's going to get our attention. If you can have clarity and crispness around why you are uniquely able to solve for a real problem. That people are clamoring for an answer to. That is going to be really, at the end of the day, what we're looking for. There's a lot of questions behind it, and I know Allison does an excellent job at Scroobius of helping you think through the questions that are going to be part of creating a deck that is going to be sensible, but yeah.
Allison Byers
[ 00:46:50,210 ] Yeah, I mean, whenever you're pitching or seeking investment funding, the investor who's coming in at an early stage, we're talking about early stage raising, which is the most risky, is that it is all about risk. So almost any question you're going to get is... Aimed at removing risk from the investment opportunity, so the more that you can come into it with your story constantly mitigating risk— that what you're going to do is going to work, if you get the capital required to make it so, will lead to a more effective meeting and conversation.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:47:26,100 ] Maybe from this section. In the back.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:47:32,630 ] So I just want to say thank you to all of you because I'm not a first-time founder, and some of the tidbits are like, 'Yes, I wish someone told me this when I started building years ago.' And it goes back to what Allison said, just to reconfirm the new startup that I'm co-founding with my co-founder in London. We got investment from a female investor who's Gen Z and who's in Italy, and everyone is an angel investor. And once you like get that in your head, you understand it's actually not a waste of time to relationship build a relationship. Because they literally carry your company forward. And I think angel funds, like I really. That is really the ideal space when you're in pre-seed to have those relationships, but really, angel investors can move your idea along and I can't emphasize that enough. Like it's such a critical thing and so I'm so happy that you're telling first-time founders that because you think you have to do this structure, and like Y Combinator and all these videos that teach you these things, but actually, what you realize that your angel investor is your network. Your family and friends and some of your former colleagues and just have a lot of conversations because you just don't know. And I think what's exciting is I'm seeing a lot of Gen Z investing.
SPEAKER_6
[ 00:48:34,650 ] I'm going to see a lot more women investing. Why? Because a lot of money is now transferring. Wealth is transferring to women now and it's also transferring to Gen Z. So don't don't think Gen Z's can invest because actually. Our first investor is female and she's a Gen Z because she had a ton of cash and she's like, 'I want to be an angel investor. I want to get into this world early.' So it's like a super exciting time. So thank you for the tidbits.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:48:56,130 ] They're here.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:48:57,750 ] All right, so now I'll just pick randomly, which is a little more challenging. Right here in the front. Yeah.
SPEAKER_10
[ 00:49:11,990 ] Hi, great talk and actually kind of sidelining with that question, Alison, as you mentioned, there's kind of unique challenges being a female founder, you know, being a minority founder myself, kind of navigating that space. Could you talk maybe about maybe tips and tricks on how to sort of navigate those challenges.
Allison Byers
[ 00:49:30,420 ] I'll try to be limited and give some.
Allison Byers
[ 00:49:35,900 ] For anyone who knows me, I talk a lot about this and I put out a lot of content about the distribution of capital. And when we look at venture capital in particular, women nationally in the first half of 2025 got 0. 8% of venture capital dollars.
Allison Byers
[ 00:49:55,920 ] It's not just inequitable. And I say that not to discourage people. You can raise venture, but you should know what you're going into. Your eyes open. I did not know at my last company I didn't know any of this, and that's why I went on the journey. I did to figure it out, and why I'm doing what I do now to be informed. There are a lot of things that you can be aware of and help when you're out there. Raise that again. I didn't know how bias shows up. Because it's not that every GP is out there nefarious, saying like, 'Let's invite women in and shoot them down you know. It's not like that.
Allison Byers
[ 00:50:33,630 ] But there is this systemic bias. The majority of general partners are white men. And we, as humans, inherently see people who are like us less risky. That is a major reason for the imbalance. So if you go into these meetings, and you can start picking up on things, there's some common stuff like prevention versus promotion questions.
Allison Byers
[ 00:50:57,120 ] Where women are overwhelmingly asked prevention questions. Like why won't a competitor just come in and squash you? Why this? How are you going to do that? And it makes you on a defense. of position which equates to dollars lost in investment if you can identify. I'm being asked a prevention question right now. I'm going to rephrase it and answer in the promotive huge difference in the tone of that meeting and your ability to develop that relationship.
Allison Byers
[ 00:51:24,900 ] I mean, there's a lot of other things I can talk to, but this is also why I am so bullish on the private wealth capital class, because it is a much more diverse class. According to the latest research, 47% of angel investors are women. And I think it was 47% of angel. Checks were written to women. It's almost like a one-to-one research out of New Hampshire, University of New Hampshire. Um. But it's really considering the capital you need— who you're going to for that capital and being able to say to yourself, 'I'm also going to vet the investor so if it is venture, ask them. When was the last time that you did fund an all-women founding team and what was the size of that check? And if it's never, maybe. Don't try to be the first.
Allison Byers
[ 00:52:11,130 ] So you evaluate where you're going as well.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:52:16,520 ] OK, so maybe one more question, and then we'll do a rapid fire wrap up, just so you all are thinking about it.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:52:23,960 ] Sure.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:52:26,220 ] It's a good sell.
SPEAKER_11
[ 00:52:30,830 ] That's my pitch.
SPEAKER_11
[ 00:52:32,550 ] I don't know.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:52:32,820 ] Thank you. It's an effective pitch.
SPEAKER_11
[ 00:52:34,110 ] Thank you. And on the Board of Advisors, should there be an investment?
Allison Byers
[ 00:52:40,430 ] For your advisory board? Yes.
Allison Byers
[ 00:52:43,200 ] I mean, I'll let everybody else answer. I personally don't like if someone requires that they are an official advisor if they invest in you. I think that they are two different things.
SPEAKER_11
[ 00:52:53,400 ] No, if they're not investing in you, I'm just specifying. If they're not investing in you, just be an advisor.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:52:58,770 ] That, to me, I think that's very important. Absolutely. I mean, I think, then, they are, they, they. They are truly in it to help you. They're not in it for their own gain.
Allison Byers
[ 00:53:08,530 ] Well, they're in it for their equity, paid price— something later on. But if someone invests in you, they should be your advisor anyway, right? Like if they invest in you, they should. The same function, because they're financially motivated to have your company succeed. So why do they also need to be an advisor? That should be reserved for people, again, who have the functional expertise that you need.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:53:30,730 ] Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, and I would, yeah, I would say the way, yeah, exactly. I mean, if they're already investing in you, they're already an advisor of yours, right? So typically, the way to think about the advisory board is somebody who's a non-equity person, you know, who might give you additional people on top of that, so.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:53:45,620 ] But by the way, make sure you do that with intention. In other words, make sure there is a reason and purpose and value creating effort down the road why that person should be an advisor. So it should be your decision— really what I'm saying. And you make that decision based on the needs of your startup.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:54:01,600 ] You with me? Yeah.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:54:04,300 ] All right, so that rapid fire close out, I promised. Maybe we'll go in order. So maybe Allison, Paul, and Jody— just a couple seconds on takeaways that audience, you want them to leave with as they're leaving takeaways real quick.
Allison Byers
[ 00:54:26,320 ] Okay. There's so many. I didn't think of one beforehand. Allison gets to start.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:54:30,580 ] I did give the warning before.
Allison Byers
[ 00:54:33,180 ] Fair. Okay. My takeaway is: when you are fundraising and you're in these investor meetings and you're all anxious and worked up, care less. Just care less. If they don't want to invest in you, fine. You're going to go build a successful company, find the people who want to. Try not to get in your own head and like so worked up and so anxious. Investors don't know better than you. Like you're building your company. You know what you want. Investors seem scary. You don't need anybody's money, particularly from that person. You're not a charity. You're not asking for donation. You get to pick. Care less. If the meeting's going bad, leave. And you know what? Once you start caring less, people want you more. And that was a big turning point for me.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:55:21,650 ] This is also dating advice, by the way. You came to the right place.
Allison Byers
[ 00:55:27,730 ] Thank you.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:55:29,200 ] That's what you're doing is dating. Listen that that's absolutely right on, and you said this earlier by the way. Is that um, you know, many of you may have may not be accustomed to hearing 'no' all the time. You will hear 'no' chronically, and it can be very demoralizing. You've heard about sort of mental health and behavioral health issues when it comes to startup founders, because it and those are real and largely because you encounter challenge after challenge after challenge. That's why you are in this role and seat. But it's tough and don't diminish that fact. I think this this is one way to also So keep an eye on yourself, which is put a little bit of shield there. This is a no. This is not the right fit in the right angle. You've got to figure out how to make the right fit and incrementally improve what you're doing. So you find the right fit. Maybe the one thing that I'll say is that, and again, maybe a little bit of my background and bias, but what you're doing, we believe with AI that AI is going to create the first unicorn single founder. Maybe so, but I think those kinds of ideas, we believe in doing things that have big impact.
Paul Hayre
[ 00:56:30,010 ] And if you're going to have big impact, and the ideas that you're pioneering— if you're here— I'm sure you are thinking about how you want to have big impact. And it's hard to do as a solo founder. So I think... We've talked about this in so many different ways. We talked about how you bring on co-founders, how you expand your team, how you bring advisors, but the idea is that you need to sort of build your body— your bolus of of support and advisory, and just people you can turn to when you uh need to. Have a have that conversation. Maybe it is, you know, so that you don't and someone can remind you of that. But this is an important thing: is figuring out how you bring the right ingredients to the table, and there are many flavors of it, whether that's a co-founder and, you know, feel obligated that it has to fit in one particular role, but you need to have a team of people that help you get your ideas out. That's essential to being the most successful startups to really have that element early on.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:57:25,330 ] You guys have spoken so beautifully and it's been fun to be on this panel and to meet all of you. So I'm grateful to everyone for being here and to being with with both of you. I guess I would end on the thought around due diligence. What are we looking for in due diligence? What are you looking for when you do diligence us? Make sure you are really, you know, I think several of us talked today about staying accountable, staying authentic, and really thinking about what I'm doing, why do I need to raise money, do I need to raise money, of course being the first question. But continue to explore. Am I talking to the right people? Are they the right fit for me? You should be calling references on us as much as we are. Calling references on you and so I think that is— you know— I think it's really important you learn a lot from the small things too. You learn a lot in the the little interactions with the investors how they treat you. It should be with absolute respect and honoring your time.
Jodi Collier
[ 00:58:26,130 ] So really just keep your eyes open as you are doing due diligence and being diligent.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 00:58:32,700 ] Love it. Amazing. Well, thank you. I'll turn it back over.
Linda Brown
[ 00:58:38,990 ] A huge thanks to our panelists. Thank you.
Linda Brown
[ 00:58:45,350 ] Yes, I just love the diversity that we've seen across the day today and just had such amazing panelists and I really appreciate. Your wisdom and I— and I think, in several of the sessions today, we've heard of sort of the human factor of things, taking care of yourself, and how you raise funds, making sure that it's the right fit. We heard more of that earlier when it came to, I can't remember, the term sheet and stuff like that, thinking about how you're going to do your cliffs and your options, and, you know, what's the human part of that? I think it's easy to forget. So for me, that's been a great part of today. I do want to make sure that I let you know that I will ask you all even more forcefully after this session to get out of the room because we are going to convert this room into a cocktail party space. So, if you'll come back and join us at 6:30, we have an event sponsored by HP and NVIDIA.
Linda Brown
[ 00:59:52,350 ] And that'll be a lot more mingling, having those conversations, getting to know people as a human. In the meantime, while this is being set up, there are... Lot of congregation points here on the first floor, but also, if you go up to the fifth floor, it's just a great space to find little pockets of people to chat with. So, if you're sticking around, you're just looking how you're gonna kill the time while we get set up. The fifth floor is my favorite place, so that's probably where I'll end up. Ummm... What else did I want to say?
Linda Brown
[ 01:00:27,180 ] I noticed there were a lot of questions coming through on Slack about the startup showcase that's happening on Friday. That is a first come, first serve kind of thing. So you will have to line up on Friday morning to get your spot in the showcase. So, um, I will have to double check.
Linda Brown
[ 01:00:51,000 ] No, I want to—I want to say it's like seven though. I'll see if I can uh find out the exact time. People came very early last year, though I will say— but um. Watch on Slack for more information, or if you come up to me afterwards, I'll dig through Slack and give you the right information.
Linda Brown
[ 01:01:08,510 ] Don't forget, Kevin Tai has... the photographer. If you can get a moment of his time, you'll get like text every time you're spotted in a picture that's being taken over the course of the event, which is really cool. Ummm... And I think that's it. I will see you at the next session tomorrow, hopefully at the cocktail party tonight. And thank you again to our panelists. Great job.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 01:01:38,520 ] Thank you, this was fun.
Linda Brown
[ 01:01:39,320 ] Yeah, thank you. I'm going to run soon. Hi.
Sidney McLaurin
[ 01:01:42,200 ] It was awesome to sit with you.
