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Raiser's Edge
Some entrepreneurs fly through fundraising; sailing through VC meetings, converting at high rates, getting to term sheets quickly and successfully. Other founders struggle; wading through hundreds of meetings and calls, reading thousands of online pitch guides, and still only producing a mediocre fundraising round. The very best founders seem to know cheat codes that the rest of the herd just lack, and this quickly creates capital advantage for their companies, allowing them to own their markets and achieve dominance in their industries. So what are these secrets that separate the best from the rest?
It turns out a lot of what these top raisers do is replicable - it’s just not easy to find on the internet or by asking advice from average peers. Raiser’s Edge bridges that very gap, sharing the strategies and philosophies that have separated industry leaders from the pack in order to transform mediocre raisers to excellent ones. Through interviews with outstanding founders who have themselves succeeded in the VC fundraising process, not only will listeners learn how to successfully fund their start-ups, but they will also learn how to raise strong rounds even in down markets, take advantage of VC funding and tailwinds, and impress investors in order to earn outsize capital. Most importantly, listeners will find out how the most skillful CEOs make it through the biggest challenges so that they can increase their own chances of surviving the challenges to come.
Each episode of Raiser’s Edge will interview a founder about the critical fundraising junctures in their company’s growth stage, highlighting stories in which they navigated investor concerns, challenging timelines, and emerging obstacles to raise and deploy funds successfully. By taking a closer look at these entrepreneurs’ paths to success, we’ll also shed a light on their moments of near-failure, self-doubt, and tough calls, and the way these challenges have transformed them into stronger leaders and fundraisers along the way. Through an entertaining, easy-to-follow interview format, this podcast hopes to demystify the fundraising process and serve as an intimate glimpse into the secrets of today’s business all-stars in order to inspire and teach the all-stars to come.
Episodes
8 episodes
Evolution Over Ego with Omar Tawakol
In this episode, host Ben Elowitz sits down with serial entrepreneur Omar Tawakol, whose journey spans building and leading companies like BlueKai, Voicea, and Rembrandt, as well as strategic acquisitions by industry giants like Cisco and Oracl...
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Fundraising at Full Throttle with Greg Mark
On this episode of Raiser’s Edge, Ben Elowitz sits down with Greg Mark, CEO and founder of Markforged and Backflip. Drawing on his experience raising over $550M in capital, Greg Mark breaks down what it really takes to capture investor interest...
Do What you Say and Say What You Do with Evan Kaplan
Host Ben Elowitz sits down with seasoned entrepreneur and fundraising expert Evan Kaplan, CEO and founder of InfluxData, and industry veteran with over $400M raised and three decades of experience across public and private companies. <...
What to Chase, What to Craft, and What You Can’t Control with David Shim
In this episode of Raiser's Edge, host Ben Elowitz dives deep into the realities of startup fundraising with guest David Shim, CEO and co-founder of Placed and Read.ai,The episode unpacks the critical importance of designing a business t...
How Honesty and Humility are the Real Hacks with Russ Fradin
How do top founders actually raise venture capital—and what do investors really look for?In this episode of Raiser’s Edge, host Ben Elowitz sits down with serial entrepreneur Russ Fradin
Letting Data Drive your Raise with Dan Shapiro
In this episode, host Ben Elowitz sits down with master fundraiser Dan Shapiro, currently the co-founder of CEO of Glowforge, and the author of Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook. From his early days building laser light shows to raisi...
Turning High Stakes Into Supercharged Raises with Yifan Zhang
On our pilot episode of Raiser’s Edge, host Ben Elowitz sits down with Yifan Zhang—a powerhouse entrepreneur, managing director at the AI2 incubator, and expert fundraiser. Yifan shares her unique journey from launching viral fitness app Gympac...