Seth Lytle’s Post

Big News: We’ve Secured Our First Investment! 🦄 I didn't mentioned it here, but in spring, we closed our first round with $30k angel raised! The team is thrilled, and we’re all charged up to grow 3-5x in revenue and users by the end of the year. A few personal reflections from this experience: 1. It’s hard to slow down and celebrate wins. The money hit our account during regular meeting, we freaked out for about a minute, and then jumped right back into work! Don’t do that. Take a moment to appreciate your hard work. It’s worth it! 2. Imposter syndrome hits hard: “Could we have raised more? Is our valuation good enough?” It’s easy to get lost in comparison. But I’ve learned: trust your process. We have amazing founders-friendly angel-investors and great synergy with other products. Just keep pushing forward. 3. I now understand when artists say their parents only truly recognized their success after seeing them on TV. Media recognition really helps solidify those milestones. Let’s keep building! #buildinpublic

So excited to kick off our Startup Fundraising 101 series with a chat with Arpan Shah, Partner at Pear VC and former founder. Fundraising is painful even for the most experienced founders. But if you're a first time founder without a built-in network, it can feel even more daunting. We're diving deep into the art of building strategic investor relationships, covering: - How did he make that initial connection with his seed investors - How effective are cold Linkedin/Twitter DMs - What are some common mistakes he's seen founders make

If you are a founder looking to raise capital, this roundtable is for you! Join a group of like-minded people on the same journey with similar goals. It helps to walk away with some new ideas and meet people who are living and breathing the same types of struggles/opportunities that you are! #startuplife #startuplifeforever #seriesa #venturecapital

Week 6 already 😱 Time flies and we only have 4 weeks left of the program! This week, we had the pleasure of welcoming back two (now well-known) investors to the program, Erik Lindblad from Zenith Venture Capital and Eira Tobrand from Luminar Ventures 👏 💡 Key insights: - When meeting investors, keep it crisp! Have your house in order! (Documentation, product demo, roadmaps, know your metrics). - Size your round properly: know your runway, dilution, and amount you need to raise based on your plans ahead. - Build and follow a professional fundraising process to concentrate your time on fundraising and be efficient with it. - We dug deeper into the 5 T's: Team, Tech, TAM, Traction, Trenches. - Two common showstoppers for VC's: Uninvestable cap tables and having a vision that is not aligned with the VC model. Thank you Erik and Eira, always a pleasure to have you in the program!

I've spoken to several founders this week gearing up to raise. With the fall fundraising season winding down, I recommend pumping the breaks until January unless you already have enough momentum to close your round by Thanksgiving. That makes now the perfect time to prep your process for Q1. Every Monday from 11.25-12.16 from 11:30A-1P PT / 2:30P-4P ET, I'm hosting an early-stage founder deep work session on Flow Club for anyone who wants to share what they're building and get feedback/support on their raise. 👋🏽 30s to intro yourself and share what you're building 👩💻 80m for muted deep work to share questions/challenges in the chat and get input from me and other founders who join the session ⏭️ 5m wrapup at the end for each person to share takeaways and next steps You can also just come and say hi and do other work 🤠 Often, the best time to connect is before you're ready to raise, and it's always great to get perspective from other founders at a similar stage. If you are interested, let me know which date and I'll send you the sign-up link. 8 founders per session. At Hustle Fund, we invest year-round into pre-seed b2b SaaS, digital health, fintech and web3 companies, and love meeting founders beyond our current network. You can pitch us (I review every submission with support from our amazing Venture Fellows) here: https://www.hustlefund.vc

Have you led a Thrivent Action Team? If not, see how easy it is to get started: 💙 Apply to lead a Thrivent Action Team Project. 💙 Receive your Thrivent Action Kit in the mail, including up to $250 in seed money. 💙 Gather your team and bring your project to life. 💙 Share the results and impact of your project. Need help getting started or coming up with an idea? Let’s talk! Apply today 👉 bit.ly/430FSS9 #ThriventActionTeam #LiveGenerously #ThriventMembership #ThriventClients #MembershipBenefits #Thrivent

Have you led a Thrivent Action Team? If not, see how easy it is to get started: 💙 Apply to lead a Thrivent Action Team Project. 💙 Receive your Thrivent Action Kit in the mail, including up to $250 in seed money. 💙 Gather your team and bring your project to life. 💙 Share the results and impact of your project. Need help getting started or coming up with an idea? Let’s talk! Apply today 👉 bit.ly/430FSS9 #ThriventActionTeam #LiveGenerously #ThriventMembership #ThriventClients #MembershipBenefits #Thrivent

Have you led a Thrivent Action Team? If not, see how easy it is to get started: 💙 Apply to lead a Thrivent Action Team Project. 💙 Receive your Thrivent Action Kit in the mail, including up to $250 in seed money. 💙 Gather your team and bring your project to life. 💙 Share the results and impact of your project. Need help getting started or coming up with an idea? Let’s talk! Apply today 👉 bit.ly/430FSS9 #ThriventActionTeam #LiveGenerously #ThriventMembership #ThriventClients #MembershipBenefits #Thrivent

Is VC your cup of tea? Are you THEIR cup of tea? Join me as I talk with THE Alex Batdorf to expand our notion of what capital and business models are available to early stage founders. If you haven't yet met Alex, she will bring the 🔥 🔥 + the truth + deep experience supporting founders level-up -- it'll be quite the ride. Link in bio. Feel free to share! ---- (DM me if you want links to the two previous no-holds-barred webinars: "How to Raise Like a Tech Bro" & "How to Run a Fundraising Process")

🎙️ Cohort talks: fundraising masterclass with Arjit Johri (VP, Mars Shot Ventures)🚀 We hosted Arjit for a no-nonsense chat on fundraising last week. Key insights: 1️⃣ Perfect the pitch: master multiple versions—1-minute, 5-minute, 15-minute, and a detailed deck. 2️⃣ Follow-up: keep potential investors engaged with strategic updates and progress. 3️⃣ Rejection isn’t final: when it comes to investors, a “no” today doesn’t mean never. Maintain relationships, keep them in the loop. This advice echoes what my YC mentors shared during my own fundraising journey. What stood out for you? Bhavesh Kotwani, Nikhil Mehta, Pooja Midha, Rana Vivek Singh, Pawan Kumar, Mohit Nagaria, Navajith Karkera, Kartik Subodh, Sparsh Arya, Jitesh Bhasin, Akshat Grover Varun Aggarwal Shailendra Nath Jha