Name: Manny Medina's fundraising tips for founders | Techstars London posted on the topic | LinkedIn
Uploaded: 2025-07-22T10:29:01.142Z
Duration: 2 min 5 s
Channel: Techstars London

Techstars London

1,888 followers

3mo Edited

Manny Medina has raised over $450 million to scale his start-up Outreach since pre-seed from Techstars - it’s one of his super powers. So if you’re a founder gearing up for your next funding round, take the advice Manny gave our founders at Demo Day: chasing polite yeses won’t get you cash in the bank. Manny, a multi-time founder - most recently with Paid - has extraordinary fundraising experience (including with Sequoia Capital and EQT Ventures) and offers brutally honest, practical advice for first-time fundraisers ⬇️ 1️⃣ Treat Fundraising Like a Muscle - Keep Training. Fundraising isn’t a one-off show. Every pitch acts as practice, helping you sharpen your communication and your story. 2️⃣ Perfect Your Pitch - Test with Your B-List First. Start by pitching to investors who aren’t your top choices. Use their feedback to fine-tune your approach so you’re highly effective when meeting your A-list targets. 3️⃣ Don’t Mistake Interest for Commitment - Avoid the “Soft Yes” Trap. Warm conversations and positive vibes are not a signed check. Lay out a clear fundraising process, move decisively toward commitments, and focus on driving clear timelines and outcomes - not just friendly meetings. #Fundraising #Startups #Entrepreneurship #VentureCapital #FounderAdvice #Startups #Techstars #InvestorTips #Pitching

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Transcript

A lot of these guys in this room are going to be starting their fundraising journey now or in the near future, Yeah. What are one or two tips that you've learned along the way? So when when you're getting, when you're out and talking to investors, angels, you'll say whatever. Your job is to get someone to wire you money. Your job is not OK yes, your job is not people to like you and not to get that next meeting is to someplace to is to get to the point where you're saying. These are the wiring instructions by when will we have the cash? And you do that with angels, and you do that with Series 8 pastors, and you do with everything in between. My tip is that you get really good at doing this and that you don't stop rehearsing. So there is this line of thinking of like when you fundraise once and then you shut up and you never do it again. I don't agree with that. I think you should always be facing cause when racing is like selling, it's a muscle that you practice and you put it into work And you know, if you're ready to raise that you're talking to an investor, you do a little bit of a catch and release, if you know what I'm saying, you know, keep bringing him in. Ohh, sorry, already raised. I can't, you know, we can't, we should be talking later and. If you don't practice, it's starting. Getting a cold start every year or every two years is going to be way harder. So #1 is getting really good at making individuals i.e. angels part with their mom. #2 get really good at them making interests and then making those people apart with their money #3 get really good at, you know, sitting in large. In, in, in, in small rooms full of people that you don't know that are looking at you and are trying to and you're trying to get their attention. So when you're going to fundraise, make out A list and B list the B list of the people you don't care about that you should get those first. You should pitch in front of all of them and get their feedback so that you can be spotless by the time you get to your list. And this is our rehearse motion. This is an exercise that go into the gym. You have to exercise. You have to do it over and over again and then you get really good at it. If you don't rehearse it, you're going to be mediocre. Every round is going to be a situation. And I work out that you don't want that.

Georgina Smithwick

Investor in early-stage founders // Managing Director at Techstars

3mo

manny's super power!