How To Win Over Investors And Secure Funding As A Young Entrepreneur

Forbes

The visionaries featured in our 14th annual Forbes 30 Under 30 are inventing new tech to treat tumors, expanding access to electric vehicle charging, making credit cards more secure—even dreaming of reflective satellites that could bring the sun out at night. These young entrepreneurs have had to navigate the difficult world of venture capitalism—one of them being a VC herself—in order to get their company off the ground. This is how they were able to secure the funding that enabled them to become one of the most promising founders under 30 in America.  0:00 Retail: Sonia Yang, Cofounder, Treet 0:35 Venture Capital: Molly Mielke, General Partner, Moth Fund 1:13 Healthcare: Anirudh Joshi, Cofounder, Valar Labs 2:03 Science: Daniel Marin, Founder, Nexus 2:23 Manufacturing: Jordan Taylor, Cofounder, Vizcom 3:19 Marketing: Gökçe Güven, Founder, Kalder 4:34 Food: Cole Schaefer & Brian Waddick, Cofounders, Smackin' 4:51 Social Impact: Maya Kupperman, Cofounder, Temelio  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00I think when you walk into a room, we're not walking to him because it's on zoom, but when we are zoom into a room

00:06Yeah, we zoom into a room and we are kind of in the position where we feel like we're asking for money

00:11We're not in a position of power. I think those are the times that we've struggled the most

00:15Because I think that kind of energy really exudes and people can feel that

00:19But when we you know do a pep talk before being like, you know

00:22We are in the driver's seats. These people are should feel like special to be a part of our journey

00:28I think those in those times like I think it really

00:32You know people in the room can feel it and we've seen a lot more success

00:35I'm a pretty strong believer that like everyone's greatest strength is also the greatest weakness

00:39So until I have an understanding of what that is, I don't really feel confident and understanding them enough to make a bet myself

00:45but I think more broadly the things that I look for while I'm spending that time are a mix of like taste and competency taste I

00:52just define is like a

00:54Competency that means that they have high quality standards that they can actually actualize

00:57mixed with commercial instincts like they need to

01:00they know how to capture the value that they create for it to make sense for VC as well as I

01:06Think just like a hard-won determination something steely about them

01:09That makes me sure that they're going to continue pushing again and again and again

01:13one of the lessons that page money is one of the founders of pair VC told us is

01:18Fundraising is like a soccer game

01:20It's

01:21You know all 90 minutes count and even if it's 0 0 or 1 1 till the 90th minute and you get a goal in the in

01:28Extra time it it's still a win right and that's all that matters

01:32And I will say that that was that was very true. I mean we obviously, you know had a

01:37Great number yeses from amazing partners who are very fortunate to be able to work with but we had a lot of notes

01:42We had a lot of notes and that's very common here in this field

01:47And it's something that I think you know folks just need to recognize and realize it's not everyone's gonna you know

01:52Resonate with what your idea not everyone's gonna be a believer. But when you find the right person who?

01:59Believes in the technology at that point. It's it's magical. Well

02:03Great scientists are not

02:06Super excited about funding or investors. They're excited about working with other great scientists

02:11Okay, right. So the number one strategy for our team has always bring class a players

02:17So what that means is not settle down for like B or C players

02:21But always having the best of the best and that's exactly been our approach is compounding effects

02:26Once you bring someone that is really really good

02:28The next person that you can bring can be really really good as well

02:32Honestly, the number one thing is just picking something that you're genuinely passionate about like you can't since I'm genuinely an artist and designer

02:40Genuinely, I just care a lot about this problem enough to where it doesn't really feel like I'm building a company

02:45It's like I'm just trying to solve a problem for myself and other people just happen to also have that problem

02:50So I think as long as you can get across that one the problem that you're solving is extremely big and can be really really

02:56big but to that

02:58You're the person to do it, right? It's

03:01It just makes a lot more sense and I think a lot of investors and things when they see that they can kind of see

03:06Longevity of the founder really being subscribed to that problem because they have a very close connection to it personally

03:12So that would be like my two cents or advice is like finding something you're just naturally passionate

03:17I shouldn't ever feel like you're trying to do something

03:19The reason I saw like that

03:22I want to be a founder in myself is

03:24Because the moment I was in as a freshman in Berkeley people start dropping at I'm building companies and I'm like no

03:29I want to be one of them and I think I have the great ideas

03:33And that's kind of started pushing me

03:36to try and there's so many stories that people don't know like I actually started a company and like

03:42exited it and failed so many times before Calder and

03:46Those were kind of trials right and in even in Calder

03:50We are so like like like we are so happy with our lead investor who like and our partner there

03:56Is the one who built United mileage plus like today and he built the back end for it

04:02So like we have the perfect people on around the table now

04:06but before this like there were times like

04:09again, I like bootstrap Calder for six months like started like trying to get attraction and customers and

04:16And being in front of like the right people

04:19The only thing I would say is like it's everything looks perfect from the outside and I think the I guess the founders out there

04:26Everything always looks perfect from the outside to everyone

04:29It's not it takes perseverance and just survive through it and then it happens

04:34Create a vision have a mission of like what you're trying to accomplish what you're trying to do

04:38Differentiate yourself and like stick to what's working, you know

04:42like test a bunch of different things and really believe in yourself and like also like

04:46understand when maybe you're not on to the right thing and be willing to pivot and move on to what's next I think like

04:52The biggest thing for us was creating really high-quality

04:56Tech and we really wanted to be able to hire the best people in the software space. And so

05:02Most of our funding goes towards like hiring really really good people

05:07And that's like really the why behind it and most of our cash is just personnel cost

05:14and then we'll go to conferences every now and again and stuff, but

05:18Really goes towards like hiring the best people in the software space and being able to bring on like the best advisors

05:22In the philanthropic space and compensate them accordingly

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