Carl Waldekranz, co-founder and CEO of Tictail, shares fundraising advice on leveraging portfolio company founders to secure venture capital meetings.
Insight
Startup ideation should be a scheduled process, not a eureka moment
“There's this belief amongst people that, like, building a startup or building a company, you're supposed to have this eureka moment, this idea that no one has ever thought of, that just came to you, and that's when you can start a business. And I actually thin…”
Opinion
Stockholm's talent pool outweighs the benefits of proximity to Silicon Valley VCs
“The advantages of being in Silicon Valley close to all of these investors were outweighed by the advantages of being in a city where we have an amazing network, and we have access to this incredible pool of Really talented engineers and designers.”
Insight
E-commerce design directly correlates aesthetic choices to revenue and traffic
“As a designer, it's one of those few areas where kind of like your input and an impact correlate. As a designer, you create logotypes and branding and things like that, and it all looks beautiful, and you feel good about it, but it's really hard to see how it …”
Insight
Brainstorming sessions work best when spread across multiple days
“I think brainstorms work best when they're spread out over, over a time period. I just find it really valuable that, like, as you come up with different ideas or different directions, to let those digest for a day or two, and then come back and continue the br…”
Insight
Reverse bad ideas during timed post-it brainstorming exercises
“Create a structured form of brainstorming, and this is something you learn when you work at an agency for a few years. I love the concept of just working a lot with post-it notes, and just sort of, like, having different themes, like, let's output as many idea…”
Insight
Pitch decks should provoke questions, not answer everything about the business
“Because as it turns out, the purpose of a deck is not to answer all questions about a business. It's to create ground for, like, interesting discussions to come. Like, VCs, in general, are interested people, and they want to be curious at the end of a presenta…”