GTM 101: A Founder’s Guide to Financing Environments and Navigating Venture Debt with Nick Dolik

Nick Dolik is a NYC-based investor, currently the Managing Director at TriplePoint Capital, and is focused on supporting founders and funding high-growth technology companies. Nick is passionate about entrepreneurship and has spent the past ~10 years backing various startups, including multiple unicorns.

Discussed in this Episode:

  • The current state of the financing environment for startups.
  • Venture debt: what it is, how it works, and why it exists.
  • Advantages of venture debt for founders and when to consider it.
  • The importance of building long-term relationships in the venture capital world.
  • Nick’s unconventional path into venture capital and lessons learned.
  • The value of getting “closer to the sun” when pursuing a career in VC.
  • Common misconceptions about the founder-investor relationship.

Highlights:

12:26 – The current financing environment for startups.

24:45 – Nick explains venture debt and its benefits for founders.

39:30 – Nick shares his journey from credit derivatives to venture capital.

47:22 – The importance of getting “closer to the sun” in pursuing a VC career.

51:30 – Advice for founders approaching their first fundraise.

59:41 – One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Nick thinks is bull$***

1:04:01 – One thing that is working for Nick in go-to-market right now.

Guest Speaker Links (Nick Dolik):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ndolik/

Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/

Sponsors:

  • Brought to you by Flex. Flex is a finance super app built around a credit card with unique Net-60 day terms that enables businesses to make an investment today and pay it back 60 days later with zero percent interest. If your business growth is constrained by the cashflow you need for inventory, advertising, or something else, Flex could provide you with an interesting growth lever.
  • Brought to you by OrumOrum is an AI-powered live conversation platform designed to supercharge sales activity, connect sales teams, and drive more revenue over the phone. Orum’s platform includes an AI-dialer that automates the manual aspects of calling and get sales reps into more conversations, a virtual sales floor for teams to build camaraderie and learn from one another, as well as analytics and coaching tools to help teams improve together.

The GTM Podcast
Features conversations with well-known tech executive, VC, and founders – the expert operators in the trenches who have ‘been there, done that’ to build some of the fastest-growing software companies. Every week, a guest joins Scott Barker to dissect their stories, revealing expert insights around what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.

This podcast is produced by GTMnow, the media brand of VC firm GTMfund – sharing insight on go-to-market from working with hundreds of portfolio companies backed by over 350 of the best go-to-market executives.

Before helping found GTMfund, Scott spent 4 years at Outreach as Director of Strategic Engagement. He was in charge of aligning key relationships with VCs, BoDs, ecosystem partners and community members to drive revenue and strategic initiatives across Outreach. Scott initially ran revenue/partnerships for Sales Hacker (which was acquired by Outreach in 2018). Prior to Sales Hacker, he led and built outbound Business Development teams at Payfirma and MediaValet. Scott also advises for a number of high growth start-ups and is the host/author of The GTM Podcast and The GTM Newsletter. At GTMfund, Scott leads all fundraising efforts and runs the media arm of the firm. He’s also responsible for assessing investments, team management, LP/community relationships and GTM support for founders.

Join Us Today

Insider access to the GTM network and the best minds in tech.

Join Us Today

Insider access to the GTM network and the best minds in tech.

Trending Now

You may also like...