TBC: Ask for Help: Fundraising Storytelling

TBC135: Ask for Help: Fundraising Storytelling

[00:00:00] ​

[00:00:04] Jason Yeh: Hey there. Welcome to anotherepisode of the Back Channel. In today's episode,I want to jump in and just record this on the back of an interview that I justdid for Funna Funna that I just did for fun. Did with Minna song. Ijust got out of an interview with Minna song from, for my podcast funded, uh,Minna is the co-founder of Elise ai.

[00:00:16] It's. ConversationalAI automations for, uh, the real estate industry and increasingly healthcare,the healthcare industry. She was an incredibly impressive founder. Um, herbackground studied computer science at MIT and Cambridge, and then just went intostartups. Started Elise as a very young technical founder and has gone on toraise over $350 million.

[00:00:43] For the company,$250 million led by Andreessen just recently. And we talked a lot about thedifferent paths she's taken, what she's learned along the way, how fundraisershave gone, what's easy for her, what's not. I wanted to pull out one thing thatwas really interesting [00:01:00] to me, whichwas she talked about this idea of like getting help when you're not good atsomething and when someone can do it way better than you.

[00:01:10] And she. It wasclear that there are a lot of situations where she doesn't like consultantsbecause consultants are trying to do something for you that you actually haveto build as a muscle to do all the time and be better at or et cetera. And so alot of that stuff needs to come internally. We can debate whether or not that'strue or not, but she was like, there are situations that I've found that I'mnot doing them all the time and I don't believe that I.

[00:01:38] Need to build thatin like core so that I'm one of the best at it. And she talked a lot aboutfundraising being one of those things that she thinks is like an incrediblearea of her business to get help in. She's like, I'm an engineer. I think verylogically, I think very inputs and outputs minded, I don't think in stories.

[00:01:58]

[00:01:59] Jason Yeh: One thing I [00:02:00] learned running my last venture-backed startup is yourlawyers really matter. Some founders like to glaze over this decision, butdon't do that. It's really important. Last time I used Gunderson Detmer and Idefinitely do it again.

[00:02:13] They weren't justtransactional. They really felt like they were a part of a team. There's alegal perspective on almost everything you're doing at a startup, so they'reinvolved in everything from fundraising.

[00:02:22] I. To equity comp,to hiring, to commercial contracts, really everything. And Gundersen is reallybuilt for the early stage. They work with more startups and VC firms thananyone else, over 3,500 companies, 500 funds, and they've been ranked the topVC law firm for over a decade. So if you'reraising so if you're raising, scaling, or just try not to mess up your firstsafes as you go out to fundraise. Gunder Endeavor can help you navigate all ofit, so you can focus on what really matters, which is building a greatbusiness, growing that great business, and following your dreams. So if you'dlike to learn more, check out gunder.com.

[00:02:41] All right, back to the show. I.

[00:02:41] So if you'reraising, scaling, or just try not to mess up that first safe when you go out.Fundraising, Gundersen Detmer can help you navigate it all so you can focus onwhat really matters, which is building a great business, growing that greatbusiness.

[00:02:53] So if you'd like tolearn more about Gunderson Detmer, check out gunder.com.

[00:02:58] we, we had this long[00:03:00] conversation and one of the elementsthat we touched on was how. You know, she learned sales. She didn't wanna dosales, but she learned sales. There was a very problem solving element to salesthat allowed her to become good at it. Uh, she could go to every sales callwhen it didn't work out.

[00:03:18] She could doretrospective. What work, what didn't, what the, what are the objections theyhave? How do you overcome those objections? Because she's like, for every.Potential customer. We absolutely believe they should be using us, that we canabsolutely solve the problems that we have. So if, ifwe, you know, we don't succeed in selling them, then we made amistake on the sales process, not for any other reason.

[00:03:41] She's like, man,fundraising and storytelling. There's, there's all these different parts tofundraising that are more art and science that take way more storytelling than,than engineering minded. Outlay of facts. And so she really talked about thisidea of [00:04:00] asking for help and thenfundraising and storytelling being an am, an an amazing place that you couldget help in.

[00:04:06] And so I just wantedto call it out for any listeners who are, especially on the more technical endof things, who find it weird or can't wrap their head around the storytellingelement. Of, of fundraising in particular, but maybe anything else within thecompany that requires fundraising, that this is certainly a space to ask forhelp in.

[00:04:27] A lot of foundershave a hero mindset to try to get it all done on their own. Always look forhelp where help can be, um, easily applied short circuit processes. And, just aquick note, we love helping with stories. We love helping. Founders work throughthose things in different elements of the company that I run.

[00:04:46] Um, so I deeplybelieve in this idea, uh, agree with Minna. I hope you listen to that episodeof Funded. It's gonna be great. It's gonna come out in two weeks, but ask forhelp, help with storytelling is a great plugin for your [00:05:00] business. Um, and let us know if we can help on ourside. All right, that's a short episode of the Back Channel.

[00:05:05] I hope I'll see younext time.

[00:05:08] ​

‍