Ep. 308 How I Raised It with Andrew Ackerman
episode
How I Raised It - The podcast where we interview startup founders who raised capital.
42 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 13 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the episode’s introduction and who is the guest?
Hi guys, welcome to the How I Raise the Podcast, the show where you get an inside look at how real entrepreneurs and VCs raise capital for their businesses. I'm your host, Nathan Beckard, and today's episode is with Andrew Ackerman. Andrew is a professor, an investor, and author of a new book called The Entrepreneur's Odyssey. We cover a lot of things in this episode, including tips for your pitch deck, the art of the ask, prospecting for investors, Portfolio company Jiu Jitsu, Term Sheet Negotiation, and more. If you're tuning into this podcast to learn how to raise capital for your business, be sure to check out foundersuite.com if you're a startup or fundingstack.com if you're a VC or advisor. Both platforms will give you access to an awesome collection of tools for raising capital, including a massive investor database, a new get intro tool to get warm intros to those investors.
A CRM to manage arrays, a virtual data room to run due diligence, plus pitch tech hosting, investor updates, email tools, and much more. Last but not least, if you enjoy this conversation and think someone else would too, please share it with them and hit that subscribe button to get all our latest episodes. Thank you. Now sit back and enjoy this chat with Andrew.
Welcome to How I Rais It. The podcast that goes behind the scenes with entrepreneurs who've raised capital. We uncover the tips, tricks, and techniques they use to get investors to write a check. Strap in and turn it off.
Hi, welcome to another episode of How I Raised It, produced by Foundersuite.com and Fundingstack.com. Today I have Andrew Ackerman coming to us from New York. Andrew runs Reach Labs at Second Century Ventures. He's also a professor and author of a new book, Entrepreneurs Odyssey. How are you doing?
Great, great. Thanks for having me.
So you wrote a book. Why'd you write a book?
That's a very nice way of saying, do we really need another business book?
Right. Uh
and it's a question I asked myself before I started. You know, I'm one of those guys, I'm like the worst the worst offender. I have zero patience for business books. Like a lot of them are uh no uh no offense to your books, but um they tend to be ghostwritten in that same kind of business boring bland. Uh so I wanted to say something about how to do uh how to create a startup from Soup to Nuts, but I didn't want it to be the same kind of book that would make my eyes glaze over. So I um I actually remembered a book. The only book I remember from business school, a book called The Goal. Uh, do you remember the goal? I remember the title. I don't know if I read it. So the idea behind it was it was written like a novel about a guy that had to turn around a printing plant and was in way oversight, didn't know what to do.
So he runs into a consultant on an airplane who kind of becomes his mentor and teaches him or you know, kind of gives him the tips along the way. And uh what's cool about the book is that it's was used as a textbook for strategy and operations at business school. And it was just a much more memorable way of getting that material across. You know, if you ask somebody who's been to business school at the right time, you know, what the Herbie is, he immediately remembers the scene where like Herbie is the kid that's slowing down the entire Boy Scout troop. And uh you know, it's a way to illustrate the author's theory of constraints. So that I'm like, you know, if I'm ever gonna write down everything that I've gotten through twenty years of investing
and mentoring literally like list to a thousand startups, I'm gonna do it like the goal. I'm gonna write the goal for startups. Uh and then it was just a question of finding time, which is why I sat on the idea for like five years.
Yeah, interesting. So it covers give us, you know Broad strokes. It's covering the entrepreneurs odyssey. It was coming from um really kind of Starting up.
Doing it. I'll set the scene for you. And Nathan, you're gonna be you're gonna laugh a little 'cause you know exactly what this is like.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the episode’s introduction and who is the guest?
0:00–6:03
2
Why did Andrew Ackerman write *The Entrepreneur’s Odyssey* and how is it structured?
6:03–11:02
3
When should a startup start building its pitch deck and what should it contain?
11:02–16:03
4
What are common pitch‑deck mistakes and how should the “sizzle” slide be used?
16:03–20:27
5
How can founders secure warm introductions to investors effectively?
20:27–25:23
6
What is the purpose of a milestones slide and how should it be presented?
25:23–31:43
7
What does “dry powder” mean for VC funds and how does it affect fundraising timing?
31:43–37:28
8
How should founders negotiate term sheets and manage multiple investors?
37:28–42:12
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from How I Raised It - The podcast where we interview startup founders who raised capital.
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