Blog

Don’t just hand your software to a user and assume they’ll figure it out. Teach them to set up and use your solution to ensure they will benefit from using it.

Here we dive into Today Vinovest, a business positioned in a unique market – wine investment – and what made us say yes to a partnership.

When it comes to founder-led sales, enterprise value creation can look (and feel) a bit like a StairMaster. Find out why here.

Ryan Logue is the leading expert on the secondaries market - where investors get access to late-stage, pre-IPO companies by purchasing shares from existing shareholders. Ryan generously offered his time to educate the Small Bets / Hustle Fund community on the history of the secondary market, tender offers, how pricing for secondaries works, and how to find a buyer outside of a company-led round.

Camp Hustle is an investor event taking play May 13-15, 2024. Here's who's speaking at this year's event.

The Deck Doctors review a pitch deck for Eltra, a company paving the way in electric boosters for gas and electric vehicles.

How we collected 6,279 emails in 3 days with our book launch and hit 10,000 downloads.

Limited Partners (or LPs) are investors who back venture capital funds. When a VC raises a subsequent round, existing LPs might re-up into those funds. But sometimes they don’t. Let's find out why.

Knowing your enemy means knowing what your product has to offer that other products don’t, and being unafraid to point out those differences.

Haley is an investor at Hustle Fund (among like a zillion other things). She’s been investing for 5 years, including a few years as an angel investor. Here's her story as a hustler.

The Deck Doctors give unfiltered feedback on a pitch deck created by a startup called BlockPlot.

What personality traits should you have if you’re a founder trying to fundraise money, and is it possible to “turn on” those traits when meeting with VCs?

We spent the last year writing a comprehensive guide to fundraising for first-time founders… just for you. Read it now. 🥳

When investors look at marketing data in early-stage startups, they want to know what your payback period is so they can know how much more money you’ll need from other investors.

VC Twitter recently went a little nuts on the topic of "break-even startups." Here's what I think and why this isn't always a "bad" thing.

Learn what to do if you’re an early stage investor who has equity in a startup company and, for whatever reason, you decide to sell your shares.

Here’s a framework to predictably win deals with executives using the top down yo-yo strategy.

The Deck Doctors give unfiltered feedback on the pitch deck for a startup called DeepTrust.

Learn Armand’s 4-step framework to predictably win deals using the bottom-up champion selling strategy.

Often, the best way to get good at investing is to listen in on an experienced investor’s pitch meetings with founders. So, that's what we did!

The Deck Doctors give unfiltered feedback on a startup called Voda.

You might think being non-technical is a huge disadvantage in the startup world. But actually, your non-technical skills could give you the biggest edge of all.

We learn from Jaime Melzer, active angel investor and managing partner at Hustle Fund Scale, about what it takes to make smart bets in the D2C category and what a realistic outcome is for the brands that can get to an exit.

Fundraising requires 100% of your focus. But how do you balance growing your company and fundraising at the same time? Here’s what you should do BEFORE you start fundraising.

Introducing the first interview of our Angel Squad series, where we talk to rising Creators about their approach and motivation to explore content creation as a part of their online identity. Today we are speaking with Alex Su, head of community development at Ironclad, about his journey, building an online identity, and community development.

Deck Doctors give unfiltered feedback on two different startup decks.

Introducing Second Opinion - a newsletter with unfiltered feedback on startup decks. This project is created in partnership with the Deck Doctors, the guys who help startups get more meetings by making great pitch decks.

Dilution is complicated. SAFEs are too - even though they’re not supposed to be. We break it all down in this week’s edition of The Founder Playbook.

Pro-rata rights offer investors the opportunity to maintain their ownership in a company by investing into the company again. It may be tempting to do this, but it's actually not always the right option. Let's discuss how to decide whether or not to exercise your pro-rata rights.

Back in the day, chatbots were expensive to build and manual to set up. But today, AI-powered chatbots have changed the game. Here’s why your startup would benefit from having one.

Is it too late to start a podcast in 2023? No, it’s not. It actually might be the best time to start one.

Early-stage startups often don't have a built-out version of their product when they're raising their pre-seed or seed round. But that doesn't mean you should skip over their solution during the evaluation or due diligence process. Here are three areas to focus on - and questions to ask - when it comes to understanding a startup's product.

Have you ever had to deliver hard feedback to someone but didn’t want to sound like a jerk? Here’s a framework for giving direct feedback in a way people will actually hear.

Understanding the economics of the business is critical before making an investment. You have to have a sense of how the numbers work, and if the business can reach profitability at scale. Here's how investor Elizabeth Yin does this during a pitch meeting.

How much outside funding do companies at the pre-seed, seed, and series A level typically raise? And what maturity level (or revenue markers) should the company be at to raise at different stages?

I’m often drowning in my inbox and spend a lot of time responding to pre-sales questions, logging customer feedback, etc. I don’t want to lose sight of what my customers want, but how can I get some of my time back so I can focus on higher value things?

If my co-founder and I are an early-stage pre-seed co, how should our time be split between building our product, acquiring users, and raising money? It feels like a lot at once…

So you’ve made a great first impression with an investor. But how do you keep that momentum going? We share when to follow up, what to say, and tips for dealing with investors who ghost you.

You’ve invested in an SPV. Now what?