 Hello, everyone. Can you hear me okay? Yeah So I'm Jonathan. I'm a partner at molten and before we start I'll play a little propaganda video about us More about what we do at at molten because as as Tommy said I think we are in a pretty good position to talk about the fundraising journey from pre-seed to to late-stage because we are Involved every step of the way In a nutshell what we do is very simple. We Inject into the most visionary entrepreneurs and company The energy they need to transform and grow and that energy comes in very different forms And we do that with a very unique model We are a public company. We listed on food C to 50 Which mean that we have a capital permanent and patient model Which is very important for entrepreneurs because we know that scaling a company from seed to series B and C and beyond Takes a lot of time and the truth is companies stay private longer in in Europe And and the beauty about our model is that our shareholders actually don't want the capital back They want us to deploy it and they have helped us to deploy between a hundred and fifty and two hundred million pounds a year Since 2016 recognizing that you know, scaling a business takes time and capital So supporting our companies throughout their life cycle has always been a Key for us and a testament to that is the portfolio of unicorn that we have such as trust pilot UI pass Graph core Revolute casu and ledger and some of them are investment from 2012 to 2013 So we've been able to support this company trust pilot is a very good example from seed to basically Annex it but of course our portfolio is not only about unicorns it's about providing this energy to any seizes driven founders With a bold vision the ambition to disrupt a market that have found a product market fit And that we believe how of a model that can scale but most importantly That are laser focused on executing and that is working from any stage An example of that portfolio includes basically our portfolio has 67 companies. I mentioned the you know the biggest companies But we also have Companies like mana, which is an Irish drone delivery company We just invested in a quantum computing software business called River Lane in the UK And I can also mention the latest climate investment such as service and and also a Finnish company Satellite company called ice I so we go from you know very small to very big But we also invest in in seed funds. Sorry. I should actually show you the slide here We also invest in in seed funds. We started that program in 2017 with the idea that you know doing early stage and precede and seed deals directly is very difficult for us So instead of doing it directly, why wouldn't we do it through? Early-stage fund managers who we believe are the best in Europe and so we started the program in 2017 and today we have about 60 fund managers That have invested in about 900 companies and the beauty of that is that it's a two-way street for us We send those early-stage business that we like to them and they came back to us two years later Where they are of the size or shape that we need to to to invest And as part of that we have those those guys seed camp of course icebreaker a local fund hardware club and by founders which is based in Copenhagen and and the idea is is both Trying to back local fund managers I think it's very important to have feet on the ground when it comes to seed but also Sees these driven managers thematics and we've tried to do a bit of both You must have noticed also that we have rebranded recently Let me tell you a bit about that over the past five years. This company has been through a Considerable journey of change between a change in leadership And also scaling the business we have transformed into a very different beast from what we wear when we first listed on aim and your next In June 2016, which by the way was five days before Brexit. That's a story for another day And today we're really moving away from having a few key players to a fully built out and scale team That is now listed on on the footsie 250 and our market cap today is about 1.5 billion pounds which is to compare with your hundred and twenty million that we had when we first listed in 2016 So with that, you know, we thought that the time had come to do something fresh We wanted a brand that embodied, you know, who we are how we operate and and you know That reflects our strategy, which is you know to transform businesses And I think that's what we found in in molten You know, it's a brand that is not only befitting of where we are but reflects our ambition as You know a leader of a new generation of tech VCs So our name was inspired by a natural process of state change By which matter is transformed via the injection of energy and that is this energy that I was talking about that We bring in many different forms to entrepreneur its capital its knowledge its experience its relationship and its commitment So today we're going to talk about the fundraising journey from Seed to to grow so and I think it's a very ambitious subject to talk about in 25 minutes So bear with me I will try to do my best and you could download you can download or ask his presentation actually if you write to this email address Because there are a few slides that I believe need to be taken offline So what do we mean by seed series a series B, etc. One way to look at it Is to consider the amount of money invested in the companies But this is very variable and it's changing also. It's increasing if you look at the round sizes You will see that they have inflated considerably over the last few years I think everybody is aware of this company raise more money, but they raise also more money more quickly The velocity of those rounds has has increased interestingly here You will see that the size of series A and B deals Involve pretty much the same amount in the UK in the you in Europe and in the US Which I think is quite quite interesting of course there is still a disparity in valuations Which is why you know US investors are coming here in Europe to invest in our in our companies to benefit from this arbitrage But I think the most important thing here is if you look at the amount of capital that is deployed in venture in 21 year to date. It's not on this slide in the US. It's about 200 billion euros give or take We are in Europe between 75 and 80, but I think what is interesting It's not the numbers, but it's the share of you know the US the euro VC industry compared to the US which has gone from 26 percent to 38 percent So we're catching up and if you exclude the mega deals, it's even more more telling So The next slide this is quite an interesting one and I invite you to take it offline I'm trying here to compare the different phases of a company's life with one of a human being from really embryo to mature or grown-up and every actually Category has a sort of a of a of a stage from you know friends and family love money seed series A series B series C You can you can look at it offline, but what I want to talk about here is No matter where you sit here in my opinion Entrepreneurs are basically the only time travelers that I know if you think about The situation most people live in the present the future is an extension of the present and Entrepreneurs forecast basically a different version of the present and enhanced an augmenting version of the present with technology So what does success mean? What does winning mean? Winning means in my opinion that entrepreneurs can break free of the present and fast track the future Historically if you look at how many of the tech leaders of this world where they started I think it's very interesting to Observe that often those category defining companies were starting in a period of crisis or chaos Where the need to break free was even more obvious But they didn't do that naturally. It's not coincidental It was because what happened where inflection points or what I call trigger points or parting shift And you could say for instance that cost of AI computation is one variable You could say that access to mass audience is one variable or remote working today or the passion economy emerging and Usually the adoption curve follows, you know, recently It's been observed with a network effect when a network effect meets software that in a digital world Everything happens more quickly and the common success factor here if there is such a thing I don't think there is a recipe for success But there are common factors and I think what is interesting from that perspective is the ability from entrepreneurs to understand those inflection points and leverage them capitalize on them and force the incumbents to rather react Than the other way around which has been the status quo so far So in a way, you know at early stage or even at late stage, it's not about investing early or late in a company It's about backing an insight It's about building a mindset to trust founders to ride on that insight and create the breakthrough So if we think about stages, I think you know one way to think about it would be the breakthrough sequence You know, there is three steps inside breakthrough. We just talked about it product breakthrough and growth breakthrough So at seed what is important is to get out of the present, you know start with a great insight break free from competition What can we do that is unique and that consumers are desperate for? monopolize a mind share of the early believers in that market with a view of achieving this total global Egemony have that in mind. This is more the product breakthrough And the last one is the growth breakthrough, which is really like the late stage How do you go from 10 or 20 million of AR to to the next phase, which is a hundred million? It's a very different Different-looking beast So let's talk about seed investing, which is the first slide of our topic so The first thing I would like to say here is it's very confusing when you're talking about seed What does seed mean, you know the landscape for early-stage investing looks entirely different today than it did a few years ago And I think the reason for that is series a investors today are now looking for more and more traction before leading a large series a round and And frankly institutional seed investors have kind of followed suit increasingly investing only in companies with some demonstrable success in the market and and and because Institutional seed investors are funding slightly more mature companies I think what happened is that a new precede category has emerged to fund companies much earlier with a blank check based on a team and this Insight which I just mentioned and and that money basically have the company to get to the next level Which is could be classified as post seed or seed extension, you know and those rounds are to help the companies Meet the more aggressive milestone that they require for series a And and and we'll talk about that but but so in terms of milestone. What do you need? To get when you're a seed business those numbers are not an exact science. They're more like Like an indication. I don't think they are hard and fast benchmarks for you know to clear But there are ballpark estimates which which which are important You can take this offline, but but I think you know for true seed VC precede or angel seed rounds You know what you want to see is some Initial evidence that there is a product market fit. I mean this is what we are asking to those companies very early on right Sure, if you have from 250 to 1 million run your run rate, it's better But if you want to raise a seed round and you start with 10 or 50 K of MRR That is enough to prove that you know the concept is working This is about Proving your your market and and the thing that also I would like to mention is Investors don't always look at top-line metrics, you know a high potential Teams with a really good product market fit a large and attractive market opportunity and a business model that can scale You know is is also something that we need to look at top line matrix are good indicators of success But they're not the one bar too clear to to to to to fast track your fundraising round I think the hardest part to do basically is to create a company that is fundable team product organization sales and you do that while Trying to understand what the other end think the money the investors But I think the most important thing here is Always have your series a in mind if you are a seed investor because the way you're positioning your business is Necessarily to hit the next milestone and the point is that every prior success Depends of the success of the next phase. It's a hindsight industry I think the most important thing is to keep that in mind. Of course There's many type of companies if you are a SaaS business investors will ask you to to show some some MRR if you are a deep-tech business, it's more about product So that's why I'm saying there's not one formula. It's just about understanding what the other parts mean mean so Let's move to series a series a is a very different Situation this is again about product breakthrough and and market and here what people with focus on is more the Opportunity, you know the scale of your total addressable market What problem are you solving and are you doing it in a unique and defensible way? So It's it's it's again knowing what series a investors are looking for It's it's more than product market fit at this point It's really, you know That's a market want your product and and your customers and it's more than simply paying for customers It's about engagement. It's about returning customers. It's about number of active users It's about frequency of usage. It's about activation rates. It's about if your website page views or session times It's about churn churn needs to be under control Of course if you have a negative net retention and you lose more customer than you signing up this cannot work It's about strong organic gross. It's about showing repeatability of sales At this point so through the journey of finding your product market fit You have most likely at this point identified your ICP ideal customer profile Who needs or want your product and you know how they buy it and that's how you can basically tailor your marketing strategy The proof also of attracting strong talent. I think that's very important at series a if you want to scale from now on This is definitely about people So investors would also look at that And and the question is is what what do you need? Again series a rounds can happen with more modest numbers that what is mentioned here I think what is more important that the absolute value is the gross is it going fast and Look if there is a belief that your product or what you do as hit a nerve or is leading to Almost like an addictive user behavior or natural virality. I think in my opinion that beats top-line growth You know, it's just about funding something that works So again like for for a seed round And and this is only me talking the top line is not what matters most It is important of course, but it's more about virality and and how your customer engage with your product every day You know a company with a hundreds of daily active users But no revenue when raising a series a In my opinion is is is likely to unlock considerable shareholder value So yeah, because this product can be built with pretty modest early capital and the coming to series a We are often also seeing cases where a large series a rounds investors have rolled the dice again and and investing People that invest in in those founders pre-launch. It's sort of a new category emerging which you could call You know pre series a or series a but those rounds are quite big and the relative Dollar or pound risk or euro risk is small, but the payoff is usually huge So you see now large funds playing that game of of entering to series a which I think is is is quite an interesting trend So I anything that I haven't mentioned here. Yeah, no, I think we've covered everything I Series be again different beast here series be is usually The critical round on the path to global a Gemini or becoming truly global But it's also often the most challenging round to raise It must be said that at this point if your business is going in the right direction You should be on the radar screen of all the VCs out there So it's not so much about finding, you know, the right investor for you, which is by the way crucial at early stage, right? A good valuation is important. Don't get me wrong But I think picking the right investor is even more important. This is probably also true at series B But at this point You you should be on the radar screen of those guys Because well because you've been growing fast The gross rates of the company that we see at series be now. This is a bit Aggressive but definitely more than 40 50 percent a year and when you go into that category you become attractive for for those guys But but the round is about pouring fuel into a working engine. This is not about approving the business anymore It's about scaling and it's about scaling rapidly Accelerate gross and that therefore for that reason investors will be much more metrics driven I was saying that for seed or series a perhaps top line gross is not what matters the most Here it starts to become the case because you need to prove that you can win you can win the markets So what do you need to show at series B to? To be attractive. Well, I think the most important thing is that you need to show a path to becoming market leader Now is the time to show that you can you can become this category defining company and That you have the commercial engine to do so and that you can scale so sales and marketing Obviously are going to be super key at this stage Efficiency for instance of your QBH cotab bearing heads versus the RTAs. This is a kind of thing that we check a lot because Again, it's not about proving that it works. It's about, you know showing that it works We will look at a lot of the of the cac Metrics by channel sales cycles. This is a point where you're starting really to look at LTV and margin per customer You look at what you were, you know doing at series A and you see if that has improved Again, sales efficiency is is is the most important thing and and and unique economics have to be profitable This is about gross at any cost. It's also about competition The market is becoming narrower at this point and and it's about winning. It's about talent. It's always about talent, you know But here it's it's it's you probably have built a strong senior management team This is about the other C levels and and the VP's you have to know your gaps You have to understand how to feel them and you also have to show employee retention This is something that personally I look at can a company retain its talents as opposed to signing new talents I think it's equally interesting. I've got to watch for time So raising gross Well, there's a lot of advice out there about how you can do that and how you can pitch your startup during your gross round That's not what I'm going to do here what I'm going to do here is talk about the process because specifically You know the behind-the-seed process of preparing your company for a successful gross round strategy You don't have to do this some companies, you know skip the the gross round to go directly to to IPO or trade sale But but the Important part here that it's a much complex much more complex project when you are at this level, you know It touches every part of your business and and and also the enemy here That it will compete with your attention as you're building your company. So I think this is something that you have to keep in mind a gross round takes between six and nine months and and that's time that you take your eyes off your business The best way to do that is to manage the fundraising process the same way you carefully manage your your business The challenge is that you have to do it while in a race against time So what will investors? Prioritize for for this. I think it's it's basically a pinch that is highly convincing It communicates how your product is already winning in what is a large market or you have a clear path to leadership in that market It's just a matter of time. Of course clean financial You got to show gross you've got to show that you know You're showing the vital signs of success growth turn efficiency. You have to show that you have a business that is Not burning cash anymore or it's under control. There is a path to profitability. That's certainly what I feel investors are requesting today But you also want to show and again, this is again about talent here It's going to be one of the duty. I diligence items of your investors. Can you attract and retain talent? I would strongly advise you to also think about timing Because sequential quarter gross is very important for a gross round You don't want a choppy quarter to impact your fundraising investors will look at the gross quarter of a quarter as opposed to year-on-year before and and have a An easy story to tell complexity can kill a gross story it's not because you have a much more complex business that your pitch needs to be more complex and and Yeah, and and last thing I think you know Just just explain how you're going to change the world because at this point It's really about that you are once step away from, you know global leadership and And that's what you need to convey to two investors I think I'm running out of time But thank you very much and you can download these slides from from the slush website or request them at the following address Thank you