1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Shomit Ghose of Onset Ventures (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping course and the Investor Introductions page.

We are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Shomit Ghose was recorded in December 2014.

Shomit Ghose, Partner at Onset Ventures, is also a veteran startup executive with multiple IPOs under his belt. He highlights the fact that 70,000 ventures received angel funding in 2014, but the number of companies receiving venture funding remains constant year over year at about 1,000 per year. Focusing on building value is of paramount importance, so that you can validate and prove your value proposition. >>>

3 Seed Investors Discuss European Startup Trends In Podcasts

In The Next European Renaissance,  I explored how Europe’s enthusiasm for culture combined with the enabling technology of today creates a good platform for generating new and important ideas. Then I shared advice and inspiration from a group of successful European entrepreneurs in 8 Founder Podcasts Discuss Building Startups in Europe. Now, for entrepreneurs interested in financing their startups, especially those based in Europe, I’m sharing the perspectives of three seed investors currently active in Europe. In these 30-minute podcast interviews, we thoroughly discuss the size of their investments, preferences, and the European startup trends they see in their dealflow.

Alastair Mitchell, Partner at EQT Ventures, talks about the European startup funding trends.

Hussain Kanji, Partner at Hoxton Ventures, is based in London and the primary focus is on European ventures.

Cem Sertoglu is Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, based in Turkey. Cem brings the spotlight on Turkey and the Eastern and Central European startup eco-systems.

384th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Gaurav Jain, Afore Capital

Gaurav Jain is Managing Partner at Afore Capital, a firm focused on pre-seed investments. This is an excellent conversation for entrepreneurs looking for insights into pre-seed.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Victoria Pettibone of Astia Angels (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: In some cases if you can exit your company without needing a Series A, that is not a bad way to mitigate the Series A gap.

Victoria Pettibone: Yes. Your angels are going to be happy for the most part. Even though it’s a short turnaround time, they will not have been diluted.

Sramana Mitra: So far, we’ve been talking about companies that operate in a more capital efficient mode. The other side of the coin is this unicorn mania, where there’s so much capital flowing into companies. >>>

221st 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Andrew Romans, Rubicon Venture Capital

Andrew Romans is General Partner of Rubicon Venture Capital. Our discussion includes an interesting segment on ICOs.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Victoria Pettibone of Astia Angels (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about what you have invested in in your current portfolio. Maybe even exits. You talked about a couple of exits this year. One of them was an IT company.

Victoria Pettibone: The two exits are both public. One was Ciel Medical which exited to Vyaire Medical. The other was Cloudamize, which exited to a Blackstone portfolio company. Both were very good exits. They are not disclosing numbers on either of them, but our investors were happy. Both of those exits happened within two years of our investors investing in them.

Sramana Mitra: They didn’t have venture money in the company. They were pure angel-funded companies that straight away exited? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Victoria Pettibone of Astia Angels (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s discuss stage. The early stage investment has become quite complex. It used to be seed and Series A. Now it’s pre-seed, seed, post-seed, and pre-Series A.

Victoria Pettibone: It’s true. There are no rules anymore. Like everything we do, we invest at every stage. However, most of the investments end up at late seed or Series A – certainly past the friends and family round. We do convertible notes. It could be that first round before the first equity raise.

Sramana Mitra: What metrics are you looking for? Are you looking for revenues? Are you looking for customer validation but not necessarily revenue? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Victoria Pettibone of Astia Angels (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Victoria Pettibone was recorded in October 2017. Victoria Pettibone, Managing Director of Astia Angels, a group focused on funding women entrepreneurs. She discusses what they like to invest in, as well as the trends she sees in the deal flow and the portfolio.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about Astia Angels. What are you doing? What is the focus of the group? What size investments are you making?

Victoria Pettibone: Astia is an organization >>>