Episodes

  • Ep 86 - Finding the Right Backer in a Tough Market: Insights From a Veteran Investor, With Dr. Ronald Weissman

    Ep 86 - Finding the Right Backer in a Tough Market: Insights From a Veteran Investor, With Dr. Ronald Weissman
    Jan 4 2026
    In this episode of Invisible Ink, veteran operator Dr. Ron Weissman joins Shubha Chakravarthy to challenge some of the most entrenched myths in early-stage fundraising. Drawing on decades as a VC, angel investor, board member, and former NeXT executive who worked closely with Steve Jobs, Ron explains why startups fail.

    Key takeaways from the episode include:
    1. Why some founders immediately feel investable—even before the deck comes up
    2. The question investors are really trying to answer in the first few minutes
    3. What years of looking at deals teaches investors that pitch contests never do
    4. Why getting a fast yes from an investor can be more dangerous than a slow no
    5. The part of diligence most founders don’t realize they’re being evaluated on
    6. What investors listen for when founders describe their market—not their product
    7. How investors tell the difference between a strong pitch and a strong business
    8. When a funding path helps you—and when it starts working against you
    9. The moment investors decide whether they want to work with you long-term
    10. What a founder’s roadmap reveals that no slide ever says out loud
    11. How deal structure shapes the relationship long before anything goes wrong
    12. The shift in thinking investors expect from founders aiming to build category leaders
    and much more!
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Ep 85 - The New Capitalism and What It Means for Founders Today, With Elizabeth MacBride and Seth Levine

    Ep 85 - The New Capitalism and What It Means for Founders Today, With Elizabeth MacBride and Seth Levine
    Dec 14 2025
    This episode of Invisible Ink features a dynamic conversation between host Shubha K. Chakravarthy and guests Elizabeth MacBride, a long-time financial journalist, and Seth Levine, a seasoned venture capitalist and co-founder of Foundry.

    In this episode, Elizabeth and Seth discuss the shift in the American economy toward dynamic capitalism and offer strategic advice to founders navigating this new landscape.

    Check out this wide-ranging conversation for their key insights on:
    1. Why this moment in fundraising feels broken and why it is actually something else entirely
    2. The subtle signal investors are responding to now that most founders are not even naming
    3. How capital concentration quietly reshapes who gets funded and who never gets a second look
    4. Why ownership has become more than a compensation issue and what it reveals about long-term company strength
    5. What happens when founders keep playing by yesterday’s rules and why the game has already shifted
    6. The structural split inside venture capital that explains so many confusing investor reactions
    7. Why location has re-entered the funding conversation and how geography changes access in ways founders underestimate
    8. The real bottleneck facing AI and deep tech companies and why it has nothing to do with ideas
    9. Where truly patient capital is starting to show up and why most founders are still looking in the wrong places
    10. Why waiting for policy clarity is a losing strategy and what consistently outpaces regulation
    11. The overlooked way strong founders reduce risk before they ever raise a dollar
    12. Why persistence alone is not enough and when refusing to pivot becomes the real failure
    13. What credibility actually looks like in an AI-saturated world and why it cannot be automated
    14. The one mental shift that determines whether founders navigate this transition or get stuck in it
    and much more!
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    1 hr and 19 mins
  • Ep 84 - Lead With the Money, Not With the Pain: Inside Tips for a Better Raise, With Naseem Sayani

    Ep 84 - Lead With the Money, Not With the Pain: Inside Tips for a Better Raise, With Naseem Sayani
    Nov 30 2025
    In this episode, Naseem Sayani, Director, Innovator's Circle, WHAM and VC investor & ecosystem builder, joins Shubha Chakravarthy to expose the structural gaps female founders face and how to overcome them with strategy, confidence, and financial clarity. Naseem breaks down why women often lead with pain instead of profit, why this undermines fundraising, and how shifting storytelling toward economic opportunity can transform investor outcomes. Drawing from deep experience in consulting, venture building, and women’s health innovation, she outlines the real reasons women negotiate less, accept predatory terms, and hesitate to take salaries—even when the business demands it.

    Check out Naseem's sharp insights on:
    1. Why most female founders lose investor interest early and the simple narrative shift that instantly changes the fundraising conversation
    2. The hidden bias in “leading with pain” and how reframing your pitch around market size and money unlocks investor confidence
    3. Why founders routinely miscalculate market size and how to paint a compelling future vision that pulls investors toward your company
    4. The red flags investors look for in early teams and the specific “superpowers” founders must assemble from day one
    5. The most overlooked post-funding mistake women make and how to protect your equity and runway as you scale
    6. Why many founders underestimate predatory term sheet risks and how to build the small advisory circle that keeps you safe
    7. The difference between a true product and a feature and the unforgiving test that reveals whether your idea is actually fundable
    8. Why financial fluency matters more than financial perfection and how to speak to your model in ways that earn investor trust
    9. The real reason founders stumble in regulated markets and how early clinical, payer, or regulatory expertise changes your trajectory
    10. Why leadership development determines whether you keep the CEO role and how coaching, community, and thought leadership help you scale with your company
    and much more!
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    58 mins
  • Ep 83 - PULL: The No BS Way to Unlock Sales, With Rob Snyder

    Ep 83 - PULL: The No BS Way to Unlock Sales, With Rob Snyder
    Nov 16 2025
    In this episode, Rob Snyder, Fellow, Harvard Innovation Labs, startup sales expert, and co-founder of Restack.dev, breaks down what truly drives product–market fit and why most founders chase the wrong signals. Rob introduces his Pull Framework—a practical, evidence-based approach to finding and validating real customer demand. Tune in for his sharp and practical insights on:
    • Why “pain points” are useless—and the single test that instantly reveals whether a customer will actually buy
    • How deep tech founders can find real demand before a product exists—and why this collapses 24-month sales cycles into weeks
    • The brutal danger of lukewarm interest—and how founders confuse polite enthusiasm with real pull
    • How to turn a lab breakthrough into a must-do project on a buyer’s to-do list (and why this is the real precursor to PMF)
    • The simple conversation structure that exposes true demand—and the words that tell you it’s all talk
    • Why founders must build a repeatable case study before they build a product—and how this becomes the foundation for PMF
    • The subtle difference between “that’s interesting” and “I need this now”—and how to engineer the moment of truth
    • How to describe your value in one sentence using the buyer’s own failed alternatives—no persuasion needed
    • Why most founders hire sales too early—and how to know the exact moment your process becomes repeatable
    • The mindset shift that makes selling feel natural, not gross—especially for technical founders who hate sales
    and much more!
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    57 mins
  • Ep 82 - Valuation is a (Financial) Story, Here’s How to Get it Right, With Dan Gray

    Ep 82 - Valuation is a (Financial) Story, Here’s How to Get it Right, With Dan Gray
    Nov 2 2025
    Dan Gray, Head of Insights of Equidam, joins Shubha Chakravarthy to demystify one of the most misunderstood topics in early-stage fundraising—startup valuation. With over two decades in early-stage ventures, Dan reframes valuation not as a number but as a story that links a founder’s vision, strategy, and financial logic.

    Check out Dan's practical guidance for deep tech and non-consensus founders, and the systemic issues in venture capital that create hurdles for deep tech founders, and a smarter, story-driven approach to raising capital.

    Highlights include:
    1. Why founders must treat valuation as a story, not a number, and how the story drives belief and funding outcomes
    2. How “SaaS bias” skews investor expectations and hurts deep tech founders raising their first round
    3. The single biggest fundraising mistake deep tech founders make,and how to fix it before it costs you equity
    4. How to define milestones that de-risk your company and drive valuation up round after round
    5. The hidden logic behind dilution, and how to keep ownership while staying fundable
    6. What VCs really mean when they say “we don’t invest in hardware” (and how to turn that into an advantage)
    7. Why valuation models fail for science-based startups,and how to build credible DCF-driven stories investors believe
    8. The investor’s portfolio math: how fund size, timing, and follow-on strategy affect your odds of getting funded
    9. How to spot “consensus capital” versus “non-consensus capital”, and why the difference could decide your future
    10. The truth about VC markups, management fees, and why exits don’t always drive investor behavior
    11. The “economic energy” test: how to articulate the total value your breakthrough can unlock for the world
    12. The one framing shift that turns founders from fund-seekers into informed customers of capital
    13. How to translate a visionary story into a credible financial model investors trust
    14. Why financial literacy, not hype, is the real superpower for deep tech founders
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Ep 81- How to Ace Due Diligence: Insights From a Top Angel Investor, With Tony Shipley

    Ep 81- How to Ace Due Diligence: Insights From a Top Angel Investor, With Tony Shipley
    Oct 19 2025
    Tony Shipley, chair of the nationally-recognized angel group Queen City Angels (QCA), joins Shubha Chakravarthy to demystify the rigorous process of due diligence from an investor's perspective.

    Drawing from his background as an engineer and a founder of QCA, Tony unpacks the structured, process-oriented framework that has enabled his group to achieve a "remarkably different" and lower failure rate in its investment funds.

    Check out Tony's thoughtful, time tested views on:
    1. Why rigorous due diligence is the single biggest driver of investor success
    2. The key attributes every investor evaluates before writing a check
    3. How founders can turn diligence into a powerful discovery and learning process
    4. The real reason uncoachable founders rarely get funded
    5. How to make “greed overcome fear” when pitching investors
    6. What every deep tech and life sciences founder must prove before investors say yes
    7. The two make-or-break deliverables that define fundable milestones
    8. What investors really look for in your market sizing (and why your TAM might be irrelevant)
    9. The hidden art of building investor confidence through your sales strategy
    10. How to build a moat that actually matters—across SaaS, life sciences, and advanced materials
    11. Why founders underestimate the due-diligence deep dive into team dynamics
    12. Common red flags on your cap table that kill deals before they start
    13. The investor’s inside view on SAFE agreements—and why most angels won’t touch them
    14. The one preparation habit that makes founders 10x more likely to get funded
    and much more!
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Ep 80 - De-risking Your Science: What Makes Biotech Investable, With Daisy Robinton

    Ep 80 - De-risking Your Science: What Makes Biotech Investable, With Daisy Robinton
    Aug 17 2025
    In this episode of Invisible Ink, molecular biologist and biotech entrepreneur Daisy Robinton, founder of Oviva Therapeutics, joins Shubha Chakravarthy to share her journey from academia to leading a women’s health startup.

    Daisy turned a personal encounter with gaps in female physiology knowledge—despite holding a PhD— into her mission to address ovarian function as a key driver of women’s healthspan, all the way to a successful exit in a tough funding and M&A environment.

    Check out this episode for her thoughtful and pragmatic insights on:
    1. How to transition successfully from a scientist to founder
    2. How to tell if your biotech asset is ready for commercialization
    3. How to balance science and business as a scientist-founder
    4. The challenges of fundraising in biotech and how to set yourself up for success
    5. The art of making science-business tradeoffs, and how to do it well
    6. How to convince skeptical male investors of the market opportunity in women's health
    7. Tested tips from the trenches for first time CEO's
    8. Why storytelling is a game changer, and how to do it well for any audience
    9. Thinking ahead: exit and post-exit realities
    10. Tips to leverage your scientific training to translate into any domain



    and much more!

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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Ep 79 - How to Price, Negotiate, and Capture Value With Confidence, With Joanne Smith

    Ep 79 - How to Price, Negotiate, and Capture Value With Confidence, With Joanne Smith
    Aug 3 2025
    In this episode of Invisible Ink, pricing strategist Joanne Smith, formerly an executive at DuPont and now a leading expert in value-based pricing, joins Shubha Chakravarthy to unpack the science and art of pricing for early-stage deep tech startups.


    Check out Joanne's real-world, battle-tested advice and smart, practical strategies, as well as her sharp insights on:
    1. The single biggest pricing pitfall tripping up technical founders, and how to overcome it
    2. How to build courage and confidence in your pricing
    3. The essence of value-based pricing
    4. How to identify true value in a large customer organization
    5. How to quantify your product's value and ROI
    6. How to identify value when your product has multiple use cases and applications
    7. The one type of buyer you should avoid, and how to spot them in the wild
    8. Smart ways to handle price pushback from important customers
    9. How to split value between you and your customer
    10. Practical and effective tips to overcome price objections
    11. How to design effective pilots for risky technologies without sacrificing future pricing upside

    and much more!
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    59 mins