『Raiser's Edge』のカバーアート

Raiser's Edge

Raiser's Edge

著者： Ben Elowitz
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Some entrepreneurs fly through fundraising; sailing through VC meetings, converting at high rates, getting to term sheets quickly and successfully. Other founders struggle; wading through hundreds of meetings and calls, reading thousands of online pitch guides, and still only producing a mediocre fundraising round. The very best founders seem to know cheat codes that the rest of the herd just lack, and this quickly creates capital advantage for their companies, allowing them to own their markets and achieve dominance in their industries. So what are these secrets that separate the best from the rest?

It turns out a lot of what these top raisers do is replicable - it’s just not easy to find on the internet or by asking advice from average peers. Raiser’s Edge bridges that very gap, sharing the strategies and philosophies that have separated industry leaders from the pack in order to transform mediocre raisers to excellent ones. Through interviews with outstanding founders who have themselves succeeded in the VC fundraising process, not only will listeners learn how to successfully fund their start-ups, but they will also learn how to raise strong rounds even in down markets, take advantage of VC funding and tailwinds, and impress investors in order to earn outsize capital. Most importantly, listeners will find out how the most skillful CEOs make it through the biggest challenges so that they can increase their own chances of surviving the challenges to come.

Each episode of Raiser’s Edge will interview a founder about the critical fundraising junctures in their company’s growth stage, highlighting stories in which they navigated investor concerns, challenging timelines, and emerging obstacles to raise and deploy funds successfully. By taking a closer look at these entrepreneurs’ paths to success, we’ll also shed a light on their moments of near-failure, self-doubt, and tough calls, and the way these challenges have transformed them into stronger leaders and fundraisers along the way. Through an entertaining, easy-to-follow interview format, this podcast hopes to demystify the fundraising process and serve as an intimate glimpse into the secrets of today’s business all-stars in order to inspire and teach the all-stars to come.


© 2026 Raiser's Edge マネジメント・リーダーシップ リーダーシップ 個人ファイナンス 出世 就職活動 経済学
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  • Charisma, Curiosity, and Fine-Tuned Calibration with Sujal Patel

    Charisma, Curiosity, and Fine-Tuned Calibration with Sujal Patel
    2026/07/13

    Sujal Patel raised $500M+ across two companies by treating curiosity as a fundraising system, not a personality trait.

    Sujal Patel is co-founder and CEO of Nautilus Biotechnology (Nasdaq: NAUT). He previously founded Isilon Systems, the storage company he took public before EMC acquired it for $2.25 billion in 2010. In this episode of Raiser's Edge, he walks through the "dumb questions of the day" habit that got him fluent in an entirely new scientific field, how he closed a $76 million Series B in six weeks during the first months of COVID lockdowns, and why he still reads competitors' SEC filings every day, a decade into running a public company.

    In this episode:

    - How Sujal packaged a thin resume into a fundable story at 26 years old

    - Why he takes a dozen "throwaway" investor meetings before the ones that matter

    - How curiosity, not charisma, built his reputation as a "dancing bear" in pitch meetings

    - What changed inside his term sheet negotiation during the first weeks of COVID

    - How to reframe a vague total addressable market question without guessing at numbers

    - Why every CEO needs a peer group, because your board can't be your sounding board


    00:00 Intro: Why Sujal Is a Top Fundraiser

    01:07 Lightning Round: EQ, IQ, and Bold Bets

    05:36 Isilon to Nautilus: The Fundraising Resume

    09:32 The First Raise: 50 VC Meetings in 2001

    16:45 The Dumb Questions of the Day List

    17:53 Raising a Series B in the First Weeks of COVID

    23:44 The Dancing Bear Routine, Explained

    34:18 Public vs. Private Investors, and CEO Loneliness

    38:14 Closing Advice: How to Actually Get Better


    About Sujal Patel:

    Sujal Patel is co-founder and CEO of Nautilus Biotechnology (Nasdaq: NAUT), a company building a next-generation platform for protein analysis. He previously founded Isilon Systems, a data storage company he took public before EMC acquired it for $2.25 billion in 2010. Across both companies, he has raised more than $500 million in venture and public capital.


    About Raiser's Edge:

    Raiser's Edge is a podcast for founders and the VCs who back them, hosted by Ben Elowitz. Each episode features an experienced founder sharing hard-won, tactical lessons on raising venture capital, drawn from decades of watching what actually works across hundreds of founders and raises.


    Connect:

    Sujal Patel — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patelsujal

    Nautilus Biotechnology: nautilus.bio

    Subscribe to Raiser's Edge wherever you get your podcasts, and for Ben's behind the scenes takes on every episode, find us on Substack at www.raisersedgepod.com.
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    41 分
  • Building Yourself a Trust Dividend with Kevin Bennett

    Building Yourself a Trust Dividend with Kevin Bennett
    2026/06/23

    Kevin Bennett raised $200M in an unloved categories — no hot pitch, just a "trust dividend." Here's how it works.

    In this conversation with Ben Elowitz, Kevin breaks down the trust dividend: the idea that small, consistent, low-stakes acts of honesty and vulnerability compound into the confidence investors need to fund something unproven. It's the framework he credits for closing rounds in a category VCs initially overlooked, and for raising his current company's first round before writing a line of code.


    In this episode:

    • What a trust dividend actually is, and why it beats bravado
    • Why naming your business's risks pays into the trust dividend, not against it
    • How a trust dividend from one company carries forward into the next raise
    • Why fundraising is a relationship first, a transaction second
    • The personal story Kevin credits with shaping how he leads


    About Kevin Bennett: Kevin is a multi-time founder who has raised over $200 million across his companies. After HomeZen, he co-founded Caribou, an online auto refinance business he grew into a unicorn over five and a half years. He's now the founder and CEO of Further, an AI company building tools to make homeownership more achievable for the next generation.


    About Raiser's Edge: Raiser's Edge is a podcast about venture capital fundraising for startups, hosted by Ben Elowitz. Each episode goes deep with founders and investors on what actually works when raising capital — not the conventional wisdom, but the real tactics and relationships behind successful rounds.

    Subscribe to Raiser's Edge for more conversations on startup fundraising with the founders who've managed to truly excel.

    Youtube: https://youtube.com/@raisersedgepod?si=9KB5Z2scXJrE2uAc
    Substack: https://substack.com/@elowitz
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6jUhW3Yq0ZnvBFZnWngnzj?si=982aa2c361544dd6
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/raisers-edge/id1850622699

    Connect with Ben Elowitz:
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elowitz/
    Next Level Strategic Partners: https://www.nextlevelpartners.co/

    Connect with Kevin Bennett:
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinspencerbennett/
    Further: https://withfurther.com/
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    38 分
  • The Story VCs Actually Want to Hear (And How to Tell It) with Sean Byrnes

    The Story VCs Actually Want to Hear (And How to Tell It) with Sean Byrnes
    2026/06/09

    Sean Byrnes raised over $100M across two dozen rounds. His edge wasn’t charisma or connections — it was understanding exactly how investors think before walking into the room.

    Sean is the founder of Flurry (sold to Yahoo, 98% market share at exit) and Outlier.ai (exited 2022), a CEO coach, and the author of the Breaking Point newsletter. In this conversation, he makes the case that fundraising is sales — and that most founders lose not because their pitch is weak, but because they’re pitching the wrong investors and telling the story the wrong way.

    In this episode:

    • How to research investor bias before your first meeting — who’s predisposed to say yes, who’s already been burned by something adjacent, and who you should skip entirely

    • Why you have two minutes at the top of every pitch to earn the room — and what happens if you don’t

    • How to end a pitch so investors are still thinking about it at the end of the week

    • The friction filter: why making it hard for investors to meet you actually improves your odds

    • What makes VCs more risk-averse than they appear — and how to use that to your advantage

    • Why fundraising is a full-time 3–6 month commitment, and what happens to founders who treat it as a side project

    About Raiser's Edge:

    Raiser's Edge is the podcast where you get the chance to open top fundraisers' playbooks, and get a capital advantage for you and your company. Host Ben Elowitz talks to world-class founders, investors, and operators about what actually works when you’re pitching, closing, and building a venture-backed company. New episodes every other week. Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

    Connect with Sean Byrnes:
    The Breaking Point: https://breakingpoint.tech
    The Startup Help Desk: https://thestartuphelpdesk.com
    Find Sean on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbyrnes/

    Follow Raiser’s Edge:
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/raisers-edge/id1850622699
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6jUhW3Yq0ZnvBFZnWngnzj?si=5b902a95261e47da
    Substack: https://substack.com/@elowitz
    Find Ben on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/elowitz
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    57 分
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