January 9, 2023

Mapping out 2024

Happy New Year, friends! We at RBFN are back at it after the holiday break, and looking forward to a productive and exciting 2024. 2023 was a year of learning and growth for the alternative capital space, with SVB’s collapse and the launch of several new funds punctuating the year. This year, I’m looking forward to continued growth and purposeful expansion of our industry.

Here are a few topics we’re going to spend time on in 2024:

  • How to raise an alternative capital fund - I’ll share a simple framework and playbook to help you raise capital and get to market.

  • What actually matters as an alternative capital founder - here you’ll learn what I’ve learned as the key ingredients of raising capital in the alternative market.

  • How not to waste entrepreneurs’ time - I’ll share what I’ve learned from both sides of the table about how entrepreneurs experience the way an investor or lender shows up. Examples include the “How can I be helpful” tax and the “we’ll be ready to fund after our first close” waste-of-founder-time.

  • The responsibility of a funder in a funder-founder relationship - there are approaches to ensuring that entrepreneurs have the information they need to evaluate funding decisions, and I’ll talk about how to do that, and why that’s our responsibility to provide and protect.

  • Why innovating on credit is a terrible idea - I’ll dig into the concept that Chris Atkins from C2FO shared around innovating on credit, and how/why it’s a bad idea. I loved this concept when Chris shared it, so I wanted to spend some time sharing more.

I am also really excited about a couple projects I think have the opportunity to change the game for entrepreneurs and for funders.

  • Alternative Capital Summit 2024 — we do not have confirmed sponsors, but I’m optimistic.

  • Alternative Capital Fund of Funds - several of this community have volunteered to help get this effort off the ground, so I look forward to helping launch this idea. This is a multi-year project, so progress will be slow, but will compound over time.

  • Alternative Capital Association - it’s time to organize. Let’s get to it.

I’m also really interested in anything that accomplishes a very simple goal: how do we get more capital into entrepreneurs’ hands at the time that they need it, and in the form that they need it? Have ideas? Hit reply and share!

Of course, keep your eyes peeled for new podcast episodes, which will drop later in January!

Here’s to an exciting 2024, and to continued collaboration and progress!