Faique Moqeet

Premiering now on the Digital Health Heavyweights Podcast I have a conversation with the co founder and CEO of Bonfire Analytics Vinay Nagaraj! One great moment was when Vinay says that while business moves at the speed of trust, so does sales. I could not agree more. It requires a huge level of authenticity, being able to connect with a person, as a person. Building deeper relationships. There is a lot to learn on this weeks episode. Vinay shares his journey from biomedical engineering to healthcare sales, discussing the challenges and successes he faced while scaling revenue at Roundtrip. He emphasizes the importance of authentic relationships in sales, the role of data in healthcare, and the key traits he looks for in salespeople. Vinay also discusses the inspiration behind Bonfire Analytics, its mission to accelerate healthcare technology adoption, and the common mistakes healthcare companies make in sales. He provides insights into market opportunities, the importance of making data actionable, and offers advice for founders seeking funding. I always love asking my guests the 3 things they look for when hiring for sales roles, Vinay shares three traits he likes to seek out: 1. Hunger to LEARN, someone always focusing on learning, growing, improving themselves personally, and professionally. 2. Taking Initiative- startups are all the hats, building the plane while you're flying it. So if you see a process that needs fixing, fix it. 3. Strong Communicators- communications that is clear, direct, and easy to understand. I would add radical transparency to this list, but I did only give him 3 traits to distill. Check in to learn if you're a vitamin, or a pain killer, emerging markets, and of course all about Bonfire's impact, and goals, and more! Check out our key takeaways: 🎯 Salespeople should focus on understanding customer pain points to be effective. 📊 Bonfire Analytics aims to provide actionable insights to healthcare companies to improve sales efficiency. 🌍 Vinay's global upbringing fostered adaptability and resilience, essential traits for a startup founder. 🏥 Healthcare companies often make the mistake of relying too heavily on large health systems for sales. 🔑 Data must be actionable; Bonfire helps clients leverage data effectively for their sales strategies. Check it all out here: https://lnkd.in/dnvucCrF

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One thing to consider when thinking about joining an incubator program is, do they offer a process with built in accountability? If not, you're just going to be winging it in a fancy office and giving up equity in your startup. I hate to say it, but most early stage Founders need a "boss" at that stage or else they'll just end up spinning their wheels and producing little to nothing. Not always, but in most cases from my experience and observations.

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The hardest thing in VC isn't finding the next big thing. It's saying no to a founder. I was a founder once. I know what it's like to pour your whole life into a company until it becomes the very extension of who you are. Sadly, the no is inevitable in our line of work. But over the years I've learned how to be less bad at it: 1. "No" is not the cruelest word in venture. "Maybe" is. The slow fade. The "let's touch base in 6 months." These aren't kindness. They're just a way of keeping optionality at the founder's expense. Yes, sometimes an opportunity is genuinely too early. But you know the difference. If you know it's a no, say it. 2. Don't hide behind abstractions. A famous investor once counseled founders: "Believe the no and not the why." Investors usually don't want to open a Pandora's box of heated back-and-forth with founders, so they take refuge in vague cover: "it's too early," "we don't have enough experience in this space," "the market's not big enough," or the classic "it's just not a good fit for us." I've used every one of those. Now when I pass, I try to be direct about why I don't have conviction. But I'm also aware that in saying no, I may be describing the limits of my own imagination. So I explicitly say: this is my read...it's based on incomplete information and a highly subjective point of view. I may well be wrong in my assessment. 3. You're not saying no to a pitch deck. You're saying no to someone who probably hasn't slept in months. I'll be honest, there were times I'd glance at my phone during a pitch or quickly check email during a pitch. Not because I'd lost interest, but because something felt urgent and I was already juggling 100 things. It took me too long to understand that when an investor checks their phone, the only message a founder hears is: "this is not that interesting." I accepted the meeting. They've been at this for months or years. The least I can do is be fully there for an hour. 4. Founders remember how you made them feel. Forever. The company you pass on today may be run by someone who pivots and builds something extraordinary tomorrow. Or who becomes a founder you want to back in five years. Or who tells every other founder in their network exactly what kind of person you are. As in every other facet of life, reputation takes a lifetime to build and a minute to destroy. 5. If you're passing, try to be useful. Introduce them to an investor whose thesis actually fits or a corporate partner they've been trying to connect with. It costs you ten minutes. It saves them months. In summary, there is no way to make rejection painless, whether in one's personal or professional realms (startups are both and that makes it doubly bad). But there is a way to make it honest and dignified. To every founder I've said no to: I tried to do it right but I know I didn't always succeed. I also know some of you will prove me wrong and I genuinely look forward to that.

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My friends at Forum Ventures run a great program to teach you how (and why) you should build a company. I wish I had this when I first started. Builders Between Ventures is their Venture Studio’s 6-week early validation sprint, designed for experienced founders, senior operators, and domain experts who have an insight they’re seriously considering building around They just opened applications for our second cohort. Many explore this while still in a full-time role... they use the sprint to get clarity on whether an idea is worth building or not. Participants work closely with their Studio team to: – Run market and customer diligence – Get clear answers on market size, competitive positioning, and investor appetite – Learn how investors evaluate opportunities at this stage – Potentially pitch their Studio team for $250k and a chance to build with us This is the same validation process they use internally within our venture studio. From their first cohort, some participants are now pitching their venture studio for investment, while others have realized that their idea wasn’t worth pursuing. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/ekNHCRXR

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Fundraising isn't dating. It's a sales funnel. And most founders don't track it, so 3 months go by while they're still "in conversations." Here's the brutal math (seed round, current selectivity): 100-200 investor outreaches → 15-20% reply rate → 15-30 first meetings → 5-10 partner meetings → 1-3 term sheets → 1 close If you're not tracking conversion at each stage, you're not fundraising. You're hoping. Founders who close faster don't have better luck. They have better systems: 1. They track the funnel weekly Where are leads dying? Outreach, first meeting, partner meeting? Each bottleneck has a different fix. 2. They iterate the narrative Every week: one sharper answer to the question that killed the last meeting. 3. They batch meetings 10 meetings in 2 weeks beats 10 meetings over 2 months. Compression creates urgency. Urgency creates leverage. 4. They treat "no" as data A fast no is worth more than a slow maybe. It frees you to find the real yes. If your fundraise feels stuck, stop asking "Who else can I talk to?" Start asking "Where is my funnel breaking?" I stress-test fundraising packages for founders. Deck, model, cap table, assumptions. You get a written findings memo and a 90-minute call showing you what breaks before investors do. Link in comments. #fundraising #seedstage #venturecapital #startups

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After 26 years helping founders raise capital -- and investing in them, following three startups of my own -- I've developed a frustrating superpower: I can see certain fundraising train wrecks coming from miles away. Too many founders still operate under the mythology of traditional VC supremacy. They haven't studied the tradeoffs. They haven't learned how term sheets, board control, liquidation preferences and dilution can radically change the ending -- even when the company "succeeds." The founders most resistant to this advice are often exceptionally smart, with enormous confidence in their vision. They need that confidence -- startup life would chew them up without it. But confidence can also create a nasty case of get-there-itis. They want to go fast. So they join an accelerator believing funding magically appears at Demo Day. Techstars has reported the average company takes roughly three years after its program to raise institutional funding. Three years. So much for the express lane. Or my personal favorite: moving to the Bay Area for 90 days because apparently venture capital is absorbed through the skin. Then the first investor asks: "If this deal is so hot, why couldn't you get funded in your own city?" Yeah. Red flag. Keep in touch. Here's the rule founders should live by: to get there fast, you have to take it slow. Venture funding is the eye of a needle. Getting through it means becoming one of the tiny percentage of companies that not only get funded, but achieve an outcome genuinely good for the founders. Those are two very different accomplishments. Most VCs aren't evil. They're operating from a playbook that's spent 50 years being legal-smithed into a remarkably investor-friendly instrument. Then the founder's lawyer says: "If you want the money, sign it." So prepare before you desperately need capital: 🔹 Go-to-market strategy 🔹 Customer discovery 🔹 Competitive analysis 🔹 Capital strategy 🔹 Financial modeling 🔹 Exit strategy And of course, traction. Otherwise, you'll spend months taking 100 VC meetings only to hear: "Come back when you have so much traction you don't need our money anymore." And thanks for the edutainment. We knew nothing about your industry 45 minutes ago. Now we know enough to be dangerous when your competitor walks in tomorrow. On August 25, I'm teaching my monthly three-hour workshop: "Is My Startup Fundable?" Three hours of slowing down could save you months of fundraising theater -- and perhaps save the company you're working so hard to accelerate. Small intimate group of founders, and usually a mentor or two assisting me, including a startup lawyer. We'll also deep dive into your specific company as much as time allows. Let's figure it out together. August 25th, 3:30pm-7pm at Holland & Knight LLP in the Columbia Tower, 47th Flr. https://lnkd.in/gXfsu_mR

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