Any startup which is established in order to serve its business objective needs fundraising. Securing a new funding round is a significant turning point for startups. Without funds in place, even the savviest startup founders have difficulty testing market assumptions, gathering new customers, and generating enough investor interest needed for future financing.
In this workshop, Stephany Lapierre takes us through everything you need to know about fundraising from pre-seed stages and beyond.
Bio: Stephany Lapierre is the founder/CEO of Tealbook, a highly coveted supply chain thought leader, and one of the most influential minds in emerging data technologies. She has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Supply Chain, and her company, Tealbook, has both been named a Top 50 company to watch by Spend Matters and won the Cool Vendor Award by Gartner. Prior to Tealbook, Stephany spent 10 years building a successful strategic sourcing and procurement consulting firm focusing on large scale sourcing optimization projects. Given her experience and visibility into the data issues crippling procurement she has made it her mission is to deliver a ‘Trusted Source of Supplier Data’ to an ever-growing eProcurement space. Currently, Tealbook is the only Big Data company that provides a self-enriching and self-maintaining mechanism to fix enterprise supplier data, forever.
Who is it for: Startup Founders and executives with interest in early stage startups
YouTube video: https://bit.ly/TieTorontoYtS5
2. Stephany Lapierre, CEO at Tealbook
- Serial Entrepreneur, investor, mentor
- Top 100 Most Influential Women in Supply Chain
- Board Member:
- ISM Thought Leadership Council
- International Association of Data Quality,
Governance and Analytics
- C-SWEET
- Global Council for the Advancement of Women
in Procurement
- Gartner’s Cool Vendor 2018
- 50 Vendors to Watch 2018, 2019 and 2020
- CIX Top 20
2
ABOUT ME
3. Stephany Lapierre, Founder at Tealbook
- Sole founder
- First time founder of a tech company
- First time fundraising
- Female
- French accent
- 3 young kids
- Canadian
- An ambitious and ambiguous idea
Be aware of how investors perceive you and change their
perception!
2
WHAT EARLY INVESTORS SEE
5. 5
INVESTMENT THESIS
HUGE FAT LIE - The eprocurement software market will fix supplier data (Gartner claims
that 75% of IT procurement projects will fail due to poor data). Millions of dollars are
wasting on failed S2P ad P2P implementations.
Market intelligence is forecasted to grow by $32B over the next 3 years combined with a
procurement software market forecasted to reach $20B by 2021.
Supply chain failed during COVID, which accelerated the need for supply chain visibility,
resilience and agility.
Eprocurement software and SIs are desperate for a solution that delivers data automation
for their customers.
Tealbook is the buy side what ZoomInfo (MKT CAP $15.9B) is to the sales and marketing
side and positions itself similar to Snowflake for supplier data (MKT CAP $70B).
6. 6
TEALBOOK - FUNDING HISTORY
2015
2017
2019
Angel Round
$850k + $150k debt
Seed Round
$2M
Bridge
$1.7M
2019
2020
Seed 2
$3.3M ($5M with bridge)
Series A
$18M
7. 7
FUNDRAISE OR NOT?
Do you
really need
the capital?
What will
you use the
capital for?
Are you
ready to take
on capital?
8. 8
ANGEL
No product
or MVP
Little to no
revenue
Strong
investment
thesis for a
fast growing
market
Personal
experience
with the
problem you
are solving
Access to
customers
9. A Team
Some early
proof of
market fit
MVP or early
version of a
product you
can demo
Early signs of
customer
value
Growth
(data, users, ARR)
9
SEED
10. 10
SERIES A
A strong and
well-balanced
team
Market fit
A fast growing
market
(how big can you be?)
Demonstrated
value
repetitively
(customer references)
Defensibility/
Moat
(will you be the winner?)
Use of proceeds
will results in
growth
(you know where to
spend money)
12. WHAT MAKES YOU DIFFERENT?
12
WHY YOU?
The market and customers
are talking about you
Investors and founders are
talking about you
You are showing growth
Media and analysts are
pointing at your direction
Customers want what
you have
People want to work for
you
1
2
3 6
5
4
13. ASK FOR FEEDBACK
- Why did you pass?
- What are three key requirements missing for you?
- If we meet those key requirements, would you invest? If no, why?
13
LISTEN
15. WHAT I HAVE LEARNED
1. Don’t rush to raise capital if you don’t need to.
2. Use capital where it will produce the most
value.
3. Investors put their money on founders they
know and trust.
4. Not all feedback is good.
5. Be humble and have thick skin.
6. Focus on building the best possible team as
early as you can.
7. Take care of your early customers and turn
them into your biggest champions.
8. Stay connected to your shareholders.
9. Network with other founders.
15
WAR SCARS
?
16. Founder
Do everything
Sell
Survive
Find the opportunities
Filter noise
Hustle. Hustle. Hustle.
16
FOUNDER TO CEO
CEO
Hire great people and trust
Align
Know your metrics
Manage the board
Secure 18-24 runway
Maximize the value for your
shareholders
