In this episode of Investor Connect, we welcome Mathias Ihlenfeld of ByMathias, who shares his journey from growing up near Frankfurt, Germany, coming to the U.S. to play college tennis, earning a business degree and an MBA from the University of Alabama, and working in consulting at IBM SAP before launching Woom Bikes in the U.S. in 2014. Mattias recounts bootstrapping the kids' bike brand from selling 13 bikes in year one to over $20 million in revenue within five years, landing on the Inc. 5000 list three years in a row, and learning key lessons around creating market awareness, funding rapid growth, and building the right team and culture.

He explains his shift from operator to coach with an empathetic, question-led style, discusses the value of mentorship and the Texas startup ecosystem's growth and fragmented communities, and covers fundraising realities, investor readiness, and scaling challenges in the $3–$10 million "no man's land," plus his work with birthing of Giants to help middle-market businesses scale profitably and prepare for exit.

Visit ByMathias at bymathias.kit.com/

Reach out to at www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-ihlenfeld/ , and on mathias@mathiastx.com

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Data Business Moats

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

In building a startup, the founder should consider monetizing the data.

Data can provide an additional range of moats for the business.

Here is a list of data moats that are ineffective:

Openly available and easily accessible data sets

General analytics on the data

Dashboards and reporting tools.

Here's a list of the data moats can bring to the company:

Turning your data into a standard data set used by the industry.

This is called data currency, which the industry players use for data exchange.

Extensive use of the data by many companies creates a de facto standard.

Proprietary data.

This data comes from a unique source that no other company has access to.

Exclusive access to data

In this case, the company has developed an exclusive arrangement for the use of data.

Proprietary data exhaust

This is the use of data from another source for a different purpose.

For example, Whole Foods captures consumer product good sales data and then sells access to CPG companies that want to know how much is sold in each category.

Consider these options for building a moat into your startup using data.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let's go startup something today.

_______________________________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

Please follow, share, and leave a review.

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Desperation Is Not a Good Look for a Startup

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Founders raising funding are often under the gun with a dwindling cash account.

Some founders mistakenly use this as part of their pitch.

They emphasize the need the founder has rather than the return the investor will receive if they fund the startup.

Investors look for fundable companies.

Those in desperation are not good candidates for investment.

It's best to come up with a backup plan.

Some startups turn to consultation work to pay the bills.

Others look for grant funding to keep the lights on.

Still others reorganize the company and move to a bare-bones expense plan.

It's best to do this six months before the cash runs out, as it gives the founder time to launch another plan.

Waiting till there's only 30 days of cash left in the bank gives the startup too few options.

Desperation is not a good look for a startup, so it's best to avoid the situation altogether.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let's go startup something today.

_________________________________________________________

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

Please follow, share, and leave a review.

Music courtesy of Bensound.