#349 - Carlos Espinal - Seedcamp - Everything you always wanted to know about early-stage VC

From healthcare technologies to cybersecurity through renewable energies: when it comes to investment, Carlos Espinal, author of "A Field guide to Fundraising", has it covered.

As well as being smart and hard-working, Carlos is an outstanding team member and mentor. He is the one person company founders call for advice. His goal-oriented mindset and extensive venture capital experience led him to write a book to help entrepreneurs raise funds, which he continually updates as the market evolves.

Every day at SeedCamp, where he has been a VC partner for the past six years, he embodies this human-centered, community-focused mindset when it comes to choosing a company to invest in.

And it certainly seems to be working. SeedCamp has made over 150 investments since its creation in 2007. Today, it is leading its sixth round of seed investments, distributing between 500,000 and 1 million euros, sometimes more, for a 5-8% share.

In this episode, Carlos not only gives us a masterclass on fundraising, he also shares an inspiring vision of his role as an investor.

Spoiler: this episode may contain an embarrassing amount of beatboxing and ASMR.

Carlos and I also talked about:

• His book, A Field Guide to Fundraising.
• His journey from Honduras to the UK
• How he set up WiFi on the first floor of Wall Street
• AI, health, the climate crisis and cybersecurity
• The creator economy

TIMELINE :

• 00:00:00 - Some beatboxing and discussion of tech trends
• 00:08:58 - Carlos Espinal’s career in a nutshell
• 00:44:06 - How SeedCamp operates
• 01:01:55 - Intuition, expectations, reality: building the right mindset for raising
• 01:43:06 - Artificial Intelligence
• 02:12:28 - The Creator Economy
• 02:27:27 - Cybersecurity
• 02:29:38 - Carlos’ lowest point
• 02:33:55 - Where to keep in touch with Carlos
• 02:35:44 - Carlos’ favorite books
• 02:39:10 - A word for young Carlos still living in Venezuela

Carlos and I quoted several old GDIY episodes:

• #344 - Robert Plomin
• #158 Edgar Grospiron
• #228 Nicola Julia
• #74 Romain Raffard
• #305 Paul Mouginot

Carlos and I talked about :

• SeedCamp
• Carlos Espinal’s Fundraising Field Guide (latest ed. coming out end of 2023)

Carlos recommends you read :

3 books about our civilization’s challenges

• Ha Joon Chang’s 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism
• Yuval Noah Harari‘s Sapiens
• Ray Dario’s Principles

And 2 to survive them

• Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations
• Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic

How do you like the theme music? We owe it all to Morgan Prudhomme! Contact him at: https://studio-module.com.

You want to sponsor Génération Do It Yourself or suggest a partnership? Contact my label Orso Media via this form.

You can contact Carlos on Linkedin, follow him on Twitter, listen to him on the SeedCamp podcast This Much I Know, and read his works on carlosespinal.com