The last #EcosystemGiants for this season - Ed Shrager (Founder and CEO, Joggo) on Tuesday, 29 June 2021!
#EcosystemGiants are the talks that highlight the leaders redefining the tech investment and entrepreneurship landscape. A different session, especially for founders.
New to ‘Ecosystem’? This project aims to contribute to democratizing access to venture for less networked founders and junior VC through a newsletter and online initiatives (#EcosystemGiants). Find out more here or become an annual subscriber to support it grow.
*If this post was delivered directly to your inbox**, welcome back! You are likely already familiar with the ‘Ecosystem’ project and the inspiration behind it : to tackle the barriers to entry in early-stage venture. If you are a regular reader, there is a very high chance you are a founder, set out to raise the first round of external funding or aspire to build a career in venture - if you fall into either of these two categories, you will find the next #EcosystemGiants session of value.
**If this post was forwarded to you, do drop me a line to introduce yourself. I would love to find out what interests you about the ‘Ecosystem’ project and the resources/guides you may find most helpful.
Raising venture capital is hard. To put it in perspective, the odds of securing a funding round from a VC firm are well below 1%. And even after raising VC money, the chances of a start-up being successful are 1 in 2000. Yet we have seen early stage rounds being closed in days, term sheets issued in hours and investors struggling to get allocation in very competitive deals. What makes a start-up deal ‘hot’ and what is it like to raise VC money from world’s top investors at idea stage? The last #EcosystemGiants session for this season is very special. It follows the exact aim and purpose of the ‘Ecosystem’ project - to tackle the issue of closed networks in venture and to help (pre)seed founders from less ‘obvious’ backgrounds gain unique industry insight that will help in your fundraising journey. It is a a great pleasure to welcome Softbank director turned tech entrepreneur Ed Shrager (Founder and CEO, Joggo) at 6pm CET (5pm BST) on Tuesday, 29 June 2021!
Ed is the founder of Joggo, a San-Francisco-based personal content management platform, which raised over $4M from world-class venture capital funds. Prior to going into entrepreneurship Ed was part of the founding team at Softbank, the largest venture capital fund in the world. There he led investments totalling over $5B: Cruise Automation, Nuro, and Flexport. In his early days, he spent a decade investing in high growth media and technology businesses (his finance career started with an investment banking role in London). Ed has broad geographic investment experience having worked at the World Bank investing in emerging markets where he led investments in a diverse range of sectors from transportation, logistics, telecoms and financial services.
A conversation about :
Ed’s transition from capital allocator to a founder, raising capital
Securing seed capital weeks after leaving Softbank
Knowing when and how to pivot
Building in private VS building in public
Tune in at 18:00 CEST (17:00 BST) on Tuesday 29 June 2021
A session in partnership with EMERGE, an accelerator program 'powered by capital' through a partnership of some of Europe's top funds Softbank Investment Advisers, Speedinvest, Cherry, Breega, Kindred and First Minute. It gives underrepresented founders raising their seed rounds a unique opportunity to receive very meaningful capital as this coalition has come together with the intent to lead seed rounds into those in the program - a great way to circumvent the need for "warm intros". Emerge also includes an acceleration program focused on scaling. Founders, apply by 7 July for a chance to join the cohort!
Timings (CEST)
18:00 Start; in conversation with Ed Shrager (Founder and CEO, Joggo) covering:
- His transition from capital allocator to a founder, fundraising
- Securing seed capital weeks after leaving Softbank
- Knowing when and how to pivot
- Building in private VS building in public
18:25 Open Q&A
18:40 Pitchdeck walkthrough
Before we close, Ed will share more about the exact presentation he used in the fundraise and give advice on must-have slides.
Supported by community partners:
ParlayMe, Startups Magazine, MentorshipHub, Kaiku
If you would like to find out more about the ‘Ecosystem’ project, you may reach me on Twitter or Linkedin.