This founder cracked the fundraising code

The Foreign Language of Fundraising (insights from Parker Treacy)

“There’s no way that’s how it works”

This is a common reaction founders have when they get their first peek behind the curtain of venture capital. The more sophisticated the founder (more education, work experience, industry expertise, etc), the more they’re shocked to learn how messy investment decisions are and what inputs have the greatest influence.

This was the case for Parker Treacy, a serial entrepreneur who had bootstrapped his first company to a hugely profitable lending company before launching his startup Cobli, a fleet management platform based in Brazil and backed by over $50MM of capital.

The Parker Treacy story…

Parker’s path along the steep learning curve of fundraising can teach you a lot. It’s also a pretty crazy story on its own… Parker landed in São Paulo not speaking Portuguese or knowing how the business world worked in Brazil. In his first 5 years he had to learn a new language, culture, and industry before raising his first round of capital from US- based investors before investing in LATAM was en vogue.

Eventually, he’d raise multiple rounds of capital, the latest a $35MM round led by Softbank.

I interviewed Parker last year for Funded to get the full download and the conversation made for an amazing episode.

My fav quote from Parker is one I think about a lot when it comes to Fundraising…

“When you are dealing in systems with incomplete information, social dynamics fill that information gap.”

Check out the full episode here

Highlights include:

08:11 – The power of introductions in fundraising

10:19 – Creating competitive dynamics in a deal

17:21 – Raising money from U.S.-based investors for a South American company

26:14 – Biggest mistakes made during Series A fundraising and what founders can learn from them

33:56 – Parker’s reactions after raising a $35 million Series B round led by SoftBank

Till next week. Stay adamant and be chased.

Jason