Now that Mentorcam March has come to a close, I wanted to highlight the fantastic mentors we interviewed on the podcast.
Each of my conversations with a mentor produced fantastic insights into the topic of the episode, whether it be VC’s, product, angel investing, and branding. See the episodes themselves, plus my main takeaways from each conversation.
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Mentorcam March – Rune Hauge
Rune is an expert in funding your startup, and is a multi time founder. Prior to Mentorcam, he founded three startups and had one successful exit. He has raised millions of dollars in venture capital from top tier Silicon Valley VCs and high-profile angel investors, and also took Mentorcam through Y Combinator.
Noah’s Main Takeaway: Do your homework first, and make your list of potential investors before you start reaching out. Create your strategy ahead of time, and execute – don’t blindly reach out.
Mentorcam March – Max Samuel
Max Samuel is a venture capitalist and lawyer. He formerly worked at Thiel Capital, Wilson Sonsini and Credit Suisse. A graduate of Yale, Penn Law School and Wharton, Max is passionate about mentoring both startup founders and people looking to break into the VC industry.
Noah’s Main Takeaway: The first thing VC’s look for in a startup is the strength of the team – this can be industry expertise, complimentary founders, and/or a good working relationship between the people. And… do these founders have a “secret” that others don’t know.
Mentorcam March – Benjamin Balazs
Benjamin Balazs is the Co-founder & CTO of Mentorcam. At the age of 15, Benjamin taught himself how to code and hasn't stopped since. Before co-founding Mentorcam, he single-handedly designed and developed apps for companies like Lamborghini, Visa, and Maserati.
Noah’s Main Takeaway: What is a great MVP? It’s not necessarily about numbers. It’s about people responding to your product, giving feedback and being excited about using it.
Mentorcam March – Edvard Engeseath
Dr. Edvard "Eddie" Engeseath, MD is the Co-founder of a tele-health startup Nurx, angel investor, startup advisor, and a former family physician. He founded Nurx to make prescription birth control more accessible.
Noah’s Main Takeaway: When getting in early through angel investing, the diligence process is very different. Often VC’s do much more diligence in their process, while angels are investing before much of that information exists.
Mentorcam March – Josh Campbell
Josh Campbell is the founder and CEO of protein supplement brand Human Improvement and wine brand So Gay Rose. Formerly a Starbucks Executive and President of cannabis wellness company Dosist, Josh has founded, funded, built, and exited multiple startups in the consumer packaged goods space.
Noah’s Main Takeaway: A brand is all the touch points of a product. As such, you may be able to build a brand around a product, but if the product itself is krap, it won’t work.