Founder of FundingPost.com Joe Rubin Talks The Culture Behind Venture Capital and Start Ups

A few months ago, I was chatting with one of our designers about a college fashion project. Ironically, her dress was featured in a Nolcha Fashion Week show. While in New York, I would produce networking events and brand activations. One of which was with Arthur Mandel, Co-Founder of Nolcha Shows, an established branded fashion week series held during NYFW.

We built a great working relationship, so I decided to reach back out to him on LinkedIn. After a hilarious catch-up conversation, we kept in touch. A few months later, he was partnering on an event in Miami. He confirmed that I was going to be around that day then added me to the list.

It turned out to be an awesome experience, where I met other Entrepreneurs, Venture Capitalists, and most importantly, Joe Rubin. Rubin is the founder of Fundingpost.com, which has been connecting Entrepreneurs to interested VCs and Angel Investors for the past 18 years. Rubin and Arthur met along the way and have been helping each other expand their initiatives.

After experiencing one of those events, I felt personally obligated to help push this initiative as well. Here is a conversation I was able to chat with Mr. Rubin, where we discuss the do’s and don’ts behind seeking capital, trends in the market, and the lives he has changed during his journey.

INTERVIEW WITH JOE RUBIN

Jazz: Hello?

Joe. Hey! How are you?

Jazz: Good. Are you, are you a back in Connecticut?

Joe: Yeah, I’ll be here for a couple of days and heading into California next week. It’s good to be home. I had a lot of fun out in Miami. It was a good time.

Jazz: Yeah, it’s (Miami) an interesting place. It’s definitely developing into the positive right now. Definitely a good place for sure.

Joe: Agreed.

Jazz: Well, hey man, I’ll just jump right into it. I was just looking through your website, and obviously, very intriguing for a lot of different reasons. I was wondering, what made you want to build FundingPost and what path did you take to get there?

Joe: I started Funding Post just over 18 years ago now. So, we’ve been doing this for quite some time. When we started this, it was just at the tail end of the dot-com bubble bursting. We didn’t want to start another dot-com, you know, it was kind of a tough thing to get into at that point. We said, let’s do something that’s real. There’s still a lot of companies out there that need to raise capital, but let’s focus on in-person introductions. Let’s put these people together in the same room and let them meet in person. So, we started doing events in New York, where we would just bring in a few investors and a few companies. And, kind of just from there funding requests were coming from different states. We started getting a bunch of calls from random places to do events there as well. We started expanding and eventually started doing events all over the country.

Miami, you know, it’s still nicely growing. We’ve been doing events in Miami for probably 10 years now and we’ve seen it even before this current state when there wasn’t much of an entrepreneur ecosystem. So, it’s nice to see the way that Miami’s picked up speed over the past couple of years.

Jazz: Man, that’s been interesting. It seems companies have kind of taken advantage of the newer wave and obviously having to deal with the old wave. They are really still growing from there.

It’s pretty critical to know and to understand. I would guess along the way, you ended up meeting Arthur. I wanted to know how you guys got together and how you guys work together.

Joe: Sure. Good question. I don’t remember exactly where we met. But Arthur’s in the events industry as well as running Nolcha Fashion Shows. It’s been years. I’ve known him for so long. Whenever I do an event, I make sure that Arthur is one of the first people that I call to let know what I’m doing and make sure that he’s involved.

I love working with him. He does an amazing job. When he’s running an event, he calls me as well, then I get to promote it and help them out. I do whatever I can to make sure his events are a success as well. He’s a terrific guy, an entrepreneur, a hard worker, and a friend. I’m very happy to be working with him all these years.

Jazz: Nice. Nice. Yes, that’s interesting. At one point I was doing event marketing. I ended up working with him with one of his fashion shows in New York. I helped to put an after party together with him. We stayed in touch over the years and I didn’t know I was going to bring my company down here. He actually went to the University of Miami and lived in the same building that I live in right now. We had a conversation a few months ago and I guess he kept me in the front of his brain. He hit me up when this came up. That’s kind of how we linked up. That was the path of how that happened, which I think is very cool.

Joe: Oh, very cool. Good to meet a friend of a friend.

Jazz: Yeah, of course. It’s a good way to network. I was wondering how you would say the Miami cocktail event went. And doing this for 10 years and seeing where is it now, how did it go for you?

Joe: Sure. I thought it was a lot of fun. I had a good time. I want my events to be a little bit different. More often than not, you see events in office buildings or coworking spaces. I’ve done plenty of those. They are great but I always try to up it a notch.

I had the opportunity to put this at the Delano and make it a little more festive than the standard venture conference. So, I did it. There was a lot of entrepreneurs we had come, probably around 200 people there throughout that night. The investors thought it was interesting, a bit of a switch up from the other events that they’ve been to in the past. And some of those investors that might have spoken on several of my panels over the years, thought it was a lot of fun. Many came up to me and said that they met some really cool companies and had a great time and they’re looking forward to the next one. At least two of the panelists said that this is the first time they had ever spoken on a panel from behind the DJ booth. So that was kind of cool.

Jazz: Yeah, I really liked that. It made it interesting. It definitely was the first time for everybody, but it was a dope event and a dope idea. When is the next one? You said California is the next one you have coming up?

Joe: Yeah, I’ve got one in San Diego on June 11 and Los Angeles on June 13.  I have a lot of investors already lined up to attend these and a lot of entrepreneurs as well. So that should be a fun set of events.

Then in July, I think I’ve got Philly and DC, and Aug 8 we are doing a rooftop in Times Square. So, we’re making our way around.

Jazz: This is a nice little tour you’ve got going on. That’s awesome. You said, you have a lot of investors and entrepreneurs. How do you go about building your networking, getting your network of investors and entrepreneurs in these different cities?

Joe: Hmm, good question. So, Two things. One is word of mouth. Once one entrepreneur has a good time at one of my events, they often tell other people that they are close with. So, I definitely get a lot of good word of mouth. And also, just good partners. For instance, you mentioned Arthur, he’s a great partner of mine. Having other people that are trusted in the community, that is spreading the word, is a tremendous help in meeting new people and networking.

I’ve been, as I mentioned, doing this for quite some time. I’ve built up a good Rolodex of investors at this point. When I’m looking for speakers, I have a lot of people that I can call, and in an effort to bring in new investors, they’re always meeting other investors. So, I try to get introductions from them as well.

Jazz: Nice, Nice. No, that makes a lot of sense. That’s awesome man. I can see when I looked at the site and look at the past events, you’ve been doing that consistently for a long time. That also probably adds to it. Longevity and consistency are always the way.

Joe: I’ve had some investors that have been speaking at my events literally since 2001. So, some people really have been in this community for a long time. They’ve been speaking at my events and they keep coming back, they keep meeting new companies, meeting potential investments.

Then I have new ones, new people, new investors that are either from new venture capital funds or friends of other investors and different introductions. It’s always great to have new faces on the panel, but it’s always really rewarding to see those folks that have been coming and speaking at my events for almost two decades that still want to come back.

Jazz: Yeah that definitely deserves some pats on the back for sure. From those people, I would say they’re sticking around for a reason. They obviously see the value.

What kind of success stories come from them? Entrepreneurs that’ll see these events and go to these events might not see the immediate return. To address the skeptical people, explain what those kinds of things lead to.

Joe: I’ve seen a ton of success stories over the years. I’ve had startup companies come to me then met investors, raised capital, sold their startups, then come back to me as investors looking for other startups to invest in. I’ve seen the entire life cycle of this, just for the sheer fact that I’ve been in this for so long.

Sometimes I find out quite sometime later. Not everybody picks up the phone to call me. A company I ran into a few weeks ago just said they raised $5 million from one of my events like 2 years ago. So, it’s cool to hear the success stories, even if they’re not immediate.

Jazz: That’s awesome. Yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard some crazy stories that cause a lot of people’s lives to change just like that. So, that should definitely be gratifying. What are some crazy stories with those people during those life cycles? They obviously call you with good and bad opportunities and occurrences. But what advice do you give these people, good or bad?

What is the main thing you’d like to portray to a lot of these entrepreneurs that come to you during their adventure? They might reach out to you after or before. You always have those frequently asked questions. In those questions, what is the main thing you try to get across to entrepreneurs?

Joe: Sure. I’ll give you a few things. During a pitch or during an initial meeting at places like my events, I try to tell them to give the investors the information that they want to hear. Entrepreneurs have an amazing story to tell. There are some back-stories or some stories about how they met their co-founder. There’s some story about why they came up with the idea. There’s a lot of information. They can go deep into the science behind their technology and entrepreneurs tend to get very excited about various aspects of their business. Rightfully so, but sorry, at events you don’t have time to really go deep into a lot of explanation. For best results at any networking event, especially one where you’re raising capital, there’s a lot of entrepreneurs vying for the time of those investors. Make sure you get your actual points across and give the information that the investors need to hear to make a good decision to take this to the next level.

Nobody is writing a check at an event, right? You go to an event, you’re getting a few minutes, you’re telling your story, you’re swapping cards, and then you’re taking that next meeting. That’s the goal of this. Nobody’s walking out of there with a written check after an elevator pitch. Make sure that you’re focusing your investor conversations on getting that next meeting where the investors come in and sit down with you for a longer period of time to learn a lot about your business.

Jazz: Nice. Nice. Yeah, that’s got to be it, man. You have to practice regardless. That goes unsaid.

Joe: Definitely! You definitely need to practice this. This is not something that you can just walk in cold and then try to just give random bits of information and go down this rabbit hole of data or anything. I mean, unless the investor is also geeking out with you and asking you all sorts of deep questions, then get into it and have that conversation. But typically, it’s telling me a little bit about yourself, the company, the problem with the solution that you bring to the table. Tell me a little bit about your market, your business model. Give me some information so I can quickly judge if this is the right investment for me. That’s what I try to get across to entrepreneurs.

Jazz: Dealing with a lot of those scenarios, what would you say is a problem with the investors, VC’s and entrepreneurs connecting? How can it improve? Or maybe your solution is the solution to it and that it just needs to be blown up even more. Like are there certain things that you see that could be improved in the industry of connecting these people? Or is it technologies that are working?

Joe: There’s always room for improvement. I mean, over the years I’ve seen some amazing companies come out online, you know, the Angel Lists of the world. The kickstarters of the world. Venture Capital is not for everyone. And sometimes there are other solutions out there for the entrepreneurs who may not fit the exact model of what a venture capitalist looks like.

So, there are certainly other financing approaches out there. There are online resources. People ask me all the time, who would be a good investor for this? I literally just Google it and I come up with five, six names in like five or six seconds. There’s plenty of resources online for entrepreneurs to learn about growing a business, about being an entrepreneur, about setting up their company to be attractive to investors, about what investors want to see. There’s definitely plenty written online.

That being said, there are other things that can improve, and these are things that I got to see happen over the years. For instance, in Miami, the ecosystem that’s building out there is great. When I first started doing events in Miami there was not a lot going on. There were no resources, there were very little coworking spaces.

It was almost unheard of. There was almost nothing going on as far as resources for entrepreneurs to meet other entrepreneurs, to learn from experts, to meet investors. I’m seeing communities like that start to pull together resources and have educational meetings for entrepreneurs. There they can improve their business, improve their pitch, improve their overall game, and meet the resources that they need to get in touch with in order to grow their business. That’s always a fantastic thing to see.

Community building is certainly something that can be improved in every city. Specifically, Miami, I think it’s starting to happen in a big way. Really just entrepreneurs educating themselves because the information is out there. Even if you’re in a city that has no entrepreneurial ecosystem at all, you can still go online and be just as well educated as a company with a very mature ecosystem.

Jazz: Nice, Nice. Yeah, that’s great insight for sure. Knowing the different paradigms is very interesting. This community thing, I think a lot of people might think that is lost. There are opportunities, they just need to look for it. I totally agree.

Let’s talk deeper about those companies that you’ve seen go through the processes of those success stories. In today’s world, with advances in technology, etc., are you seeing any trend in the kind of companies that are being invested in?

Joe: So, the easy answer would be is, oh, cannabis is huge, and A.I. is huge. And, you know, blockchain is huge, right? So, there are certain industries that you’re seeing that are making a lot of headlines lately, but there’s a lot of investments that are happening in lots of different industries.

The moderator, Joe Daniels, even mentioned it on the Miami panel. VC Investing is up to the dot com levels at this point. It’s just a tremendous amount of money being put in. Now that being said, it’s shifted away a bit on the angel side. Much bigger rounds for some of the bigger players out there. But I don’t think there’s any specific industry right now that has outdone the others, minus the ones that I said. But even if you’re a food company or a retail company, or Insurtech or Proptech, try to make a big dent in what you’re doing and change the way people are operating. Make it faster and more efficient, cleaner or greener or easier to use and simpler.

There’s room for a lot of different types of companies to succeed out there. You don’t have to be an AI company in cannabis with a blockchain backend in order to win.

Jazz: Got it. I definitely agree with that efficiency thing. I think it’s a good theme to look into. It seems as if the whole thing about most of the companies that are growing. It’s about getting more efficient with whatever you’re doing.

Joe: If you’re doing anything well, you’re making it easier for customers – and you can find a core group of users who absolutely love what you’re doing, then you’re on the right track here. That’s what you should be looking for.

Jazz: Yeah. It’s been so long, and there’s always room for improvement. What’s the next goal for you? What are you working towards? What’s coming up for you for that?

Joe: Sure. So, One thing that I see that’s a problem is as soon as an entrepreneur raise capital, they start marketing their business, marketing their site and they spend a ton of money on Google ads and Facebook ads and just start blasting it out there. They don’t have a plan.

They tend to find themselves over budget and not hitting their market. I’ve been helping various companies lately in actually getting users to their site, getting them to sign up to their network to hit their metrics that investors want to see. I’ve been spending a lot of time on that just because I’ve built up this network over the years – I might as well put those people in touch with each other as well.

Jazz: Sure. That’s really interesting. How do you go about that? Like what is the way you’ve been going about conducting that help? Like what have you been doing to make that happen?

Joe: I would say personal introductions work best for everything. I can call somebody that I know, that I trust, to help them out with anything, whether it’s growing their users or whether it’s helping them with any other aspect of their business. I’m going to only put people in touch with other people I feel that I trust. I trust them both. I see what they’re doing. That’s really how I’m going about this.

Jazz: Nice. Nice, awesome man. And like I said, I didn’t want to take up too much of your time. These questions are great. I really appreciate it. Know that you’re doing a great thing. I definitely want to continue to keep in touch.

I’ll send this over to you when it’s done and put together but thank you very much for everything. That event was awesome.

Joe: Oh, thank you so much as I really appreciate that.

Jazz: For sure. Thank you, man. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Joe: All right, Jazz. Hey, by the way, if you plan on being up here in August or any of my other events, man, definitely would love to see you for sure. It would be great to have you as my guest.

Jazz: All right, well thank you, man. Appreciate it.