October 16, 2025 • 34 mins
Scott Kelly is the Founder and CEO of Black Dog Venture Partners, a business accelerator that helps disruptive companies secure funding, grow sales, and scale faster through a network of over 13,000 investors and 40,000 business partners. With more than three decades of experience working with entrepreneurs and investors, Scott has trained thousands of salespeople and built a reputation for driving innovation and growth.
He is also the creator and host of VC Fast Pitch, a national series of investor-founder matchmaking events that connect startups with top venture capitalists and angel investors. Known as a dynamic MC and connector, Scott leverages his network to help founders and investors succeed.
In addition, Scott is a college professor and host of The Emerging Managers Podcast, where he explores why new VC funds might be the next great investment. Outside of work, he is a proud father and owner of Melvin, the company’s namesake mascot.
During the show we discussed:
- Building a list of potential investors
- Using LinkedIn to find investors
- The power of relationships in raising capital
- Creating the perfect pitch deck
- The importance of a due diligence checklist
- Knowing when to raise capital
- Angel investing vs. venture capital
- Finding local investor groups
- What sets Black Dog Venture Partners apart
- How the investor network benefits startups
- How business partners support growth
- The best-fit companies for the accelerator
- Client results and success stories
- What to expect at VC Fast Pitch events
- Common mistakes in investor pitching
- Preparing founders for investor meetings
Resources:
https://blackdogventurepartners.com/
https://vcfastpitch.com/
https://emergingmanagerspodcast.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome to the Business Credit and Financing Show.
Each week, we talk about the growth strategies
that matter most to entrepreneurs.
Listen in as we discuss the secrets to
getting credit and money to start and grow
your business.
And enjoy as we talk with seasoned business
owners, coaches, and industry leaders on a variety
(00:22):
of topics from advertising and marketing to the
nuts and bolts of running a highly successful
business.
And now, to introduce the host of our
show, financial expert and award-winning author, Ty
Crandall.
Hello, and thanks for joining us today.
I'm super excited you could be here.
Today, we're talking about one of the most
important things you need to know when it
comes to raising money, which is really how
(00:44):
to find and pitch investors.
So, as a lot of you know, I'm
on the debt side of things, right?
But there's this whole other world out there
of investors that really want to invest, some
on the debt, some on the equity side.
And this is something that we don't talk
about as much as we should, because we
talk, you can get money from credit card
companies or lenders or all these other sources,
but investors are oftentimes the best avenue for
(01:05):
you, especially if you're raising larger amounts of
money or don't necessarily want to deal with
some of the terms that you may get
from alternative lenders or high-risk lenders.
So, with us today is Scott Kelly, and
Scott's actually a neighbor of mine right here
in St. Pete, Florida.
And he's the founder and CEO of Black
Dog Venture Partners, a business accelerator that helps
disruptive companies secure funding, grow sales, and scale
(01:27):
fast through a network of over 13,000
investors and 40,000 business partners.
And he's got about three decades of experience
working with entrepreneurs and investors, and he's trained
thousands of salespeople and built a reputation for
driving innovation and growth as well.
He's also created and is the host of
the VC Fast Pitch, a national series of
(01:48):
investor-founder matchmaking events that connect startups with
top venture capitalists and angel investors.
As a matter of fact, he just had
one, like, I think, last night that was
super successful we were talking about before we
actually jumped on.
And he's actually known as a dynamic MC
and connector.
He leverages his network to help founders and
investors succeed.
So, in addition to that, Scott is also
(02:08):
a college professor and host of the Emerging
Managers podcast, where he explores why new VC
funds might be the next great investment.
Outside of work, he's also a proud father
and owner of Melvin, the company's namesake mascot.
I gotta see Melvin.
Melvin sounds super cool.
Scott, what's up, man?
Welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me, I appreciate it, Ty.
(02:28):
Yeah, I'm really excited you could be here
because you are on a different side than
I am of money, which I think oftentimes
the more important side.
So, that being said, talk a little bit
about what you found in all the time
you've been doing this that are maybe some
of the best tips to help invest people
out there to be able to find the
right investors.
Absolutely.
When I tell people when entrepreneurs wanna go
(02:50):
raise equity capital, they should start building their
network six months before.
Because the reality is you have to, it's
like any sales process.
You have to build your funnel of qualified
prospects.
You've gotta build the relationship with them and
then prepare yourself for the call and the
(03:11):
consequences of where this first call goes.
And so, a lot of it starts with
building the right list.
I think, unfortunately, a lot of entrepreneurs and
startups, they get a great idea and they
just feel they need to barrage people with
LinkedIn DMs and throwing pitch decks into their
inbox, but you gotta be more strategic.
(03:34):
So, I tell everybody, this is a numbers
game.
If you investors are hoping, if they get
a 300 average, it wins, that's a win
for them.
If you can get a 300 average and
people responding to your opportunity, you're in the
hall of fame.
But it all starts with building the right
list of investors.
And what you have to do is a
(03:55):
couple of things.
You have to make sure you find the
right stage of investor and the investor in
your industry.
Because if you just go out there and
just willy-nilly send information and outreach to
potential investors, you're gonna waste their time and
they're gonna waste yours.
So, the first step, you gotta build a
list.
You gotta have a hundred minimum, maybe 200
(04:17):
investors that you've researched that invest in your
stage.
If you're a raw startup, you're not gonna
necessarily go after the large VC firms because
you're just not advanced enough.
So, you probably wanna talk with angel investors,
high net worth individuals first.
So, determine the stage, determine the investor, but
then you wanna research these investors to see
(04:38):
if they invest in your industry.
What you don't wanna do, you don't wanna
pitch a software investor your biotech.
It's just a waste of time.
And so, that's the really first important thing.
You need to build that over a significant
period of time or a lot of companies
hire us because we already have that.
But if you're gonna do it on your
own, you have to start with that.
And then, you've gotta build a pitch deck,
(05:00):
which really gives you, the investors, the answer
to the key questions that they wanna know.
What's your problem?
What's your solution?
How do you make money?
What are you using this money for?
And how are you gonna get that money
back to the investors, give them a return
of their capital and a return on their
capital.
And then, really, it's like any other sales
process.
(05:21):
You have to work through the communication.
It really starts with being ready first.
I tell people, like I said before, if
you wanna raise money, start six months ago,
building all these things.
Yeah, and I would so appreciate this.
Essentially, I was having lunch with a guy
that wanted some assistance and some feedback yesterday
on raising money.
And we talked about this.
He said, why aren't you in this side
(05:41):
of the business?
I said, because, man, exactly what you said.
I said, these investors invest industry-specific.
We deal with every industry.
I said, so you're talking about tens of
thousands of contacts you really have to have
to be able to help our clientele do
what you do.
And sure enough, you do, right?
Like you've got like 650, 60,000 contacts
with these partners and investors, but you have
to have people.
People don't underestimate the difficulty of what you
(06:04):
do because it is all individual relationship-based.
And you have to have thousands of them
to really be able to help the masses.
So just kudos to what you do and
how you do it.
Now, let's say somebody wants to come into
this and I'm a SaaS company, okay?
So we'll just use an example.
So where do I begin the process?
It's funny, I read a book on angel
investing a while back and this was a
(06:25):
little bit older before AI and technology.
And it said, the first thing you do
is move to Silicon Valley because that's where
all the investors are.
Like, well, this is gonna be a tough
book.
But I mean, it's realistically, like how do
I go and find SaaS investors or investors
in my space that will lend to my
industry?
Well, there's a lot of great resources you
can pull to build this list.
(06:45):
I think LinkedIn is by far one of
the best tools out there in all frankness.
You can search by investors, see their profile.
You can use tools like Crunchbase, PitchBook, AngelList.
These are websites where you can begin to
do this research and find their contacts, find
their LinkedIn, find their email address.
So you start with that.
(07:05):
But honestly, I found one of the best
ways to build the best investor is research
other companies in your space that successfully raised
money, find out who their investors were.
And then maybe even ask for a referral.
You'll find many times that a successful entrepreneur,
they understand it's a grind.
You're gonna hear hundreds of no's.
(07:27):
And so you need to have a database
at scale.
But previous successful companies that have raised money
in your space are probably the best source.
And there's all kinds of events you can
go to around the country.
As you mentioned, I host VC Fast Pitch
event.
We hosted an event last night.
We actually have an online event tomorrow.
(07:48):
We do them every month and we do
them around the country.
Go there and network with these investors.
Don't pitch them.
There's an old saying, if you ask for
money, you'll get advice.
So start by asking for advice in order
to get money.
And so I think there's a lot of
good resources out there, but it takes some
research.
Obviously you can buy lists.
(08:08):
They have mixed results.
But what you have to do is you,
like I mentioned before, you have to take
a group of people and then move them
in from a contact to a relationship, then
a relationship to a pitch opportunity.
Don't try to circumvent the process because at
the end of the day, I get 500
pitch decks in my inbox every month.
(08:30):
And any investor of any reputation is gonna
get at least that.
They have to see what you're doing.
And you really have to be, content is
king.
You gotta be an expert in your space.
We had an investor at a pitch event
several years ago and someone asked him the
question, how do I get in touch with
you?
He goes, do something interesting.
(08:51):
I'll find out about it.
And so I think there's a lot of
different ways you can build that list first.
And there's a lot of great resources.
So when we're approaching somebody, let's say we
go to LinkedIn and we find potential investors.
In my case, it's a SaaS company, right?
So in that case, what do I do
to start building a relationship?
How do I make that first cold approach
where it doesn't seem like I'm just like
(09:13):
everybody else?
Right, well, first thing you don't do is
you don't become a LinkedIn connection with somebody
and put your pitch deck in their inbox,
okay?
That's a no.
That's a step you will get deleted and
probably blocked.
What you wanna do is you wanna ask
questions.
You wanna make sure you've done a little
homework on these people you connected.
So maybe there's a post that was really
(09:33):
interesting.
Say, hey, I really was intrigued by this
post.
If you have a newsletter, I'd love to
get on that list.
Or say, I'd love to just learn more
about the industry.
Would you be someone I could speak to
or do you have anybody that you could
recommend?
So begin to do that relationship.
I find that get the favor bank in
(09:54):
your favor.
Put some deposits into the favor bank first
and then be able to use it as
an ability to make some withdrawals down the
line.
So it really comes down to getting, if
they're speaking at an event, go attend if
you can make it.
If they're doing a webinar, sign up for
the webinar, share their content and they have
a great post, reshare, repost it, share it.
(10:16):
That those things, although they sound like small
little items, that's how you begin to establish
a relationship.
And I think the reality is you start
with that, invariably they'll ask, so tell me
about your company.
If they give you the opening, take it,
but wait for the opening, but start with
the relationship.
Let's say I get the opening.
(10:37):
Do I just do an elevator pitch at
that point or do I even mention raising
capital?
It depends.
I tell, obviously I think it's very important
to have a pitch deck with all the
proper tools in it.
And we have a startup toolkit that we
offer for free, which includes a pitch deck
template.
And yay, the listeners, I can make that
available, but you want to have a good
pitch deck.
(10:57):
But the reality is investors look at opportunities
differently.
We have calls we do with our companies
and investors all the time.
And sometimes they want to go through the
pitch deck, have you do a presentation.
Sometimes they just want a conversation.
So you have to, each conversation with an
(11:18):
investor might take a different form, but you
do have to have the basics.
You have to have a well thought out
pitch deck.
You have to have a good deal room
with all your due diligence materials in it.
You need, you should have that stuff before
you begin the process, because what's going to
happen is if you get, if someone gives,
an investor gives you a call and they
(11:39):
give you 20 or 30 minutes of your
time and you give them a good pitch
and they ask you for more information and
you don't have it, they're moving on.
So have everything ready first, then go out.
Okay, so everything ready first, but should I
start going out and doing the warm up
of finding the right contacts?
So I should do it simultaneously, right?
(12:00):
Absolutely, absolutely.
You can, as you're in your pitch deck,
getting all the information for your due diligence,
maybe getting an outreach email put together and
building your campaign, you can do that in
conjunction with building this relationship, these relationships.
So with that being said, now you said
get all your things together, right?
So let's talk about pitch deck.
(12:20):
You mentioned a toolkit that we can get.
Where can our audience go to get that
toolkit?
Send me an email to scott at blackdogvp
with the subject line toolkit and I'll send
you a link.
Okay, and repeat that one, blackdogvp, right?
Yep.
Okay.
Blackdogvp.com.
Okay, so scott at blackdogvp.com, email you
(12:43):
to get that toolkit.
Okay, perfect.
I'm gonna go ahead.
If you're watching this right now and you
want that toolkit, go ahead and email Scott.
You may hate me for all the emails.
Not a problem.
And then I'll put that on the show
resources page as well.
Okay, so give me an overview and I
know your toolkit has this, but give me
just an overview of like what should be
involved in a actual pitch deck.
(13:05):
Yeah, you have to have some core tenants
in every pitch deck.
One, you've got to have a clearly defined
problem and a problem that's scalable to a
lot of people.
So what is the problem you're trying to
solve?
And then you have to talk about your
solution.
Why is your solution better than anything out
there?
Is it faster, cheaper?
Define that.
You have to talk about your product market
(13:26):
fit.
How are you going to get to these
customers?
What you're going to price it at?
How are you going to make money?
So you have to have that figured out.
I think a team slide is almost paramount,
especially if you're an early stage investor.
And if you don't have the budget to
hire people, bring on advisors to fill the
gaps in some of these categories.
So probably have to solve how you make
(13:47):
money, your team, you need to know your
competition.
And I tell entrepreneurs all the time, don't
say you don't have competition.
I tell people the pencil is still competition
to the computer, okay?
Someone's out there in your space.
And then you have to have the ask.
You have to know how much you want
(14:09):
to raise and be specific.
Don't say I want to raise approximately $500
,000.
Do the research, know how much you need
to raise.
If you are part of your use of
proceeds is development costs, have a quote on
development.
And part of it is for salaries, understand
what they are ahead of time.
(14:29):
So when you go to the ask, how
much are you looking to raise?
What are you going to use the money
for?
And then what milestones can you accomplish and
in what period of time?
So for example, you're raising $500,000, $250
,000 for technology development, $100,000 for marketing,
the balance for SG&A, other ancillary costs
(14:50):
and salaries.
Right, and basically say, if I get that
money today, in six months, we can have
X.
We can have our prototype done or MVP
done or we can be in market.
So you have to create that scenario.
I think it's important to understand what direction
options are.
Investors putting the money in is the easy
(15:10):
part.
Getting the money out is the challenge.
And so you need to show them a
clear path to liquidity or how you could
achieve liquidity and who potential acquirers could be.
A lot of times we've had companies that
their initial customers a few years later became
the acquirer.
So those are some of the basics that
you need.
Now, you had said that you go through,
(15:32):
you do a good pitch, they're going to
want more, you don't have more, they're gone.
So what else more outside of a pitch
deck, what else should I have more ready
for them?
You need to build your due diligence deal
room.
Now, basically what that is, it's kind of
an online source of all the other information
for an investor to make a smart decision.
So that can include current financials and financial
(15:54):
projections.
It can include your team bios.
It can include any intellectual property that you
have, IP such as patents, trademarks, things of
that nature.
Your marketing plan.
So again, there's again, the toolkit, we have
a list of all the due diligence items
that you need to put together.
And you need to have that put together
(16:15):
in a proper place.
You can use Dropbox or you can use
Google Drive.
We work with Fidelity Private Shares, which is
a great platform to put everything in one
place.
Because what's going to happen is once you
do this call, they'll go, okay, I need
to know all the information because this is
a private company.
You can't go to your Quotron or your
(16:35):
Bluebird machine.
And now a quick break to hear from
our sponsor.
Hey, it's Ty Crandall with Credit Suite.
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So give us a call at 877-600
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(16:58):
.com forward slash consult to see how much
money you can get approved for today.
Learn about this company, okay?
They have to get that information from you.
So you need to have all that information.
I think it's a good exercise to have
it in advance.
And like I said, if you have a
successful first call, they're going to want, that's
going to be the next ask.
So I would definitely have at least that
(17:18):
information.
So we've got all this.
We're putting together the pitch deck.
We're putting together, and I love this because
the due diligence is literally the due diligence
they're going to do.
So it's just like the easier you can
make their job, the more that they know
you understand the process and the easier that
you are to work with.
So all those things.
And the reality is they're not going to
do it.
Yeah.
So they're going to ask you to do
(17:39):
it.
So it's not making their job any easier.
It's your job.
Right, yeah.
And that makes a lot of sense.
And it just prioritizes you.
I mean, dealing with debt for so long,
I would say it's about underwriters.
Like the cleaner you can get together a
package, the more they love you and they're
going to entertain what you have because they
don't have to keep coming back.
It saves them a bunch of time.
Well, I should have started with this, but
(17:59):
when does somebody really know whether they should
be trying to get money from banks, fintech,
main banks, credit card companies, business credit, versus
when they should really be going the investor
route?
Right.
I'm going to start with, honestly, the vast
majority of entrepreneurs shouldn't raise venture capital to
begin with, okay?
And there's a couple of reasons.
One, once you bring in another owner to
(18:21):
your company, you bring in another opinion and
you really have to be comfortable with who
that is.
I think obviously, I tell entrepreneurs all the
time, the best way to raise capital on
a non-dilutive basis is go sell something,
bootstrap.
Try to elongate that process as long as
you can.
Now, obviously, debt can be a great opportunity
(18:43):
because you're not giving up equity.
The due doses process is somewhat faster and
easier, but you want to raise, out and
go raise angel or venture capital money.
And I think it's probably at some point
we should probably explain the difference between the
two.
You need to do that to really scale
a business, okay?
I think there's a lot of, especially today
(19:04):
in the age of AI, you don't need
to hire 50 programmers.
You can hire one project manager and a
bunch of AI agents and applications.
So I think some industries need money right
away, a lot of money.
If you're like in biotech or medtech or
something that requires research and has a process,
(19:26):
sure, you need a lot of money upfront
to do that.
But if you're in a SaaS company or
you have a consumer product company, you can
build a business because if you can go,
if you have a company that has some
revenue, you're in a position of strength.
Being a pre-seed non-revenue startup is
a real challenge unless you are Elon Musk
(19:49):
or Jeff Bezos, that's an uphill battle.
So I think there's a time and place
for it, but I think sometimes it's individual
decision and it goes on a company by
company basis.
But I think the reality is, build with
what you can.
Honestly, when I, before I took my first
company public in the 90s and before I
raised any money, and you'll appreciate this, I
took out a bunch of credit cards and
(20:11):
built my business that way.
And by the time I sold the business,
I still owned 98% of it.
So I think there's a lot of value
in looking at all options.
Obviously there's debt, there's credit, there's grants, there's
a whole bunch of resources you can pursue.
You mentioned it, difference between angel investing and
venture capital.
Yeah.
I think what you, and this is where
(20:32):
the research becomes important, okay?
Venture capital firms typically aren't going to invest
in a company unless they have a minimum
of a million dollars in revenue a year,
okay?
So there's a lot of, it's venture capital
gets press like professional athletes.
They get the press for all the, everyone
(20:53):
that's successful gets the press on both raising
capital and sports entertainment.
But they don't talk about the thousands that
went nowhere in either category.
So I think an angel investor is somebody
who's not operating a fund because a venture
capital fund is essentially a mutual fund that
people invest in and these managers are managing
other people's capital.
(21:15):
They're just investing in private companies versus public.
An angel investor is typically investing out of
their own account.
It's their own money.
These folks are retired professionals, maybe somebody who
had their own exit and now wants to
invest in other startups.
I think the reality is you should not
be going after venture capitalists in 99%
(21:36):
of the cases until you're at least a
million dollars in revenue because they're just going
to ignore you or they're going to, they
may take your call.
What's going to happen at the end?
Call us back when you had a million
dollars in revenues.
You're back at square one.
So there's a lot of great angel investors
out there.
And the reality is there's some great angel
groups throughout the country.
(21:56):
Here in Tampa, you've got a lot of
good angel groups.
Every city has a collection of angel groups
that put their money together.
There's opportunities to apply to them.
You can go to their pitch events.
There's a lot of things you can do
there.
But again, there's some people that aren't on
the radar, which could be your best investors.
Some of them could be your clients.
(22:18):
Some of them could be your suppliers that
want to invest.
So I think you've got to look at
angel investors first and then as you grow,
graduate to venture capital groups.
So we look at VC fast pitch, right?
And we want to come and be able
to have an opportunity to meet up with
investors.
Where do we find groups like this?
(22:38):
Like where do we even begin the search
of finding these local groups?
Sure.
Well, honestly, you can Google Tampa angel groups
or angel investors and you'll find a ton
of them, okay?
You'll find them, you can do a LinkedIn
search for angel groups by geography and get
their information.
You could do that on other resources, like
(22:58):
I mentioned, like Crunchbase, AngelList and others.
There's a lot of good places to find
them that they're not difficult to find.
So it's just a matter of doing a
little bit of due diligence searching, you can
find those.
And then that's where you'll go and probably
start to meet some investors.
The more you go, I imagine you're probably
starting to run into many of the same
investors as well.
Exactly.
(23:18):
And that happens all the time.
We hosted an event last night.
We had two entrepreneurs present at this dinner
that we had and we had probably 20
or so investors in the room.
And these people have been in the ecosystem.
They see them at events.
You know, they built a relationship.
So when the time came for them to
pitch their own startup, they had that relationship.
(23:41):
They met each other at various events.
And so they were more inclined to come
listen to their pitch.
Makes a lot of sense.
When I'm in these groups, there's 10 people
there that are investors.
You already told us to help narrow it
down based on industry.
So like, what's good conversation starters?
Like, are those things I ask them early
on?
Like, so by curiosity, what industries do you
(24:02):
typically invest in?
Like, what kind of questions should I be
investigating?
Yeah, this is networking.
So when you go to these events, you
talk less and ask more.
Okay?
It was interesting.
Last night, we had an investor talk to
one of our companies that presented and someone
just barged into the conversation.
Don't do that.
Have a little class.
(24:24):
Have some, be reputable.
But ask them about themselves.
You know, you get great intel.
You show that you're actually interested in learning
who they are.
And like I said, I've trained a thousand
salespeople in the past.
And at the end, if they're not appropriate,
it comes down to the most important question.
(24:44):
Who do you know?
Because a lot of times investors, if you
get asked, it's much like sales.
If they get asked that question, the worst
thing that's gonna happen is they say they
don't know anybody.
But we've had many occasions where investors say,
look, this is a good fit for me.
Why don't you contact this person?
And then we respond, that'd be great.
(25:04):
Would you mind doing an email introduction?
Get that affiliation going.
And we've had many cases where a no
referred as to a yes.
What you do is like, gotta be so
rewarding.
I mean, I love our space.
Like being able to take somebody that's got
a vision and a dream and then get
them the money and then watch them do
what they do.
It's like the coolest ever.
And I just so, I have so much
(25:25):
admiration for you because you've been doing this
a long time and you've built a huge
network and the joy of standing in an
event and like watching that connection take place,
that'd be pretty rewarding.
It's really nice.
It's really exciting.
I moved here to St. Pete about three
years ago and we hosted a few events
in town and I brought in investors from
outside of Florida, from California, New York and
(25:48):
our very first event.
I'll tell you an interesting story.
We did a pitch event in Phoenix about
eight years, eight, nine years ago.
The company's presented during lunch.
They had lunch with one of the investors.
A month later, they got invited to meet
this investor in Menlo Park, California, where they
got a $270,000 check.
A year later, that same investor led a
(26:09):
$3 million round.
Four years later, they sold the company at
a very lofty exit.
And now they are the founders of Space
Station Investments, one of the most active investors
in the country.
So they went from being asking for money
to now being on the other side of
it.
And that was like, that's one of my
favorite success stories because they pitched for one
(26:31):
minute on stage and that turned into raising
their money, selling the company and becoming a
venture capital firm themselves.
Wow.
That's really cool.
I appreciate you sharing that story with us.
So what about more?
Tell me a little bit more about how
I get to, how somebody watching here can
get to you and what you can do
(26:52):
to help.
Let's say we're in Tampa Bay together, but
a lot of people watching or not.
Like I've got people all over the country
watching some of even around the world.
So like, what is the best way for
somebody to get to you and to your
network to be able to start taking the
steps that you recommended?
Well, typically what we do is we invite
someone, we do online pitch events every month.
And I offer everybody the opportunity to come
(27:14):
in and listen in to an event first,
okay?
If they're comfortable with that, then we get
them involved in the process of pitching at
one of our events.
And I kind of use it as the
litmus test.
If they, we do some, we coach them,
we make sure they have what they need
to be good, and then they do a
five minute pitch.
(27:34):
And based on the feedback we get and
the response, then we say, okay, maybe we
should expand the relationship and put you out
to a larger audience.
So it's really, we let them come in.
It's much like when my kids played sports,
you know, I go, watch this guy play
in a less risky environment.
If she gets well there, they can then
(27:55):
move on to more endeavors and more opportunities.
And that's typically how we do it.
That makes sense.
So online pitch events, how do I get
to them?
Yeah, we have a website, vcfastpitch.com.
We actually put our, both our online and
in-person events there.
That we do monthly events online, but we
do live events around the country.
We've done six in the state of Florida
(28:17):
since I've been here.
We'll be in District Columbia.
We'll be in Nashville.
We'll be in New York, California.
And we, so we host them probably about
five to six in-person events at different
places around the country.
Okay, great.
And I see that I can get them
all on VC Fast Pitch.
I also see on VC Fast Pitch that
your social links are on the bottom of
(28:37):
the page.
Makes sense to follow there?
I would, because the reality is in addition
to the Fast Pitch events, I do webinars
on all kinds of topics for entrepreneurs.
We, and they're all free.
So we provide resources to them that help
them scale their business, help them practice their
pitch.
We actually are going to be doing a
(28:58):
webinar in a few weeks from now, specifically
talking about what to put in your pitch
deck.
And so we do this all the time.
And locally here in town, I've done hosted
events at University of South Florida, University of
Tampa, both online for the USF Connect group
here and in-person.
So I feel that information is power.
(29:19):
And so if they work with us, great,
but I still want them to have the
information even if they decide to go it
alone.
Yeah, I love that.
Any other final tips as we get ready
to wrap up?
The things maybe we missed that you think
is important for anybody out there that's looking
to both create a good pitch deck and
then find the right investor for their business?
Yeah, I think the main thing is you
(29:40):
have to understand and be ready.
This is a grind.
You have to be ready to listen to
a lot of no's.
They did a, I think it was Jeff
Bezos they mentioned.
He pitched to, I think two or 400
investors before he got his first check, okay?
So you need to have.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome to the Business Credit and Financing Show.
Each week, we talk about the growth strategies
that matter most to entrepreneurs.
Listen in as we discuss the secrets to
getting credit and money to start and grow
your business.
And enjoy as we talk with seasoned business
owners, coaches, and industry leaders on a variety
(00:22):
of topics from advertising and marketing to the
nuts and bolts of running a highly successful
business.
And now, to introduce the host of our
show, financial expert and award-winning author, Ty
Crandall.
Hello, and thanks for joining us today.
I'm super excited you could be here.
Today, we're talking about one of the most
important things you need to know when it
comes to raising money, which is really how
(00:44):
to find and pitch investors.
So, as a lot of you know, I'm
on the debt side of things, right?
But there's this whole other world out there
of investors that really want to invest, some
on the debt, some on the equity side.
And this is something that we don't talk
about as much as we should, because we
talk, you can get money from credit card
companies or lenders or all these other sources,
but investors are oftentimes the best avenue for
(01:05):
you, especially if you're raising larger amounts of
money or don't necessarily want to deal with
some of the terms that you may get
from alternative lenders or high-risk lenders.
So, with us today is Scott Kelly, and
Scott's actually a neighbor of mine right here
in St. Pete, Florida.
And he's the founder and CEO of Black
Dog Venture Partners, a business accelerator that helps
disruptive companies secure funding, grow sales, and scale
(01:27):
fast through a network of over 13,000
investors and 40,000 business partners.
And he's got about three decades of experience
working with entrepreneurs and investors, and he's trained
thousands of salespeople and built a reputation for
driving innovation and growth as well.
He's also created and is the host of
the VC Fast Pitch, a national series of
(01:48):
investor-founder matchmaking events that connect startups with
top venture capitalists and angel investors.
As a matter of fact, he just had
one, like, I think, last night that was
super successful we were talking about before we
actually jumped on.
And he's actually known as a dynamic MC
and connector.
He leverages his network to help founders and
investors succeed.
So, in addition to that, Scott is also
(02:08):
a college professor and host of the Emerging
Managers podcast, where he explores why new VC
funds might be the next great investment.
Outside of work, he's also a proud father
and owner of Melvin, the company's namesake mascot.
I gotta see Melvin.
Melvin sounds super cool.
Scott, what's up, man?
Welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me, I appreciate it, Ty.
(02:28):
Yeah, I'm really excited you could be here
because you are on a different side than
I am of money, which I think oftentimes
the more important side.
So, that being said, talk a little bit
about what you found in all the time
you've been doing this that are maybe some
of the best tips to help invest people
out there to be able to find the
right investors.
Absolutely.
When I tell people when entrepreneurs wanna go
(02:50):
raise equity capital, they should start building their
network six months before.
Because the reality is you have to, it's
like any sales process.
You have to build your funnel of qualified
prospects.
You've gotta build the relationship with them and
then prepare yourself for the call and the
(03:11):
consequences of where this first call goes.
And so, a lot of it starts with
building the right list.
I think, unfortunately, a lot of entrepreneurs and
startups, they get a great idea and they
just feel they need to barrage people with
LinkedIn DMs and throwing pitch decks into their
inbox, but you gotta be more strategic.
(03:34):
So, I tell everybody, this is a numbers
game.
If you investors are hoping, if they get
a 300 average, it wins, that's a win
for them.
If you can get a 300 average and
people responding to your opportunity, you're in the
hall of fame.
But it all starts with building the right
list of investors.
And what you have to do is a
(03:55):
couple of things.
You have to make sure you find the
right stage of investor and the investor in
your industry.
Because if you just go out there and
just willy-nilly send information and outreach to
potential investors, you're gonna waste their time and
they're gonna waste yours.
So, the first step, you gotta build a
list.
You gotta have a hundred minimum, maybe 200
(04:17):
investors that you've researched that invest in your
stage.
If you're a raw startup, you're not gonna
necessarily go after the large VC firms because
you're just not advanced enough.
So, you probably wanna talk with angel investors,
high net worth individuals first.
So, determine the stage, determine the investor, but
then you wanna research these investors to see
(04:38):
if they invest in your industry.
What you don't wanna do, you don't wanna
pitch a software investor your biotech.
It's just a waste of time.
And so, that's the really first important thing.
You need to build that over a significant
period of time or a lot of companies
hire us because we already have that.
But if you're gonna do it on your
own, you have to start with that.
And then, you've gotta build a pitch deck,
(05:00):
which really gives you, the investors, the answer
to the key questions that they wanna know.
What's your problem?
What's your solution?
How do you make money?
What are you using this money for?
And how are you gonna get that money
back to the investors, give them a return
of their capital and a return on their
capital.
And then, really, it's like any other sales
process.
(05:21):
You have to work through the communication.
It really starts with being ready first.
I tell people, like I said before, if
you wanna raise money, start six months ago,
building all these things.
Yeah, and I would so appreciate this.
Essentially, I was having lunch with a guy
that wanted some assistance and some feedback yesterday
on raising money.
And we talked about this.
He said, why aren't you in this side
(05:41):
of the business?
I said, because, man, exactly what you said.
I said, these investors invest industry-specific.
We deal with every industry.
I said, so you're talking about tens of
thousands of contacts you really have to have
to be able to help our clientele do
what you do.
And sure enough, you do, right?
Like you've got like 650, 60,000 contacts
with these partners and investors, but you have
to have people.
People don't underestimate the difficulty of what you
(06:04):
do because it is all individual relationship-based.
And you have to have thousands of them
to really be able to help the masses.
So just kudos to what you do and
how you do it.
Now, let's say somebody wants to come into
this and I'm a SaaS company, okay?
So we'll just use an example.
So where do I begin the process?
It's funny, I read a book on angel
investing a while back and this was a
(06:25):
little bit older before AI and technology.
And it said, the first thing you do
is move to Silicon Valley because that's where
all the investors are.
Like, well, this is gonna be a tough
book.
But I mean, it's realistically, like how do
I go and find SaaS investors or investors
in my space that will lend to my
industry?
Well, there's a lot of great resources you
can pull to build this list.
(06:45):
I think LinkedIn is by far one of
the best tools out there in all frankness.
You can search by investors, see their profile.
You can use tools like Crunchbase, PitchBook, AngelList.
These are websites where you can begin to
do this research and find their contacts, find
their LinkedIn, find their email address.
So you start with that.
(07:05):
But honestly, I found one of the best
ways to build the best investor is research
other companies in your space that successfully raised
money, find out who their investors were.
And then maybe even ask for a referral.
You'll find many times that a successful entrepreneur,
they understand it's a grind.
You're gonna hear hundreds of no's.
(07:27):
And so you need to have a database
at scale.
But previous successful companies that have raised money
in your space are probably the best source.
And there's all kinds of events you can
go to around the country.
As you mentioned, I host VC Fast Pitch
event.
We hosted an event last night.
We actually have an online event tomorrow.
(07:48):
We do them every month and we do
them around the country.
Go there and network with these investors.
Don't pitch them.
There's an old saying, if you ask for
money, you'll get advice.
So start by asking for advice in order
to get money.
And so I think there's a lot of
good resources out there, but it takes some
research.
Obviously you can buy lists.
(08:08):
They have mixed results.
But what you have to do is you,
like I mentioned before, you have to take
a group of people and then move them
in from a contact to a relationship, then
a relationship to a pitch opportunity.
Don't try to circumvent the process because at
the end of the day, I get 500
pitch decks in my inbox every month.
(08:30):
And any investor of any reputation is gonna
get at least that.
They have to see what you're doing.
And you really have to be, content is
king.
You gotta be an expert in your space.
We had an investor at a pitch event
several years ago and someone asked him the
question, how do I get in touch with
you?
He goes, do something interesting.
(08:51):
I'll find out about it.
And so I think there's a lot of
different ways you can build that list first.
And there's a lot of great resources.
So when we're approaching somebody, let's say we
go to LinkedIn and we find potential investors.
In my case, it's a SaaS company, right?
So in that case, what do I do
to start building a relationship?
How do I make that first cold approach
where it doesn't seem like I'm just like
(09:13):
everybody else?
Right, well, first thing you don't do is
you don't become a LinkedIn connection with somebody
and put your pitch deck in their inbox,
okay?
That's a no.
That's a step you will get deleted and
probably blocked.
What you wanna do is you wanna ask
questions.
You wanna make sure you've done a little
homework on these people you connected.
So maybe there's a post that was really
(09:33):
interesting.
Say, hey, I really was intrigued by this
post.
If you have a newsletter, I'd love to
get on that list.
Or say, I'd love to just learn more
about the industry.
Would you be someone I could speak to
or do you have anybody that you could
recommend?
So begin to do that relationship.
I find that get the favor bank in
(09:54):
your favor.
Put some deposits into the favor bank first
and then be able to use it as
an ability to make some withdrawals down the
line.
So it really comes down to getting, if
they're speaking at an event, go attend if
you can make it.
If they're doing a webinar, sign up for
the webinar, share their content and they have
a great post, reshare, repost it, share it.
(10:16):
That those things, although they sound like small
little items, that's how you begin to establish
a relationship.
And I think the reality is you start
with that, invariably they'll ask, so tell me
about your company.
If they give you the opening, take it,
but wait for the opening, but start with
the relationship.
Let's say I get the opening.
(10:37):
Do I just do an elevator pitch at
that point or do I even mention raising
capital?
It depends.
I tell, obviously I think it's very important
to have a pitch deck with all the
proper tools in it.
And we have a startup toolkit that we
offer for free, which includes a pitch deck
template.
And yay, the listeners, I can make that
available, but you want to have a good
pitch deck.
(10:57):
But the reality is investors look at opportunities
differently.
We have calls we do with our companies
and investors all the time.
And sometimes they want to go through the
pitch deck, have you do a presentation.
Sometimes they just want a conversation.
So you have to, each conversation with an
(11:18):
investor might take a different form, but you
do have to have the basics.
You have to have a well thought out
pitch deck.
You have to have a good deal room
with all your due diligence materials in it.
You need, you should have that stuff before
you begin the process, because what's going to
happen is if you get, if someone gives,
an investor gives you a call and they
(11:39):
give you 20 or 30 minutes of your
time and you give them a good pitch
and they ask you for more information and
you don't have it, they're moving on.
So have everything ready first, then go out.
Okay, so everything ready first, but should I
start going out and doing the warm up
of finding the right contacts?
So I should do it simultaneously, right?
(12:00):
Absolutely, absolutely.
You can, as you're in your pitch deck,
getting all the information for your due diligence,
maybe getting an outreach email put together and
building your campaign, you can do that in
conjunction with building this relationship, these relationships.
So with that being said, now you said
get all your things together, right?
So let's talk about pitch deck.
(12:20):
You mentioned a toolkit that we can get.
Where can our audience go to get that
toolkit?
Send me an email to scott at blackdogvp
with the subject line toolkit and I'll send
you a link.
Okay, and repeat that one, blackdogvp, right?
Yep.
Okay.
Blackdogvp.com.
Okay, so scott at blackdogvp.com, email you
(12:43):
to get that toolkit.
Okay, perfect.
I'm gonna go ahead.
If you're watching this right now and you
want that toolkit, go ahead and email Scott.
You may hate me for all the emails.
Not a problem.
And then I'll put that on the show
resources page as well.
Okay, so give me an overview and I
know your toolkit has this, but give me
just an overview of like what should be
involved in a actual pitch deck.
(13:05):
Yeah, you have to have some core tenants
in every pitch deck.
One, you've got to have a clearly defined
problem and a problem that's scalable to a
lot of people.
So what is the problem you're trying to
solve?
And then you have to talk about your
solution.
Why is your solution better than anything out
there?
Is it faster, cheaper?
Define that.
You have to talk about your product market
(13:26):
fit.
How are you going to get to these
customers?
What you're going to price it at?
How are you going to make money?
So you have to have that figured out.
I think a team slide is almost paramount,
especially if you're an early stage investor.
And if you don't have the budget to
hire people, bring on advisors to fill the
gaps in some of these categories.
So probably have to solve how you make
(13:47):
money, your team, you need to know your
competition.
And I tell entrepreneurs all the time, don't
say you don't have competition.
I tell people the pencil is still competition
to the computer, okay?
Someone's out there in your space.
And then you have to have the ask.
You have to know how much you want
(14:09):
to raise and be specific.
Don't say I want to raise approximately $500
,000.
Do the research, know how much you need
to raise.
If you are part of your use of
proceeds is development costs, have a quote on
development.
And part of it is for salaries, understand
what they are ahead of time.
(14:29):
So when you go to the ask, how
much are you looking to raise?
What are you going to use the money
for?
And then what milestones can you accomplish and
in what period of time?
So for example, you're raising $500,000, $250
,000 for technology development, $100,000 for marketing,
the balance for SG&A, other ancillary costs
(14:50):
and salaries.
Right, and basically say, if I get that
money today, in six months, we can have
X.
We can have our prototype done or MVP
done or we can be in market.
So you have to create that scenario.
I think it's important to understand what direction
options are.
Investors putting the money in is the easy
(15:10):
part.
Getting the money out is the challenge.
And so you need to show them a
clear path to liquidity or how you could
achieve liquidity and who potential acquirers could be.
A lot of times we've had companies that
their initial customers a few years later became
the acquirer.
So those are some of the basics that
you need.
Now, you had said that you go through,
(15:32):
you do a good pitch, they're going to
want more, you don't have more, they're gone.
So what else more outside of a pitch
deck, what else should I have more ready
for them?
You need to build your due diligence deal
room.
Now, basically what that is, it's kind of
an online source of all the other information
for an investor to make a smart decision.
So that can include current financials and financial
(15:54):
projections.
It can include your team bios.
It can include any intellectual property that you
have, IP such as patents, trademarks, things of
that nature.
Your marketing plan.
So again, there's again, the toolkit, we have
a list of all the due diligence items
that you need to put together.
And you need to have that put together
(16:15):
in a proper place.
You can use Dropbox or you can use
Google Drive.
We work with Fidelity Private Shares, which is
a great platform to put everything in one
place.
Because what's going to happen is once you
do this call, they'll go, okay, I need
to know all the information because this is
a private company.
You can't go to your Quotron or your
(16:35):
Bluebird machine.
And now a quick break to hear from
our sponsor.
Hey, it's Ty Crandall with Credit Suite.
Many of our subscribers want to get the
most money to grow their business at the
best terms.
Whether you're looking for startup capital, low interest
credit lines and loans, or business credit, we
can definitely help you.
So give us a call at 877-600
-2487 or schedule your free consultation at creditsuite
(16:58):
.com forward slash consult to see how much
money you can get approved for today.
Learn about this company, okay?
They have to get that information from you.
So you need to have all that information.
I think it's a good exercise to have
it in advance.
And like I said, if you have a
successful first call, they're going to want, that's
going to be the next ask.
So I would definitely have at least that
(17:18):
information.
So we've got all this.
We're putting together the pitch deck.
We're putting together, and I love this because
the due diligence is literally the due diligence
they're going to do.
So it's just like the easier you can
make their job, the more that they know
you understand the process and the easier that
you are to work with.
So all those things.
And the reality is they're not going to
do it.
Yeah.
So they're going to ask you to do
(17:39):
it.
So it's not making their job any easier.
It's your job.
Right, yeah.
And that makes a lot of sense.
And it just prioritizes you.
I mean, dealing with debt for so long,
I would say it's about underwriters.
Like the cleaner you can get together a
package, the more they love you and they're
going to entertain what you have because they
don't have to keep coming back.
It saves them a bunch of time.
Well, I should have started with this, but
(17:59):
when does somebody really know whether they should
be trying to get money from banks, fintech,
main banks, credit card companies, business credit, versus
when they should really be going the investor
route?
Right.
I'm going to start with, honestly, the vast
majority of entrepreneurs shouldn't raise venture capital to
begin with, okay?
And there's a couple of reasons.
One, once you bring in another owner to
(18:21):
your company, you bring in another opinion and
you really have to be comfortable with who
that is.
I think obviously, I tell entrepreneurs all the
time, the best way to raise capital on
a non-dilutive basis is go sell something,
bootstrap.
Try to elongate that process as long as
you can.
Now, obviously, debt can be a great opportunity
(18:43):
because you're not giving up equity.
The due doses process is somewhat faster and
easier, but you want to raise, out and
go raise angel or venture capital money.
And I think it's probably at some point
we should probably explain the difference between the
two.
You need to do that to really scale
a business, okay?
I think there's a lot of, especially today
(19:04):
in the age of AI, you don't need
to hire 50 programmers.
You can hire one project manager and a
bunch of AI agents and applications.
So I think some industries need money right
away, a lot of money.
If you're like in biotech or medtech or
something that requires research and has a process,
(19:26):
sure, you need a lot of money upfront
to do that.
But if you're in a SaaS company or
you have a consumer product company, you can
build a business because if you can go,
if you have a company that has some
revenue, you're in a position of strength.
Being a pre-seed non-revenue startup is
a real challenge unless you are Elon Musk
(19:49):
or Jeff Bezos, that's an uphill battle.
So I think there's a time and place
for it, but I think sometimes it's individual
decision and it goes on a company by
company basis.
But I think the reality is, build with
what you can.
Honestly, when I, before I took my first
company public in the 90s and before I
raised any money, and you'll appreciate this, I
took out a bunch of credit cards and
(20:11):
built my business that way.
And by the time I sold the business,
I still owned 98% of it.
So I think there's a lot of value
in looking at all options.
Obviously there's debt, there's credit, there's grants, there's
a whole bunch of resources you can pursue.
You mentioned it, difference between angel investing and
venture capital.
Yeah.
I think what you, and this is where
(20:32):
the research becomes important, okay?
Venture capital firms typically aren't going to invest
in a company unless they have a minimum
of a million dollars in revenue a year,
okay?
So there's a lot of, it's venture capital
gets press like professional athletes.
They get the press for all the, everyone
(20:53):
that's successful gets the press on both raising
capital and sports entertainment.
But they don't talk about the thousands that
went nowhere in either category.
So I think an angel investor is somebody
who's not operating a fund because a venture
capital fund is essentially a mutual fund that
people invest in and these managers are managing
other people's capital.
(21:15):
They're just investing in private companies versus public.
An angel investor is typically investing out of
their own account.
It's their own money.
These folks are retired professionals, maybe somebody who
had their own exit and now wants to
invest in other startups.
I think the reality is you should not
be going after venture capitalists in 99%
(21:36):
of the cases until you're at least a
million dollars in revenue because they're just going
to ignore you or they're going to, they
may take your call.
What's going to happen at the end?
Call us back when you had a million
dollars in revenues.
You're back at square one.
So there's a lot of great angel investors
out there.
And the reality is there's some great angel
groups throughout the country.
(21:56):
Here in Tampa, you've got a lot of
good angel groups.
Every city has a collection of angel groups
that put their money together.
There's opportunities to apply to them.
You can go to their pitch events.
There's a lot of things you can do
there.
But again, there's some people that aren't on
the radar, which could be your best investors.
Some of them could be your clients.
(22:18):
Some of them could be your suppliers that
want to invest.
So I think you've got to look at
angel investors first and then as you grow,
graduate to venture capital groups.
So we look at VC fast pitch, right?
And we want to come and be able
to have an opportunity to meet up with
investors.
Where do we find groups like this?
(22:38):
Like where do we even begin the search
of finding these local groups?
Sure.
Well, honestly, you can Google Tampa angel groups
or angel investors and you'll find a ton
of them, okay?
You'll find them, you can do a LinkedIn
search for angel groups by geography and get
their information.
You could do that on other resources, like
(22:58):
I mentioned, like Crunchbase, AngelList and others.
There's a lot of good places to find
them that they're not difficult to find.
So it's just a matter of doing a
little bit of due diligence searching, you can
find those.
And then that's where you'll go and probably
start to meet some investors.
The more you go, I imagine you're probably
starting to run into many of the same
investors as well.
Exactly.
(23:18):
And that happens all the time.
We hosted an event last night.
We had two entrepreneurs present at this dinner
that we had and we had probably 20
or so investors in the room.
And these people have been in the ecosystem.
They see them at events.
You know, they built a relationship.
So when the time came for them to
pitch their own startup, they had that relationship.
(23:41):
They met each other at various events.
And so they were more inclined to come
listen to their pitch.
Makes a lot of sense.
When I'm in these groups, there's 10 people
there that are investors.
You already told us to help narrow it
down based on industry.
So like, what's good conversation starters?
Like, are those things I ask them early
on?
Like, so by curiosity, what industries do you
(24:02):
typically invest in?
Like, what kind of questions should I be
investigating?
Yeah, this is networking.
So when you go to these events, you
talk less and ask more.
Okay?
It was interesting.
Last night, we had an investor talk to
one of our companies that presented and someone
just barged into the conversation.
Don't do that.
Have a little class.
(24:24):
Have some, be reputable.
But ask them about themselves.
You know, you get great intel.
You show that you're actually interested in learning
who they are.
And like I said, I've trained a thousand
salespeople in the past.
And at the end, if they're not appropriate,
it comes down to the most important question.
(24:44):
Who do you know?
Because a lot of times investors, if you
get asked, it's much like sales.
If they get asked that question, the worst
thing that's gonna happen is they say they
don't know anybody.
But we've had many occasions where investors say,
look, this is a good fit for me.
Why don't you contact this person?
And then we respond, that'd be great.
(25:04):
Would you mind doing an email introduction?
Get that affiliation going.
And we've had many cases where a no
referred as to a yes.
What you do is like, gotta be so
rewarding.
I mean, I love our space.
Like being able to take somebody that's got
a vision and a dream and then get
them the money and then watch them do
what they do.
It's like the coolest ever.
And I just so, I have so much
(25:25):
admiration for you because you've been doing this
a long time and you've built a huge
network and the joy of standing in an
event and like watching that connection take place,
that'd be pretty rewarding.
It's really nice.
It's really exciting.
I moved here to St. Pete about three
years ago and we hosted a few events
in town and I brought in investors from
outside of Florida, from California, New York and
(25:48):
our very first event.
I'll tell you an interesting story.
We did a pitch event in Phoenix about
eight years, eight, nine years ago.
The company's presented during lunch.
They had lunch with one of the investors.
A month later, they got invited to meet
this investor in Menlo Park, California, where they
got a $270,000 check.
A year later, that same investor led a
(26:09):
$3 million round.
Four years later, they sold the company at
a very lofty exit.
And now they are the founders of Space
Station Investments, one of the most active investors
in the country.
So they went from being asking for money
to now being on the other side of
it.
And that was like, that's one of my
favorite success stories because they pitched for one
(26:31):
minute on stage and that turned into raising
their money, selling the company and becoming a
venture capital firm themselves.
Wow.
That's really cool.
I appreciate you sharing that story with us.
So what about more?
Tell me a little bit more about how
I get to, how somebody watching here can
get to you and what you can do
(26:52):
to help.
Let's say we're in Tampa Bay together, but
a lot of people watching or not.
Like I've got people all over the country
watching some of even around the world.
So like, what is the best way for
somebody to get to you and to your
network to be able to start taking the
steps that you recommended?
Well, typically what we do is we invite
someone, we do online pitch events every month.
And I offer everybody the opportunity to come
(27:14):
in and listen in to an event first,
okay?
If they're comfortable with that, then we get
them involved in the process of pitching at
one of our events.
And I kind of use it as the
litmus test.
If they, we do some, we coach them,
we make sure they have what they need
to be good, and then they do a
five minute pitch.
(27:34):
And based on the feedback we get and
the response, then we say, okay, maybe we
should expand the relationship and put you out
to a larger audience.
So it's really, we let them come in.
It's much like when my kids played sports,
you know, I go, watch this guy play
in a less risky environment.
If she gets well there, they can then
(27:55):
move on to more endeavors and more opportunities.
And that's typically how we do it.
That makes sense.
So online pitch events, how do I get
to them?
Yeah, we have a website, vcfastpitch.com.
We actually put our, both our online and
in-person events there.
That we do monthly events online, but we
do live events around the country.
We've done six in the state of Florida
(28:17):
since I've been here.
We'll be in District Columbia.
We'll be in Nashville.
We'll be in New York, California.
And we, so we host them probably about
five to six in-person events at different
places around the country.
Okay, great.
And I see that I can get them
all on VC Fast Pitch.
I also see on VC Fast Pitch that
your social links are on the bottom of
(28:37):
the page.
Makes sense to follow there?
I would, because the reality is in addition
to the Fast Pitch events, I do webinars
on all kinds of topics for entrepreneurs.
We, and they're all free.
So we provide resources to them that help
them scale their business, help them practice their
pitch.
We actually are going to be doing a
(28:58):
webinar in a few weeks from now, specifically
talking about what to put in your pitch
deck.
And so we do this all the time.
And locally here in town, I've done hosted
events at University of South Florida, University of
Tampa, both online for the USF Connect group
here and in-person.
So I feel that information is power.
(29:19):
And so if they work with us, great,
but I still want them to have the
information even if they decide to go it
alone.
Yeah, I love that.
Any other final tips as we get ready
to wrap up?
The things maybe we missed that you think
is important for anybody out there that's looking
to both create a good pitch deck and
then find the right investor for their business?
Yeah, I think the main thing is you
(29:40):
have to understand and be ready.
This is a grind.
You have to be ready to listen to
a lot of no's.
They did a, I think it was Jeff
Bezos they mentioned.
He pitched to, I think two or 400
investors before he got his first check, okay?
So you need to have.
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