195. Not ABF. Instead, Always Be Cheerleading feat. Liz Giorgi, CEO & Co-Founder of Soona Artwork

VC Minute

Quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better. Founders, do you feel like you're fundraising on an uneven playing field? You are. The VC minute is here to help you level up. Venture capitalists navigate pitches and negotiate investments every day. They know the ins and outs and are up-to-date on the current funding environment. But as a founder, it may be your first foray into fundraising, and no matter how much success you've had in other areas nothing truly prepares you for the fundraising journey. The VC Minute was created to help founders close this gap. While it may seem like securing an investment at the seed stage is mostly driven by luck, there are steps founders can take to increase the odds of successfully raising a round. And that's what we're going to cover on the VC Minute through a series of short episodes. I'm going to share with you insights to help navigate the seed stage financing dynamics. I'm Rich Maloy, Managing Partner at SpringTime Ventures with 25 years business experience a dozen years in the startup ecosystem. I've applied my experience from sales, finance, and venture investing, to help startup founders fundraise better.

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VC Minute

195. Not ABF. Instead, Always Be Cheerleading feat. Liz Giorgi, CEO & Co-Founder of Soona

March 07, 2024 • Liz Giorgi • Season 4 • Episode 195

0:00 | 2:01

Text your thoughts directly to Rich.

Last episode on ABF. I promise. Maybe. But we're definitely missing the founder perspective on this one, which is why I was glad to have Liz Giorgi's input.

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About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech & insurtech, and logistics & supply chain. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.

Rich 0:01

I don't want to dwell too much on ABF. But then again, this is a podcast about fundraising by a VC, so maybe it makes sense to just add one more piece of the puzzle here. And that piece of the puzzle is the founder perspective. I'm pleased to introduce Liz Giorgi co-founder and CEO of Soona. We're going to hear more from Liz later on, but this was a great clip where she shares her perspective on ABF. Take it away, Liz.

Liz Giorgi 0:31

ABF, or Always Be Fundraising, is a funny maxim. It's one that is true and isn't true in a funny sort of way. So the ways in which it's true is, you never know where your next check is going to come from, and you never know where your next introduction is going to come from. There have been times that I've written something on Twitter, And I've gotten an introduction to a fund or someone's reached out to me. There've been times when I've been at a event locally, or I've been at a virtual panel. And I've said something and I got an introduction to someone who's interested in our business. You don't want to meet an investor for the very first time when you're fundraising. It's just not the best time to get people into the headspace of liking you, liking your business. And so Always Be Fundraising really should just be always be building relationships in my mind. You're always talking about the business. You're always talking about the opportunity of the business. I often think of my job as. How can I, in any room I enter, leave people with the impression that Soona is a great business that they want to be involved in, in some way? Sometimes that means fundraising, but sometimes that just means inspiring someone to share your business with a customer, inspiring someone to apply for a job at your company, or inspiring a partner to reach out and strike a deal. You're always promoting the business. And I would rebrand Always Be Fundraising to Always Be Cheerleading. Always be cheerleading the mission, the vision, the opportunity and your business and how you're solving that.

Rich Maloy

Host