The friends and family round is how most founders raise their first capital — but it's also where the most relationships get damaged. If you don't structure it right, you can accidentally screw over the people trying to help you, torpedo your next funding round, and make every family gathering awkward for years.

In this episode, I break down exactly how to talk to your friends and family about investing, how to structure the deal using a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity), and the ethical responsibilities you have when your investors trust you more than they understand the deal. Plus, I'll give you a tool you can send directly to your prospective investors that explains everything they need to know — from someone with no conflict of interest.

Whether you're pre-revenue, pre-product, or just trying to figure out how to ask your parents for startup capital without ruining Thanksgiving, this episode has you covered.

Links

Blog post: https://ftb.bz/131B YouTube: https://ftb.bz/131V Free Startup Fundraising Toolkit: https://ftb.bz/raise-yt Video to share with your F&F investors: https://ftb.bz/friends-and-family-explainer Y Combinator SAFE templates: https://www.ycombinator.com/documents

Most founders are doing "random acts of marketing" — a little LinkedIn, some ads, a blog here and there. Trying to be everywhere, succeeding nowhere.

Javier Lozano Jr. was the CMO at Wrapmate during their run from ~$1M to over $20M in revenue and a $16M raise. His fix was counterintuitive: do less. Find the one channel showing signals, go all in, and master it before adding anything else.

In this episode, Javier talks about changing one variable that took their ideal customer profile hit rate from 15% to 95% on the same budget — and how his team used "narrative engineering" to build the credibility trail that made their raise possible months before they needed the money.

Show notes and full transcript: https://ftb.bz/130B

Watch on YouTube: https://ftb.bz/130VYT

Free Fundraising Toolkit: https://core.feeltheboot.com/raise?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=organic_content&utm_content=ep130

Subscribe to BootPrints: https://ftb.bz/join-p

Most technical founders think their product will do the talking. It won't.

Shayna Rattler-Davis has spent 15+ years helping leaders at companies like IBM, L'Oréal, and dozens of STEM startups learn how to show up with credibility in high-stakes environments. She hosts The Influence Economy Podcast (top 3% globally) and works with technical founders who are brilliant at building but struggle the moment they have to represent their company externally.

In this conversation, we dig into:

The competency gap most technical founders don't realize they have

Why investors bet on leaders, not products — and what they're actually looking for

How to develop your leadership identity before you start raising

The difference between thought leadership and just reciting your feature list

Where to start if you have zero public presence and a fundraise on the horizon

The mistakes founders make when trying to project credibility they haven't built yet

A dead simple weekly exercise your whole founding team can start today

Shayna drops a story about watching 24 people on tech panels in a single day and only ONE who didn't need help. If that doesn't make you question how you're showing up externally, nothing will.

📋 Get Shayna's free insights report on leadership identity, branding, and messaging for technical leaders: https://techinfluence.us

🔗 Connect with Shayna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaynarattler/

🎬 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://ftb.bz/129V

📝 Read the full blog post: https://ftb.bz/129B

🛠️ Free Fundraising Toolkit — Investment Readiness Scorecard, Validation Blueprint, Pre-Seed Valuation Guide, and more: https://ftb.bz/raise