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.
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The GTM Podcast
Features conversations with the top 1% of tech executives, VCs, and founders - the experts 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 what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.

This podcast is produced by GTMnow, the media brand of VC firm GTMfund.
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