Sampo Accelerator

Ah, startup fundraising. The sacred art of getting strangers to believe in your vision enough to write a check. Simple, right? Not if you’ve spent any time on LinkedIn.  “Always have a pitch deck,” says Chad Deckerson, self-proclaimed VC whisperer.   “Skip the deck, send a deal memo,” counters Karen Summary, CEO of One-Pagers R Us.   “Show the founders first, investors bet on people,” advises Tony BioSlide, who definitely knows someone who raised money once.   “No, save the team for last,” insists Dr. Idea First, author of *Decks That Close.*   “Use the YC template, it’s the gold standard,” chimes in Emily Format, serial commenter.   “No, Sequoia’s deck is the one that actually works,” argues Brad Template, who may or may not have raised a pre-seed round in 2008.  Here’s the thing: opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one, and most of the time, they stink.  The truth is, fundraising is messy and full of contradictions. There’s no one size fits all playbook because investors are people with quirks, biases, and preferences. What works for one might completely bomb with another.  Instead of chasing the perfect formula, focus on telling your story in a way that feels authentic and resonates with who you are as a founder. Investors connect with passion, clarity, and a strong narrative that reflects the unique value of your business. The only pitch that matters is the one that gets the deal done.  What’s the worst or funniest advice you’ve heard about fundraising? Let me know, I need the laugh.

I met a founder who burned all his savings—then lost his only 2 customers. “I was going to shut down”. 6 years later, he’s in 2,500 stores & $10M+ in ARR: Josh quit his investment job and started Flashfood, a grocery app that helps shoppers save money. Two years in, he’d burned all his savings. He was $40K in debt. Then his only two pilot customers cancelled. They liked the idea—but didn’t need it. "I was gonna shut down the company... I tried for 2.5 years to sell into grocery. The grocers had told me they're not gonna do this." At the last minute, he got connected to an exec at Loblaws, the largest retailer in Canada. They tried it in 3 stores— then they went all in. "We went from 3 stores to 400 over a span of six weeks." A year later, Flashfood hit $1.5M ARR. They raised a seed round from General Catalyst. Today, they're in 2,500 stores. They’ve helped shoppers save $250M+ on groceries. It sounds like luck— but it isn’t. As a founder you take many meetings that lead to nothing. You hold on for much longer than you probably should. You do things most would consider irrational, unreasonable, or even insane. Josh once drove 4 hours to a meeting that lasted just 10 minutes. The customer he got from that meeting ended up churning. It seemed like a total waste of time. Then that customer made an important introduction— one that literally saved the company: He got Loblaws involved. /// Listen to the full story on The Product Market Fit Show #startups #venturecapital #founders

New data for founders: how much of your company will you own after each round of venture fundraising? Also known as the single most frequent question I get asked 😁 This is a question worthy of a deep dive - so we built a 20 chart report with answers like: 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 • Number of founders per founding team • How VCs prefer teams with cofounders • How likely your cofounder is to leave 𝗜𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘀 • Do founders split 50/50? • Ownership at the start for the non-CEO founders • Splits by industry and incorporation year 𝗢𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 • How much equity does the founding team hold after each round? • How has that percentage shifted in recent years? • Splits by physical vs digital startups • Ownership by valuation or by cash raised • Ownership for the CEO (!) specifically And a new interactive graphic that allows the reader to see founding team ownership by stage for their specific sector. One key finding (but you need to read the full report, worth it I promise): The moment the founding team falls under 50% ownership 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 the same moment when VCs own the majority of shares thanks to the expanding employee option pool. Interesting to watch these percentages shift as questions about control are always top of mind! Read the full report for free here: https://lnkd.in/gC2Y-xfR #startups #founders #equity #ownership

I know in the first 30 seconds if I'm interested. Your investor pitch deck just got opened. The next 3 seconds will determine everything. Here's the truth: You don't have 10 minutes. You have: 1 seconds for the cover 3 seconds for first 3 slides 30 seconds if you're lucky 3 minutes if you're exceptional It's your pitch before the pitch. The 3-Second Reality Check: 1. Cover slide 2. Problem 3. Solution That's it. Make it count. Here's what makes investors instantly close your deck: ❌ Unclear problem statement ❌ Paragraphs of text ❌ Too many bullet points ❌ Marketing language to investors ❌ Hyperbolic statements ("We're disrupting everything!") 1. What actually works: - Cover Slide Magic - Clear one-line pitch - No fluff or buzz words - Professional layout - Sets the tone for everything 2. Problem Slide Power - Be concise but compelling - Show size (e.g., "40M teenagers face this") - Make it impossible to ignore - No generic statements ("Banking is broken") 3. Solution Slide Success - Match exactly to the problem - Show why you're different - Be specific, not fluffy - Demonstrate deep understanding The Hidden Truth: You're not pitching for investment in the first deck. You're pitching for the "maybe pile." That's it. There is no "yes pile" at this stage. Remember: - Simple > complex - Clarity > creativity - Evidence > promises - Numbers > adjectives Want to know if your deck works? Show it to someone for 30 seconds. If they can't repeat your pitch back to you... Start over. Drop a comment if this helped you! 🧿  #StartupAdvice  #PitchDeck  #VentureCapital  #Entrepreneurship -------------------- Follow for more startup reality checks that nobody talks about https://lnkd.in/dvj3pkNC

Founders - use this post to push back on advisors who ask for 1% of your pre-seed startup. Advisors - apologies! Some of you really are worth 1% or more to these early founders. But you gotta make the case as to why you're in the top decile of startup advisors. Resurfacing this data after a unsolicited wave of DMs on the subject, seems like a lot of companies are considering taking on advisors as we kick off the new year (which is cool). Data in the graphic reflects the full option grant % given to advisors by stage. Split into low (25th pct), medium (50th pct), high (75th pct) and super high (90th pct). And please ensure these advisors have a vesting schedule! Typically 2-years with a short cliff or you can set specific performance milestones (eg Advisor A gets 0.1% equity after they complete the following tasks for the business). #startups #advisors #advisorequity #preseed Big report on early-stage cofounder equity due out on Jan 21st - get your copy here: https://lnkd.in/gC2Y-xfR

Startup CEOs are often asked about traction by VCs. What can you learn from their question and your answer? Here are three thoughts, plus a tip. 1. DEALS = RELATIONSHIPS. VC investments are like marriages, not houses. While it's fine to buy a derelict building to convert into your dream home, you shouldn't marry someone you think needs fixing -- that's a recipe for unhappiness. Likewise, it's rarely a good VC strategy to buy into a fixer-upper. I've learned this myself the hard way: the problems are often deeper than they look during DD. When VCs tell you they need more traction, that's often just a polite way of saying there's stuff to fix before they can consider investing. 2. THE MOMENTUM STRATEGY. That may seem weird given how many VCs boast about their value-add (and the large teams of portfolio-support people shown on their websites). But the future is like the past more often than we'd like to admit. Tier-one VCs, with the pick of the world's startups, usually choose businesses that are already growing fast with strong unit economics. A perfect example is Roelof Botha's investment in YouTube for Sequoia. As his deal memo showed, the company was already growing much faster than its competitors pre-deal. He was backing proven momentum. Likewise, when preparing the SEC documents for the NASDAQ IPO of my own startup, I searched the sales growth chart for an inflection point in the curve where things took off -- but couldn't find it When I replotted the sales on a log scale, it was a straight line over multiple years -- showing a steady growth rate. 3. SKID MARKS. As you'll know from driving on mud or snow, skidding is a sign of wasted energy -- the engine's turning, but the wheels are spinning. Traction's not just about your sales growth rate; it's about how efficiently you're converting the fuel (funding) into forward motion (growth). For many companies, lack of traction simply means burning too much cash for the level of growth. THE LESSON. CEOs often ask me what dollar value of sales, or what growth rate, they need to demonstrate traction. Often, they're asking the wrong question. Unless sales and marketing is being done badly, slow and inefficient growth is usually the result of a product problem. It's galling to admit this when you've just hired a fancy CRO or have a team of SDRs making calls. But often, the way to get the traction that VCs will demand of you is to make sure that what you're selling is something your clients urgently need and are eager to pay for. Links and references in the comments.

Oh, FFS, this is getting silly now. The web/app tech startup game has become too industrialised. I just woke up to 20 cold emails offering the chance to invest in another 'innovative' Saas - none of them launched!! Let me clarify something because I am no longer sure this is obvious to budding founders now the game is so clouded by 'experts'... Investment is NOT THE POINT of a startup. Offering a useful service to paying customers, usually to help them save time/money, is the point. If the first thing on your mind after the eureka moment is: "I need to get investment", then you are in for major disappointment and distraction. You will spend a year being sucked in by the startup industrial complex, which will help you do everything apart from building your f*cking app and getting some early paying customers through the door. Don't get me wrong, there are many great people out there (and just as many who are not great!), and you will learn some good stuff. But what none of them will do, is buy your early product. So as 2025 starts rolling, it's time to get back to basics... 1. Have an idea 2. Build a prototype 3. Start selling If your response is "But I can't code" or "I can't afford developers" or "I'm terrible at selling" then you are looking at this problem completely wrong. If you want to earn the title "entrepreneur", put on your lateral-thinking head and start looking outside the box. Btw, those who already deserve that title and are destined for Zuckerberg levels of success won't even be reading this. They'll just be out there doing it already - and racing ahead of you with your idea (please don't tell me your idea is unique)! As more early-stage investors pull out of the game (less risk-taking, moved to Dubai, money locked up in the last batch of startups who have all zombified,... take your pick), you have two choices... 👉 spend a year being distracted trying and failing to find investment 👉 spend a year learning to code, building a social presence and selling It has never been easier to do this stuff, as long as you don't get distracted. ---------------------------- 😊 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 • 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 29 𝐲𝐫𝐬 📌 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ----------------------------

3 months ago, two of my childhood best friends celebrated raising $5M for their seed round. Today, they aren’t even on speaking terms. I’ve seen this on repeat for the last 2 years. Behind every failed startup, there are: - 2am fights on Slack about equity - CTO pushing code at midnight. CEO attending investor dinners for months - One co-founder saying: “I’m too busy to go to standup” Not the clean “we decided to part ways” BS you hear. In my YC batch, co-founder breakups were the #1 reason why startups failed. At least 1 out of 2 startups that failed was due to this. 🚩Top 3 red flags I’ve seen: - Resentment: You don’t think the other person is pulling their weight  - Lack of alignment: Misaligned risk tolerance, target market, product decisions, etc - Conflict resolution: Can’t have hard conversations because you don’t want to hurt each other’s feelings In the early stage, there’s a lot of ambiguity. There will be failure. It will test any relationship, however strong you think it is. However, your relationships (not just for founders) are in your control! If you don’t address it, it will sneak up on you. Spend time having the hard conversations and you can significantly increase the chances of success. P.S: Automate workflows with No-code AI with VectorShift

What started as a "short" post to talk about the #InnovationMindset quickly outgrew the character limit allowed. 𝐓𝐋;𝐃𝐑: Innovation can be a tricky subject, but it can be conceptualized using other established theories. Am I too wordy? 🧐 Yes. 🧐 Do posts need formatting options? 🤨 Also yes. 🤨 Let me know what you think. ICG Innotiimi Finland #InnovationManagement #Growth #HashtagsAreOfQuestionableValue