Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders who have raised capital. This episode is with Donnel Baird of Blocpower.io, a Brooklyn-based climate technology startup that is making American cities greener, smarter, and healthier by retrofitting older buildings with more efficient energy systems. In this episode, Donnel talks about how he got started by "greening" some barber shops in Harlem and then landed a government contract, getting past 200 "no's" when raising early capital, pitching Ben Horowitz and Mitch Kapor for his pre-seed round, understanding the "Silicon Valley Archetype" of what VCs are looking for and how to close the gap if you are different from that archetypes, tips for Black founders, and much more. The Company recently raised a $63 million Series A round ($55 million debt, $8 million equity). The round was led by American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact, AccelR8 and The Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, with participation from Kapor Capital, Elemental Excelerator, CityRock Venture Partners, The Schmidt Family Foundation and Salesforce Ventures. Other investors in the Company include Kapor Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, MaC Venture Capital, Exelon, New York Ventures of the Empire State Development Corporation, Echoing Green, and The Schmidt Family Foundation. How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at https:/www.foundersuite.com/

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.