MessageDesk’s Post

Happy funds-raising-funds day!! 🎉💸 Don’t look it up there’s no such thing, but what is true is that as I was scrolling through my LinkedIn feed today all I could see were amazing funds announcing freshly raised capital. 👏 On the other hand I’m reading predictions that call out a potentially tough year for startups and scale ups when it comes to raising capital. 🤔 Something doesn’t add up! The business model of a fund is to find the absolute best entrepreneurs and fund them so they in turn can grow. In other words those funds need to be deployed. In the end, great founders will always get funded and great funds will always be on the lookout. PS: Congrats to Plural, AC Ventures, ArcTern Ventures and SeedBlink. Looking forward to co-investing in many great Endeavor founders!! 😉

Angel investing plays a pivotal role in fueling Chicago's innovation economy, with up to 90% of outside equity for new startups coming from these crucial early-stage investments. This not only underscores the significance of angel capital but also highlights its impact on nurturing the city's burgeoning startup ecosystem. For those intrigued by the potential of angel investing, Lofty Ventures emerges as a valuable resource. Founded by Christopher Deutsch, Lofty Ventures offers educational seminars aimed at demystifying the process for the 'angel curious' and provides a platform for joining investment syndicates, reducing risk while fostering connections within the innovation community. #AngelInvesting #ChicagoInnovation #StartupFunding #InvestorEducation #LoftyVentures"

🚀 Huge congratulations to Levitate for raising $15M! And yes, it was an up round 📈 which is not something every Series D can claim these days. Achieving this funding milestone is a testament to Jesse Lipson and his team's resilience, innovation, and unwavering commitment. Here’s to continued growth and success! 🥂 🎉 Startup investors take note. With hundreds of Billions 💰 invested in AI infrastructure, Levitate represents an example of the next wave of software companies. It has incorporated AI as a feature of its platform, thereby improving and accelerating its small business customers' digital marketing workflows. Integrating other's LLMs in a application specific context is reminiscent to what thousands of businesses did atop the Internet after the 1990's infrastructure buildout. Who will be the next Salesforce, Shopify, or HubSpot in the age of AI?

The smartest founders know that having a clean cap table and data room is critical to fundraising. Investors expect to see the right info, presented in the right way. Join Fidelity Private Shares’ Kristen Craft for a webinar designed for early-stage startups that are raising a pre-seed through a Series A. We will cover strategies and best practices to set you up for success. This session will cover: -What makes for a "clean" cap table and data room -Must haves and nice to haves when fundraising -What different types of investors — from angels to traditional VCs to family offices — expect to see -Fundraising best practices to help you generate interest and land the right investors Register: https://hubs.ly/Q02wmyz_0 👉 Be sure to follow all of our community leaders for more great events and info: Kristen Craft, Charlie Stephens, DeRonnie Pitts, and Jason Hammond. #startups #founders #captable

Top 10 Active Tech Investors in 2023, I reached out to when my startup portfolios raise Series Seed - B, you can connect with them (Part 3) 1) GIC MP Chow Kiat Lim 2) Glasswing Ventures VC Rudina Seseri 3) Gobi Partners VC Chibo Tang 4) Golden Equator Capital Cindy Teoh 5) Goodwater Capital LP Eric Kim 6) GV (Google Ventures) Hongfei Xia 7) Greylock Mike Duboe 8) Growtheum Capital Partners Trang Tran 9) Gula Tech Adventures Ron Gula 10) Hummingbird Ventures Akshay Mehra Part 1 & 2 in the comment below

💰 On paper, there are many solo GPs funds in 🇪🇺, but which of them are actually active and deploying? These 3 (all great) names keep popping up for me - who are the others? 1️⃣ Robin Capital (Robin Haak). Focuses on authentic relationships and values missions that resonate, specializing in B2B SaaS. Invests primarily in Angel, Pre-Seed to Seed stages, and occasionally Series A, with a commitment to backing resilient and passionate founders. 2️⃣ Underline Ventures (Bogdan Iordache). Focuses on pre-seed and seed investments in innovative tech startups in Central and Eastern Europe at the earliest stages. 3️⃣ Puzzle Ventures (Gloria Baeuerlein Bäuerlein). A €21.5M early-stage venture fund partnering with exceptional European entrepreneurs building transformational B2B software businesses, investing between €200k and €700k in pre-seed and seed rounds.

Top 10 Active Tech Investors in 2023, I reached out to when my startup portfolios raise Series Seed - B, you can connect with them (Part 4) 1) Index Ventures Adrianna Ma 2) Industry Ventures Tian Shi 3) Insignia Ventures Partners Yinglan Tan 5) Intel Capital Assaf Araki 6) IQ Capital Kerry Baldwin 7) January Capital Armaan Kapoor 8) Jungle Ventures My Tran Amit Anand 9) Kairos Ventures David Park 10) KB Investment Cheolho Han (Continue) Watch Part 1, 2, 3 in the comment below

As a MD of Beacon Angels and an active angel investor, I get approached every week with startup founders looking for cash. It seems all are confused with how to approach an angel group. The following article should be mandatory reading for a startup founder on how to begin your journey, and the differences between VC and angel cash. If all else fails, reach out to the Angel Capital Association members in your area.

Watch Hersh Gulati, Principal at RPSG Capital Ventures , sharing exclusive strategies to elevate your funding game in our #Elevate Cohort 1. Turn your startup dreams into reality! Elevate Accelerator Program Offers: 🚀Expert guidance from investors like Hersh 🚀Proven strategies to secure funding 🚀A powerful network to boost your growth Ready to take your business to new heights? Apply Now: d2ci.co/elevate_register #d2cinsider #d2cinsiderelevate #elevate #letselevate #applynow

Latitud Ventures was quietly born 2.5 years ago. At that time, we raised our first fund to invest in some of the amazing founders coming out of our Fellowship community. Since then we’ve already invested in almost 100 great teams from LatAm. We’re more than ecstatic to keep doing that with our Fund II (Out of the loop? Run to the comments). But today… We want to talk about some patterns we have observed from these top early founders - specifically from their fundraising choices. We think there are basically two paths a founder can take for their first round: 1. Pre-seed (~500k) >> Execute >> Large seed (~3M) >> Get to PMF/Series A? 2. Small seed (~1.5M) >> Execute >> Get to PMF/Series A? There’s no right and wrong here: the best path for your company depends on a few variables, and both have their trade-offs. That being said - at Latitud Ventures, we'd encourage the vast majority of top founders to consider the advantages of taking the first path. Why? Our full rationale is in this Manifesto: https://lnkd.in/dNkham_n Curious to hear other folks' opinions. Vamos LatAm!