How I Raised It - The podcast where we interview startup founders who raised capital.
Foundersuite.com - software for raising capital
Produced by Foundersuite.com, makers of the leading software stack for raising capital: Investor CRM + VC/Angel database + Pitch Deck Hosting + Investor Update tools. Used by startups to raise > $2.5 Billion.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 6, 2021 • 30min
Ep. 177 How I Raised It with Michael Bloch of Pillar
Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Michael Bloch of Pillar Life (www.pillarlife.com), an online platform to store, organize, and share information with your family.
In this episode, Michael talks about how he used cold emails and persistence to land his first angel investors, how he got Kleiner Perkins to lead his seed round, and how (and why) he completely pivoted his business when COVID19 hit.
The company raised $6.53 million of seed funding in a deal led by Kleiner Perkins. Red Dog Capital, Day One Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Rainfall Ventures, Kairos HQ, K50 Ventures, Financial Venture Studio, Patrick Kavanagh, Adam Nash, Zachary Weinberg, Nathaniel Turner, Misha Esipov and Noah Weiss also participated in the round.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016.
Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Dec 29, 2020 • 53min
Ep. 176 How I Raised It with Brian Vallelunga of Doppler
Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Brian Vallelunga of Doppler.com a platform for managing environment variables (e.g. API keys) for developers.
In this episode, Brian talks about raising a pre-seed round from Kleiner while he was still working at Uber, applying to Y Combinator for the 6th or 7th time, pitching a long-term massive vision (even in the early days), resisting the temptation of initial offers and the search for "partners not capital," how he made his investor intros go viral, pitching Peter Thiel, the importance of managing dilution, and much more.
The Company raised raised $2.3 million in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital. Abstract Ventures, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Soma Capital, Nat Friedman, Aaron Levie, Dylan Field, Ben Porterfield, Jeremy Stoppelman, Kevin Hartz, Jeff Holden, Greg Brockman, Jeffrey Queisser and Peter Thiel also participated in the round.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016.
Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Dec 9, 2020 • 42min
Ep. 175 How I Raised It with Jonathan Siddharth of Turing.com
Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Jonathan Siddharth of Turing.com, a platform to hire the world's best remote engineers.
In this episode, Jonathan talks about how he's building the "talent cloud" of 180k global engineers, his journey from EIR at Foundation Capital to startup founder, running a serial vs. parallel fundraising process, how he plays the "long game" and cultivates relationships with VCs, and much more.
The Company raised $32 million of seed funding in a deal led by Foundation Capital on November 12, 2020. Adam D'Angelo, Cyan Banister, AltaIR Capital Ashu Garg, Beerud Sheth and other investors also participated in the round.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016.
Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Nov 19, 2020 • 32min
Ep. 174 How I Raised It with Matt Gillis of Clean.io
Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Matt Gillis of Clean.io which makes security technology that prevents "malvertising" threats.
In this episode, Matt talks about what "malvertising" is, how raising capital is an emotional process, what he did differently to raise money during COVID19, how to leverage LInkedIn effectively to generate investor leads, and much more.
The Company raised $5 million in venture funding in a deal led by Tribeca Venture Partners. Real Ventures, Inner Loop Capital and Grit Capital Partners also participated in the round.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016.
Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Nov 12, 2020 • 47min
Ep. 173 How I Raised It with Jack Conte of Patreon
Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Jack Conte of Patreon.com, a platform that allows creators to monetize their work through a direct relationship with their fans.
In this episode, Jack talks about how and why he came up with the idea for Patreon, how he turned rejections into tips for improving his pitch deck, how he uses his personal story as a key component of the pitch, the difference between raising early rounds and late stage rounds (e.g. Series B, C, D, E), and much more.
The Company has raised over $240 Million in total, and most recently raised $90 million of Series E venture funding in a deal led by New Enterprise Associates and Wellington Management. Glade Brook Capital Partners, Index Ventures, Thrive Capital, DFJ Growth and Lone Pine Capital also participated in the round.
This is #3 of 3 in our "Music Tech" series.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016.
Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Nov 3, 2020 • 35min
Ep. 172 How I Raised It with Milana Lewis of Stem.is
Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Milana Lewis of Stem.is, a platform that helps musicians distribute their music, automate splits, and get paid.
In this episode, Milana talks about how she informally socialized her deal with investors (but ran a process), what discovery questions to ask prospective investors, what her investor funnel metrics looked like, how to prioritize investor leads, and much more.
The Company most recently raised $10 million of venture funding in a deal led by Slow Ventures. Upfront Ventures, Aspect Ventures, Mark Gillespie, Baron Davis and Kevin Lee (Coach K) also participated in the round.
This is #2 of 3 this week in our "Music Tech" series.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016.
Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Nov 3, 2020 • 33min
Ep. 171 How I Raised It with Paul Wiltshire of Songtradr
Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Paul Wiltshire of Songtradr.com, a music licensing platform that helps artists and songwriters license and monetize their content.
In this episode, Paul talks about how the music industry works, why he decided to raise only what the Company needed to hit incremental milestones, his largely Australian cap table, raising capital from a family office, and more.
The Company most recently raised $30 million of Series C venture funding in a deal led by St. Baker Family Office.
This is #1 of 3 this week in our "Music Tech" series.
How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016.
Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Oct 28, 2020 • 35min
Ep. 170 How I Raised It with Justin Mast of Bloomscape
Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Justin Mast of Bloomscape.com, an online marketplace for fully grown and potted indoor plants.
In this episode, Justin talks about his family's 5 generations in the garden supply business and how he evolved it into an online company, how he bridged the gap between local Detroit investors and VCs based in San Francisco, the risks he took when he launched without the capital he needed, tactics for finding a lead investor and attracting strategic investors, and more.
The Company raised $15 million of Series B venture funding in a deal led by General Catalyst. Ludlow Ventures, Revolution, Bob Mylod, Jeffrey Boyd and John Replogle also participated in the round.
This series is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016.
Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Oct 22, 2020 • 38min
Ep. 169 How I Raised It with Ameeth Sankaran of Religion of Sports
Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Ameeth Sankaran of Religion of Sports (www.religionofsports.com) a sports media platform that produces content to explore greatness and human potential. The site features top athletes like Tom Brady ("Tom vs. Time") and Michael Strahan.
In this episode, Ameeth talks about the greatness code and flow states, turning the business from a production company into a destination site, the nuances of pitching media venture firms, why raising capital is a long-term play (and you should start building relationships in advance), the importance of "structured serendipity" and more.
The Company raised $10 million of Series A venture funding in a deal led by Elysian Park Ventures. CourtsideVC, Advancit Capital, Alexandre Icaza, Felipe Andreoli, Daniela Klabin Basilio and Marcelo Franco also participated in the round.
This series is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016.
Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com

Oct 22, 2020 • 33min
Ep. 168 How I Raised It with Rocky Collis of Mustard
Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Mustard (www.teammstrd.com) an AI sports coaching application that helps athletes improve their baseball pitching technique using machine learning. The platform is based on data from legendary pitching coach Tom House among others.
In this episode, Rocky talks about how they are taking data from 40+ years of traditional coaching techniques and turning it into AI, how he tailored hit pitch for different VCs, how he compensates his advisory board, how he made a short list of the best-fit investors, and more.
The Company raised $1.7 million of venture funding in a deal led by Shasta Ventures and Intersect VC. David Novak, Drew Brees, Nolan Ryan, Mike Dixon and Reid Ryan also participated in the round.
This series is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.5 Billion since 2016.
Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com


