RTC #6: The ultimate tech stack when raising capital

Why today’s issue is valuable to you 💎

1. 📢 Headlines: own the latest talk

2. 🛠️ The right tech stack when raising capital: I got you covered showing you over 50 tools I have been using both as an investor and entrepreneur

3. 👀 In-depth insights: curated reads making you the expert (includes one MUST read)

Headlines 📢

• From pre-seed to unicorn in just 18 months. Voice AI Startup ElevenLabs gains unicorn status 🦄

• Byju’s seeks new funding at less than $2bn valuation, a 90% drop 💧

• From exits to deal value, European VC had it pretty tough in 2023 - last year’s venture downturn in 4 charts 📉

  • European startup funding plummeted

  • VCs are starved for exits

  • VCs struggled to raise fresh capital

  • Experienced fund managers raised the lion's share of VC funding

• Musk denies reports that his AI company secures $500 million toward $1 billion funding goal 💰

• Altman seeks to raise billions for Network of AI Chip Factories 💰💰

• The latest Pitchbook VC Dealmaker is out 👇

(Higher Indicator values reflect a more investor-friendly dealmaking environment (this is NOW), and lower values a more startup-friendly one (peaking in 2022))

• Investors raise billions to buy discounted stakes in start-ups 💸

• Is Reddit planning an IPO in March? 📈

• Plural raises €400m fund — its second in under two years. The team’s lost just one deal, they say 🏆

The ultimate tech stack when raising capital 🛠️

Over the last years as both entrepreneur and investor, I've come to rely on a set of tools and technologies – a tech stack that has been essential in managing capital raising and investment processes smoothly.

The collection I am sharing today is what has developed as my preferred tech stack over the last years shaped by my practical needs and real-world experiences. These are the tools and resources that have supported my journey in capital financing and investing so far, tools that I've found practical and useful in my day-to-day operations.

I have structured them along the key stages of the capital raising process.

Identifying potential investors and building your tailored investor list

• Dealroom → Find the right investor with a comprehensive database of venture and growth capital investors (Alternatives: Crunchbase - free version, Pitchbook - later stage, expensive
• Foundersuite → Offer a comprehensive “funding stack" to source investors, run an efficient fundraise, and update investors
• AngelList → Connects startup founders with investors, candidates, and incubators. Fun fact: Founded in 2010 as an online introduction board for tech startups that needed seed funding. The original “angel list” was simply a list of 25 investors with whom AngelList’s founders shared potential companies to invest in
• OpenVC → Access and pitch to 5,000+ investors for free
• Apollo → Find the right contact details for your investor approach (Alternatives: Hunter.io, ZoomInfo, RocketReach)
• SigParser → Scan your calendars and emails to extract new contacts
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator → Targeted investor identification
• Wiza → Bulk export investor lists from LinkedIn (Alternatives: Phantombuster, SalesQL)
• ChatGPT ConnectionExpert → Network search and find contacts for intros
• Upcoming conferences and events → Know the relevant ones and start connecting 1:1
• Airtable → Keep your investor list organized. Cloud-based databases, similar to Excel but on steroids
• Notion → All-in-one workspace for your tasks, notes, wikis, and databases (Alternatives: Monday.com)

 Preparation of your pitch deck and investment story

• Slidebean → Presentation and pitch deck design (within 48 hours if needed)
• Canva → Not only for Instagram posts, it offers easy-to-use design templates for creating visually appealing pitch decks
• Pitch → A collaborative presentation software designed specifically for creating pitch decks
• LivePlan → Business planning software that helps in creating business plans and financial projections (Alternatives: Enloop)
• AlphaSense → Market intelligence platform
• ChatGPT Pitch Deck Analyzer → Provides you with feedback on your pitch decks and helps you prepare your investor conversations
• ChatGPT VC-GPT → Pitch training with a VC bot

Investor outreach and engagement

• Grammarly → Your typing assistant. Review spelling, grammar, and clarity as you write your emails to investors
• DocSend → Share your deck and other documents and be able to keep track of who actually viewed it
• Calendly → No back and forth (and losing investors) for setting up a meeting
• Fathom → Never take notes on a video call again (Alternatives: Fireflies AI, MeetGeek)
• Loom → Quickly record and share intro videos, super helpful for first investor follow-up email in case of no response

Due diligence process

• Google Drive → Offers cloud storage where you can securely share due diligence documents with permission controls
• Trello → Project management tool to track your due diligence progress and tasks, with a robust free version
• Dropbox Basic → Provides cloud storage with secure sharing options, suitable and enough for sharing due diligence documents

Later stage

• IntraLinks, Datasite → These are the big providers with decades of experience ensuring a highly professional, smooth, and secure due diligence process

Negotiations and investor relations (post) closing

• ChatGPT The Negotiator → Negotiation simulator
• DocuSign → Document signing software that you can use to legally and securely close contracts (Alternatives: HelloSign, Sproof)
• Carta → Equity management platform, manage your cap table (Alternatives: Astrella)
• Slack Free Version → Effective for communication and updates with investors, offering a free basic version
• Beehiiv → Newsletter platform as a great starting point for weekly/monthly investor updates
• Mailchimp → Email platform with powerful automation capabilities
• HubSpot → Free CRM for investor relations management and preparation of the next funding round (Alternatives: Pipedrive, Salesforce, Zoho CRM)

👀 In-depth insights worth reading

Next week we will have a deep dive into the topic of “Valuation” 💲

“It’s been said that ‘price is what you pay, and value is what you get’. So valuation is the process of calculating what something is worth.”

I will cover the following questions

❓How does the approach to valuation differ between early-stage and later-stage financing rounds?

❓As a founder, how should you strategically approach the topic of valuation during the fundraising process?

❓… and stay tuned for many more insights to make you a “valuation expert”!

Cheers,
Stephan 👋

Issue #6 | 23 January 2024