WELCOME TO DREAM BIG VOL 3!!

A newsletter to help Start-Up Founders, Operators + Investors DREAM BIG!

WHAT’S INSIDE:

• 💌 Letter from DBSC

• 🎟️ End of Year Party announced @ Alleyoop, Melb Nov 29th

• 🎟️ Shelley Johnson announced as special guest at our Sydney event

• 🔥 LIVE DEALS - Dream Big Syndicate

• 🧙🏻‍♂️ Cap Chat - With DBSC Director Chris Wilson

• ✨ LACH LIKES ~ Dig into something new

• 🎙️ Latest Funny Business Guest Recaps

💌 A letter from DBSC

It’s getting to the pointy end of 2023 and we’re excited to finish the year on a high with 2 DBSC events this month.

We can’t wait to get back to Sydney next week with our very good friend Shelley Johnson for our first ever LIVE podcast at Fishburners. We love what Martin Karafilis (CEO @ Fishburners) and the team are doing at Fishies, the OG startup co-working space of Australia, and can’t wait to see some old friends and meet some new ones too.

For all our Melbourne friends, we are finishing the year with a bang, heading to the self-proclaimed Silicon Valley of Melbourne, the inner city hotspot of Cremorne for a good old fashioned partyyyy at Alleyoop. Big love to Tim McNamara for lending us the keys for the night.

Plenty of things happening on the Dream Big Syndicate front, with some special updates included in this fortnightly’s edition of the newsletter.

DBSC director Chris Wilson makes his long awaited debut this week with CAP CHAT, his new segment giving his low down on the state of play of all things capital and ventures. Don’t want to pump the old boy’s tyres up too much but he does write well.

Had some big guests on the Funny Business Podcast the past fortnight, including Ben Pfisterer (CEO + Co-Founder of Zeller), Rory Kent (Founder at Young Gun of Wine + Dan Jovevski (CEO + Founder of WeMoney). Plenty more big guests to wrap up the year!

Just a reminder, if you’re keen on coming to any events, grab your FREE tickets before they’re all gone!

BIG ❤️

End of Year Party @ Alleyoop in Melb ~ Nov 29th

MELBOURNE FRIENDS, WE HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOU!! 🪩🕺

DREAM BIG SOCIAL CLUB ‘END OF YEAR’ PARTY @ ALLEYOOP (Cremorne, VIC).

Big love to Grant Help for sponsoring this event. They do unreal work ✨

⏰ 6-9:00pm
🎟️ Tickets are FREE
🐟 30 Stephenson St, Cremorne (Melbourne)

Funny Business LIVE @ Fishburners in Sydney ~ Nov 22nd

Shelley Johnson announced as Special Guest for the LIVE Podcast!

SYDNEY! We've got the wonderful Shelley Johnson joining us at our Funny Business LIVE podcast at Fishburners on Wed November 22nd.

This is shaping up to be a special night!! Grab your FREE ticket before they're all goneeee!! ✨

Big thanks to our good friends at Shadowboxer for jumping on board and supporting this event. We ❤️ you!

⏰ 5-6:30pm
🎟️ Tickets are FREE
🐟 11 York St, Sydney

🔥 LIVE DEALS - DREAM BIG SYNDICATE

Current Listings:

➡️ SQUARE X/GREENSQUARE - RAISING INVESTMENT NOW

💬 <sup>November Update by Co-Founder Caleb Holstein:

This past month we were invited to present at The Digital Future of Coffee Conference to speak on the hidden costs in the coffee supply chain and how SquareX's software is directly helping stakeholders in the coffee supply chain with greensquare. Providing users with the ability to have unique ID tracking through their procurement along with the ability to make sustainable long-term decisions using their own live data feeds. Along with this, we have reached 500k allocated from our open bridging round of 1.2M if you are interested in learning more, reach out to the DBSC team.</sup>

➡️ PAYSQUAD - RAISING INVESTMENT NOW

 💬 <sup>November Update by Founder Cam Richardson:

The PaySquad team is rolling! Over the last couple of weeks, we've networked with major ticketing and retail players, secured funds from a top fintech entrepreneur, and were one of 10 startups selected out of 10,700 accepted into the Startup Boot Camp’s Sustainable Fintech accelerator. Over the next few days, we're pumped to launch PaySquad on Sonia Therese Design’s Jewellery Brand and push our group gift card experience powered by Prezzee on thesplits.co for our NZ fans. Aussie friends, you curious? Drop us a line!</sup> 🎣
 
➡️ SECONDZ - RAISING INVESTMENT NOW

➡️ SEABIN - RAISING INVESTMENT NOW

About the Dream Big Syndicate:

Our syndicate aims to democratise access to investment deal flow to the wider DBSC network and provide opportunities for startups to access capital and the right strategic investors for their business.

🤝 Invest Deal by Deal in Early Stage Start Ups (Pre-Seed-Series A)
💵 Small Minimum Cheque Size, no fee to join, no obligation to invest.
⚙️ Investment process managed via tech through our Platform Partners.

➡️ Register your interest to join the Dream Big Syndicate here.

About Dream Big Advisory:

If you are a FOUNDER looking to raise investment or are craving support through your Pre Seed/Seed stage, we want to hear from you!! We have limited spots left available for our advisory offering and want to finish the year off strong by getting down to business with new startups this side of Christmas.

➡️ Register your interest for Dream Big Advisory.

🧙🏻‍♂️ CAP CHAT - with DBSC Director Chris Wilson

Well here we are, November 2023 already and it's definitely an interesting time to be in venture capital. And to be a Founder. There is a lot of “noise in the system” right now and for the Founders we are working with, the fundraising process is as frustrating and confusing as ever. 

And it doesn’t need to be.

Just last year in the middle of 2022 things looked pretty bleak. Investors were rightly cautious given the economic challenges both globally and nationally. Founders needed to pitch for at least 12 to 18 months of runway. Follow-on rounds - if they got up at all - were facing much lower (re)valuations. And terms were definitely not Founder friendly. Now a lot of this has been written about so I won't prosecute it here, but suffice to say, much of this was the result of quite flippant and naive behavior in the sector in the years prior. Payback’s a bitch!

I am definitely seeing green shoots though in the funding world. And a few things are standing out: firstly - and I know it's a truism - but there is always capital available for quality and impactful companies. Companies with strong founding teams and a clear narrative and even clearer journey to navigate over the next 24 to 36 months are finding capital. Secondly, Founders with a clear and well articulated capital strategy and a prudent view of their companies value are finding a receptive investor audience. As things tightened in 2022 I heard consistently from investors that they wanted to hear and see clearly and succinctly articulated strategies. Simplistic but with the “trust me, wink wink” multiplier removed. And lastly, Founders who consistently and transparently invite VCs and investors in, who share and expose the culture of their company and not just some fluffy and wordy vision statement, are being listened to. 

I personally encourage everyone I work with to simplify their messaging as funding does not necessarily follow the smartest people in the room with the biggest vocab. Capital and worthy investors stay true to their own mandates and if they feel engaged with the Founder and their company, and they can see a strong match, then building a relationship will have been a very  good investment for the Founder. “Always on capital” is about creating an investment ready network around you, of informed VCs and investors who feel close to your company, your strategy and your vision. They feel informed about how you are progressing and executing, and are literally waiting to invest. And they will do so when you most need it. The “pitch parade” was created by the broader venture community. There is a business in running pitch nights and the like… !

My advice to our Founders is … steer clear of the “festival of funding” and engage early and truly with VCs and investors you want to work with and vice versa. Great investors often work in the shadows and don’t need or seek the limelight. Find them. Engage with them. And work with them as you deliver on your dream.