UrbView’s Post

Our CEO Zareen Ali is in Sifted today discussing our fundraising journey to date and offering some useful tips for first-time founders. Check out Zareen's post below👇

Founders, are you optimistic about raising funds again? A survey by January Ventures reveals the fundraising market turning in your favor, but not all founders feel the same way. #Startups #Venture #Fundraising

"In 2023, #digitalhealth fundraising took on a bit of a different shape, according to a new Rock Health report. #Startups tried out some creative ways to keep their businesses afloat, including series extension rounds, unlabeled fundraises and silent deals from existing investors." #fundraising #innovation #business

Startup Sprint week to end the year right! Founders & Investors we have lots of events this week and opportunities to plug into the Vegas Venture Ecosystem: Monday Founders Movie Night: Napoleon @ Palms Brendan Theaters  630 pm. Rows F&G for seats Tuesday weekly online: 1130 am pst  Early clients and Go To Market Strategy for your raise Link in comments.  Let’s get you ready for fundraising season come January, these sessions are twice a week. Wednesday in Vegas @Sterling Club 11 am - 8 pm Join us, founders and investors for a full day and pitch night @ 6 - 8 pm Few pitch slots left for great founders, those who are attending Foundrs Collective for Fundraising fluency / Pitch Kung Fu will be prioritized We could use more volunteers to support the Vegas Venture Ecosystem for this event please. Inquire with Kurt Walker Link to register in comments. Code for tickets courtesy of VentureVenues team: VentureVenues100 Thursday weekly online: Foundrs Collective - Pitch Kung Fu @ 4-5 pm PST  Link in the comments. Friday Christmas Downtown w Vegas influencers @ Neonopolis 3-5 pm  @Cat’s Meow. Please Rsvp your guests w Kurt in text/ KurtRwalker@gmail.com Saturday Tech Alley w Vegas Tech Founders 10:30 am  Downtown @ Taverna Tech Alley Startup Meetups all day  Who’s Got My Money? Session w Kurt Walker and funder friends 11 am Sharp.  We feed you lunch after, Free. Share this with all your founder friends fundraising. They won't find a better place to master getting cap ready. #startups #startupecosystem #founders #investors #fundraising #venturecapital

🌟 I woke up this morning to an incredible surprise – a feature about us in Forbes! 🌟 Back in August, we closed Blanka’s oversubscribed seed round, and the response was overwhelming. The influx of questions from fellow founders seeking guidance in navigating today's market conditions was humbling. While I couldn't personally meet every founder (unfortunately!), I set out one evening to jot down my top fundraising insights into a one-page document. This doc snowballed into seven pages... I shared the document with one founder, then another and all of a sudden it had a bit of a viral effect amongst the start-up community, ultimately landing in the hands of the remarkable MeiMei Fox at Forbes. A big thank you to MeiMei for transforming this playbook into an insightful (and much more concise!) article, highlighting my top tips for navigating a successful seed round. My goal was to share my learnings and ultimately pay it forward so that other other founders could find success in the startup journey, and MeiMei (and April Hicke!!) helped make that possible! This article was the culmination of a lot of coaching I received from incredible people who have remained in my corner (also cheered me on when, let's face it, I was on the verge of tears). Thank you 🫶 Forum Ventures team: Jonah Midanik Maia Benson Bocar Dia Paulina Szegda Olivia O'Sullivan Nia Pryce Daniela Pico Founder crew: Kelsey Hahn Kaylan Pepin Renae Farough Anita Ramdas Kristy Ehman Ann Shiau (Anna) Chan Cory Sivell Connor J. Wilson Hype squad: Brianna Blaney Shawn Hewat Yvette Wu Anne Hunger And Catherine Williams Neil Grunberg Lauren Epstein Manica Blain Mackenzie Chambers, CPA Fatima Yusuf Geoff Dittrich Fellow founders! What other tips would you share with those who are raising right now? https://lnkd.in/gPZKWx_h

The growth of a tree is an apt way to think about how healthy #nonprofits form and flourish. Early-stage startups will flounder if they aren’t well-rooted in their #brand. And as an organization grows, it needs the proper external visibility to garner attention and gather resources. See our stage-by-stage comparison. https://lnkd.in/g7QfeMEz

It's getting tough out there. Many unicorn startups haven't raised funds in over three years, highlighting the critical need for continuous investment. For marketing professionals, this emphasizes the importance of crafting strategies that not only attract but also maintain investor interest, ensuring these innovative companies can thrive. #innovation2024 #startuplife https://lnkd.in/gdcfwRt4

Great to see our 'Venture fundraising landscape' report feature in Startups Magazine, with commentary from Adam Baron. Through our collaboration with Focal, the report covers the key questions that will help founders, and other members of the VC ecosystem gain clarity on important topics such as: 💡 How long does a VC deal take and what is involved? 💡 How much equity dilution should founders expect to suffer? 💡 How mature should my company be when securing different stages of funding? 💡 What are the three most important qualities investors seek in a prospective investment? 💡 Why do deals fail? Give it a read if you haven't already!

How has community played an instrumental role in defining Basket®'s product roadmap? 🛣️ Well... As part of our Crowdcube success story series, it was an absolute pleasure to speak with their Co-Founder & CEO Lex Deak. 🛍️ Lex and Basket are on a mission to modernise and transform our shopping behaviours - and they raised £1.2m from 670 investors on our platform to power this journey forward. 🚀 We spoke all about: ✅ Changing consumer behaviours ✅ The importance of customer feedback ✅The role equity crowdfunding plays in accelerating your network And much more! Check out the full conversation below ⬇️ -- What inspired you to start your business? 💬 “Finding frustration with a shopping behaviour that instinctively felt outdated, inefficient and ripe for change. What was a significant challenge you faced when launching your startup? 💬”Using Basket requires a slight tweak to an existing behaviour and then it's a real 'a ha' moment for users. Educating your users is expensive and time consuming but we stuck to our guns and embraced the fact that you need to persevere when innovating and stand firm behind the belief that you're offering a better solution that the status quo. How has community played a role in your business’s growth? 💬 “Our community of over 150,000 Basket users have been instrumental in defining our product roadmap, in opening up partnership conversations and of course in our most recent round of funding. What advice would you give to others looking to build a community around their product or service? 💬“Crowdfunding is an excellent way to accelerate building your own community, once at a certain size it takes on a life of its own and then your role become more about curation and assimilation. What advice would you give to someone looking to crowdfund? 💬 "Aside from investment, crowdfunding effectively crowdsources an army of willing testers, marketeers and more. This exponentially enhances your network, you need to ensure you manage that network with respect and leverage it as much as possible.

🎯 What It Took to Raise a Round in 2023 🎯 Must see insights by founders looking to fundraise created by CJ Gustafson. Fundraising is hard. Anyone who has ever gone through the fundraising process knows this. Having a better understanding of the trends in the market helps to align your expectations and adjust the ask. CJ Gustafson created a one-page summary of what it took to fundraise in 2023 according to the different stages. He also created the same summary for the fundraising landscape for 2022: https://shorturl.at/aimqF Interesting insights: ▪️ Seed stage Startups that worked on AI and had a second-time founder at the helm could double their valuation and the amount raised. ▪️ Series A It is the only round that went up in median valuation year over year. ▪️ Series B Topline growth expectations came down from 175% to 125%. ▪️ Series C Net Dollar retention went from 125% to 120% What stands out to you as a founder? 💬 P.S. CJ Gustafson shares these insights in his Mostly Metrics newsletter. You can subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/g-MFj7Dt #fundraising #founders #startup #VC #seed #funding