Podim Conference’s Post

If you are a CPG founder interested in learning more about community rounds, this is a good 101 overview. Thanks to Daniel Scharff and the team at Startup CPG for hosting, and James Reina for sharing his personal experience of running a Wefunder community round for Jibby Coffee. Without question, the best slide of the deck screenshotted below. https://lnkd.in/gHyxFuDa

🌱 Rockstart AgriFood Fall Program is in full swing 🚀 Last week, we successfully wrapped up the 3rd Deep Dive of the program focused on communications & sales. Our visionary founders are on a journey to gain essential knowledge and skills, including: ✔ Communicating impact and impact metrics. ✔ Crafting compelling narratives that sell their vision, values, and story. ✔ Building trust and lasting relationships with investors, potential clients, and partners. 💡 Highlight of the week: A powerhouse negotiations workshop led by the remarkable Constantin-Alexandre Papadopoulos his expertise and insights have armed our startup founders with a toolbox of strategies to elevate their negotiation game, maximizing their deal-making potential. We expect this phase of the program to be a critical building block for our startups, empowering them to forge robust partnerships, secure investments, and navigate complex negotiations with confidence. Rockstart snipers.sale Sofija Bogeva #NegotiationMastery #RockstartAgriFood

Let's talk about the one thing most of us may not like doing: letting go! If you want to grow as a startup, you need to learn to let go of things that no longer serve you, and it might change the way you think about growth. When we launched our tea lineup, we were convinced we had a winning combination: green tea, black tea, and rooibos. But as we gathered customer feedback and crunched the numbers, a shocking truth emerged. Black tea was the underperformer of the bunch. Despite our high hopes, it just wasn't doing well with our customers. Now, here's where the real lesson comes in. Instead of stubbornly holding onto black tea, we made the bold decision to discontinue it. And you know what happened next? It was like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders! Letting go of the product that wasn't working freed up resources, energy, and focus for the teas that truly mattered to our customers. This experience taught me that effective growth is about expansion and refinement. Sometimes, the most powerful thing you can do is have the courage to let go of what isn't serving your vision.

Seed rounds often dilute founders by 15-25%. Think of it like sharing pizza - you get a smaller slice, but more hands to make the whole pie grow. With each new investor, your % shrinks but total company value can expand exponentially. You give up a slice of the pizza, but gain needed resources to make the entire pizza far larger down the line. The key is only accepting capital from investors who bring tangible value beyond funding - expertise, networks, strategic relationships. These value-adds can accelerate growth so much that your smaller percentage is ultimately worth far greater rewards. Approach dilution not as a loss, but as securing the right resources to grow an early-stage slice into something far larger and sweeter. The more value your investors contribute, the faster that pizza will spin, boosting your ownership well beyond what you could achieve alone. So while giving up 20%, 25% or more in those early days is tough, do it for the right strategic partners and you may find even 5% of a unicorn is tremendously valuable. #seedfunding #startupfunding #dilution

Did you know that 90% of startups fail within their first 10 years? The packaged food and beverage industry is no exception. So how can you increase your chances of succeeding? By building strong communities and networks! 78% of startups credit supportive networks for their wins (Infocomm Media Development Authority). So, why is community so crucial? Surrounding yourself with the right kind of industry people provides: 🤝 Mentorship: Learn from experienced Foodpreneurs who've navigated the challenges you're facing. 🤝 Collaboration: Team up with complementary businesses for marketing or PR. 🤝 Market Insights: Gain valuable feedback and keep your finger on the pulse of trends. 🤝 Connection: Ditch the solo struggle and loneliness that can come with being a Foodpreneur. 🤝 Emotional Support: Foodpreneurship can be a rollercoaster! Your community is your cheering squad. Don't go it alone! Join the Foodpreneurs Festival and connect with industry experts, potential collaborators, and fellow passionate food and beverage entrepreneurs, all under one roof 🏠. Get your ticket via our website here: https://bit.ly/3xTeTe1

In this edition of awaken* newsletter, we had an insightful chat with Patrick Lee, former CEO and co-founder of the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, in which Patrick approached common concerns facing young business founders. 🌟 Highlights: 1. Discover the founding story of Rotten Tomatoes, Patrick's previous experience in raising money and how he decided to raise Venture Capital for Rotten Tomatoes. 2. Discuss the common tension of waiting for the perfect launching time. 3. Gain Patrick's insightful advice on testing new ideas and confronting failed business test-outs. 4. Understand Patrick's view on the Asian American founder's landscape and the explanation behind his partnerships with Asian entrepreneurs. 5. Explore Patrick's future plan of starting another startup and developing a membership-driven business. 📌 Don't miss out on this exclusive content. Subscribe now at https://lnkd.in/gSvHpHVx!

Another eye-opening expert office hour in the books with the insightful Collin Wallace! Collin is a partner at Lobby Capital and the former Managing Director for Techstars Silicon Valley, where he launched the first two Techstars accelerator programs in the Bay Area. Before becoming an investor, he was a serial entrepreneur in the Food & Beverage industry. His first company, FanGo, was acquired by Grubhub in 2011, where he served as Head of Innovation. In 2019, Collin co-founded ZeroStorefront (YC W19), a data analytics platform for restaurants, which was acquired by Thanx in 2022. With such an impressive track record, Collin shared the invaluable lessons and insights he has gained, including how to find Product Market Fit. Key messages to take away for any founder:  ✅It’s all about knowledge arbitrage ✅Ensure Product Channel Fit, not just PMF  ✅If it didn't work before, focus on what is different now  ✅Cut assumptions into a binary tree & truncate from there ✅Focus on Fidelity vs Quantity  #entrepreneurship #founder #productmarketfit #businessdevelopment #earlystage #galvanizer #2024cohort

“Often when founders are pitching, you can feel that they're kind of telling you what they think you want to hear. And they end up giving you this weighted average of all the other conversations they've had. It means that their message and their mission can get really diluted.”   Some great insights in this conversation with Carina N., biotech founder and partner at VC firm Plural, and someone who knows the startup world from both sides of the entrepreneur/investor divide.

In the startup world, we often joke that our blood type is 'coffee positive.' But sometimes, it feels like we're not really joking, right? Ask any founder, and they'll tell you that their coffee cup is their loyal companion – the bigger, the better! Coffee aside, it's crucial to remember that balance is key. Step away from the desk for a real break now and then. Join like minded coffee addicts at https://lnkd.in/eT5EPhNq

New episode dropped! What to do when your startup doesn’t take off, and should you celebrate when your competitors fail? Some of the questions Heini and I discuss this week on Founders Weekly