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.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 2 minutes
- Episodes
- 275
- Years Active
- 2022 - 2024
071. Tailor Your Pitch To Your Audience feat. Kat Weaver
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
This week features a pitch coach I have a ton of respect for, Kat Weaver from Power to Pitch.
A really important facet of the fundraising journey is making sure t…
070. The Right Reason To Fundraise
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
When you're talking about the reasons why you're fundraising. I want to be sure that you have the right reasons. The wrong reasons to fundraise are to make hires,…
069. The Internal Partner Pitch
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
If the investor who takes your first meeting can't explain your business back to their partners, you're not going to get a second meeting.
About SpringTime Ventur…
068. VP of Investor Relations
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
Fundraising is a function of your job as a startup CEO. If you don't do it at the seed stage, you're going to suck at it the Series A and beyond.
About SpringTim…
067. Finish the Thought
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
One of the things that I see founders trip up on all the time is they get going and they are a runaway train.
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds h…
066. Negative Signaling
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
If you keep going back to the same investors with the same story and without significant progress, it's a negative signal. You need to cross those investors off o…
065. Cold Emails - Is this For Me? Is This Interesting?
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
Your cold email needs to answer the next two questions, is this for me and is this interesting?
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth star…
064. Cold Emails - What Is This Business?
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
There are three things that I'm looking for in a cold email. 1) What is this business? 2) Is this for me? 3) is this interesting?
About SpringTime Ventures
Spri…
Founder Self Care Compilation
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
Season 2 kicked off with a topic near and dear to me: self-care. What follows are 10 episodes of the things I do / am doing / am trying to do to be my best self. …
063. Pitch Deck Essentialism
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
I can't tell you the number of pitch decks that I see that vomit information. Go back through your deck and apply the principles of essentialism. What is absolu…
062. Sacred Cows
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
What is the thing that you are so desperately clinging to? Is it relevant? And is it going to help your business get through these next few turbulent weeks and th…
061. Acknowledge Your Reality
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
"This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to c…
060. Self-Compassion
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
I saved the best for last and it's possibly the hardest. The number one thing you can do for yourself is practice self compassion.
Kristin Neff: Overcoming Objecti…
059. Sleep
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
Lack of good deep sleep impacts your physical health, your mental health, your mental acuity, and even your reaction times. To keep your productivity high and y…
058. Find a Therapist
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
While I've spent the last week and a half talking to you about tips and tricks for mental health, I'm not a trained professional, but I know the benefit of having…
057. Spend Time on Yourself
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
When was the last time that you gave yourself permission to spend time on yourself? It's not enough to just spend time doing something that you want-- to take a…
056. Chronotype & Know Thyself
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
There are some inputs in your life that you can control such as food, drink and exercise. And there are some things that you can't control, like your chronotype. …
055. Ask For Help
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
Why is it so hard to ask for help?
Asking for help is important for everyone, doubly so for founders. We live in a society that values independence and self-su…
054. Relentless Reprioritization
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
Prioritization is knowing the destination. Relentless reprioritization is continually navigating along the way to the destination.
About SpringTime Ventures
Sprin…
053. GSD Day
Text your thoughts directly to Rich.
It's apropos that I'm releasing this episode today because Wednesdays are my GSD days. My Get Shit Done day. Taking time boxing to its logical extreme is the GSD…