{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Founder's Journey","title":"Ep. 1 - Serhat Pala and Alex Lirtsman","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":6082,"description":"Interview with Serhat Pala - CEO, of CrossOcean Ventures and President of NuFund Venture Group, and Alex Lirtsman - CEO and Founder of CorralData.\nSummary\nThis episode of the Founders Journey podcast features a conversation between Serhat Pala, an investor, and Alex Lirtsman, a founder. Both Serhat and Alex are immigrants to the United States and share a passion for entrepreneurship. They discuss the challenges and rewards of raising money for a startup, the importance of humility and teachability in founders, and the process of valuing a company and determining the amount of investment needed. They also touch on the significance of understanding the ideal customer profile and building a strong team. In this conversation, Alex and Serhat discuss the importance of the founding team and the people behind a startup. They emphasize that investors are not just taking a risk on the idea or the money but on the person leading the company. They also highlight the need for founders to truly understand the problem they are solving and to care deeply about it. The conversation touches on the challenges of fundraising, dilution of ownership, and the importance of smart money. Alex shares his advice for early-stage founders, including being capital-efficient and focusing on solving a core problem. They also discuss the future of CorralData and the importance of building a strong culture.\nKeywords \nfounders journey, podcast, immigrants, entrepreneurship, raising money, startup, humility, teachability, valuation, investment, ideal customer profile, team, founding team, investors, risk, problem-solving, fundraising, dilution, smart money, capital efficiency, core problem, culture\nTakeaways \nRaising money from early seed or pre-seed stage investors is not as difficult as it may seem, and angel investors are often supportive and helpful. Immigrants bring a unique perspective and a hunger for success to entrepreneurship, which can be advantageous in the startup world. Humility and...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/UvOsoT79ltnRsDISUssZvyGa8aKM2wLGBW_qofYQVnc/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hODdl/NTAyOWQwYzhkMzRm/ZWZmM2E3OWExNGQw/M2RkMS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}