Michael Klein

shipshape.vc was born from my own struggle to conduct investor research for a Series A company I was working for. The tools that existed at the time weren’t built for founders. They were designed for investors. They were overly complex and often cost tens of thousands of pounds to access. So I did my research the old-fashioned way. And I ended up spending months chasing conversations with funds that were never going to back us - time that should’ve gone into building the business was lost in pointless meetings. Founders deserve better. They shouldn’t have to gamble their time and money figuring out which investors are relevant to them. That painful experience was the spark for shipshape.vc - a free-to-use investment search engine that helps founders find the investors who back companies like theirs. If you’re building the future, you shouldn’t be held back by outdated, overpriced tools. That’s why I started shipshape.vc. #Fundraising #Startups #VentureCapital #Founders #ShipshapeVC

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What was Europe’s most backed sector in 2024? Healthtech. Breakthrough after breakthrough saw founders in the space raise more than $11bn. These market conditions, coupled with intensifying societal needs, give founders a real chance to transform global health outcomes. I just published a piece in Forbes about the Hidden Gems in Healthtech that I am keeping an eye on.. I also spoke with Emma Silverman, newest partner at TMV investing in the future of care about the mental health space and where she is focused. Here are some of the ‘hidden gems’ of healthtech that I am paying attention to right now: 🔬 The power of proteins 🔎 Going further with GLP1s 🤖 AI as an accessibility tool 🧠 Meeting mental health needs Do you agree? What have I missed? Please let me know in the comments!

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There is huge arbitrage in backing founders from disadvantaged backgrounds. Of the UK startups that successfully raise pre-seed funding, only 25% have a founder that comes from a disadvantaged background. At Series-C, this figure rises to 50%. These founders are key for the UK to build more scaleable businesses. Without a prebuilt network, these founders have to break through huge systemic barriers. This builds an incredible resilience, which is key to boosting their odds of success. At Social Mobility Ventures, we're running our inaugural pitch event - connecting state-school or immigrant founders at Pre-seed or Seed stage, with leading investors in the UK (Lakestar, Octopus Ventures, Ananda Impact Ventures, Nauta, 7percent Ventures). 📅 When: April 9, 2025 at 6:30 PM 🌍 Where: LocalGlobe HQ, London Limited spaces available – register now to secure your spot! Please share with any state school founders in your network. Let’s break down the VC barrier together! Event link in the comments.

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Mergers and Acquisitions. Usually this comes as a relief to Founders, or even a saving grace in harder situations. Having caught up with an amazing Founder over the weekend who shared a minor horror story around an acquisition offer, I'm sharing some of the common pitfalls and how to (hopefully) avoid them. 1. Done Deal Fallacy: The deal ISN'T done until you have money in the bank. Even papers being signed CAN be walked back on. Always operate on the principal that you're an independent company. 2. Business As Usual : With leadership being tied up with due diligence and negotiations, companies usually lose a little steam during M&A talks. This is a DANGER. If the transaction doesn't go through, it leaves you in a weaker position to grow/fundraise etc. Ensure business as usual at minimum, ideally with light growth plans. 3. Information Compartmentalization : For those who read me regularly, I'm usually a BIG proponent of open information. Telling your team most things, open financials etc. When it comes to M&A, information should ONLY be need to know. Have a small close team (CEO, CFO, maybe 1-2 more) supported by excellent outside advisors. 4. Timeline : Common tricks I've seen across M&A. Drag the transaction out till the company has low/no runway, then lowball. Drag the transaction out while revenue and cash positions continue to increase (over a year), then execute. There are a whole bunch more around timing, but things to remember. Define clear timelines for diligence, transaction docs etc. If there's an unreasonable amount of time being taken, call it out. Set the upper boundary on your timeline comfort and walk away if it isn't happening. When the acquirer is VERY keen, I've seen cases where they deposit part of the transaction amount in escrow. If they walk away or the timeline lapses, you keep the money. 5. Rumour Mill : As tempting as it is, rumour mills have killed a LOT of M&A. The info should be under lock and key 6. Information Guardrails : Sharing all your data with a really close competitor? Again, use escrow above, get a TOP tier legal team, hell you can keep certain information like suppliers/vendors/customer data as conditional upon execution of documents and partial payment. Same thing with your codebase for tech-heavy companies. Founders who've been through this, chip in with more! #venturecapital #startups #mergers #acquisitions

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If I were to write a book titled "How to Turn Multi-Million Dollar Decisions into an Absolute Circus" it would probably start something like this 💰🎪😂 ... Back 2021 I was catching up with a GP I deeply respect, who is running a much larger, well-established venture fund in the US. We were discussing portfolios, workflows, decision velocity - and I asked a straightforward question: “How do you manage your pipeline and investment process?” He paused, smiled, and said: “We track deals in Airtable, have most memos and decks in Google Drive. For relationship tracking, we use Affinity. When it’s time for IC approval, we export pipeline data to Google Sheets, clean it up, then write and share a PDF summary with partners. Feedback comes scattered - some via email, some in Slack, some even as texts and calls. An associate consolidates everything, updates Airtable manually, and uploads the final versions to Drive. If a deal moves forward, we log it in Notion and move on.” I sat there thinking: This is how multi-million dollar decisions are made?! But that workflow is one of the more organized and modern setups I’d heard of. I've seen worse. Much worse! I've been both advisor and LP in VC funds, seeing how they work and I can tell you for a fact that most VCs are still stuck in 1999 and open Excel like they've discovered magic. (Would you buy that book? 😆) But, really, this is the beautiful irony of venture capital. Pour millions into startups and expect them to create innovation, scaleability and seamless, integrated, intelligent systems, while the VCs run multi-million dollar decisions and investments on a patchwork of disconnected, old-school apps held together with manual labor and a lot of prayers. 🤦‍♂️😂 When I started my own VC fund, I decided to build internal tools to stop the chaos. It helped, but it was still just a band-aid on a bigger problem. It wasn't enough... and that’s when my obsession with fixing stuff that are broke really kicked in: 💡 What if we had a modern, intelligent operating system for venture capital? So, I put together a team and started building... 💪 I’m incredibly excited to announce that today, we are officially launching Cap 🍾 The AI-native, all-in-one venture operating system. It brings clarity, connection, and speed to every part of your fund. No more dropped balls, missed opportunities or critical updates. No more hunting for that investment doc the GP thinks was in his inbox. Or maybe on his WhatsApp. Or his old Macbook. Our AI finds and even processes ALL your investment docs and builds cap tables for you... with ZERO mistakes. The interest and feedback so far has been insane, and it proves what we already knew: VCs are tired of wasting time, energy, and money on a broken toolkit. They are ready for AI and for a new era. The invites will be going out to our 300 VC funds and firms on waitlist starting now. DM me or drop a "❤️" in the comments and I'll put you on top of our waitlist. 😉

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How do you market a venture firm? That's the question we're exploring on our new podcast — Marketing Venture. Today we're dropping ep 1 with Becca Chambers ✨, CMO of Scale Venture Partners. We cover: - Why venture marketing all looks the same (and how to break through) Building authentic personal brands for investors - The stakeholder management challenge that's unlike any corporate role - Why brand marketers thrive in VC (but demand gen marketers don't) - How she built 71K LinkedIn followers and 80M views in one year - What B2B marketing tactics work in the venture world Full ep here:  https://lnkd.in/dmMpap3J

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🚨 VC Fund Alert: Creative Capital Ventures Launched €18M to Back Bold Ideas in Tech, Media & Consumer Innovation 🚀 In a time when capital efficiency and strategic value-add matter more than ever, Creative Capital Ventures Group (CCV) stepped in with an ambitious new €18 million fund — and a vision to raise €50 million by Q1 2025. Backed by Saratoga Capital Partners, Anthill Ventures, and a network of institutional & private investors, this Lisbon- and London-based venture studio brought a bold new model to early-stage VC. 🔥 🎯 What’s the play? 18 initial investments + 11 follow-ons by the end of 2024 Sectors: Tech, Digital Media, Consumer Products High-growth focus on: sports tech, entertainment, immersive IP, and wellness 💡 Why it matters: As CCV’s John D. put it: “The fund provides critical capital and helps scale innovative startups. We aim to foster long-term success for ambitious entrepreneurs.” But this isn’t just another VC fund... 🎥 Immersive IP & Creative Capital: Rich Britton is doubling down on entertainment innovation: “This fund comes at the right time — immersive content and music rights are redefining how we consume and create.” 🔧 Execution-focused Acceleration: With Pivotal, CCV’s venture studio, the fund promised “hands-on tactical support from strategy to execution,” said Dominic Joseph. 🧠 CCV’s track record is real: 150 startups impacted 20 companies founded 6 successful exits 📈 With structured investment in early-stage tech and IP assets, this fund blends venture-like returns with enhanced downside protection — a playbook that speaks directly to today’s LP mindset. 💬 If you're an LP looking to diversify into high-upside, creative-led ventures, or a founder innovating at the crossroads of tech and culture — this is the fund to watch. 🎧🎮📱 #VentureCapital #TechStartups #ImmersiveMedia #IPInvesting #ConsumerInnovation #SportsTech #WellnessEconomy #CreativeEconomy #LPs #VCFunds #EarlyStageVC #Fundraising #StartupAcceleration #CreativeCapitalVentures #PivotalStudio

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Fundraising is really hard. But there is also some science behind it that you can master to make it easier. Want to learn more? Read on... My latest post on Take Rate by Colin Gardiner is the first in the Founder's Toolkit series. The first post is "Starting Your Fundraising and Building Your Investor Pipeline." The post helps you answer the following questions: - How much do you want to raise? - What's your fundraising timeline? - What round should I be raising? - Who do you want on your cap table? - What valuation, terms, and dilution are you targeting? - What's your pathway to introductions for each target investor? I am also sharing my Fundraising Pipeline spreadsheet for FREE. This battle-tested spreadsheet has helped raise tens of millions in venture capital. Hopefully, hundreds of millions soon! If you want the template, comment "CRM Please" and I will send it to you. Link to the post: https://lnkd.in/gS7q6kM7

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Telling investors “we’ll give your money back if we fail” is like handing out life jackets on the Titanic and calling it a safety plan. “But Shuuuaaaannnnnnn this is how confident we are in AI for waffles! There is no risk to an investor!” Oh, really? Startups aren’t guaranteed. Ninety percent fail. Nobody believes you’re personally cutting seven-figure refund checks when things go south. And as much as we want to believe in a stranger with a Gmail account and an emoji promise who slid into our DMs, it’s not happening. You don’t de-risk an investment by sending praying hands. You de-risk it by proving you have something worth betting on. Here’s what actually works: Show traction, not promises. Show why the market wants this, not why you hope it will. Show how you’ll use the money, not how you’ll “guarantee” it back. Because if the highlight of your pitch is a praying hands emoji… what’s next? A pinky promise term sheet? A “trust me bro” clause in the SAFE? If praying hands are your risk management strategy, I can’t wait to see what your financial model looks like. #startup #founders  #venturecapital

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