Funderbeam Founders Roundtable – The First Edition

When you get an email from the founder of the company that has raised funds on Funderbeam suggesting “Hey, I simply love what you’re doing and I have so many ideas on how to engage with other founders!” then one just has to react.
So, just a few days after this message, the first Funderbeam Founders Roundtable (complete with Gingerbread) came together. It was for a few members to test the format and willingness to contribute and give honest feedback.
We balanced the Roundtable with investors, traders and active community members with a bit more insight. And it was a constructive but at the same time heated and interesting discussion.
Roundtable Attendees
- Mariana Hagström – founder of Avokaado
- Endrus Arge – founder of Silen
- Andreas Tiik – founder of ÖÖD House
- Kristjan Lind – founder of Bikeep (also represented Kustas Kõik, the founder of Barking)
- Silver Laus – Shareholder at BoostMe and Chaga. Department head at Chaga (represented Siim Kabrits, the founder of Chaga)
- Jaanus Hellat – lead investor and active trader
- Mait Sooaru – active investor
- Jaak Ennuste – angel investor, active member of EstBAN
- Markko Karu – active investor, ex-Funderbeam product lead
- Ardo Mardisoo – Head of Baltics and Finland, Funderbeam
- Kätri Kübar – CPO, Funderbeam
- Kaidi Ruusalepp – founder and CEO, Funderbeam
Topics discussed
Investor engagement
More investor groups from more countries should be the Q1 focus. Both retail investors and professional (angel) investors have their value for companies, but the markets and investor groups have to be balanced.
Companies as brand ambassadors
Funderbeam should use companies more in marketing activities, as Funderbeam should not have sole responsibility for marketing of said companies. Both ÖÖD House and Silen plan to introduce a “For investors” section in their website referring to their company on Funderbeam. We agreed that Funderbeam will help to create the template of the page and contribute with the data to be used by the wider group of companies.
Funderbeam web
Funderbeam market content should be more visible to people who are not yet signed as users or investors. This enables visitors to get familiar with the market data, get some information about companies in the marketplace and read more info.
To take down the fear of an “opaque fence”. As this is the fine balance between promotion of financial services and simply providing market information, the Product team will have a look together with legal.
Founder and investor education
One of the most needed topics in the marketplace. Investors have to understand start-up investments and the need for patience. They need education for various start-up investment related topics and terminology, and investors need to read before they act. Funderbeam is drafting an educational section in the Funderbeam blog, but is working on the content before this will be launched.
Founders need support with reporting – how, what and when. Especially with the first one, as many mistakes can be avoided. Also some additional training on investor relations was requested.
Lead Investor – yes or no
No strong yes or no, but in the end it all boils down who the lead investor is. A Lead investor is not compulsory in Funderbeam anymore, but Funderbeam has no right to set the funding terms and some external validation is needed, which is one of the roles of the lead. It would be too confusing to the market if they are first required to validate/test the terms.
Reporting
All founders had strong opinions on reporting. Reporting is the absolute hygiene of every founder and has to be a stronger focus of Funderbeam. Funderbeam explained that very often open reporting is the showstopper for founders to raise funds in Funderbeam but the sentiment of the roundtable was pretty firm; Reporting is a must, but should be more standardised and structured to ease both writing and receiving (understanding) of it.
Media connections
Company news is good to be shared with the media but the devil is in details. Funderbeam will come with some structured plan but no strong objections overall.
Discussion board on Funderbeam
Good and bad. The Discussion board is a community and educational tool. It’s a tool for investors to talk to the companies and vice versa. The bad/ugly side of it is the way some users use the discussion board to insult companies or other investor opinions or even people behind the opinions. The Discussion board has to stay but it may need some fixes so that it won’t become a tool used for the wrong reasons.
Marketing challenges
Overall the growth of investors is largely a marketing challenge. When Funderbeam said it has on-boarded 21 new companies in 2021, it came as a surprise. So going back to the beginning – now the focus has to go to investors.
In addition Funderbeam took notes on UI fixes and funding flow feedback.
The concluding message from the Roundtable – we should meet on a regular basis.
Yes to that.
Kudos to Andreas Tiik from ÖÖD House for the initial suggestion and desire to get the roundtable happening so quickly.