Familiarity and Founder Fit: The New Rules of Raising Money w/ Samuel Cummings

Seed Money

The playbook of raising money that people used to rely on has changed a lot over the last few years. Now that the market is more competitive and the pace of innovation is so much faster, what worked a decade ago won’t produce the same results today.

Some of the best practices we were taught aren’t as entrepreneur-friendly as we think. A lot of founders are taught to build something massive, aim for a high valuation and raise as much money as possible, but that just might endanger the success of our exit. A lot of founders are taking an entirely different approach - choosing to stay cash flow positive, raise less capital and intentionally work within a shoestring budget.

Can a high valuation end up working against you? How do we create a great founder fit and use familiarity to get better results? Do you need to be in Silicon Valley to set your business up for success?

In this episode, I’m joined by the founder of Dataplant, Samuel Cummings. He reveals how the rules of raising money have changed, and what we should be doing right now if we want to have success.

Topics Covered;

-The truth about getting that first investment

-Pitching and winning a startup competition

-Creating your value proposition and telling your story

-The future of AI

Guest Bio

Samuel Cummings is an author, data scientist and customer success professional with a passion for driving outcomes. He is the founder of Dataplant, an automated customer management platform providing post-sales teams with the insights needed to proactively engage with each of their customers like never before. As former Head of Data Science at Gainsight, he led a global team responsible for implementing predictive analytics use-cases for Customer Success Management. Samuel uses his vast experience leveraging data to help customers make better decisions and build successful hiring programs. He is passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, data science and enterprise software. For more information, head to https://www.thedataplant.com/, watch episodes of The Scope here or connect with Samuel on LinkedIn.

Host Bio

Jayla Siciliano, Shark Tank entrepreneur turned real estate investor, excels in building brands, teams, and products. CEO of a bi-coastal luxury short-term rental company, she also hosts the Seed Money Podcast where she’s on a mission to help early-stage entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality!

Connect:

Website: seedmoneypodcast.com

Instagram: @jaylasiciliano

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