Paulina Szegda’s Post

If you're building in #insuretech, you've likely heard of Galen Shaffer from Eos Venture Partners. Had a great time listening to her yesterday at a 360 investor round table in Santa Monica. Hot takes for founders: -- A Product-Market Fit indicator is having 3 to 5 contracts signed. -- Be clear about fundraising intentions. Vagueness or casualness can send the wrong signals. You either ARE raising, or not. -- Don't approach 100 investors at once. Take a measured, incremental approach. -- Know your path to breaking even.

Follow my feed today for exciting news from two Black Dog Venture Partners companies and VC Fast Pitch alumni. #news #blackdogceo #vcfastpitch

We're back with a bang! We interview one of the most successful VC firms and investors in New York - Andrea Hippeau, Partner at Lerer Hippeau. They've invested in break out hits like Warby Parker, Casper, Thrive, Glossier, Inc., Allbirds, Zipline, and fi. They know how to pick winners. We discuss: - What Traits all the Best Founders Have - How Andrea has developed her "gut" of who to invest in - The importance of leveraging your investors & board - The #1 thing she would do if she was starting in VC today Full interview below! "There’s a lot of road blocks as a founder. You have to be willing and able to run through walls and not get exhausted.”

Last week, I attended the TechCrunch Annual Founders Summit in #Boston, and it was an enlightening experience. Meeting other founders provided a unique environment to exchange insights and support one another through our entrepreneurial journeys. Many of the speakers also delivered invaluable wisdom across different stages of a founder’s journey: Jess Lee offered a comprehensive framework for assessing product-market fit and crafting compelling value propositions for different types of markets. Edith Yeung provided a crash course on leveraging our online presence and branding to attract investors, customers and partners. Lily Lyman taught us how to approach investor conversations when building relationships vs raising funds. Jake Cohen shared candid advice on how to grow a venture without VC funding, or to do so in a way that keeps the founding team and its employees set for long-term success. Sara Choi emphasized the importance of conducting due diligence on the individual we pitch to, and not just the firm they represent. Daniel Kang outlined strategies to help founders optimize their cash flow and maintain financial prudence. Rudina Seseri shared insights on founders’ journey to validating product-market fit and scaling to $1M ARR after closing their seed round. Special thanks to the people I met at the Summit! Ryan Stohl Anoushka Ramkumar Justina Samanta Akhil Daphara Daniel R. Shaurjya Mandal Cloey Wong Aaron Joshua Pinto

Ever wish you could give your younger self a heads-up? Here is what Sten Tamkivi would tell his 10-year younger VC self. Early-stage is about founders. But don't focus just on their skills. Make sure their mission truly resonates. Even if the business model seems basic. A talented team solving a mundane problem can be a dead end. Sten is a Partner of Plural. A 400M EUR early-stage venture fund to back ambitious European founders. Watch our full conversation with Sten and Carina Namih on EUVC. 🔽 #venturecapital #angelinvesting #startupfunding #europe

Here's a very quick update for our future potential investors! KreiosLabs just surpassed $8.5k in ARR this month! While April's growth was slower than anticipated, we saw a strong rebound in May and hopefully it continues from here. I recently attended the Raid the Fridge event hosted by Kickstarter Ventures that featured Expedock Cofounders Jig Y. and Jeff Tan. My two main takeaways from the talk are: 1. I'm simply not working hard enough 2. Go global And guess what? That's exactly what we will do for the next few months - work harder and go global. Stay tuned for our next update!

Jed Tan is going global. I'm excited for more stories like this. Keep the fire alive, we need more young dreamers to rally around your story! Jed literally just proved the spectators wrong that "there's no tech talent and entrepreneurs in Manila" 🤣 🤣 🤣 I havent' been in the local scene for years because we were busy grinding but I'm shocked at this change in language from investors. "VC's" now love to call entrepreneurs, dreamers, and visionaries with the derogatory term of "operators". 🙄🙄🙄 "Operators" vs "Spectators" is harmful language and reflective of subconcious #crabmentality . To even debate this dichotomy is a farce. I will pick a fight with anyone who uses the word "operator" to puff themselves up because of their inability to execute & deliver results themselves. My younger brother, Jeremy Young, helped me realize that the real language should be: "Kings" and "Kingmakers" - allies who shape the future together. Both are capital & time allocators, both are operators that drive ROI, both are visionaries, both are dreamers. We have different roles and emphasis but a shared mission. Cheering your story on, Jed! I'm confident your SaaS first approach will surpass ours earlier and much faster! #carryingcrabs

Ever wish you could give your younger self a heads-up? Here is what Sten Tamkivi would tell his 10-year younger VC self. Early-stage is about founders. But don't focus just on their skills. Make sure their mission truly resonates. Even if the business model seems basic. A talented team solving a mundane problem can be a dead end. Sten is a Partner of Plural. A 400M EUR early-stage venture fund to back ambitious European founders. Watch our full conversation with Sten and Carina Namih on EUVC. 🔽 #venturecapital #angelinvesting #startupfunding #europe

Pitching to a VC as an early-stage founder can be stressful and ill-defined. Here's a quick post talking about what we look for at Moxxie Ventures. If this sounds like you, please reach out! https://lnkd.in/eny6QVVe

Last call for registrations! One day to go for Angel Investing 101! 🔥 Moien Giashi, PhD, Principal at GreenSky Ventures, will lead the session on mastering the art of the deal, sharing insights on how he approaches high impact deals. 🚀 Don't miss out on this event, join us as we kick off the investing season! 💸 🔗 Register here: https://hubs.ly/Q02NJ9Qx0 #AngelInvesting #StartupFunding #BramptonAngels