Talking Entrepreneurship on Invisible Ink

Sometimes, a conversation about the entrepreneurship journey’s highs, lows, and hows can vividly capture ideas and insights. Let me point you to one such vibrant discussion.

Late last year, I met a dynamite woman named Shubha Chakravarthy, and we discovered that we share a passion for helping entrepreneurs succeed. Shubha is the founder and Chief Financial Storyteller at
Achiiv, which helps first-time technical founders build credible financial stories for their startups so they can raise capital and increase their odds of success. We resonated together on how important it is for founders to master the “money side” of startups, from making credible financial plans and models to developing the skills to discuss financing options with potential investors to putting all the pieces together to showcase the essential financial story behind a high-potential startup. As we talked, it became clear that we both valued straightforward honesty, actionable insights, and real-world advice rather than the often-on-offer buzzword-laden theories and wishful fluff. Our shared passion was seeking ways to empower founders to help them navigate the often complex world of startup funding and business building.

Shubha asked me if I would be willing to be a guest on her leading Invisible Ink podcast (available on all the popular platforms including Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon podcasts, and iHearRadio) that is dedicated to helping talented women founders build viable and fundable startups in STEM. Of course, it made perfect sense to me!  Since 2001, I have been deeply involved in high-potential startups. I have been the woman founder of three startups, the CEO or a senior executive of six startups, and now on Boards of three startups with first-time CEOs. For the past four years, I have been distilling what I have learned as a startup leader into my blog at www.StartupCEOReflections.com with the hope of giving a hand up to those who have decided to pursue this most arduous of value-creation paths. It seemed like a perfect fit to share some of these experiences in a dialog with Shubha who clearly understood the critical pieces.

So, since it is so complementary to my blog and gave me a video-based avenue to share my passion, experiences, and stories with a strategy and finance focus, we put our heads together and recorded InvisibleInk’s Episode 53 – Beyond the Tech: Fundraising Secrets for STEM Founders, with Jen Baird. In this podcast, we covered a lot of ground, including:

• My origin story as an entrepreneur beginning back when I was in school – and what it is that keeps attracting me to startups (hint: it is all about innovation and impact).
  
  
• What is different between founding a startup and coming in at a later point as a partner to another founder (hint: it has to do with team building). 
  
  
• What is different between founding a startup and coming in at a later point as a partner to another founder (hint: it has to do with team building).
  
  
• Some thoughts on how financial models fit into the whole fundraising process and how to build up the right skills to engage the money side of a startup business (hint: a startup leader must develop some personal financial acumen). 
  
  
• Some thoughts on building a startup team, including some of the key characteristics that are critical to consider (hint: startups and established companies are very different animals).
  
  
• How I, as a non-scientist/engineer/technologist, keep getting involved in STEM-based startups and contributing my own unique magic to the hard work of building the business (hint: startups are built by teams of people with complementary talents and skills — and figuring out where each best fits is essential. Solopreneurs beware!).
  
  
• What do I look for when evaluating whether an opportunity has the “right stuff” for me to commit years of my and my team’s lives and energy (hint: the foundation is the strength of the unmet need).
  
  
• Things to think through to get ready to raise money and how hard that process is likely to be (hint: what evidence do you need to amass to excite potential investors and some observations and tips about navigating the whole fundraising process at different stages of startup development).
  
  
• Ultimately, we close the podcast by discussing some of the questions potential founders should ask themselves before committing years of their lives to building a startup (hint: know thyself).
  

Many of these topics as well as others have been unpacked in my 233+ blogposts so I encourage you to explore there as you are navigating your way through startupland. My blogs seek to capture lessons I have learned along my multi-decade journey as well as questions I have been asked or mistakes and struggles I have witnessed. My intention is to try to make it a little easier for those pursuing this path to find their way. The same goes for Shubha, whose Invisible Ink podcast interviews tap into the practical expertise of experienced founders and investors who can unpack the strategies, tough decisions, and struggles that characterize the journey.

I hope that this overview has whetted your appetite to give this podcast a listen.

Also, note that I have a page of links on my www.StartupCEOReflections.com blog site to other guest appearances I have made on various podcasts if you would like a little change of pace to listening instead of reading.

Enjoy!