LATEST EPISODE

Alex Salazar on Taking Arcade from Zero to a $12M Round (Alex Salazar / Arcade - Ep 56)

Alex Salazar didn’t need to prove he could build a company. He’d already done that and sold it, then spent time as a VC, and had the kind of background that usually makes raising money the easy part. But when he started Arcade, he decided to do things differently. In this episode, we talk about what it means to go back to zero even when you don’t have to. Alex shares why he and his co-founder stayed in stealth, how they tested product ideas without writing a single line of code, and what it took to get real traction in a category moving as fast as AI. We get into opportunity selection, investor conviction, and what it actually looks like when someone gets preempted before they’re even out fundraising. Arcade eventually closed a $12M round... but the process behind that raise had very little to do with pattern-matching or momentum. It was all about building something that hit a nerve.

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Check out our latest chats with awesome founders.

Funded

December 8, 2020

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Sex sells, but does it raise money?

Investors like patterns. They’re either explicitly or subconsciously motivated to back businesses that look, sound, or feel familiar and comfortable. That’s why Isharna Walsh, founder of sexual wellness app Coral, had such a daunting task. For her, raising venture capital meant guiding investors through the uncomfortable task of talking about their sex lives and convincing them to back an unfamiliar profile, a minority woman with no ivy league degrees.

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Funded

December 8, 2020

MIN

A different type of funding and a different type of “no”

Lindsay McCormick, founder of Bite Toothpaste Bits, wants you to know there are alternatives to taking venture capital. She created a multimillion dollar business and funded its growth almost entirely through customer purchases. This show is an honest discussion about the alternatives to venture capital. You’ll learn why even though Lindsay’s email inbox is full of investment offers, she turns them away.

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Funded

October 16, 2020

MIN

Coming Soon: Funded

In this trailer, hear the background for what will be an amazing season of conversations that show what it takes to get a startup funded. Intriguing quotes from the founders of Zumper, Fama, TRNDS Sports, and more tease some of the topics that will be covered.

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