Route’s Post

Great to see so many founders exploring ways to leverage pricing to enhance their go-to-market and drive revenue growth. The discussion range from B2B SaaS pricing to maintaining brand integrity via pricing, and we could have easily gone a lot longer with questions and topics covered. Excited to see how the founders use the advice to advance their companies!

🌟 Elevating Aspirations, Embracing Greatness 🌟 John D. Rockefeller's call to "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great" resonates deeply as we step into a new week. It's a powerful reminder that true greatness often requires the courage to leave behind the comfort of the familiar and venture into the realm of extraordinary possibilities. At Somras Ventures, we thrive on empowering those visionaries who are not just content with good enough but are driven by the pursuit of greatness. We believe in the transformative power of aiming higher, pushing boundaries, and redefining what's possible. As you navigate the week ahead, consider what 'good' you are prepared to release in order to seize the 'great'. What comfort zones are you challenging? How are you restructuring your goals to not just meet but exceed your own expectations? Let's make this week about bold transitions and remarkable achievements. Let go of the good, and let's chase the great together. Here's to a week of making monumental moves and capturing greatness! #BeyondGood #ChaseGreatness #RockefellerInspired #SomrasVCSupports #MondayDrive #AimHigher #morningquote #QOTD 🚀✨💼

Now live... http://Inception.vc Been live... http://Firstcheck.vc This is what we do boldstart ventures

A lot of founders are curious about VCs, how to raise & what investors are looking for... 🤔 Founders often have to ask around for referrals, look online, or send out cold emails to get a pitch meeting. That's why we collaborated with Yoran Beisher and Jules Pichette from Inovia Capital to bring directly together 8 B2B SaaS Founders, and 8 Canadian VCs during Collision 2024 💼 Founders: Kevin Callahan from Uniblock, Rohan Shah from Classavo, Aaron Wenner from Jurisage Group, Carlos Secada from Zagitas & more from sanoLiving, Aboard, Pallo, & Granularity! 📈 VCs: Panache Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, Golden Ventures, BDC, Antler, Holdr & more! 💡 I learned that VCs raise in cycles, and they generally have to deploy all their capital within 5 years. Some prefer to lead deals, whereas some prefer to follow-on. At the end of the day, it comes down to finding the VC that has an investment thesis that matches your business. And your business of course has to be of venture scale! Enjoy the super smooth & jazzy recap shot by 🎥 Mitchell Jaramillo!! 🙏 Produced by RI.Events - if you need help getting a narrow list of VIPs in a room, send me a DM to learn more #events #vc #b2b #saas #founders

Story time 🔥 🏕️ I am often asked by pre-seed or seed stage founders how to find investors. My main advice is that they should learn how to choose investors.  I recently heard that VC/founder relationships last longer than the average marriage in the US.  You need to have confidence that what you are working on is amazing, and think of who will be helpful. My story:  I was 25 working on my first startup in London (see photo), effectively building the CNet of Europe.  We took $1m from the first VC who said yes to our idea, but we did not find product market fit, despite heroic efforts by Tim Savage, Sarah Savage, Vijay Sharma, Peter Clateman, Mark Nicholson MBA, David Akast and others.  With one month to go, we tried to get bridge financing from the VC, but they were not interested and offered us a loan on brutal terms.  I could not let this die.  I made the painful choice with my co-founder to let go virtually all of our hand-assembled London team (who were amazing), and went out and pitched 3 new products to blue chip clients – of course, those products were not built yet.  My card said Sales Manager.  I closed Sainsbury's. We then hired Krishna Mohan Veeravalli and an amazing team in Gurgaon, India to build out the product.  We are still in touch today. Most importantly, I then went out and found new investors.  I realized the first investors added very little value when the chips were down.  They were in Belgium, removed, looking for dividends (!) and the loan left a bad taste in my mouth. I worked my network, and assembled a dream team to buy them out including Esther Dyson, Geoff Wood, Erik Wenngren, Colin Macklin, and Bill James – and we took the company to profitability and sold it 5 years, 180 clients, and 250 people later. Esther asked me during my pitch (facilitated by Sanford Dickert, thanks) “This seems amazing.  What’s the catch?”  This is the fit you want with an investor. So reach out widely (or better yet get intros), but be picky at the bottom of the funnel.  This is how Cooper Lindsey and I are managing our current raise for Knapsack. I included a great resource for people raising in the comments as it abridges the post otherwise.

🌟 Shaping Tomorrows, Today 🌟 Peter Drucker's profound insight, "The best way to predict the future is to create it," serves as a clarion call for all entrepreneurs at the dawn of a new week. It's a powerful reminder that our actions today lay the groundwork for our reality tomorrow. Here at Somras Ventures, we champion the architects of the future—those rare individuals who don't just speculate about what might be but take bold steps to ensure their vision becomes a reality. As we embark on this week, let's ponder the innovations we're working on, the ideas we're nurturing, and the impact we're aiming to achieve. What are we creating today that will define our tomorrow? Let this week be marked by purposeful action, creative endeavors, and visionary leadership. Let's not wait for the future to unfold; instead, let's craft it with our aspirations and hard work. To all the creators, innovators, and dreamers—your vision has the power to transform the world. What future are you building? #VisionIntoAction #PeterDruckerInspired #SomrasVCSupports #ArchitectsOfInnovation #morningquote #SomrasVC #entrepreneur🌟💡✨

We’d love to invite you to become an investor in Tallow + Ash! 🥳🚀 T+A is growing rapidly, but to keep up with demand and build the best products imaginable for you, we need your help. We need to buy faster bottling machinery to fulfill orders quicker. Make stock deposits for incredible new products, like the Fabric Sprays. Kick off development phases for different formulas, and invest in spreading the word about T&A all over the U.K, and beyond! We believe these initiatives will build a brand we can all be proud of. One that disrupts an entire industry. By investing on Feb 29, you’ll have the chance to own a piece of the brand at this early stage, and make it all happen with us! We currently have £2.2m pledged to invest on the Crowdcube platform. If you want to invest as well, you can sign up for ‘early access’ on Crowdcube, and let us know you’re considering investing! We’ve also created some amazing rewards and benefits for becoming an investor and joining the Owners Club. More on this tomorrow! Thank you for all your support and involvement so far. We hope to have you as a co-owner in the brand! To register your interest, head to https://lnkd.in/gmt_-Sne *You should only make investments if you’re prepared to lose the money. Investing in startups is risky.

🚀 #MondayMotivation from Somras Ventures 🚀 Peter Drucker teaches us, "The best way to predict the future is to create it." Dive into this week with the determination to shape your destiny. At Somras Ventures, we empower visionaries who are not just dreaming of the future but actively building it. What creation are you bringing to life to define your future? #CreateTheFuture #PeterDruckerWisdom #SomrasVC #FutureBuilders #InnovationLeaders #QOTD #MorningQuote 🌟💡✨

There's nothing to get the blood pumping like a fundraise announcement. Over the last two months, the Hard Numbers 📈 team has been working with Cashmere, an AI-powered client acquisition platform for wealth management firms. When I first met founders Farbod Nowzad and Eshan Govil, their energy and passion for what they were building was compelling. So their fundraise announcement deserved a narrative to match. Amid the 'Great Wealth Transfer', they've identified a clear need to inject better tracking, data and automation into client acquisition efforts - so wealth advisors don't leave money on the table. Their vision clearly resonated not just with investors but with their prospect audience too. The business has seen early traction with clients at some of the world's largest banking platforms, and the team is just getting started. We're thrilled to have played a part in announcing Cashmere's impressive $3.6 million seed round, led by Canapi Ventures. You can read all about it in Business Insider - a big thanks as always to Callum Burroughs for the reporting (story link in the comments) 👇 #startups #wealthmanagement #venturecapital #publicrelations

🚀 Deciding if you want to join a startup? Treat it like you're writing a million-dollar check! 💡 We had the privilege of sitting down with Xuhui Shao, Managing Partner at Foothill Ventures, and his insights blew me away. Xuhui shared insider stories about working with #startup founders, and I especially enjoyed hearing the tales of #resilience. His approach to early-stage deep tech investing is deeply analytical—likely shaped by his own successful career in tech. 👉 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gAEXQNii #Startups #Investment #DeepTech #FoothillVentures #Entrepreneurship