Member-only story
Startup Funding: What I learned after raising capital outside the US
The story of this company ( Slidebean) is about fundraising. It’s the origin, it was our biggest struggle and ironically, what ended up helping other companies do.
Early ideas for this presentation-design-assistance tool first came to me in 2012. Back then I was working on my first startup, an iOS gaming called Pota-Toss. The experience of sharing an office with other founders (and seeing them struggle with their pitch decks) was the first spark of the idea to build this product.
When that company went under, I immediately started working on assembling a new team. My now-co-founders Vini and Jose had lived through similar experiences in their fields: people struggling to make good presentations.
raising capital is an endeavor I take with much caution
Together we brainstormed what this new product would be, and how would it look like. We bootstrapped for about 18 (rough) months until we finally secured some venture capital in early 2015.
Today Slidebean is a multi-million dollar company, it employs 33 people and helps other businesses with that exact process, fundraising; but even today, raising capital is an endeavor I take with much caution.
Here’s a brief story of my experience fundraising from Latin America.
