First Check, with Venture Capitalist Tim McLoughlin Earfluence

As an investor, sometimes you make the deals you shouldn't have, and sometimes you pass on the deals that you wish you had executed on. For Tim McLoughlin and Cofounders Capital, they had the chance to invest in Hersh Tapadia's startup Allstacks, but after a thorough dilligence process, they ultimately passed. Find out why, and why Tim might be regretting that decision.

As an entrepreneur, Tobi Walter was part of the largest European tech exit ever, then raised both angel and VC money with his company Shoeboxed. After that exit, instead of the 100 hour weeks and sleeping-in-the-office grind, Tobi decided to take his startup expertise to the dark side - venture capital. On the show, he gives inside information on what it’s like to be on both the founder side and the VC side.

Back in 2018, The Looma Project landed a $375K seed-round investment from Cofounders Capital, and since then, over 40 investors have seen the company's potential and invested in both its success and CEO Cole Johnson's vision for the future. Today, Cole talks all about the dynamics of investor relations.

VentureSouth is an early-stage venture firm that operates in 16 locations across the Southeast, has over 350 members, and has invested over $50M into 80+ companies. Today, managing partner Charlile Banks talks about the value of being in a portfolio company rather than a solo investor, taking the community approach to investing in the Southeast, and the feeling he got from writing his first check.

How do you truly dig deep into a founder's financial projections? Tim McLoughlin has seen hundreds of pitches, and he's teaching you how to level up your due diligence in analyzing whether or not a company fits your portfolio or is a major risk. Grab this free guide by signing up for our mailing list at www.FirstCheckPodcast.com!

Adam Smith is the co-founder of Wrangle.io, which was recently awarded a $50,000 grant from NC IDEA - and is on its way to being a game changing technology. Adam has had an interesting entrepreneurial path, especially to sports and fantasy sports fans out there.

Today on the show, Adam and Tim talk about Adam’s new venture and hearing “no” from investors almost a hundred times, the responsibility of a founder to truly know when the money will run out and when they will need more money, and what entrepreneurs need to be looking for in their first hires - and what investors should want from them too.