 Hi, I'm David and as you just heard, I'm the founder and CEO of sender Today I have the pleasure to tell you all about my personal fundraising journey that allowed me to raise Approximately 300 million euros The focus of today is gonna be my first fund raise as you will hear in a few minutes It was a roller coaster. I'll tell you more about how I got to that roller coaster And then also a couple of the loops and challenges I faced after my first fundraise so Let's kick this off After telling you about my journey I'm gonna tell you also about three Mistakes that I did or almost it and then I'm gonna share also three learnings and recommendations with you for those of you who are about to fund raise My objective today is to share my story to give you young founders That about to raise an idea on how such a journey could be and how to go through the good and what difficult times So as we're gonna spend the next 30 minutes together. I quickly want to introduce myself. I Started business and after graduating in 29 back then consulting was the cool thing Startups and tech was just coming and I went into managing consulting to learn a lot But this is also where I met my two co-founders necron Julius with whom a few years later I started sender 2.0, but more to that later After a couple of years in consulting I decided to go back to university to take a break The first two weeks of my MBA completely changed The way my career would develop and therefore also my personal life Instead of going back to consulting. I decided to start my own company sender So let's quickly zoom into these first weeks of My MBA back then I did a group project This is a picture from our graduation in 2015, but in 2014 we did the project for the founder of blah blah car He asked us fresh students to come up with ideas on how blah blah car could Evolve their business model. So we started working on an idea In after graduating in 2015. I managed to convince one of my group mates Nikki It's a bald guy behind the four to move with me to Berlin To start sender 1.0 Back then I still remember how I thought I had the best business idea ever and A beautiful presentation and I only thought I have to execute that perfect plan Back then we managed to raise some money I wouldn't consider this my first fundraise was more family friends classmates and a couple of professors They probably gave us some money because they didn't want to get one more call or one more email from us So with around 30,000 euros We moved to Berlin Nikki and I and we started to implement sender 1.0 Center 1.0 quickly was a same-day parcel delivery Company that wanted to leverage buses to move parcels cheaply between cities and Then with the first and last my career offer same-day parcel delivery To smaller e-commerce companies that were not called Amazon in Zalando that had to compete with the same-day offering We tried this for one entire year and We had zero Customers, so we should have picked it up a bit earlier that the first business model was not great To make things even worse. We were running out of money We really hired a couple of employees had set up Operations the picture that you saw earlier was actually our operations and then we decided okay Now we have to structure our first fund raise properly so I participated In a couple of pitching events one of these events Was with the angel investors After my pitch where pitch the idea where that which I knew was So-so one of the investors approached me asked me David. Can we go into a different room? I would like to talk to you about the investment opportunity said great So went into the room his name was Omar and Omar asked me David. How much are you raising and? Answered 250,000 euros And he said we might have a problem and I thought okay Maybe I went in with the number that was too big, but he answered I started investing at 500,000 I said okay, Omar. I think we're gonna find a way to work this out So over the past next few weeks we started negotiating with Omar the angel investor He knew that we were running out of money So he was willing to lend us some money that would then be converted into equity at a later moment We were finalizing the term sheet He is Canadian Jordanian So he was on the way from Canada to Jordan and stopped in Berlin to finalize and sign the term sheet He came we signed the term sheet and this is the moment where I thought okay I'm the coolest entrepreneur in Berlin don't have a business model that works, but money coming So I'm gonna figure it out and my back then co-founder told me David. I have to talk to you. Can we go back to the room? Said okay, but let's grab some bs. You know now. I have to talk to you. So we get into the room and Nikki told me very quickly that he's leaving sender We both Sponsored student he had an offer to go back to his management consulting company and understood that he was Leaving for a good reason in that same moment. I also understood That there was no future for sender. I Knew the moment I would tell Omar that 50% of the team was leaving the founding team was leaving He would say no I also didn't want to take the responsibility from our friends classmates and professors to continue on my own and also finding a New business model that worked on my own is something that I didn't feel like I was up to so Eventually we got the few beers Walk back home. We were living together and Really thought about how to close down the company file for insolvency with a Thursday We plan to go the next Monday To file for bankruptcy. We really had we thought about where can we position our first employees that we have in startups that we knew had a couple of beers finally well deserved I thought back then and On my way home. I also called my father. My father is an entrepreneur bit of a role model explain him this is him the situation And my dad told me David. There's one last thing you have to try to do before you give up He told me by the way Learning how to file for insolvency is a good learning for young entrepreneur. We said before you go that path try one more thing Speak to the angel investor try to convince him if he says no It's clear that you file for bankruptcy if he's if he says yes You can still decide whether want to do it or not, but you invested so much time and energy try it So I said, okay, I have nothing to lose Let's try it called Omar told him that Nicky was leaving. He was not amused He thought we played him. He thought we planned this Nicky also tried to call Omar same reaction Didn't didn't work out and Then a day later called Omar again. He was in Jordan Visiting his family and I told him Omar. I'm very sorry and a few felt very sorry He invested a lot of time and really thought we played him and I said Can I talk to you in person? I said David very Arabic for me if you want to talk to me, you're always welcome to visit me Says, you know what Omar? I'm coming jumped on the plane the next day on a Sunday flew to Jordan first time When I arrived there I Was welcomed by Omar his family and his entire business partners It's a big table with food tea drinks the first few minute hours was only about chitchatting getting to know each other Then we went into a separate room Smaller group of us and we started really negotiating. It was like bit in the movie. I imagine a movie Unfolding and we started negotiating higher risk. We need more shareholding. We started negotiating And at the end they got a very good deal and At the end everyone in that room ended up investing Luckily to one single entity. This was extremely important, but everyone was investing a total of 500,000 euros said okay Said goodbye to everyone At the door Omar took me to his front door and he told me David You're not gonna fail And I was thinking Did Omar really listen to me? I was trying to be transparent. It's a startup high risk But I asked him why do you think I'm not gonna fail and his answer was You know part of the family and will not allow you to fail. I Never felt so much pressure in my entire life On the way back to the airport I really thought should I really do this and get into you know even more pressure of people that you know Believe in me and that might be disappointed later on. I ended up Jumping on the plane landing in Berlin Two days later felt like it was too late. I called my second now new co-founder told him Hey, I have a startup 500,000 euros coming looking for co-founder. I have a few ideas. Do you want to join? And he said yes, and I said great. There's only one condition. I have one ask I need the place where I can sleep a couple of nights because I was living with my first co-founder Nikki So moved in with Nico my new co-founder and his flatmate Few months later still living there and the other flatmate had no choice but to join a third co-founder together with the two We started sender 2.0 a digital freight forwarder as you had Had earlier to my grandmother explained sender as an Uber for trucks We connect the likes of Coca-Cola that need to move freight from point A to point B with big trucks With small trucking company on the other side This was working definitely much better. We were able to Show some traction finally some revenue and this is then when after my fundraised a few other fundraisers that followed the second fundraise was Also pretty tricky. We showed up at all the venture capital firms in Berlin Presented sender and they all told us very nice model We even liked the team, but there are six or seven other teams in Germany alone and around 20 in Europe doing exactly the same But they told us don't worry come back in a year time when you show that you're growing faster, and we happily give you the money This didn't help us. We needed the money there because we're running out of get of money. Luckily we found Scania a corporate investor that invested and that then unlocked our growth and over the years we managed to raise money from a number of very strong venture capital firms including HV capital project a excel Lake star Belligerford and a few others as well Now Three mistakes to avoid three mistakes that we made or we all almost made at sender The first mistake you should be avoiding is to optimize only for shareholding and this only applies to a Situation where you have more than one term sheet If you're only one term sheet There's not much to optimize. You just have to try to best in your negotiation But if you have multiple term sheets Try to find the right partner After our round at Scania things Started developing very nicely and we went back to all the VCs that told us Hey come back when when when you're growing and we went a very privileged position. We had I think six or seven term sheets back then and One of them was pricing sender significantly higher than all the others and To be honest back then VCs for me were like Very different, but also very similar. I didn't really know What made them special how how they were different from each other? So we almost went for the term sheet that paid the highest price everything equal This was would have been the smart choice Luckily, I spoke to a couple of founders that were already a few steps ahead and the big advice They gave me and I want to share this advice also with you is to get to know your investors if you have time Spend time with them get to know them because they're gonna be next to you for many years and Will take you or be on your side also in tricky and difficult moments This is what we did and this is why we decided not to go with the term sheet that paid the highest valuation But a smaller term sheet with a lower valuation There's no rule of thumb that is precise on when to go for a higher valuation but go with always with people that you trust that you want to work with and Especially if your valuation early stage seed series a Is within a range of 20% higher definitely go for the person or the team that you feel like is the best partner If it's more think about it whether it's a fair compromise you can do The second mistake that we definitely did more than once is We underestimated How much work comes after signing a term sheet? This is when the due diligence process starts and this is when you start negotiating the shareholders agreement and this takes a lot of time and resources from your team for the due diligence and from the management And in the weeks or sometimes months that you go that you need to go through this process I still remember after our series a how We were growing growing and the incoming invoices from our carriers the trucking companies were piling up And we just didn't realize that So the certain point we were not paying invoices on time Carrier said we don't want to work with the company doesn't pay on time and literally One or two weeks after we signed the deal our revenue dropped massively Because we didn't focus on that So a mistake that you should avoid is once you go through the recognize first of all that it's time consuming For you as founders but also probably for your team And that you shouldn't start too many big projects in parallel and I completely underestimated that and it was not just one time multiple times even now I Still think I can manage both but I see when you're fundraising how much energy how distracting it is and how also the organization suffers from it the third one is Might be a bit controversial for two reasons one because we are in a time where it's a bit more tricky to raise and the second one We see is maybe I also have a slightly different view on this But I would recommend to raise a little bit more money than what you think you need Why is this? Two-fold or two reasons why first there are circumstances that you cannot anticipate Like the situation we're in right now where liquidity in venture capital went down massively You have to extend your runway having a bit more money in your bank helps a lot The second reason why I think it can make a lot of sense to raise a little bit more than what you need is that some opportunities might Come up that you did not anticipate for center for example We raised our series B with Excel and I think it was five months later. We raised ours series C with lakes down and Within our Investor based there was a lot of debate. This is the right thing. Do you want to raise really now more money? Let's wait. Let's invest let's increase the valuation at the end. We found a good compromise and Thanks to that compromise and that fundraise we're able to unlock two acquisitions That we didn't plan and that we would have not been able to do without that extra cash It was uber freight that we acquired in Europe and ever wrote and also these two acquisitions came in a time ever Wrote the first one where we had the first lockdown and there was again like in these days very concerned about the future Ability of raising more money and only because we had the liquidity not to pay for the target but Liquidity to finance also the burn and therefore the combined runway is the reason why we were able to do that And especially a position of uber freight was a game changer for us And again, we were only able to do that because we raised a bit more than what we think was necessary three learnings to consider I think the past And most important thing is build a personal relationship With your potential investors especially in these tricky times The zoom works and Google meets and all the other Video conferencing systems work much better than I ever thought two or three years ago But at the end of the in that and of the story an investor invests in the team in you as a founder I don't think there's a better way To build a trust relationship Then meeting these people in person so even if it might be a bit early and you're not sure whether you're in the process You can always reach out and say hey, I'm in town to meet another investor. Would you be willing to meet me for coffee? That person relationship makes such a difference especially in these times where it's more tricky to raise capital The second one is time management. I already touched up on it earlier It takes a lot of time and it's distracting But you really have to manage a time First you have to create some sense sense on urgency and I'm gonna get back to that in my last point but you also have to understand that You push first to get a term sheet and the moment you get the term sheet on the table The venture capital firm tells you you have a couple of days to sign it three four days They want to put you now under pressure to say hey Sign our term sheet. Why is this? Because of course, they don't want you to go around shop shopping with with the term sheet you have I think it's a fair ask But also hear a learning that I made is take the time Try to understand who is the right partner build a personal relationship Not only with the person that may be interacts with you But also with the team that is behind that person and therefore the entire We see that and things also take always longer than you anticipate Finalizing a term sheet always takes longer Finalizing the due diligence and a shareholder grins takes even longer than that So plan for the time and as mentioned earlier, don't try to do too many things It's all taking longer than what you think it would especially if you do it the first time And I've done it a couple of time and I still continue to underestimate How much work and how much time it takes? The last point also here I think More relevant a couple of months ago and hopefully again Relevant in a couple of months again, but you have to create some surge some sense of urgency If you don't create fear of missing out or for more There's no we see that says hey, okay Let's push this over the finish line now unless they're super excited Which is not always the case they take the time and you need to find a reason why You create urgency say I need an answer Indicative answer final answer by then then then because of this reason so try to put Deadlines that you then probably have to push anyway, but try to create a sense of urgency if of course you have one term sheet on The table that's the best way to create urgency and therefore formal and at the last Learning and piece of advice I would like to give and share with all of you is When you get the term sheet Negotiate improve the terms It's not only because You can improve the deal for yourself maybe for your colleagues if you include an option component a virtual option or ease of component and And also for maybe other existing shareholders angels, but also because That interaction that in negotiation will show the venture capital firm that is about to invest in you How you're going to be behaving for future fundraisers and potentially at an exit If you sign a term sheet That you get on the table, then why would a venture capital firm expect that the next time you get a Termsheet or even an offer to sell the company that you really squeeze out the best for them so when you get the term sheet make sure that You start negotiating and sometimes it's not really possible I acknowledge that but there are always a few terms that you can try to improve have that discussion I think it's a good sign and and a good indicator of how you will be behaving in the future and With this I already come to an end of my presentation after the session I have a mentoring slot over there for 30 minutes where I'll be asking all the questions that you might Want to ask so if there are any questions that I haven't answered or that popped up while I was presenting feel free to meet me after In about 10 minutes over there and with this All the best for the early-stage founders that are about to raise. It's not the easiest time, but I hope that By sharing my journey and a couple of learnings and a couple of mistakes we have made that I have made You're now in a better position for your next fundraise and with this. Thank you so much for listening