How Teasha Cable Closed a $1M Seed Round for CModel (Teasha Cable / CModel)

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Teasha Cable: So now I'm out talking to VCs and I'm telling them my little piece of story that I have, right? they're asking me questions. That I can't answer or questions that I haven't thought about the answers to.

They're starting to, you know, dig in a little bit. And that's when I learned that I didn't know enough. And I needed to pull back from that experience because if I approach one person and I can't answer, that's just one person. But now when I approach two people and they ask me the same question, Then I go, I really need to learn and understand that.​

anyone who's raised capital before knows that fundraising can feel like stepping onto a tight rope. You've got this grand vision for scaling your [00:01:00] company that needs capital to pull off. But you're balancing on a line that can sway with every conversation with every investor that you try to close. One moment you're full of confidence taking steps forward and the next you're wobbling and questioning whether or not you can pull it off. It's a harrowing process where you can't look down or otherwise risk, having the fear of falling consume you.

Today's guest knows that tight rope. Well, After bootstrapping your company for months. Tisha cable, founder and CEO of C model. I decided it was time to raise. But early on the rejections came in hard instead of giving up or getting offended. She learned from each rejection tweeter approach and started executing on what investors wanted to see. After a lot of trial and error, she locked down a lead investor in the Alabama futures fund. Eventually closing a $1 million seed round in a not so easy market. And that description sounds easier than it actually was. [00:02:00] After the Alabama futures fund committed, it still took six months of grinding to fully close her seed round. That persistence though. It wasn't something new for her. You'll hear more on why that is as we rewind the clock back and zoom in on Tisha's childhood. And the birthplace of jazz.

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Teasha Cable: yeah, so for me, childhood was, it was fun. I grew up in new Orleans in a city where my family made up a square block. At one point, my grandmother lived downstairs from us, and then we moved, and It was, you could walk a whole square block and be surrounded by a bunch of people who were my cousins and aunts and uncles and, uh, back a couple generations, right?

So it was a pretty interesting, uh, dynamic in our neighborhood. We were poor, uh, but it didn't feel like it. We didn't know it. uh, my family, a family full of educators and [00:03:00] folks like that. Matter of fact, They, they tell the story often about having come from being sharecroppers. And one of the first things they did was built a schoolhouse.

So education is a, was a big part of, um, the dynamic within our family. So it was that I had a, uh, I would say normal childhood, uh, in that way, as anyone would growing up in the South. But then something happened.

So round about the time that, um, I was in high school, my, my mom, uh, married my dad, my stepfather, and we moved to California.

And. Yes, big culture shock.

It was, it was something, uh, and in that experience, um, it was really the first time I had experienced a lot of things outside of Louisiana. And I think about that from my perspective, but even from my mom, like it was a lot. That was her first time experiencing a lot of things for the first time.

And she was, uh, in her forties. [00:04:00] And so for me, it was, um, I got a chance to start doing different things like theater. I got a chance to, you know, I was in diverse schools, which I hadn't experienced, um, before that. So there were a lot of things that were very different in my experience moving to California, not to mention it's California.

Uh, so, um, yeah, so that happened.

Jason Yeh: me a bit about, it's, it sounds like you grew up in a fairly tight family unit, extended family around you, and then moving to California with all this culture shift. Some of that movement can impact, uh, children in different ways, maybe put them in their shelves. Shelves, sometimes.

Allowing them an opportunity to reinvent themselves. Were you extroverted, introverted? Tell us a little bit about that.

Teasha Cable: I'm extroverted, always have been, but what's interesting about that particular point is I did reinvent myself when we moved. Um, and one of the [00:05:00] things that was missing for me was I, in that close knit piece, all of my friends were my cousins. Right. So I grew up with my first cousins as like my best friends and moving out, I did have to reinvent myself because now I have to go outside of my pocket in order to like build relationships, uh, with people.

So my extraversion was a thing, but maybe sometimes I was a little bit you know, um, maybe it was more, right. Because I knew that I needed to, uh, I needed to bring people in. Uh, to my world who didn't already naturally just love everything about them because they weren't my family, right? So, it was, it was a big transition, um, making that shift.

But, I will say what I did get out of it, because I was exposed to people who had grew up differently, uh, than I did, was I did make, you know, friends along the way, and I did, um, have experiences that.

I know that, uh, New Orleans didn't have to offer me.

Jason Yeh: So, I mean, you're [00:06:00] talking a little bit about some skill sets that you built early on that I think would be applied for some of the later stories that we'll get into this idea of making sure that you had to go out and talk to people and actually convince them. There's a reason for you to like, for them to like you other than the fact that you, you, you, you share blood, right?

Um, what about, what about your inspirations in terms of career and where you thought you were going to go, right? Um, a family of educators, but at some point, you guys moved to California. When, especially when you got to California, where did you think your life would go? You were, you were, you were in theater, but what were the things that you thought you might get into later down the road?

Teasha Cable: You know, I really, um, I really didn't know, but I did somehow think I'd end up teaching. I thought that teaching, uh, was going to be a thing. At some point I thought, uh, acting maybe was going to be a thing. I, that wasn't, I, I think I was driven more by, like, being in front [00:07:00] and, like, telling people what to do.

So,

Jason Yeh: call it

leadership. You don't, you don't have to say that.

Teasha Cable: Exactly. So I, um, I spent quite a bit thinking that that was going to be one of those things. I never, I never thought that I'd end up on the path that I'm going. Um, something else, I mean, we we'll get to this place in my life, but my career actually developed. Later, uh, in my, my education, a lot of things changed.

post college, uh, tell me when we're ready to tell that.

part of the story.

Jason Yeh: Yeah, no, I, I would love to jump into that. So it feels like we have a good baseline for how you grew up and sort of your personality evolving, would love to transition to your jump into startups and, you know, we will, we will click quickly go into thinking about how you ran a fundraise for this company, but maybe we spend a few, few minutes just [00:08:00] connecting the dots between, um, You know, outgoing Tisha in California to now outgoing founder and CEO of C Model.

There's some yada, yada, yada in between that we should probably cover. So tell us a little bit about that.

Teasha Cable: Yeah. And it's actually really significant cause something that happened.

So I went off to college. I was 17 when I went off and I went back to New Orleans, came back to California where my parents were, um, and ended up pregnant, I ended up having my first daughter pretty early. So I ended up leaving school.

And so what, what that brought me to was like real life, right? So now I have a kid. I ended up married shortly after, uh, then I had another kid. Then I'm like, wait a minute, I'm finding myself in this sort of revolving, uh, door in my career. I've got to go back to school. And so, um, I did that and I did that while I was, uh, working, uh, at the University of California, matter of fact.

Um, so I, I didn't go to the University of California, but I, I went, I was working there and then it was like, Hey, okay, let's go back to school. So once I did that, then I found my [00:09:00] career.

And I found in my career in sales operations where I walk into the office and they said, here's your desk is your computer.

What's the forecast? And I'm like, I can do that. Um, and so, and they said, Oh, and we just bought this tool called salesforce. com. Can you use that? And I'm like, I sure can. Um, and I really couldn't, but I, I was going to figure it out. And so I I got busy utilizing, uh, my new learning, uh, from studying business.

And. Uh, brought that, uh, to the table in solving problems, uh, for companies.

And, and it was that journey of solving problems over the course of about 25 years, that led me, uh, to foundership. So solving, I've been everything from a VP of business operations, a VP of business development and product strategy, and a VP of revenue operations.

So these are all the roles that I had along my trajectory to determining Uh, that I was going to start Cmodel. I

also went out and consulted in a lot of [00:10:00] companies.

Jason Yeh: No, so really impressive career, but I think only founders like you, understand how big the gap is between being a, a, uh, successful executive to then actually like making the leap to right, to being a founder. Uh, and, and there are a lot of things to mention there, obviously like giving up a, a, predictable revenue stream, predictable salary, something comfortable into doing something that's very uncertain is.

Is not, you can say, and then I started the company, but look, you have a family to support. You have a lot of things going on.

Um, tell us a little bit about what pulled you into the journey and, um, in particular, maybe you can connect it to the thing that we focus on, which is fundraising. When you knew that you wanted to start a company, talk a little bit about that, but also mention, did you know it was going to be something that you had to raise capital for?

Teasha Cable: So when I, so I was consulting [00:11:00] in companies and helping them, to, you know, forecast, I was, I was working in these companies and I was like, well, I can't really scale a consultancy, not, not to solve as many people as I want, if I ever want to not work, cause I was doing both. Um, and so, When my husband, we had a conversation, I'm like, Hey, I think I'm ready.

I think I want to do this thing. And he's like, okay, well let's do it. I still thought I'd, you know, maintain. Uh, some of the consulting work at the same time. But I quickly realized that to, to build the kind of venture that I wanted to build, that that wasn't going to be possible, that I have to wholly focus the company on solving the problem that we set out to solve.

And it took me a long time to determine. Is this an exponential growth company or a sustainable growth company, right? Because the consulting model is like slow and steady wins the race, right? But I was quickly, uh, learning that, the reason why companies choose to raise venture capital is because they have this heavy, Stuff to build right [00:12:00] on the front end, right?

It's, there's, I need to go fast now in order for it to be greater later. And so when I started digging into, you know, how we were going to build the tech, how we were going to, you know, what we needed to do in order to, uh, to even just get past the prototype stage, it was like, ugh, we are going to have to raise money.

We bootstrapped, um, until, so we started the company in 2022 and we bootstrapped until, uh, that May. So we, I used up. All my savings. Right. Um, we, we did a lot to sort of get started and I tried for as long as possible until I understood what it would take, um, to actually close around the funding and I had a few starts.

Like I would go out and be like Oh, I'm raising. So many millions of dollars, right? And then quickly found I didn't have any of the things that I needed in order to do that and I didn't understand the mindset of the VC and I didn't understand the structure and formula by which that piece of sort of [00:13:00] system operates and what the company needs to look like.

I didn't know what they were looking for, right? I'm thinking, hey, you just will like me and my great idea and I'm certain that that works for some people, right? But it's not like the reality for the grand sort of.

Jason Yeh: Tisha,

Teasha Cable: For the most part. Yeah.

Jason Yeh: let's pause right there because I don't want to like glaze over this. This is a, uh, a rite of passage that the thing that you're describing is a rite of passage for a lot of founders. And I think in that journey of learning that on the fly, a lot of founders don't make it to what you were, what you were able to get through, right?

Cause they try these things that don't work and then it's done. Right. So tell me a little bit about the first tries or like. You, you were like, I think I want to try this. And then you said you needed to learn. Was it, was it a trial and error learning? Was it, you went out and found people like, well, I want to understand, I want people to understand how you did it so that

maybe they can [00:14:00] reduce some of the steps that they, they take themselves in, in order to find the right path.

Teasha Cable: You know, what happened was, um, I got out of theory and got into execution mode and that made a difference. And here's what I mean. You start talking to people, right? So when you are thinking about theorizing around fundraising or anything, even building the company, when you're theorizing about it, it's going to be easy.

You're just going to do this. And if you do all the right things, everything will work out. It'll be great. But when you get into executing, that's when you start learning. So now I'm out talking to VCs and I'm telling them my little piece of story that I have, right? they're asking me questions. That I can't answer or questions that I haven't thought about the answers to.

They're starting to, you know, dig in a little bit. And that's when I learned that I didn't know enough. And I needed to pull back from that experience because if I approach one person and I can't [00:15:00] answer, that's just one person. And I go write it down and go. But now when I approach two people and they ask me the same question, Then I go, I really need to learn and understand that.

And let me give you a perfect example. So at this early stage of company, you, in most cases, you're told. You know, you don't have to, you need to understand your customer, who that is. Therefore, how do you do that though? Right. You need to do a whole lot of customer discovery. No one says go do customer discovery.

They do say, Oh, so tell me about your customer. Tell me about this. Tell me about that. Right. They, They, don't tell you that you need to have your go to market strategy laid out and crystal clear. That you just start getting asked questions about, you know, how, you know, where are these people going to come from and how are you going to do that?

And so in as much as on one side, you have all of the fantasy of startup land. Oh, do unscalable things and just live your best life. The flip side of that is no, you need to be able to prove things. You need to have information to support the things that you say. You need to know what you're [00:16:00] going to do in order to achieve these outcomes that you're laying out.

And I think that the language often gets mixed for founders, right? It's like, you're free to do whatever. no, you're building a company that needs to look how companies are. But, but you need to have a great idea right now, right? And you need to know that there's a market to do, to go out and sell that thing too, but you also need to know how you're going to do it.

At least have fundamental assumptions that you can take into the room and share with others confidently,

um, and have some backup for, yeah.

Jason Yeh: no, that's Super helpful to hear That laid out. And, um, there is this, there's this portion of building a startup, a venture backed startup that a lot of founders, like you said, kind of glaze over and, and in certain ways, a younger Tisha, you know, like a couple of years ago might've, I think kind of did the same thing where you had the idea and then you're like, let's just go raise money because investors [00:17:00] invest in companies.

Right. Um, And I think this, this sounds overly simple, but people glaze over it is that you need to be building a good company, right? You need to be building a company that fits what investors are looking for, which might sound simple, but it is. The company solving a real problem that customers want to buy from that has an opportunity scale.

And in particular for venture capitalists have the potential, has the potential of being massive. And I just think that founders don't sharpen their pencils enough to be like, I'm going to have that yet, but I need to. Show that that's what I'm building. Right. And so how do you do that? How do you communicate that?

What can you show at the earliest stages? Um, so it's, it's cool that you quickly were like, Oh, instead of like playing founder, I got to be a founder and go, um,

well, that's

great.

Teasha Cable: Oh, [00:18:00] I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Can I just say this, which is I have to be a founder, but from me where I had come from, I I'm not going to be a business, a business leader because. There was a significant difference between me coming in and thinking, I know how to do this because I've run a million companies, right?

Uh, versus no, I'm starting something new at the floor and I know nothing about doing this. That was one of the biggest shifts.

Jason Yeh: So I would normally jump into some other parts, but there's something that I want to have a discussion with you around specifically, specifically because of your background. So how to, you had a really long career in sales operations, right? You understand the motion of. B2B sales, of software sales. And a lot of people are quick to point out that fundraising looks a lot like sales, right?

And I, whenever I talk to founders and I'm helping them through that, I do let them know [00:19:00] that fundraising and sales are close cousins, but they are different. And you know, the fact that you, the fact that you had such a deep background in sales And had a bit of a false start or like had to update your own mental models means that there is a gap.

I wonder if you've ever reflected on that and if we could do that live, like knowing what you know now about those two things, what are some of the things that you would point out that are like, Ooh, this is what I thought based on sales. This was maybe different. Here's what I had to update. And any thoughts there?

Teasha Cable: Yeah, So number one, how you talk about Um, what it is that you're building. So in fundraising, you start at the vision, uh, and it's from the vision that you start to develop, then there is a market, right? And there is a mission, right? That we're going to go on. And here's how we're going to do it in, in a [00:20:00] very sort of descriptive.

Product heavy, technology, moat ish, what's special, what's unique about me, what's awesome, right? When you are selling, you're focused on the customer and their pain. What are you feeling? What do you need? What are the problems you are solving? And it is a different conversation. I actually was having a much easier time in the beginning, but Having customer conversations.

Like we did a lot of customer discovery. I sat on the call with, at this point, the multiples of hundreds of, CEOs and CFOs of companies, and to talk about this problem and that's easier in some ways, right, because either they feel it or they don't feel it, whereas when you get into the fundraising game, I'm not talking, I'm talking about my vision, this thing that I have to solve that problem for that customer.

And I need you to believe in me. I need you to. Feel it and understand it and be excited about it. [00:21:00] Venture capitalists in the same way that I am. I need you to believe in me that I am the one that can deliver a on this vision to the world. That is a little bit different than the sales customer conversation, which is just a bit more, concrete, right?

Customer feels it, uh, they're experiencing it or they're not. It's a little more subjective, right? Uh,

at the investor.

Jason Yeh: no, there is this, there is this nuance that is, is, you know, that doesn't quite exist in a, in a clear, like, Oh, we need a way to track our marketing leads. And do you track marketing leads better? Right. the one thing that, that the one thing that I've grown to understand is, um, it is a lot fundraising is a lot like sales and similar to when you're just selling, you know, B2B software or anything else.

What's really important is that you get in the mind of the buyer, right? You understand how someone makes a buying decision for software [00:22:00] so that you can fit into that model. I think the big key differentiator is, so it is the same, but the mind of the buyer is, is really nuanced and subjective and like not based on Hard facts all the time with an investor and, and, and I think that is one of the biggest gaps.

And it's kind of what you talk about because like, wow, I didn't realize this, but what they are looking for

Teasha Cable: That's right.

Jason Yeh: What they are looking for is an inspiring figure that they want to back because they They think that person, that founder might be able to do a bunch of things Um, no,

that's

Teasha Cable: a great Yeah,

with a great idea behind it. Yeah, back to your point earlier, with a great idea.

Jason Yeh: Yeah, totally. Okay. So, um, at some point you cross the chasm of, of understanding, Oh, this is what the motion needs to be. This is what it needs to look more like, and actually probably need to do. Some more work within my company before I fundraise. [00:23:00] But at some point you kind of feel the green light in yourself and you have a better understanding of what you need to do.

What was that for you? Like, and what did you start? Was that part of the, the million dollar round that you raised? At least that's what's announced.

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I love Tisha's emphasis on understanding the mind of the investor.

I think a lot of founders jump into raising from VCs with a cool idea and a big dream and forget that they're entering into a whole new game. With a whole new set of rules. One, they rarely understand well enough before setting out to raise. When we come back, we get to hear about how t-shirt navigated the fundraising process and ultimately closed her round

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Teasha Cable: [00:24:00] Yes.

So what happened was the first thing was we did the AWS Impact Accelerator first, and that was our first sort of intro into the [00:25:00] process and decided not to really go too hard on the fundraising right after that because we had a lot of things to build. But, um, fast forward to May of 2023, we got into Techstars.

And at the

Techstars level of Accelerator, now we're talking about we've got a bunch more laid out, we're much more clear, and that program in itself was Far more geared towards the stage we were at. We were exiting existence into survival and, you know, we got a product, we got customers, we got a little revenue, you know, now we're just trying to find our footing with capital and customers.

What does that look like? Techstars. And coming out of Techstars, what it did was just, you know, There was a narrative development that got really crystal clear while we were there. That was number one. What are we doing? And then really the main thing, and I tell people this all the time is, and then what does the world look like when we fulfill our purpose?

It, I, we had a, uh, an Edie ask us that, and it was the best question. So now I ask everybody, because Edie, If I understand my [00:26:00] purpose and I understand what the world looks like when I fulfill it, then my story becomes clearer, and that's the story that I can then translate to investors because that is the other critical part of what happens in that investment process, which is communicating and communicating.

The story, if you don't have all the backings, uh, in the company, this is why traction and all of these things can take on different forms, depending upon how big and broad your market is and, and so on. Right. And so, or, or how big your idea is, how special the technology is, the narrative. Starts to support all of the other, uh, pieces and parts.

And so I, for me, once I got that clear, then I was ready to go and talk, uh, to more venture capitalists. And I took a path of warm. Intros as, as a more, an easier way in some of the doors. So as opposed to just all the cold outreach, it was I meet [00:27:00] somebody and then ask for the introduction to the next person and I'll get you that fundraising is hard.

One of the hardest things and I still have a lot more to do by the way, right? One of the hardest things that I think there is to do is to have someone tell you that your baby is ugly. Right. Um, I don't like your baby. Um, you know, your baby is cute, but I, you know, it's not special. So, those things are

Jason Yeh: And over and over again, right?

Teasha Cable: Over And over and over again, right? But then, if you look at it by the numbers, then you go, this makes a lot of sense. And if, if you also dig into the thesis of any particular investment firm, I went back, I didn't exercise, I looked at all the no's, and most of the no's that I got were from people who don't, either they, they don't, didn't understand, um, the technology that we were building, uh, thought it was too far on the edge at the time, didn't understand that space, or they don't invest in companies.

Like [00:28:00] mine, or maybe they didn't say it in their words, but our stage, we were too early, um, for them. So qualifying those no's into like who these folks were that said no. And then looking back at them, then I go, Oh, that's the other thing you're supposed to do is be very specific and narrow. And who you're going to talk to so that you don't end up in that situation.

Um, although every VC conversation to me is a good one because you learn something, right? You start, if you find that it's not a fit, there's some questions to ask, right? There's some things to learn to understand the mindset, right? Uh, which in some cases is really traditional, right? They have a very specific way.

Like don't change up that pitch deck. Problem is a problem. A solution is a solution. Don't get too fancy with these stories Ellen, right? Like that's a very traditional thing and you got to learn that because otherwise you're going to be at no before you know it. And then the other thing is learning what the no's are.

Like I didn't know about the [00:29:00] valuation questions and how to answer those, right? I didn't know or how to not answer them. I didn't know about the um, Some of the go to market questions, how those are supposed to be answered. So I, I didn't know they were looking for a way to say no, or they are not word, but they are always looking for how to say no, because 1%, 1 percent of all the companies that get started are ever going to receive 1 from VC, right?

So of course they're looking for, Oh, that's a No, not in on that one. Call me later. You know, that's how it kind of goes.

100

Jason Yeh: Tisha, this is super helpful for people to hear. And you're kind of illustrating why. Um, repeat founders do a lot better too, cause they've seen this, right? They, they learned it. And, you know, it is one of the reasons why, like, I am a huge supporter of people finding Sherpas, going through mentorship programs, joining [00:30:00] accelerators.

If you don't have the background experience and network to actually try to get this done, it is really hard when you don't know what you're doing and you make it up as you go along and you try to fake it until you make it. The chances of you getting that right. are quite slim, and people, people, don't realize that like, they look at, they look at you and maybe they, they fantasize in their head of like this hard working woman that just like, landed and figured it out, like I've, you might have been able to do it, but like, glad that you actually took the steps to get some support, right?

Awesome.

Teasha Cable: founders. Like I said, talk to a lot of people. Um, there's been a lot of phone calls with founders who have successfully raised, um, just to see like what, what happened there and exited it too. Like, so talking to founders who have both raised and founders who have gotten out, um, and both are good conversations to think about.

What does that [00:31:00] part of the strategy look like? Oh, because guess what? You will be asked that question. Right? So you need to understand what your perspective is on that. You can't just make one up though. It has to be something that can become real. So you can't talk about, uh, an exit without understanding what that landscape actually looks like.

But those are the things that it's, it takes accelerators and some of these other programs to help to, to bring you to that point so that I think there's like a place. For all of these sort of levels of growing up into a startup.

I love your point about multi time founders because, you know, only 4% of founders have ever run a business before when they start a company, right?

So only 4 percent look like me where you've done work and you've been responsible for some other company's growth or anything like that. Most are engineers who come from, uh, certain levels of engineering, right? Um, I, or they've been specialists, uh, in a particular place. [00:32:00] So getting a large sort of. area of education, uh, in your mindset as you run the program is, uh, run a company is very, very, very key because there is no way for you to know what You're, going to run up against, um, until you run up against it.

So continually educating yourself and learning from others and picking up books. There are lots of, there's a reason why there's so many startup books, uh, especially as you go into accelerators and programs like that too. Um, Yeah, you need to learn. It's a continuous because otherwise you're, going to learn the hard way too, right?

So, and that's okay. Some of us, it's, constantly learning, um, the hard way, but it's you, you can mitigate some of the risk, right? By continually focusing yourself on education, especially around fundraising, because it is, it is a book. It is a thing that happens a very specific way. [00:33:00] No,

Jason Yeh: a music to my ears. This is exactly, you know, my philosophy.

Um, let's get into actually what happened. So you exited, um, Techstars and kind of early ish, maybe early to mid 2023. And then did you immediately start Fundraising for the full million afterwards. Tell us a little bit, like high level, when did you start and how long did it take you?

Cause by the way, this is not a good market to be fundraising in.

Teasha Cable: it's not. And, uh, we're about to hop back in.

So, what happened was, while we were in the program, we kind of started getting things organized, um, and laying out, utilizing the resources, uh, from the program. Right? So that, this is what TXSTARS does. Right? And so, we, we, Full well took advantage of like, what is the networking that needs to happen?

What do our lists look like? What do we need to do, um, to keep it moving? But while I was in the program, I got a fantastic phone call from [00:34:00] Birmingham, Alabama. Um, and it was from Red Hawk Advisory, uh, which is the Alabama Futures Fund. And they found me. And they, they found me, took interest and reached out while I was in program.

And so we started our conversations during that time and they, you know, they call and follow up and check to see how, what our progress was that we were making and how it was going. And, uh, when we got out of the program. Fast forward three months, we got out of the program. That's when we were, it was probably about a couple of weeks after we ended up getting our first term sheet from Alabama Futures Fund.

Um, and then, Three months later, um, I want to say, Yeah. so a total of six months it took us, uh, to close the round, but the, the rest was in the, the following, uh, few months. Now, the, and, and I think we went through, if, if we only include that focus six months, it took [00:35:00] us of some very focused, very focused conversations, um, a total of about.

30 some odd VCs that we talked to. Now I talked to lots more than that, uh, before that.

Jason Yeh: Yeah. Yeah.

Teasha Cable: Um,

yeah, but in the focus,

Jason Yeh: I'll just say, actually, I hope you know how like, I mean, it's pretty unique to have had this lead investor kind of reached out to you. You're like, just kicking off the process. And man, that is, that is amazing. And I think one of the things to call out is, you know, Just to illustrate, especially back in, call it, you know, mid 2023, just how bad the market was then.

I think it's getting better now, but back then, even with a lead term sheet in place, it took you another, you know, four ish months of continuous conversation with a lead in place to fill out a round. That is, I mean, that is not how it used to be. It used to [00:36:00] be the lead was a domino that just kind of like, you know,

Teasha Cable: that's what I thought that that would happen. And, and it didn't, it was, it was harder, uh, harder than that. The thing about our lead, the thing that's special is that, um, and, and how that happened is it goes back to like their thesis. Supported them funding us. They understood our business. It just wasn't a stressful scenario, right?

They, uh, they understood our business. They understood the space we're going in. They understood the vision as I communicated it. And because those things aligned properly, it led us to, you know, closing up that part of the deal. And then I will say the same for my follow on. Well, not for, for my next investor, right?

Is again, they understood the mission, they understood the vision, they understood, they understand the space we're in, and so it just made the conversations very different than what it was with [00:37:00] the investors who had less of an understanding and some of the no's, Right. So, for me, the key thing was my yeses, they started to, they were supportive.

There was nothing adversarial in the conversations. They were immediately supportive. They were immediately like in, you know, when I say immediately, meaning they went through their due diligence, right? Very strict diligence with both. Um, and, and then, but there was an understanding that existed and I find with a no, sometimes that it wasn't, and they don't always communicate that.

Jason Yeh: Right.

So, um, you had some great things happen along the way, obviously. Uh, Alabama Futures Fund reaching out, um, and all this wrapping up in a really hard market. But you did use the word, like, difficult, right? And like, as you were talking about these, as you were saying these words, like, I can, like, look behind your eyes and, and, and see that there was some [00:38:00] challenging times.

Um, do any, do any, Interactions or, or stories come to mind of, of, of some of the harder times, uh, during fundraising, anything that you'd be willing to share

Teasha Cable: Well, you know, every no hurts a different way. Um, especially, you know, funny enough, they hurt a different way, especially after you've gotten a yes. Like, it's really hard to get a no after two yeses. So after Alabama Futures Fund and Rogue Women's Fund, getting a no after that is like, what are you talking about?

Right? But, um, right? Cause you're like, you're crazy. But if every, I will say every no cuts differently, but the ones Where they told me something like, Oh, I don't know how you're different than this or this. Those were the ones that cut me because I felt like they clearly hadn't heard anything that I said.

Um, and so those were painful. The other ones that are painful is when they take you through a process [00:39:00] over a long period of time. And string you and string you and it looks like it's happening and then it doesn't. Those are painful. Uh, I much prefer the quick no's, like cut me off, cut me loose and let's go.

So I, I think that, um, I, you know, I know sometimes different dynamics happen for people to make, uh, decisions, but when people are convicted, and I understand that to be the case, for VCs, when they have conviction, um, they typically emotionally respond to that conviction and there isn't a string of you along.

It's like, got it, or I don't, right? Um, and so I much prefer got it or I don't versus I, I like it. I like it. I like it. Um, let's keep talking, keep

talking. And then, then no, that, that hurts. Yeah.

Jason Yeh: So, um, I don't want to, I don't want to like leave us kind of wallowing in, in the negative parts of the fundraise

at some point, at some [00:40:00] point, there was something that made you realize like, Oh, this is going to happen. Right. Like, my guess is that Alabama futures fund didn't fund right away. They were like, you gotta.

You gotta get to a certain point and then we'll close together. Is that right?

Teasha Cable: You said get to a certain point. Say it again.

Jason Yeh: Yeh, so Alabama Futures Funds signs a term sheet, gives you, gives you the term sheet. They don't fund, they don't put their check in immediately. They say, We will fund when you filled it out or something like that. So even though you have the term sheet, after a while you're like, Oh, it's not done yet, right?

Teasha Cable: Well, it with Alabama Futures Fund. Uh, well, so Techstars also gave us a term sheet and their, theirs was that way, right? Where they, we needed to fill it out for an amount for them. But with Alabama Futures Fund, it was a matter of passing through the diligence. process and then they fund. Uh, so, and, and then we were already funded when we got Rogue Women's and those, those are our three.

So it [00:41:00] was, it wasn't, they didn't make us fill it out, um, the entire thing. Um, but they, their diligence process was extremely Rigid. And so because of that, it just took a while to go through, uh, and have that finalized. Um, but that was essentially it

Jason Yeh: What did it feel like? Do you remember, do you remember when you got the term sheet or like when you, you had that first realization, like, Oh my gosh, like somebody wants to lead a million dollar round. Do you remember where you were and what that feeling was?

Teasha Cable: I do remember. Um, so I was in my home office in California, actually, because I had gotten back. And, um, because we did textiles in Tulsa. And so when I got back to California, they I shed a lot of tears and I shed a lot of tears for a lot of reasons. Number one, I know that, um, and I know earlier you talked about, you know, anybody can be funded.

Um, [00:42:00] but the numbers say things like this, you know, we talked about that 1%. Uh, of any company and then 1 percent of that 1 percent are black and 0.2 percent of that 1 percent are black and female. Meaning there have only been a little over 200 at this point black women who have ever raised more than a million dollars.

Ever in life. And so for me, there was a lot of like, wow, at least at a minimum, I hit this milestone. I get it in the grand scheme of fundraising. It's just a million dollars, right? Um, but in the grand scheme of my company, being able to live longer, And someone believing in the vision that I set forth on the table and valuing the work that I've done to this point to deliver on that, that was inspirational to me.

So the combination of those things, I cried like a baby and then called everybody up and I was, Very, very [00:43:00] excited about it. Um, I didn't want to too much tell too much of a story around because it's, it's like, well, what am I going to, let me make sure I have a good plan on what we're going to do next.

Right. Let me show some milestones and go, we raised some money, you know? So it was, it was, um, uh, and it was, had been a hard six months, right? Like I didn't know that we were going to get more than the first check at one point. Right. Um, so It was quite, um, quite a journey. So it, it took a little, whoo, but, but then I realized, well, heck, now I got this money, I gotta go do some stuff.

Um, and yeah, like a million dollars building an exponential company is like a drop in the bucket.

Jason Yeh: neither of us was trying to drive the conversation in this direction. Really wanted to focus on you at your core. Your founder story, what it took to fundraise, but I'm glad we did bring this up because it's an important topic. And [00:44:00] the thing that I mentioned, whenever these conversations happen is like the reality is, and I speak to a lot of venture capitalists about understanding the inequity and how capital gets allocated.

And for the most part, I know it's hard to hear this from a lot of founders, but for the most part, the people that I meet who are venture capitalists, and I used to be one. are good people. And they aren't trying to do a certain thing, right? What I will say is they have a really dumb set of tools at their disposal when they are trying to make decisions around investing.

They're blunt objects. They're not scalpels, like they're not, um, they're not sniper rifles of being able to like, You know, cut exactly what they need to do. They're blunt object, dumb tools, like pattern matching, right? They're like, Hmm, have I ever seen or seen something like this before? And they mean that in the business [00:45:00] model sense, and they mean that in the founder sense, right?

And that approach creates a lot of. False negatives, right? Because they don't know because they've never seen it. You laid out the numbers and broad strokes. It is a percent of a percent look like you, right? Which means that you didn't bring it up. You didn't bring it up during our conversation of the difficulty of the race, which I, Deeply respect, even though you could, right?

Um, but the reality is your path is harder, right? Cause the pattern matching is non existent and you need to show people other things. But the thing that I'm excited about for you and like the tears that you shed, really, I mean, it's, you don't, you don't get a chance to have a Tisha. To model against, like you don't get to have investors say, this person reminds me of Tisha, but [00:46:00] a lot of the work that you're doing right now creates a pattern for others to match against, which, you know, we hope will make a real impact.

So, um,

I think, I think we'll leave the conversation and kind of try to wrap it up there.

Uh, couple other things that'll be fun to pick out. You get a chance, I'm sure.

to speak to a lot of founders now. You pay it forward, right? You were talking about calling other people and now you're somebody that people call, I'm sure.

Um, what are your favorite pieces of advice to give? new founders, especially within fundraising. But if you have a favorite one that's outside of fundraising, I think that's worth sharing as well.

Teasha Cable: yeah. For everything, um, fundraising for building the company. Being clear about your purpose. Why are you doing what you're doing? And hold tight to that purpose. No one tells you to invest in your vision statement right up front, but you should. Being clear about how, what does the world look like when your purpose is fulfilled?

Because [00:47:00] that unique value is something that gets added to your narrative. It also holds you firm when things get rough. When it gets hard and you can come back and go, I have a purpose. Right. That, that cannot be shifted or changed by what a VC says. Um, it can't be shifted or changed even by one customer.

No. Right. Uh, and there's a vision of the world that I'm seeking to fulfill. That is what I'm trying to do. That is why I do what I do. That'll get you up every day. More than it will to talk to investors, right? So get up for that. And then keep that in mind when you're having those conversations because going will get tough.

Um, but. Remembering and staying attuned to your purpose is ultimately the most important thing that I often share. Um, and, and I don't think that we get told to review that.

Jason Yeh: Super helpful. Uh, other, other quick question.

[00:48:00] Um, we like asking founders who have their ear to the ground and meet a lot of other founders, like who are, who are a couple of founders in your community who are like, maybe a couple of steps behind you that we should be. Yeah. Keeping our eyes and ears open for it.

We've been lucky enough to do four seasons of Funded Now over nearly three years. And we've gotten to the cycle where people early in our episodes that we were like, Hey, by the way, who are the people that are coming up are now actually it's, it's happening. And then we've been able to interview the people from that were recommended two years ago because they did end up raising big rounds.

Any, any names come to mind for you? Names of people or companies.

Teasha Cable: Yeah. So I think there are a couple of them. So, so Soltral comes to mind for me. Um, they're a company. I know they're in a TechStars program right now. Talked to them just today. It was a great conversation. Prep Intel is another company. A guy, his name is Jay Johnson, who runs that company. Um, SmartTracker, [00:49:00] I wouldn't even, they're not even behind us.

I would say, you know, They, they haven't, they're just starting to raise capital, but they have a successful company. So I see them coming along to have this conversation with, um, probably soon, uh, my re health. I mean, there, there's, I'm in so many communities of, of startups that, um, I think a number of them are gonna hit, you know, hit their fundraising pace, uh, pretty soon.

Um, that just hit me up and I'll just start sending you lists of people if you're just looking for folks to contact. Got a, got a whole list of them. Yeah. Um, with good ideas, great companies, solving real, real problems, uh, in the world. So I'm, very excited to, to see what happens from those companies. Okay.

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That was my episode with Tisha cable, founder and CEO of C model driving companies to the next level of growth. It's stories like t-shirts that I believe move the needle and can [00:50:00] change entire patterns in the industry. I hope her story inspires you to go after what you're passionate about. Even when the path feels uncertain. When we come back, we'll see what questions my producer page is bringing to the table.

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Paige Randall: [00:51:00] Hello, Jason.

Jason_Yeh: Hey P, how's it going?

Paige Randall: Very well, very well. How about yourself?

Jason_Yeh: Good, good. It's, uh, weather is turning a little bit cooler here in Los Angeles. Um, but it's still nice. I mean, obviously we still get 360 days of nice weather down

California.

Paige Randall: I know, I'm sure it's like, it feels crazy when you have a cloudy day. You're like, what's going on?

Jason_Yeh: Yeah, it is a little bit like, huh, what is that thing in the sky that I never see

Paige Randall: What does it feel like to not have the sun on my skin and for it to help with my happiness? I don't know. I [00:52:00] know because I'm from Buffalo. But, um, today I am really excited to talk about, uh, Tisha because I don't know, when I was listening, I couldn't help as like just a fellow woman, and someone who's a little bit of an entrepreneur myself, feel very inspired by, I don't know, her ability for everyone who listened to the episode, obviously, like she went to school and then she kind of decided to start something else.

She pulled out of school and decided to start And then through that decided to, um, build her career down the line and then ended up like building a really awesome career in operations and sales and doing some impressive things before she took on this role to be a founder. And I feel like. Not always, but a lot of times you hear these crazy success stories of people who are right out of college or they're right, like they're fresh entrepreneurs.

It's the first thing that they're doing. So it was really cool to see someone kind of go [00:53:00] through a more quote unquote regular career at first and then find something that she was really passionate about and dive into it. Kind of reminds me of like, uh, Bobby Pinero as well, how he decided to stay at Intercom for so long until he found.

Something he's really passionate about. So this was like a very fun episode for me to listen to.

Jason_Yeh: Yeah, and actually both those situations, but I'll talk about Tisha. I think there are pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages to Waiting or not waiting, uh, until later in your career. I mean, her, the, uh, advantages are obvious, right? She industries. She understands how to operate. She understands how to lead, she can execute and all these things.

But then again, she also has a family and responsibilities Feeling of the risk, uh, it takes to step away from something that's, um, predictable and safe to then, you know, jumping into the deep end of entrepreneurship is, is a real [00:54:00] trade off. So whenever I see it happen, I'm like, kudos to you. I mean, it's not easy no matter when you start it, but certainly there are big disadvantages of waiting until you have all this responsibility and a way of life that you're comfortable with to jump into something that is, is unknown.

Paige Randall: No, for sure. Um, and also speaking of unknown, like that's what switching into this venture scalable company was like for her and most founders as well. Like she had a lot of knowledge on a certain subject had helped a ton of companies, um, in certain areas of the business and kind of started to have thoughts dwelling around a certain product.

Um, and she was kind of in this internal battle of. Do I keep this a consultancy model? Do I build this into a scalable product? Ended up realizing the amount of stuff she had to build in order to even get this product started. She realized she needed, she wanted to go down this path. [00:55:00] Um, and she kind of, as I think a lot of people do, just was like, let's do it.

Let's jump into this world. Let's, let's go for it. And, um, as she mentioned in, in the episode, like, She ended up getting asked a lot of questions and when questions would pop up more than once, she said herself, she would be like, all right, now I need to go understand this. And I kind of wanted to pause there because I feel like this is something that pops up in our community a lot, even with like questions and how to deal with those.

And I kind of wanted to give you a chance to share one of your favorite methods

for

answering questions.

Jason_Yeh: Yeah, I mean, I think, uh, you touch on a couple things before I even get to the questions that come up, but it's

like

the, the advantage she has of being, having been a consultant in a very specific area for a long time means that she deeply understands and like, You I think investors, when they, when they back founders and they back really, really [00:56:00] early stage companies, one of the biggest risks they always think about is whether or not the problem has been validated is like, is this an actual problem that people have that they want to pay a solution, uh, pay for a solution?

And I think that is one of the key advantages of having worked so long in a space is that, that you have a lot more conviction of what you want to build. uh, the downside is like you go so long and you're like, man, does it even make sense to give this up to like go raise money? Um, but yeah, in terms of what she did, uh, going through her initial Pitches with, with, with investors and collecting the, the questions that she was being asked, I think you're referring to the thing I told most founders, which is like, there aren't that many difficult questions or unique questions that you might get when you're, when you're going to go pitch your company.

I usually think it's like 80 percent of difficult questions that you will ever get come out of the first, call it like five pitches [00:57:00] you ever do. And by like pitch 8, 9, 10, I think you've covered like 98 percent of all the hard paths to go down when it comes to Q and A from investors. um, what I always recommend is something, you know, in line with what Tisha was doing, which is like, you're going to go through these You're going to go through these pitches and you're going to, Receive these things that are a little bit challenging to answer. And live on, in the pitch, you're going to do your best to answer it. But the thing you should absolutely do is when you're done with that pitch and it's, there's been a net new question lobbed your way, you're going to go back, you're going to think more deeply about the, the answer to that question.

And then you're going to create one standalone slide. answers that question or gives a lot of context for how you might answer that question, and it's going to be in your appendix. So by the time you get this question again, you're going to have the most amazing [00:58:00] answer, which is, love that question.

It's a great question. Hold on one second, go into the appendix and be like, I want to, I want to send this I'm all Harris texting me in the

middle

Uh, don't worry. I get, I get the messages from both sides. Um, no, but the, the thing that you will do is you'll be able to reference a slide in your appendix and say, I'd love to bring up the slide, bring it up and then answer the question extremely thoughtfully.

It does a few things at one. It shows this investor. My gosh, like this, Founder is super on top of it to have thought about every single answer. When we just both know where I already told you, it's not that crazy. Cause there aren't that many unique questions that you might receive. Uh, but then too, it kind of shows the investor, Oh, like.

They've been around. There are a lot of people asking questions. There are a lot of investors looking at this deal. It's just a great signal and a [00:59:00] great feeling for when you can refer to slide that answers a question. So I love the way Tisha approached it and what she shared in her own process.

Paige Randall: Yeah, yeah, and I was, that was exactly what, I love that type of, I love anything that can show that you've thought through something before, and that there's also other eyes on you and what you're doing, so I think that's, that's perfect. Something else that, Came up as I was listening in on this episode was, um, she ended up going through two accelerators.

I think the first one was AWS and then the second was Texas. And as I, I don't know why this question came up, but in my head, I was just wondering if Accelerators, are they kind of a way to almost be ingrained in your heat building process? I was wondering in my head like, oh, why, why does someone want to do like two accelerators?

Maybe they do three, maybe they do four, who knows how [01:00:00] many you can do? But I just kind of wanted to get your thoughts on that because I, I really haven't dove in into the world of, Accelerators yet?

Jason_Yeh: Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a good question and a good topic. Um, especially for me, because I'm someone that has kind of flip flopped in my feelings about programs, just to give you a bit of a backstory. I was a venture capitalists. We looked at deals inside and outside of accelerator firms. Um, we, I remember doing a couple, um, That were actually quite successful.

then when I became a founder myself and I went to go raise capital, my thought was like, I remember being encouraged to, um, to apply for Y Combinator. we had a lot of relationships there. We understood the process. We understood what we were going to do. And I just remember being like, uh, accelerators are really only about helping people raise capital.[01:01:00]

And as you might imagine, I was quite confident in my ability to raise capital. So I was like, well, you know

Paige Randall: Yeah

Jason_Yeh: if I need to pay that exorbitant price in order to get help doing something I'm already good at. So a few things to clarify there. Um, when I say an exorbitant price, I mean, standard terms for accelerator programs nowadays, range around like essentially writing a check for a valuation between between one and a half and 4 million, give or take.

I mean, the market moves a little bit that's, that can be expensive when you think that you could actually raise capital between five and 10 million for your, you know, your pre seed round. So it can be expensive if you think you're good at raising capital. And it is true. And one of your questions, and it is true that accelerators, one of the big value ads, in my opinion, is that they help the founder create calendar density during a fundraise.

They [01:02:00] bring a lot of eyeballs. at once, two companies, um, right around their demo day. So essentially they have relationships with investors and they say, by the way, we did this curation process of finding great founders and then also helping them, helping guide them through initial parts of making their company better.

And we're all going to look at these companies together, a demo day. is in, in so many words, calendar density, they are setting that up for founders. And if any founder. Has tried to create calendar density on their own. They know that it's, you can definitely do it on your own, but it takes a ton of work, right?

It a ton of work and it takes some network. It takes a lot of things that founders might not have time being one of them. Uh, so in that sense, I actually, I mean, I think it's a huge value add. And if you don't think you have the network ability, time, et cetera, to create calendar density, that is one way to get the support to, you know, drive a great fundraise.[01:03:00]

But the second thing that I underestimated for accelerators that for the, with the right accelerators, with the right experience and the right. People around the table guiding their companies and, um, who are going through the program. I think the, the accountability and the structure and the pushing of companies to like, really make regimented progress while going through the program worth it.

If you've never been a founder before, if you know thrive with a little bit of guidance and a little bit of coaching, pushing. Um, accelerator programs can be extremely worth it, you know, even outside of the whole fundraising thing. Actually, as I look back on my last company, uh, we were able to raise capital, um, you know, without an accelerator program, but we were all first time founders.

And I think first time founders need as much support as possible. And, um,

Paige Randall: It

Jason_Yeh: accelerator [01:04:00] program is not a bad way to do it.

Paige Randall: was cool to see and I was curious as I was listening, um, what ended up happening as everyone has heard is that she was, uh, in the middle of the Techstars, going through the Techstars Accelerator. And that's how she got, like, or during that. Alabama Futures Fund ended up reaching out to her. I wish, oh, I wish I, um, asked you to ask her like how, where that lead came from, because I'm so curious in my head, um, of like, was it part of the accelerator?

Did they find her on LinkedIn? Did she write a nice piece? Like where, what did that happen? But anyways, even besides that, I found it super interesting that, They ended up being super interested. Techstars wrapped up, um, ended up getting a term sheet from Alabama's futures fund a few weeks after Techstars.

And then it still took six months and 30 more conversations with [01:05:00] investors in order to close that round fully. And that is so a lot of times I think people underestimate, like, that that is a part of the process. Like even after you get. Two yeses, three yeses. Sometimes it might still take time in order to close up that round, but I was wondering, like, why, why, what are the top reasons do you think those things happen?

Is it because maybe a fund only has a little bit of capital left that they can put towards something and they're more hesitant? Or, I just was like, dang, six months, a long time.

Jason_Yeh: Yeah, I mean, there are a variety of reasons why rounds can take a really long time. I think can be summarized in a very, like, overly simplistic way, but when rounds take a long time, it usually means that not enough funds Have enough comfort around the founder and the deal. And so the reason it takes so long is [01:06:00] that they might meet Tisha and C model for the first time, as you know, Alabama future funds is confirming their first check.

Um, they might not feel enough momentum and, um, you know, like sort of comfort in the deal to, to just jump in right away. So they meet them and they're like, okay, well, this is cool. We like her, we like some of these things, but. We would like to learn more about the company. And it might be the case that they just keep kind of learning more and stay interested enough to be engaged in the deal.

And it takes a few more interested parties coming to the table, talking to them. It might take another Announcement of some sort of progress within the company, a milestone within revenue or customers, et cetera. To finally get a couple more over the line before you start feeling this, this momentum towards closing, in which case it finally does wrap up.[01:07:00]

yeah, you know, I think. It can be annoying for people, um, from different backgrounds, sort of underrepresented founders to note that, um, these processes a lot of times take longer in female founders, founders of different backgrounds, there has been less exposure to founders that look like them or sound like them, et cetera. And that can be an annoying reality to hear about, but it is something that I would just rather founders prepare for rather than complain about. Um, because these expectations of who a great founder is are set in a certain historical pattern that are changing right now. They are evolving, but it hasn't fully been, you know, corrected. And so founders like Tisha will run into these things, but as she showed, if you keep at it, keep pushing the company forward and continue building these relationships, it might [01:08:00] take six months, but it gets done.

Paige Randall: That is a beautiful way to end the debrief. I love that.

Jason_Yeh: Is that the debrief?

Paige Randall: That's the debrief.

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