Nathan Beckord
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Summary
Today I talk with Nathan Beckord, co-founder and CEO of FounderSuite as well as a podcaster over at How I Raised It, which I had the honor of being on -- episode 5 to be exact. We talk about the fundraising process and why he feels it’s just like any other B2B sales process that needs to be nurtured.
His background in investment banking is what led him to build products around how to help founders raise funds. Raising money is all about building and cultivating relationships with investors. It’s a lot of nurturing and letting investors know what you are up too even when you’re not raising.
When you are raising, then things switch to a traditional sales process of trying to close the deal with a little bit of FOMO. It really is all about the process you use.
We talk about how to nurture leads and the power of a respectful cold email to get you on an investor’s radar. For Nathan, it’s all about communications, consistency, and being helpful.
Now let’s get better together
Actions to Try or Advice to Take
- Elizabeth Yin’s Series on raising money.
- Startups go into accelerators to learn how to raise money, so Nathan goes to them and talks to them about how to raise money.
- Raising money is a nurtured sales process. In the vast majority of cases, investors will invest in you once they get to know you.
- One school of thought is to go all-in for months for the raise. Others suggest a slow burn as a constant nurturing process.
- Regular Updates: It’s critical to do a regular update to investors and potential investors. You always want to add to your distribution list and have regular updates.
- Ask for advice, get funding. Ask for funding, get advice.
- Be useful and pay it forward to investors. Realize that they are running a business as well and you want to be valuable to them as well.
- If you limit your work hours, you’ll figure out what is important. Work expands with the time given.
- Nathan is a big believer in loading up your subconscious with a couple of problems to solve.