seedfunders

This long Covid pandemic not only reshuffled the deck for many of us, it flung the deck up into the air and torched it like one of those fire breathers at the circus. But it's long been known that game changing societal events bring game changing opportunity. Accordingly the last year saw startups thrive, hibernate and throw in the towel. In this episode Dave runs us through the Seedfunders portfolio, and startup investments in general, to see who has built up an immunity and who had to get a note from their doctor.

The Yogi-isms could not be contained to one episode, so we made it a double header. In today's episode, we continue studying the unintentional startup wisdom contained in Yogi's cryptic quotes.

In episode 23, Dave walks us through his professional journey. From the steel mills of Pennsylvania he emerged as an unlikely founder, and ultimately became a hero in the Florida startup ecosystem. He's experienced the highs and lows of building, funding and exiting companies, and has been highly adaptable as times have changed. Second best of all, he's willing to share his hard gained insight with us. Best of all, you get that wisdom packaged so that it goes directly into the deepest part of your brain. A place that only the Dave top ten list can reach.

Have you ever been all dressed up with no place to go? That's a common scenario for startups in today's distracted world. Founders, who are often experts on their product or service, learn quickly that a great concept and a strong team aren't enough to get their beautiful company to profitability. The hard part is getting anyone to notice. In this episode, we explore some of the commonly held axioms of marketing and see how they apply to 2021 startups.

Startups fail. The startup road is littered with the carca.....and...swirling above there are vult...well - I'll spare your gory analogy. Let's just say if you're walking that road, wear your Wellingtons because it's inevitable you'll step in some startup. While we know some startups will fail, that does make us any less determined to make sure the ones we're invested in don't become the bad statistic. That means understanding why it happens. In this episode Dave brings studies and lists and is his best comprehensive self in examining why startups fail - and how Seedfunders uses that knowledge to support its portfolio companies.

There's a lot riding on cap tables. They, in theory, tell us who owns what equity in a company.  But not all cap tables are created equal.  Some show only issued shares, but not option pools or unissued shares.  Some don't include the soon-to-be shares in convertible notes.  Opinions vary on the correct format, so it's important to understand what to look for.  That's exactly what you'll be able to do after listening to this episode of the Seedfunders podcast.

Seedfunders reviews hundreds of startups a year and one of the first things we look at is the number of founders. We typically use three buckets: Solo founders, teams of 2 or 3, and 4 plus. In this episode Dave shares which bucket he prefers as well as many other factors he considers important about founding teams.

For episode 10 of the Seedfunders Podcast, we turn our attention to Seedfunders itself. Dave lays out the SF investment thesis and how that thesis is activated by the partners. You'll hear some familiar terms and see how they specifically map to Seedfunders investments. Most importantly, you'll hear how Seedfunders partners value lifting up our community just as much as making a good return.

Diversity is a well trodden subject in investment content. Stocks and bonds, or bonds an stocks? The traditional answers explain diversity within these two classes. But what about our favorite asset class - the startup asset class? In this episode, Dave share his insight on how startups play an important role in a truly diversified portfolio.

Episode 3 delivers a deep dive into angel groups. Pooling resources and working together has some expected and unexpected benefits. Dave explains each of the key considerations and how angel groups deliver value to investors. We also profile the different operating structures that angel groups employ to cover operating costs.