Source: Hitech Glitz
There are countless Answers to the question “How did you found your first startup?” But which of these answers apply to you and your situation? Whose advice do you follow when the world is full of people making suggestions?
Well, there is no easy answer to these questions, and sometimes it’s best to just listen to the people who have done it and take away the deeper message. That’s why at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, we asked founders Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins of Promise, Ruben Harris of Career Karma, and Ritu Narayan of Zūm to share their experiences launching their companies and the lessons they learned that entrepreneurs should consider along the way build your own startups.
First, all panelists said they chose the venture capital route to scale and address the complex problems they wanted to solve. Narayan, whose company provides school transportation, said she needed advice from experienced people in the industry to navigate the school and transportation industry. “So I ended up partnering with investors like Sequoia and SoftBank, and today Zūm is post-Series D,” she said.
Still, Narayan’s first checks came from angel investors, and in the early days she had many clients who wanted to invest. She said the best way to find an angel investor is to introduce them and simply talk to people about their product. Harris agreed, saying he has many angel investors and recounting how he raised millions simply by sending DMs to people on Twitter.
“Be prepared to reach out to people and make it clear what you stand for publicly,” he said. “My goal is to make sure that when I’m not fundraising, I’m building relationships with people I want to fundraise from in the future.”
Source: Hitech Glitz
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