Companyon Ventures

Exciting news from the Companyon portfolio!

Our portfolio is #hiring! Reach out to Meg (Walker) Henry if you or someone you know is interested in the CRO role at Arpio.

When it comes to venture debt, timing is everything. 🕰 How can founders evaluate whether or not it’s the right time to secure debt financing? “The one thing I always advise companies not to do is to try and kick off a debt process when you only have three months (or fewer) of runway," shares Ronny Chatterjee. “The best time to raise debt financing is always alongside your equity round when you have the most leverage, and you don’t actually ‘need’ any capital.” Want more insights from a seasoned expert in the field? Get the full Q&A here: https://lnkd.in/g63_3a_X #VentureDebt #Entrepreneurship #NonDilutive #StartupFunding #CompanyonVentures #FounderTips #TalesFromTheTrenches #StartupSuccess #GrowthStrategies

🏦 Traditional banks can often offer lower interest rates on #VentureDebt. So why do most early-stage founders choose to work with debt firms instead? “You’ll pay a premium with a debt firm, but you can get more favorable terms,” shares Ronny Chatterjee, Head of Capital Markets at Companyon—which often makes the trade off worth it. Still, finding the right venture debt partner isn’t easy. “Founders don’t typically have pre-existing debt relationships that they can pull on when the time comes. You want to choose wisely in terms of the right relationship—and that often means asking the right questions or knowing the right groups of people.” That’s where Companyon can really help. 💪 “We have a preferred list of syndication partners that suit our portfolio companies. We can bring these firms to the table, and they can help drive preferential terms because they are familiar with our underwriting and the types of companies we invest in.” For more debt financing best practices, read the full Q&A with Ronny here: https://lnkd.in/g63_3a_X #VentureDebt #Entrepreneurship #NonDilutive #StartupFunding #CompanyonVentures #FounderTips #BehindtheCurtain #StartupSuccess #GrowthStrategies

Venture debt is tricky—and it’s not for everyone—but it offers early-stage founders the ability to get a little extra cash on the balance sheet without sacrificing additional equity. 💸 Is it worth it? We sat down with Head of Capital Markets Ronny Chatterjee to get his perspective on debt financing in the #startup ecosystem. Dive into part two of our latest Q&A where we cover the do’s and don’ts of venture debt: https://lnkd.in/g63_3a_X #VentureDebt #Entrepreneurship #NonDilutive #StartupFunding #CompanyonVentures #FounderTips #TalesFromTheTrenches #StartupSuccess #GrowthStrategies

💡What does it take to go from an initial conversation with a VC to hammering out a favorable term sheet and closing the deal? Companyon’s own Ronny Chatterjee shares his expert-insights and tips that every early-stage founder should know—including advice to avoid settling for the first offer that comes your way. “I really encourage every founder to try and create a competitive process. By casting a wider net and talking to five or six firms, you can end up securing more favorable terms.” Learn more about what the typical process of raising funds look like, how to prepare for each step, and crucial tips for a seamless and successful fundraising round: https://lnkd.in/gYf-YvPP Do you have other advice to share with early-stage founders gearing up to raise their first round of funding? Let us know in the comments: #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #RelationshipBuilding #CompanyonVentures #FounderTips #TalesFromTheTrenches #StartupSuccess #GrowthStrategies

Gearing up to raise your first round of funding? 💪🔑 Keep in mind these key takeaways from our latest Q&A with Ronny Chatterjee, Head of Capital Markets at Companyon: Create a competitive process. Develop relationships early. Understand the funding timeline. Adapt to market changes. Leverage expert support. Get the strategies you need for a successful fundraising round—from that intro conversation to the closing of the deal—with our latest blog: https://lnkd.in/gYf-YvPP #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #RelationshipBuilding #CompanyonVentures #FounderTips #TalesFromTheTrenches #StartupSuccess #GrowthStrategies

The Next Gen of GTM Tech is Here 🚀 The past few months I have been absolutely stunned by the brand awareness, hype and growth that early stage companies in the sales enablement space have been able to create (RB2B announced hitting $1M ARR in just 16 weeks). It almost seems as if they are paying all their customers and random people all over the internet to post raving reviews about them on LI, (which for the sake of this post I hope they aren’t!) Many of these companies are filling gaps left behind by the legacy lead database companies like ZoomInfo, Salesloft, or even Apollo.io. 🪨  In case you’ve been under a rock, some of these are: Clay - Data Enrichment RB2B - Identity level website visitor data Unify - Intent-based sequences for warm outbound Sendspark - Personalized dynamic videos at scale Warmly, - Identity level website visitor data Instantly.ai - Email sending and engagement Ocean.io - ICP lookalike data Honorable non-sales mention: Pylon - Unified customer support 🐶 Sales Enablement companies have a distinct advantage of being able to “eat their own dog food” using their own products to find customers, but these companies have been killing it with PLG and LinkedIn hype, despite not having raised much capital if at all, and most not having the massive followings of Adam Robinson. 🤔 Interestingly none of these companies are branding themselves as an “AI SDR/BDR” company, and instead focused on a subset of the sales contact/outreach workflow that will someday fall under the AI SDR umbrella, but they are foregoing that messaging to avoid skepticism from the mid market and above. Also strong trend of these founders “building in public” Who am I missing? Kareem Amin, Adam Robinson, Austin Hughes, Bethany Stachenfeld, maximus greenwald, Reio Suun, Michael Heiberg, Marty Kausas

Got funding goals? One of the most important things you can do is develop meaningful relationships with a wide array of VCs early on in the process. 🤝 “Spend the time developing relationships so you can get a feel for their investment style as people, and determine whether or not they have the right expertise for you. By taking the time to be methodical and thoughtful about developing relationships ahead of time, you actually can end up shortening the timeline.” Read our latest Q&A with Ronny Chatterjee, Head of Capital Markets at Companyon, to get expert insights and strategies for raising VC funding as an early-stage founder: https://lnkd.in/gYf-YvPP #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #RelationshipBuilding #CompanyonVentures #FounderTips #TalesFromTheTrenches #StartupSuccess #GrowthStrategies