Mario West’s Post

In the spirit of keeping it real, it’s important to maintain your belief in yourself and vision for the company but this good spirit thinking although emotionally critical will in and of itself not get you across the finish line. It’s not just about the promising stats of your customer success results and trajectory but additionally about investor success. Think of investors like you think of customers, if you aren’t getting traction you need to re-consider your target and or your offer. And by what advantage do you bring to the investor compared to other investment choices they can make. There’s a plethora of investment opportunities with trajectory stats like yours, why should the investor pick you in the same line of thinking why should the customer pick you over others. enabling ideas® Sern it. Solved it. Built it. #vcfunding #seedfunding

I’ve built an A-Z on everything you need to know on how to start, scale or improve, fundraise or exit your business. There is over 40 subjects, with everything I have learnt over the last 12 years with 5 start ups and 3 exits. The course is 70% complete with a couple of members already paid and signed up. I am looking for one more person, from another industry to join at a heavily discounted price before I go live to provide feedback to ensure everything is covered. If you want to start your business, improve it or generally need mentoring let me know and I will send details. #growth #business #ecom #marketing #fundraising

This post is extremely difficult to write. But you know I always keep it real here for my community. This whole life as a startup founder has been extremely difficult as of late. My mental health has really been suffering. While Toto is soaring and has already tied for highest velocity in our category with category leaders that have been around for 20+ years in retail (*cough rhymes with Shmenny and Shmarry's cough*), raising capital has felt more frustrating than ever. The last time we raised money, we completed it in under 2 weeks. In the last 6 months, I have received the run around from more investors than I can count- and I’ve been ghosted by more investors than I have situationships. If you or anyone you know is serious about investing, I would love to meet them (early stage VC's welcome). High level stats on Toto: - 8x growth from Year 1 to Year 2 📈 - Highest velocity protein cookie in our set in Natural Channel (you read that right) 🚀 - Will be profitable in 2024 (our 3rd year in business) 💵 - Will 2x revenue this year profitably with a 4 person team 🤌🏼 - Multiple CPG founders on cap table who have multi hundred million and billion dollar exits 👀 Send me a note if you’re ready to join the team creating Lenny and Larry’s 2.0. #investing #founderlife

🆘️ I can guarantee you that all founders and entrepreneurs out there that are trying to fundraise for growth [myself included] resonate with this🔻 ❌️ Governments have collectively failed us by taking the world into a silent recession with their pandemic "Money Printing" scheme ❌️ Banks and financial institutions have failed us by diverting all the risk onto the people and not taking a dash of responsibility in their role ❌️ Private investors are understandably scared and don't want to lose their hard earned resources There is only 1️⃣ way OUT and that is HELPING each other as HUMAN does and take part in each other's journey, supporting the brands and founders and trust me it's easier than you think 🔽 ✅️ Purchase products produced by the founders and businesses in your network ✅️ Make introductions that might help founders with more sales, better operations and even potential funding ✅️ Spread the word and highly speak of them in your various circles and gatherings ✅️ Invite them to your close professional circle gatherings and allow them to present their case Tough times come and go and as founders, we become more resilient with challenges. But it doesn't have to take us to the verge of mental illness 🌱

Should publicly traded companies and private invested brands be put on the same pedestal as a 100% family owned business? 🤔 I’m incredibly proud to promote that Goode Foods is 100% owned by the Johnson family. Since day one, my pops never took on any investors. Through a s**t ton of hard work and determination, we’ve grown from a small local Chicago brand to being distributed into thousands of major retail stores across the country. I think it’s incredibly important to note how one bloodline can compete with large publicly traded conglomerates that have millions in funding. Our brand stands out not just because of our quality products but also because of our unique story. While some companies claim to be “family-owned”, many aren’t and have private equity investors or secret celebrity endorsements. Not us, we’re the real deal Holyfield. Our entire staff, except for one admin, is family. ✔️ We’ve never asked for a penny from outside sources. We’ve faced losses, adjusted, and kept pushing forward. Too many folks on here are focused on raising money, but what is really impressive about getting half a million dollars on Shark Tank and losing majority ownership? Those private jets and glamor don’t tell the whole story—many can be fired at a moment’s notice. This concept literally keeps me up at night! 😩 And when my father passed, private equities were eager to meet, but I respectfully declined. I knew they would want to take over, make all the decisions, and likely fire me and my family. This isn’t a knock on companies with partners, but mainly a salute to the true 100% family-owned businesses that are competing without any funding assistance. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. The ball is ultimately in my court, and I can decide to pass the company down to my kids or sell it…but it’s my choice, not an investor’s. To all the families working together for a common goal, I salute you! 💯 #onehundredpercentfamilyowned #noinvestors #eatgoodefeelgood #cpg

Is it just me or when you get a pitch that says "We've made millions in revenue, and growing 10X without investment...but we want investment." I ask Why? Just seems so odd that if you (truly) have organic brilliant growth, why would you give up a large portion of your business to external cash that takes control away from you running your business? I am all for investing early and fuel to grow a fire, but from the founder perspective I always wonder why. I'm not convinced if you're excellent at driving growth with very little that you are exponentially great at driving growth with a lot. Because almost always, it's to be spent on ads or unassigned "marketing" to get more eyes on the product, which from an investors stand point seems a poor use of dollars because this really starts to spin up churn. So again why would a founder want to take on external investment if things are going so well? Is it just me or am I a bit jaded on this subject? Happy to be convinced, if someone wants to take the other side of this. #fundraising #founder #termsheets

When fundraising heats up and deals become more competitive (as I’ve been seeing recently and expect to continue at the early stage), angels need to be competitive in order to win allocation in the best deals. One way angels can show their worth is by leveraging their personal value. How can you help a founder with new customers, partnership opportunities, future fundraising, product launches, and more? We wrote an article recently on this topic, and I think the takeaways are going to be more important as the next business cycle continues expanding.

Will an Inactive Co-Founder Affect My Capital Raising Success? Answers: https://lnkd.in/g6pVR8i8 #StartupJourney #FundraisingStruggles #EntrepreneurCommunity Hey everyone, I've got a situation I could really use your insights on. I kicked off my company about 1.5 years ago, and a co-founder hopped on board about a year ago. Now, he’s planning to exit, leaving me with 90% ownership. My question is: Can I still raise capital with a 10% inactive co-founder in the picture? 🤔 Here’s a bit more about our journey so far: We initially split the shares 60/40 (Me / Him) Post-exit, it’s set to be 90 / 10 (Me / Him) We’re currently at **$150k in ARR**, doubling every quarter 🚀 I’m the CEO, focusing on Sales and various operations He handled product development and some operations So far, we haven’t raised any funds, just bootstrapped my initial investment Now, my concern is whether having an inactive co-founder will hinder my chances of securing investment. **Potential pain points include:** **Investor Perception:** They might view the inactive co-founder as a red flag, questioning commitment. **Control and Decision-Making:** With the co-founde...

Will an Inactive Co-Founder Affect My Capital Raising Success? Answers: https://lnkd.in/g6Q3AjQA #StartupJourney #FundraisingStruggles #EntrepreneurCommunity Hey everyone, I've got a situation I could really use your insights on. I kicked off my company about 1.5 years ago, and a co-founder hopped on board about a year ago. Now, he’s planning to exit, leaving me with 90% ownership. My question is: Can I still raise capital with a 10% inactive co-founder in the picture? 🤔 Here’s a bit more about our journey so far: We initially split the shares 60/40 (Me / Him) Post-exit, it’s set to be 90 / 10 (Me / Him) We’re currently at **$150k in ARR**, doubling every quarter 🚀 I’m the CEO, focusing on Sales and various operations He handled product development and some operations So far, we haven’t raised any funds, just bootstrapped my initial investment Now, my concern is whether having an inactive co-founder will hinder my chances of securing investment. **Potential pain points include:** **Investor Perception:** They might view the inactive co-founder as a red flag, questioning commitment. **Control and Decision-Making:** With the co-founde...

Boutiques who raise billions know this secret Sure, 4Ps of marketing, but this P = sales 💲 Preference Preference creates sales Here's why: "𝗜𝗻 𝗮 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱, 𝗺𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘀." That quote from Ad-man Hal Riney could easily describe the crowded fund space It highlights what makes investors buy: You are different And they like you All things being equal They prefer you Two ways to get Preference fired up for your firm 🔥 >> 1️⃣ 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 Answer the question who are you, where did you come from, why do you do what you do? It's the first step in getting investors to believe in you and people don't buy unless they believe. Backstory, baby. >> 2️⃣ 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱 Let go of the watered-down, wanna be differentiators and embrace the real. The bold. The memorable. Less of the "we outperformed by a couple bps" More "here's what we believe that our peers don't." That's the sauce. 🌟 People don't buy bored People don't buy same People buy because all things being equal They prefer you >> Why do your clients prefer you? How can you lean into that?<< ----- Enjoyed this post? 👍 Like 💬 Comment 💌 Share 🔔 Subscribe My posts help boutique founder / fund managers turn story into sales. #investments #funds #founders #sales #capitalraising #fundraising #storytelling #personalbranding