Tsavo Knott

𝗗𝗼 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗿? If you can afford it, the answer is YES. Outsource fundraising prep just like you’d outsource coding, design, or hiring—but never outsource pitching. Why? Because investors want to talk to the founder, the person they’re betting on. Here’s a quick breakdown of the 3 types of fundraisers: 1️⃣ Success Fee Only (1-10%): - Share your pitch deck with their network of 20-30 investors. - No additional outreach if their network isn’t interested. - Often juggle 50+ clients at a time. - Results? Rarely worth your time—your pitch sits in cold mode. 2️⃣ Success Fee (1-10%) + Fixed Fee ($2k–$15k/month): - Rely on both their warm network and cold outreach. - Main focus is still on their existing connections. 3️⃣ Fixed Fee Only ($2k–$15k/month): - Primarily depend on cold outreach. - Rarely leverage warm network connections. What Makes a Good Fundraiser? - They never pitch for the founder—that’s your job. - They evaluate your chances upfront and flag potential issues early. - They review your entire dataroom to identify red flags before you start fundraising. Fundraising is a marathon, not a sprint. The right support can make a huge difference, but it all starts and ends with you—the founder. —— To automate the entire fundraising process, we’re building the AI Fundraising Copilot. Join the waitlist here: https://taskinfinity.com

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Successful Exit from a Failed Start-up? Sometimes, a VC's goals may not align with those of the Founder. In this scenario, there's still an opportunity. Even in Europe, more and more funds and companies are becoming interested in acquiring small, stable SaaS startups.

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One of the most exciting things in software development & design right now is figuring out new UIs that let humans interact with (and increasingly, *collaborate with*) increasingly intelligent software. Huge challenge/opportunity for existing SaaS companies and a big opportunity for newer, AI-native startups. I've mentioned @pointerai by @radejoksimovic as a great example of a new type of user-AI collaboration. Another great example is Granola. I’ve been an early user, and you've probably heard about them b/c they got a lot of momentum in the last months. If not, here’s a short screen recording (blurred for privacy reasons). The reason Granola is winning in such a crowded market (there are dozens, if not hundreds, of meeting transcription and summary tools, including Zoom’s and Meet’s native capabilities) isn’t better raw transcription quality. (In fact, the transcription is sometimes pretty bad, I hope they're working on that!) What sets Granola apart, besides the bot-less solution, is a pretty unique UI that enables user-AI collaboration: You take notes during a meeting, and afterward, the AI enhances your notes based on the transcript (and the meeting type you select). I think it would be even better if they enabled user-AI collaboration in (near) real-time as opposed to after the meeting. You can already see the transcript live, but it would be great to see suggested notes and takeaways in (near) real time, with simple ways to guide the AI – e.g. by accepting or rejecting suggestions or giving it cues. Curious to see how this evolves ... and if you've seen other great examples of user-AI collaboration LMK!

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"We're generating over $250k MRR on iOS but our new web2app funnel is nowhere profitable. What should we do?" This is a question that I got asked last week. For reference, this app has over 10M downloads, 500k ratings and... Well...it's comfortably profitable 🙃 The easy answer is, double down on your iOS funnel, it's working. But that's a cop out if you ask me 😅 The real questions are: ➝ Why do you want to scale on web? ➝ What are the conversion rates through your web funnel? ➝ Can you show me your web funnel? ➝ What experiments have you ran so far? Their reasons for funneling spend into web make a lot of sense so I wouldn't suggest abandoning this yet. Their conversion rates through the upper funnel are "okay" but then suddenly fall of a cliff. And their web funnel is probably the best first attempt that I've ever seen. You can't really get much more best practice than this. So what's the problem? Let's just say I have some hypotheses 🕵🏽‍♂️ ...Case study pending... 👀

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This week on Clouded Judgement: Is Software Cheap? - Median software multiple: 6.4x - High Growth software median: 10.0x - Mid Growth software median: 11.6x - Low Growth software median: 4.6x - 10Y: 4.2% https://lnkd.in/gyxzHJyv

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When I created Founders Game, I wanted a space to empathize with founders at my level. That's why we required founders to have either raised $1M, or generated $500K ARR to even apply. Now, we're opening it up founders at all levels. If you want to join the closed beta, leave a 2 sentence pitch of your startup in the comments below.. I'll be DMing select pitches with a link to an application.

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Did you know that YC founders get a secret weapon… and it’s not what you think. “Bookface” is YC’s internal social network. It was needed because YC had funded larger batches and the hardest part of a community is knowing who is in it and who you can trust and ask for help. On the platform, founders share real methods and advice that would break if it were shared widely It’s secret knowledge shared with a trust-first community - answering 80% of the questions a founder can have about building and selling a product, be it to clients, candidates or investors. Before the platform, if you had a B2B startup, you had to reach out cold to potential customers. Now there are over 1000 YC companies you can sell your service to and all of their contact information is in Bookface. As a result, YC alumni companies are often over 50% of your new sales during YC. It’s superpowers like this that make YC deals so attractive compared to the norm. You are investing in a founder with a 10x network already!

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Don't stop marketing your app... The BIGGEST mistake that app owners make when trying to sell their app is "banking" on actually selling it. Continue growing your app while you... - List your app for sale - Have an LOI in place - During the due diligence Don't stop marketing it until the transfer is complete and the MONEY is in the bank. Charlie Ryan put together this list of the BIGGEST mistakes by app owners while trying to sell their app. Video clip in the first comment.

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This week on Clouded Judgement: Is Software Back? - Median software multiple: 6.2x - High Growth software median: 9.2x - Mid Growth software median: 11.7x - Low Growth software median: 4.7x - 10Y: 4.4% https://lnkd.in/dbzyTXSm

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Want to build wealth faster? Skip startups. Buy Boring Old Businesses. Here’s why: 1. They’re already making money. 2. They come with customers, systems, and momentum. 3. They’re undervalued – 2.5x profits is standard. 4. SBA loans or seller financing make them accessible. 5. Easy profit boosters: raise prices or add new products. 6. They’re easier to scale than startups. Startups fail 65% of the time within the first 5 years. But "boring" businesses? They’re built to last. Don’t build from scratch. Buy something proven. If you could buy a "boring" business, what type of business would you buy?

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People overcomplicate startup fundraising Listen, if you’re a first time founder: Avoid: - Long pitch decks to send out < (15 slides IMO) - Unreasonable financial projections - To much focus on your product/features - Not showing current competition Instead: - Focus on a simple pitch deck that can be skimmed (cause it will) - Reasonable financial projections with assumptions - Focus on the investment opportunity vs product - Show how you are unique vs competition Do this before you send out your pitch deck again. Sent it out from there. Investment is about multiplying money and getting someone to trust that you are the multiplier. Simple yet hard. If you want the exact formula for building up a pitch deck that helped me raise over 4 mio usd. Connect with me and comment PD and I will sent it to you. -MK

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Imagine being the Youngest SWE Intern at a multi billion dollar company Today's guest Harsh A.: Founder of Dev Kits, Tech Kareer- has done that and more Harsh is one of the amazing builders I have connected with on X In this episode we chat about: 1. Finding Opportunities 2. Power of X 3. BuildSpace and DevKits Journey 4. Accelerator and Residency Program Link to the episode in the comments below

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Webflow hit this founder with a 32x price increase overnight, from $468 to $15,000/year! & it can happen to your business too! When recommending Tech for businesses, I tend to lean towards options that give the highest level of control over your code and data, I even recorded a podcast episode on open source alternatives to popular business software recently. This is because I've heard a lot of horror stories and been at the receiving end of changes like this in the last 14 years I've been in business. We've seen sudden changes from Mailchimp, Loom, cPanel and others of recent and this is not going to end! Options like the one below might be easy to start with and use, but long term, what gives? It's important to have a backup plan and consider alternatives that offer more stability and control. This might mean: - Exploring open source options - Diversifying your tech stack - Regularly reviewing and reassessing your software choices Remember, the cheapest or most convenient option today might cost you dearly tomorrow. Invest time in understanding your tech and the risk associated with each choice you make. What steps are you taking to protect your business from sudden software changes or price hikes? #TechStrategy #BusinessContinuity #SoftwareRisk #OpenSource #WebFlow

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Struggling to secure funding? Tired of cash flow problems stalling your startup's growth? In my latest newsletter, I break down how I use conferences for fundraising, networking, and visibility. Link: https://lnkd.in/dQnxvXph #startups #YC #fundraising

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YC released its 'request for startups' last week, and a lot of the areas are not what you might expect... Here’s where they’re seeing the most opportunity to build (and why) over the next few years: - Government software - Public safety technology - Manufacture in the USA - Stablecoins 2.0 - LLMs for chip design - Fintech 2.0 - New space companies - AI-aided engineering tools - One million jobs 2.0 Which YC 'request for startups' are you most-bullish on?

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Most founders build companies backwards. They focus on → Raising capital → Complex features → Pleasing investors Instead, build faith-driven micro startups → Bootstrap with AI → Solve real problems → Honor Biblical principles Stay lean, focused, and aligned with purpose.

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Marty Ringlein has some advice for entrepreneurs: start with the domain name. That helps explain the pithy and memorable name of his new company, Agree.com, a document signing app that incorporates payment services that he co-founded with Will Hubbard. It also explains why he owns the domain Marty.com. Marty is a venture capitalist at the Adventure Fund and serial entrepreneur with several exits. He started companies that were later sold to Twitter, Eventbrite and Brex. If you want to start a company, he recommends creating a catchy name with an available URL. Then you can come up with a business idea and finally the product. “Domains are everything,” he told me when we met at a party organized by Andrew Yeung at Maxwell’s. Marty’s sort of joking but also not, according to his co-founder. Names are a big deal. Will told me a story to illustrate the point. Marty used to be known as Martin. But when he sold his first startup to Twitter in 2012 he was told he couldn’t have the email [email protected] because it was already taken by an intern. Rather than settle for a more complex email address, he opted for the easy to remember [email protected]. In the process, he went from being known as Martin to being called Marty. Marty is big on tweeting, but bigger on meeting people in real life. Marty and I already “knew” each other when we met because I had commented on some of his posts on X and he had followed me. One of the things that has surprised me most about people I’ve met online is how enthusiastic they are about meeting IRL and Marty is no exception. I told Marty that he was exactly how I expected based on his online personality. (Down to the baseball cap!) He took that as a compliment. He asked me what I was working on. I started to explain some of the projects on my plate and he interrupted me. “I have a good name for that business,” he said. “You should always start with the name.” 

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sold nfts on solana in 2021. sol was $200. i had $30k in sol. kept funds in sol. then, crash. sol down to $12. i had $1.8k in sol. gut screamed sell... it was not worth anything. i'd been here before in 2017... crypto market cycles are brutal, but temporary. why holding wins: 1. emotions lie -> fear is loudest at the bottom. 2. fundamentals matter long-term -> if you believe in the tech, short-term price is noise. 3. timing the market is a fool's game -> even pros can't do it consistently. today, sol's > 200$, higher than when i received it. was i happy seeing 90% down? hell no... it was painful AF! patience paid off. build a strategy that removes emotion. mine is i check the price every year. i don't trade. step away from the charts.

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