VC Minute – quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better.
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Rich
This is Rich Maloy with SpringTime Ventures, bringing you the VC Minute, quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better.
This week’s guest is a SpringTime fund one portfolio company, Josh Sanchez from FloatMe. Josh was a first time founder whose passion for solving this problem was only matched by his grit to make it work. When we met him in 2019, he had an early version of the product and a hockey stick user growth chart, that would be the envy of any startup. The business has been on a tear since then.
We love Josh. He’s a great guy building a mission driven FinTech company that is producing great results.
Josh Sanchez
Hi, I’m Josh Sanchez, and I’m the co-founder ,and CEO of FloatMe. What FloatMe does is we have a big vision to revolutionize access to credit and savings through personalization and alternative data. Who we do it for is the mission, and our mission is to help the low middle income achieve financial prosperity. I think they’re America’s backbone. How we serve them today is we provide them with alternative access to credit in the form of interest-free, credit-free advances of up to $50, or as members refer to ’em as, as floats, tools to help them better understand their money and opportunities to either make more money or, or save money.
We today managed to scale to a little over millions of members on the platform and have managed to help them save over 200 million in overdraft fees alone. Prosperity for our members is not investments, retirements, it’s being able to do two things, access credit and build savings.
We have raised a little over 50 to date across three different types of fundraising. One equity, two credit, and three debt. On the equity side, we’ve raised 20 to date. 16 of that was led by Foundry Group in December of 21 for our Series A.
On the credit side, we have raised a 25 million credit facility. And that’s to help fund the lending component of the business. And then third is venture debt which is typically associated once you close your series A financing event.
I’ve been going out this for what feels like six years now, and over time I’ve learned a lot of things.
The one piece of advice or lesson that always stuck with me was, especially as a first time founder, is you have to demonstrate accountability.
And what that means is , you don’t have that credibility that a second or third or four-time founder might have. It means showing how you’re communicating progress every single week, month over month. And it means having that discipline to hold yourself accountable to that.
I like to think that people invest in that discipline and, and demonstration of accountability. For a first time founder, I, I think that’s super important.
About FloatMe
FloatMe revolutionizes access to credit and savings through personalization and alternative data. Focused empowering the the lower-middle income achieve financial prosperity, FloatMe members get access to credit-free and interest-free $50 “floats” as well as opportunities to make more money or save money.
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