Becoming the Pepsi to Indeed's Coke + Fundraising Fieldnotes 9.19.23

Raising $120M for Talent.com

Author

Jason Yeh
September 19, 2023

Before we get to this week's post...

My next free workshop is a big 3-part series starting Oct. 4th.

It's a run-through of the major building blocks of successful fundraising strategies!

If you’re planning to raise early in 2024, you won’t want to miss it.

… and now on to this week’s post

Last week I posted about how special the experience of an entrepreneur is. And since most of my readers are entrepreneurs, I wanted to say something quick that ties into the topic of today's newsletter.

A lot of us have chosen creativity over stability in our professional lives. We've decided we'd rather face the thrill (and hardship) that comes with building a company rather than settling for a job that leaves us feeling unfulfilled.

Sometimes i forget how blessed I am to be surrounded by people constantly taking great leaps in their lives to build something. It's inspiring as hell, so cheers to you all for getting after it!

Insights from Lucas Martinez

Last week I dropped my newest podcast episode with Lucas Martinez, Co-founder and CEO of Talent.com. For some background, after Lucas graduated college he secured a job in accounting and realized right away that it wasn't for him. And when I say "right away" I mean he left after the first day. The guy knew what he didn't want!

Shortly after he decided to create Talent.com with a few of his buddies. After quite a few ups and downs, they ended up raising over $120M for their Series B. This episode tells the story of how that round came to be, so make sure to give it a listen.

Now, let's talk about some of the key takeaways I had from our conversation:

1. Trusting the Fundraising Process:

"I think trusting the process and not getting too excited when you don't have to get too excited and don't get too down when things get hard is something that I wish I would have done more."

This was one of my favorite topics that Lucas touched on. When I asked Lucas what advice he had for founders, he advised future founders to trust the fundraising process and avoid getting too excited during highs or too disheartened during periods of lows. Things can change so fast. I remember when one of my closest friends was raising for his company a few years ago and he called me about a week before his round was supposed to close, worried that he wasn't going to have a term sheet by then. Nothing had been going right for him. A few days later, he had a signed term sheet. Let this also be a reminder to not get too attached when an investor shows interest, keep running your process. Don't drop everything you're doing to try to close a deal. Don't do the chasing, be chased.

2. Professionalize and Plan for Growth: 

"We had this long-term vision, but we didn't have a long-term plan. We always had to think short-term because we needed to put food on the table. And so I think that was a mistake going into the raise… and [I think] the reason why we managed to raise was because of our passion and knowledge of the industry and our execution for all these years."

After years of steady growth and focus on the day-to-day and yearly goals, Lucas and his co-founders recognized the need to professionalize their company and plan for substantial growth. This realization was also a bit forced, once their angel investors decided it was time for them to reap the benefits of their investment. This compelled Lucas and his team to start preparing to raise a round of capital. As you guys know, I'm all about process and preparation when it comes to raising, so I was interested to hear how Lucas and his team went about this challenge. The only thing I'll say is, change is inevitable. Make sure you are prepared to create a plan for that vision of yours, or it will be 10x harder for investors to trust you. I'll leave it to you guys to go listen to the episode to find out how they tackled this.

3. Embrace Failure and Learn to Adapt:

"We don't mind to fail... it's a lot about knowing who you are, and learning who you are is by also knowing what you don't like in life."

I really appreciated how Lucas normalized the idea of what it means to fail as an entrepreneur. Failure is a natural part of growing and scaling a business. If we're not failing, chances are we're not learning much either. As entrepreneurs we're constantly implementing new ideas and exploring different ways to problem solve for our business. Sometimes they work, other times not so much. It's a part of the game, the most important part is how we learn from those mistakes and keep moving forward. Running a business is no walk in the park, nor should it be! Shoutout to Lucas for being so open about his mistakes and lessons learned throughout the episode, I think a lot of you will find his honestly refreshing and super useful.

Listen to the full episode here:
Lucas Martinez
Talent.com

*If you have any suggestions on who we should interview or what we should cover in any of our shows this season, please reply and let us know!

And finally, we'd love to see you subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

Thanks and happy listening!

Get smarter about money. It could help you in your personal life and also think through investor psychology more

This worry is right if you believe the best VCs actually can positively effect outcomes. If those VCs truly aren't paying up YC's new pricing, then it could be a bad thing... (FWIW i don't love the pricing but understand why YC is pushing it)

lol

Small asks!

If you thought this was helpful or enjoyable in anyway, I’d love for you to:

  • Forward this newsletter to others who would enjoy it (use your referral link and get some cool rewards☝️)

  • Follow me on Twitter where I’ve begun building in public (my course, my podcast, etc)!

  • Are you planning to fundraise? Apply to Fundraise with Confidence - the fundraising accelerator program that's helped founders raise over $250M 💰

  • Listen with a friend to Funded, my podcast that tells the rollercoaster stories of how founders raised millions (and subscribe🙏)

  • Ask me your fundraising questions so I can help you and cover them in a future issue

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