Why Build a Financial Forecast

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Startups should build a financial forecast for their business.

Even if the future is uncertain and all the data is not known, it's still important to build one.

Here are the reasons why:

It validates the founder's hypothesis.

A founder should have a hypothesis about the business.

A financial projection helps determine its feasibility.

It also determines how much funding to raise.

The financial forecast shows the cost to start and run a business.

The fundraise amount is a key component of the plan.

It communicates the plan to investors.

The investors want to know what the founder is thinking about the business.

This includes the growth rate of revenue, the size of the team, and the cost of doing business.

It demonstrates the business can become profitable and scalable.

The financial forecast also shows when the business will become profitable and how much money could be generated by it.

Founders should include a slide in the deck for the five-year financial forecast.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let's go startup something today.

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Be Founder-Friendly To Gain More Dealflow

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Founders live in the center of the startup world and thus see many companies raising funding.

A startup investor will do well to tap into the knowledge of founders about other startups raising funding.

An investor who treats founders well will find they are often amenable to making referrals.

Here are some key steps on how to be founder-friendly.

Be timely with founders' requests for information such as signed term sheets and invested funds.

Make life easier on the founder, as they have plenty of other investors who will end up taking their time for special questions and unique situations.

Follow up investor updates with helpful information and words of encouragement.

As often as possible, try to help with founder asks including introductions.

Update the founder on what you are looking for in startups.

Ask for introductions to other founders where they fit the investment criteria.

Develop an expertise or skill that founders need and build a reputation for providing some level of it at no cost to founders.

This will give founders an easy way to introduce the investor to other startups.

Consider these steps for being founder-friendly.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let's go startup something today.

_______________________________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

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Founderflow vs Dealflow

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Startup investors spend their day looking for quality deals.

There are business plan competitions, demo days, and other formats where founders pitch.

Then there's warm introductions and referrals.

The quality of these deals tends to be higher.

Most investors don't take time to refer a low-quality deal.

Instead of looking for dealflow, search for founders

Look for successful founders and track their progress.

Here are several reasons to track founders:

They often know how to find good ideas for startups.

They know other founders who have found a good idea and are now raising funding.

They can help screen startups raising funding with more incisive questions.

They can help coach funded startups in the investors' portfolio.

They often know where to find quality deals.

They can make referrals to the ones that pass muster.

Build a network of experienced founders and check in with them often.

This is called Founderflow.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let's go startup something today.

_______________________________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
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How To Qualify an Investor for Your Startup

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Founders searching for investors need to qualify the investors for their deal.

Here are key questions to ask an investor before pursuing your fundraise:

Are they currently investing?

What was the most recent investment made?

How many of your funded companies achieved an exit?

How many of those exits were positive?

Do you make follow-on investments?

Do you lead fundraising rounds or only follow?

What operating experience do you have?

What do their portfolio companies say about the investor?

In most cases, the investor's money will be helpful.

The purpose of diligence is to understand what position the investor will take in the round.

In some cases, it's best to look elsewhere.

Consider these questions for qualifying an investor for your startup.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let's go startup something today.

_______________________________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
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Investing in Climate Tech

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Climate Tech is an up-and-coming investment opportunity.

Here are the sectors, benefits, and risks.

The key sectors include the following:

Renewable energy such as solar, wind, and geothermal.

Carbon capture for capturing, storing, and utilizing carbon emissions.

Sustainable transport such as electric vehicles.

Smart agriculture such as vertical farming.

The benefits of investing include substantial subsidies from the government.

Also, the application is worldwide and will last a long time.

The risks include the following:

Many technologies are nascent and will ultimately fail.

Regulatory rules will come into play and may hamper business growth.

The timeframe for a return is in the long term if not very long term.

Look for technologies intersecting with green initiatives for opportunities.

Consider these sectors, benefits, and risks in your climate tech investing.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let's go startup something today.

_________________________________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

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For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
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On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Jake Ryan, Founder and Chief Investment Officer at Tradecraft Capital, a digital asset management firm focused on cryptocurrency, blockchain, and emerging technologies. Jake shares how he moved from software engineering and artificial intelligence into digital assets after early angel investing in a blockchain company and buying his first Bitcoin in 2016, and how his tech background helps him assess long-term project defensibility.

He explains Tradecraft's evolution from programmatic discretionary trading to more automated, quantitative trend-following strategies that can go long or short in a 24/7, highly correlated market. Jake discusses what traditional investors misunderstand about crypto adoption and regulation, how he thinks about valuation using revenue-based models and on-chain activity metrics, and his "age of autonomy" framework combining IoT, AI, robotics, and blockchain. He also covers volatility management through position sizing and multi-year duration, the rise of stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets.

Visit Tradecraft Capital LLC at www.tradecraft.capital/

Reach out to at www.linkedin.com/in/jakeryan/, and on x.com/TradecraftJake

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For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

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How to Diligence an AI Startup

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Artificial intelligence companies bring new challenges to the diligence process.

Here are the key steps to diligence an AI startup:

Does the AI startup have a clearly defined market that needs the product?

How competitive is the startup over other providers?

How well does the product fit the customer's needs?

Does the company have a clear growth strategy?

What type of data does it need, and can it find enough to meet the growth goals?

How does the customer of the product use the output?

How does one ensure the quality of the output?

Can the business be built on a data-driven approach?

Does the AI learn from its own processing, thus improving the model with more data?

Can the product build new use cases and thus open up new market opportunities?

What metrics does it use to check performance?

Does the system require a human to be involved?

What is the cost of this step?

Does the team have the necessary AI skills to build and run an AI-based product?

Does the team require outside expertise? Can they find it?

Consider these questions in diligencing an AI startup

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let's go startup something today.

_________________________________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/
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Technical Due Diligence

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Investing in startups requires due diligence.

In addition to financial diligence, an investor should consider technical due diligence.

Here are the key areas to review for technical due diligence:

Scientific risk.

This is the risk in deep tech startups that comes from basic science.

Look for startups that have de-risked science.

Technical risk.

This is the risk that comes from designing the product.

Look for a clear plan on what to build.

Check the skills of the team to see that they can build it.

Manufacturing risk.

This is the risk that comes from building the product.

Look for a plan for sourcing materials and components.

Check the requirements for producing the product.

Ecosystem risk.

This is the risk that comes from the product needing a specific environment in which to succeed.

Check the requirements for the product to operate in.

IP risk.

This is the risk that comes from a competitor's ability to copy the product.

Look for patent coverage that provides a strong defense.

Check these elements when running a technical due diligence on a startup.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let's go startup something today.

_________________________________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/
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