I truly appreciate talking to people smarter than me. Usually, I get to learn something. That’s what podcasting has done. Now, Next Round is taking things to a different level.
The biggest problem in early stage investing isn’t deal access, its deal context. After interviewing 50 investors, I learned a lot. This inspired me to create the Next Round company.
Since 2024, I’ve been interviewing investors nonstop. Its a big part of my lifestyle now. I’ve spoke to new angel investors who are just getting started and excited to do some good. I had some conversations with big names like Kelly Perdew and Steve Walsh. This led me to speak with hundreds of founders. There are a few problems that have been revealed.
Some of the podcast interviews are in person thanks to the pro travel studio.
The Problems
One big problem is the deal flow gap. The popular investors get a ton of attention. Their inboxes stay full. I had one investor tell me he and his team reviewed over 5,000 deals and only invested in 12 companies! That’s a ridiculously small percentage.
Another issue is the small funds lack bandwidth. If the smaller investment funds do get the attention of founders, its only after traveling to a ton of pitch competitions or sifting through spam on LinkedIn. Neither strategy is sustainable or good enough to build a profitable firm.
One of the biggest issues is founders. Founders have no idea how to reach this level. Each investor I speak to gives me a new pet peeve or habit that founders have. There are small and big tasks or traits in founders that stop them from getting funded and usually the founder is unaware of the problem.
How Next Round Helps
All of these problems led me to one solution: Next Round. I knew that with my show I could easily connect both sides. It’s not about being an analysts for the massive firms who already employ 50 students. I want to serve the startup world entirely. Next Round is for the new emerging funds who don’t have the budget to pay fifteen analysts to attend all the pitch competitions and posture. Next Round is for the new angel investor who hasn’t built an impressive network yet or doesn’t want to use all their time researching deals. I’m closing that gap to make investing in the right companies easier for everyone.
