A few days ago, Niclas Schlöpsna sat down with Denis, the visionary lead behind 2BF Global Ventures, a premier New York-based venture capital firm commanding over $400 million in assets under management.

Drawing from his fifth consecutive fund and an impressive portfolio featuring market leaders like ServiceTitan and Fubo, Denis shares a contrarian investment thesis that directly opposes standard industry logic. As a former rocket scientist holding dual Master’s Degrees from the prestigious Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, he has built one of the world's most foundational global communities for SpaceTech founders.

What You’ll Learn in This Video Podcast?

You will learn how to align your goals with the expectations of an experienced investment fund manager.- The $400M Fund Thesis: Inside the capital allocation strategy of 2BF Global Ventures’ fifth active fund.- 11,000 Pitch Decks Decoded: The core patterns, fatal errors, and traction markers analyzed across 12 years of venture profiling.- The Frontier Tech Paradox: Why a trained rocket scientist focuses on heavy foundational industries over fleeting digital trends.- Building a SpaceTech Community: Deconstructing how specialized global networks help niche tech operators scale efficiently.- The Contrarian Investor Mindset: Overcoming standard analyst groupthink to capture exceptional value in uncrowded, high-barrier markets.

About spectup:

Capital advisory for companies raising from institutional investors (family office, VC, private equity) and for GPs raising a new fund and need intros to Limited partners

Subscribe for weekly startup funding advice and analysis. Tell us in the comments which part of the venture capital strategy process you want us to cover next.

What actually goes through a venture capitalist's mind when they review your pitch deck?

Vlad breaks down the exact framework he uses to evaluate founders, moving past the superficial "AI" buzzwords that often ruin otherwise strong pitches. For founders navigating capital advisory and venture capital, understanding these dynamics is crucial for improving your startup’s quality of life and survival rate in a competitive market. We also dive deep into the Eastern European tech ecosystem, deconstructing the secret price arbitrage giving regional startups a massive edge and how the "EU-Inc" initiative could stop founders from fleeing to Delaware.

This perspective is essential for driving regional economic development and building a sustainable legacy in global tech.

What You’ll Learn in This Video Podcast?

- The 10% Pass Rate: Why the vast majority of pitch decks are immediately rejected during the initial screening process. - The "AI" Trap: Why forcing tech buzzwords into your deck is killing your credibility with experienced investors. - Cap Table Death Traps: The specific equity splits, unengaged academic mentors, and broken ownership structures that make your startup completely uninvestable. - VC Syndicates & Partnerships: How venture capitalists simultaneously compete and collaborate behind the scenes to close high-quality deals. - The Price Arbitrage Advantage: How Eastern European startups leverage lower operational costs to achieve massive scalability with less capital. - Term Sheet Realities: The exact founder behaviours, unrealistic projections, and lack of responsibility that cause VCs to pull out of a deal.

Thanks for reading Deal Makers (& Fakers)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

About spectup:

At spectup, we provide high-stakes capital advisory for founders looking to scale their impact. Capital advisory for companies raising from institutional investors (family office, VC, private equity) and for GPs raising a new fund and need intros to Limited partners

Check out www.spectup.com

In this episode, Niclas Schlöpsna, Managing Partner at spectup, sits down with Dr. Emanuela Maggioni, CEO of Hynt Labs, to discuss how a sophisticated lab project secured €4.5M in total capital.

Thanks for reading Deal Makers (& Fakers)! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Emanuela, an expert with 20 years of experience in olfactory science and neuroscience, shares her journey from researching at Sussex and University College London (UCL) to leading a high-growth deep-tech company. We explore how Hynt Labs utilises real-time scent interventions to optimise sleep stages by integrating via APIs with established wearables like:

Oura, Samsung Watch, and WHOOP.

What You Will Learn?

- The €4.5M Funding Strategy: How Hynt Labs combined €3.5M in equity and €1 M (£1M) in research grants. - The Pivot to Sleep Tech: Why moving from general sensory widgets to targeted sleep intervention was the key to commercial success. - Davos & Global Marketing: How demonstrating technology at the World Economic Forum acted as a massive growth multiplier. - Lab to Boardroom: Overcoming the academic mindset to embrace B2B licensing and business clarity. -Deep Tech Landscape: Navigating the differences between European and US investment risks

Thanks for reading Deal Makers (& Fakers)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

About spectup:

Capital advisory for comapnies raising from institutional investors (family office, VC, private equity) and for GPs raising a new fund and need intros to Limited partners

Check out: www.spectup.com

This perspective highlights the bridge between complex neuroscience and the consumer wellness market, illustrating how economic development in the deep tech sector is set to improve the quality of life for millions.

Thanks for reading Deal Makers (& Fakers)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Key takeaways of the session:

- The Power of Sensory Science: How Hynt Labs uses scent as a superpower to deconstruct and optimise human rest. - A Multi-Million Euro Strategy: The breakdown of securing €2.9M in equity and €1M in grants to fuel global scaling. - Wearable Integration: How Hint's software solutions leverage the APIs of top trackers to deliver personalised interventions. - Why major global corporations are actively seeking partnerships with Dr. Maggioni's team.

Thanks for reading Deal Makers (& Fakers)! This post is public so feel free to share it.

About spectup:

At spectup, we provide high-stakes capital advisory for founders looking to scale their impact. We believe in building a future where innovation and responsibility go hand-in-hand

For more details, visit: www.spectup.com

In this episode of Deal Makers (& Fakers), Niclas Schlopsna sits down with Kirk to break down the transition from corporate leadership at Mastercard to navigating the Death Valley of fintech startups.

Kirk shares his journey of leveraging a $45M exit to bypass the standard fundraising cycle, closing a $5M round in a single weekend.

He also shared why he believes your unit economics matter infinitely more than a flashy UI.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

* The $5M Weekend: How to leverage a previous exit to bypass the standard 6-month fundraising grind.

* Fintech Economics: Why today’s investors are pivoting away from “shiny” apps toward deep-tech infrastructure.

* Stealth Mode vs. Hype: When (and why) to keep your billion-dollar ideas quiet to protect your competitive advantage.

* Corporate to Founder: The raw reality of moving from a C-suite office to the startup trenches.

If you’re a founder building in fintech, navigating regulatory compliance, or trying to master the art of the fast raise, this episode reveals the strategic blueprint behind the capital.

Thanks for reading Deal Makers (& Fakers)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Who is Kirk Donohoe?

Kirk is a serial entrepreneur and former Mastercard executive with a track record of high-stakes exits. He is currently focused on Grand, solving the deep-seated inefficiencies in global financial infrastructure.

He previously founded WhenThen (acquired by Mangopay) and held leadership roles at Mastercard. He is a veteran of the fintech space, specializing in global payment infrastructure.

About the podcast:

Deal Makers (& Fakers) is a spectup podcast where founders and operators reveal what actually works in fundraising, investor outreach, and building companies, plus the fakers moments nobody posts about on LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading Deal Makers (& Fakers)! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Who should listen?

* Fintech founders looking to scale beyond the “app” layer.

* Serial entrepreneurs planning their next big exit.

* Investors tracking the shift from B2C to B2B infrastructure.

Visit spectup.com for more insights on fundraising strategy and startup growth.

Biotech startup IPO success and raising $400M in venture capital is a dream for many founders, but what happens after you go public?

In this episode of Deal Makers (& Fakers), Niclas Schlopsna sits down with Armon Sharei, former founder of SQZ Biotech and current founder of Portal Bio, to discuss scaling cell therapy and the reality of the biotech industry.

Armon Sharei shares his journey from a PhD at MIT under Robert Langer to closing a massive deal with Roche and leading a publicly traded company.

Learn about the "Squeeze" technology, the biotech nuclear winter, and the death spiral that led him to start his second venture, Portal Bio.

How did Armon Sharei start his journey?

It began at MIT, where he developed a "cell-squeezing" technology that caught the attention of the scientific community and led him to launch:

SQZ Biotech with little more than "napkin maths" and a $100,000 initial investment from professors and family.

As he transitioned from a PhD student to a full-time CEO, he successfully navigated the venture capital landscape by leveraging the following:

* Early academic validation

* A prestigious partnership with Roche to secure a $5 million Series A.

This momentum eventually snowballed into raising over $400 million, including a massive IPO in 2020, proving that a targeted, platform-focused strategy can bridge the gap between complex deep-tech research and large-scale public market success.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

- How to raise a Seed Round with no track record.- The secret to closing a partnership with Big Pharma (Roche & Pfizer).- Why the public market might be better than private equity for biotech.- How to identify red flags in venture capital investors.

The future of cell therapy and global healthcare innovation.

If you’re a founder navigating the complexities of deep tech, big pharma partnerships, or the pressures of the public market, this episode reveals what it takes to build, lose, and rebuild a world-changing company.

Thanks for reading Deal Makers (& Fakers)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

👉 Who is Armon Sharei?

Armon is the founder of Portal Bio and the former CEO of SQZ Biotech. With a PhD from MIT, his work in cell therapy has been recognised as one of the "10 World Changing Ideas" by Scientific American. He is now focused on making cell therapy more accessible through his latest venture.

👉 About the podcast: Deal Makers (& Fakers)

Deal Makers (& Fakers) is a spectup podcast where founders and operators reveal what actually works in fundraising, investor outreach, and building companies, plus the “fakers” moments nobody posts about on LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading Deal Makers (& Fakers)! This post is public so feel free to share it.

👉 Who should listen?

- Deep tech & biotech founders looking to scale.- Entrepreneurs interested in the transition from scientist to CEO.- Investors wanting to understand the future of cell therapy.

👉 Visit spectup.com for more insights on fundraising strategy and startup growth.🔔 Subscribe for more deep dives with world-class entrepreneurs and investors.

I sat down with Florian, co-founder of Weavely, on the latest episode of Deal Makers (& Fakers). He walked me through the exact mechanics of raising €900K as a four-person team from Brussels and then going on to raise €1.2M total.

He had no warm Silicon Valley network or unicorn hype.

Instead, he was just a founder who treated fundraising the way he treated products as a researcher. Methodically.

The numbers that forced the pivot:

→ €75 monthly recurring revenue → 3 paying customers → 15,000 signups, but only 400 monthly actives → Years of building a product that wasn’t working

Florian knew he had to kill the product he’d spent years building

What happened when Weavely pivoted?

→ 30% of users were using a Figma design tool for forms → Nobody asked for a form builder, but users were building one anyway → Florian followed the signal instead of ignoring it → That wrong usage became the entire company.

They pivoted, rebuilt and raised €1.2M total.

What was the capital raising grind that happened behind the scenes?

→ 60 investor conversations → 15 actual pitches → 3 angels committed → 1 accelerator joined → 1 VC said yes → Team of 4, that’s it

The secret of investors’ updates that pushed his raise:

→ Florian sends quarterly updates to EVERY VC he’s spoken with → Even the ones who said no → Even when the numbers are bad, especially when the numbers are bad

His logic: if you only share wins, investors don’t trust you. You need to share the full picture. Pivots, near-shutdowns, ugly months, so when you raise the next round, they already know who you are. It’s like building warm intros who’ve watched you survive.

The rejection story that made him close the deal:

One VC said the market was too competitive and he had no moat. Florian’s response: “You’re right. The moat is thin. But this team built a product-led growth engine that works. And we’re still here.”

That closed the deal.

We also went deep into:

* How €75 MRR and 3 customers forced Florian to kill the product he’d spent years building, and why that was the best decision he ever made.

* How a single Figma conference killed their original direction overnight and the signal hidden in wrong usage that saved the company.

* Why 15,000 signups meant nothing when only 400 actually used the product and how vanity metrics almost destroyed them.

* The quarterly investor update strategy that pre-warms every future round, even sharing bad numbers, builds more trust than only sharing wins.

* Why Florian thinks his own product interface will disappear within 3 years and what that means for every AI-native startup building today.

* His take on building in a crowded niche: hundreds of competitors don’t matter if you solve what users actually do, not what you think they should do.

* Why a PhD founder deliberately chose speed over perfection: because overthinking is the real startup killer.

The market most founders are overlooking:

→ $700M–$800M in 2026 → Expected to grow to $1.9B by 2035 → AI-native forms and workflows; massive and still early

If you’re building in a crowded niche or still trying to educate users instead of listening to them, this episode will change how you think.

About Weavely:

Weavely is an AI-native platform born from a Figma-based prototyping tool that pivoted after discovering users wanted outcomes, not tools. Now serving users globally with €1.2M raised from European VCs.

About Deal Makers (& Fakers) Podcast:

Raw, unfiltered founder conversations about startup fundraising. No polished success stories, just brutal truth about raising capital, investor rejections, pitch deck failures, and fundraising strategies that actually work.

I’m Niclas, building spectup into a new kind of capital advisory. As VC scouts and private placement deal makers, we connect high-potential companies with the right investors.

Reach out → spectup.com

This is honestly the startup advice that every entrepreneur needs.

* 15,000 people signed up

* Only 400 showed up

* 3 actually paid.

Most founders would keep pushing. Florian killed it.

Then something unexpected happened inside his own product. Users were doing something he never designed them for. That signal changed everything.

In the full episode he revealed

→ The moment he knew the product had to die → The user behavior nobody expected → How a 4-person team from Brussels raised €1.2M → The rejection that turned into a check → Why he shares bad numbers with investors on purpose

Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Full episode dropping tomorrow.

🔔 Subscribe and hit the bell so you don’t miss it.

🎙️ Deal Makers (& Fakers) Podcast: raw, unfiltered founder conversations about raising capital. No polished success stories. Just brutal truth.

I'm Niclas, building spectup into a new kind of capital advisory. As VC scouts and private placement deal makers, we connect high-potential companies with the right investors.

Reach out → spectup.com

One cold message. To Frans van Houten, former CEO of a $20B company. Most founders wouldn't dare, but Marnix took the risk, and it changed his whole startup valuation.

Aquablu CEO Marnix Stokvis shares his startup fundraising playbook for raising capital from operators. Hardware startup building is always tricky, & he proved that you can raise capital if your direction is clear.I spoke with Marnix Stokvis, CEO & co-founder of Aquablu, the Amsterdam-based startup that's doing for water what Nespresso did for coffee. Marnix started Aquablu while still at university with his co-founder Marc van Zuylen. Now they've raised $8.19 million, hit 300% year-over-year growth three years running, and reached profitability in 2025.

But here's what makes this episode different from every fundraising story you've heard. Marnix didn't raise a single euro from traditional venture capital. He built a curated round of operators, industry leaders, and believers who move fast and skip six-week board meetings.

Here is his background:→ Founded 2018 by Marnix Stokvis and Marc van Zuylen while at university→ Amsterdam-based smart water dispenser company→ Flagship product: REFILL+ chilled, sparkling, or still water with functional flavors, vitamins, and electrolytes→ Serves corporate offices, hotels, and hospitality→ Over 120 partnerships→ Red Dot Design Award certified→ Targeting €100M revenue by 2028 with fewer than 100 employees

The fundraising story flips all the previous playbooks:→ $8.19 million, zero traditional VCs→ Friends of Aquablu raise and curate operators and investors who share their speed-and-execution mindset→ Former Philips CEO Frans van Houten led the round→ €750K committed LIVE on the Dutch Dragons podcast, grew to €1.1M after it aired→ Pieter Schoen, Michel Perridon, and Bas Witvoet also joinedHe picked people who have built businesses that stood out.

Mostly hardware startups don't have funds and revenue while raising capital. He had both. He proved the PMF, and these numbers made people say yes.→ 300% year-over-year growth for 3 consecutive years→ Profitable since April 2025→ Expanding internationally across corporate and hospitality sectors→ Mission to save 1 billion plastic bottles by 2030→ Clients include Schiphol Airport, Adyen, and major hotel chainsWe discussed in detail:✅ How two university students went from zero to $8.19 million and profitability, without ever pitching a traditional VC firm.✅ Why Marnix chose operators over institutional investors and how Friends of Aquablu became the fundraising model that attracted serious capital initiative.✅ How Aquablu hit 300% growth three years in a row ✅ Why they're targeting €100M revenue with fewer than 100 employees, and the operational model that makes that realistic.About Aquablu:Aquablu is an Amsterdam-based smart water startup transforming workplace and hospitality hydration. Their REFILL+ system delivers chilled, sparkling, or still functional water infused with natural flavours, electrolytes, and B vitamins, eliminating single-use plastic bottles. Learn more → aquablu.comAbout Deal Makers (& Fakers) Podcast:Raw, unfiltered founder conversations about startup fundraising. Just brutal truth about raising capital, investor rejections, pitch deck failures, and fundraising strategies that actually work.I'm Niclas, building spectup into a neo-investment bank. As VC scouts and private placement, we connect high-potential companies with the right investors, from Seed through Series B and beyond.Reach out → spectup.com

This week I sat with James Marks, and he shared his startup fundraising journey, and the playbook was quite the opposite of everything I had seen so far.

James is a cloud and IT infrastructure broker helping companies cut 20-40% off their cloud spend. He became the youngest senior manager in AWS history, then sold his house, quit his job, and bet everything on building Canopy.

"Don't spend time on your deck. Spend 100% of your time on the business."

His Approach:

• → Sent monthly 3-4 page investor memos for months before raising
• → No pitching, just transparent updates showing real traction
• → Closed round with institutional investors in 48 hours (30% Monday, finished Tuesday)

Current Traction:

• → Clients from worldwide
• → 74+ customers and growing
• → £400k investment raised in pre-seed round
• → Institutional fundraising round coming soon

We Went Deep Into:

• ✓ How he built investor relations via monthly memos and saved significant time
• ✓ Why cloud is a trillions-dollar market at ~50% efficiency & how Canopy solves it
• ✓ How companies overspend due to lack of vendor pricing visibility
• ✓ Why execution speed beats everything in cloud computing
• ✓ Smart work over hard work: scattered 10-hour days don't compete
• ✓ The strategic WHY behind fundraising decisions

Key Insight: 90-95% of Canopy's revenue comes from network referrals and warm introductions.

For Founders: If you're building in cloud infrastructure or raising your first round, this episode is for you.

About Deal Makers & Fakers: Raw, unfiltered founder conversations about startup fundraising. No polished success stories. Just brutal truth about raising capital, investor rejections, pitch deck failures, and fundraising strategies that actually work.

Host: I'm Niclas, building Spectup into a new kind of capital advisory. Follow along if you're raising, investing, or just curious how the game really works.

Links

• Reach out → spectup.com
• Check out Canopy Cloud → https://www.canopycloud.io/

Greece’s 10-year bonds were above 18%, investors wanted software-only, and everyone told him to leave and build in the US instead.

In this episode of Deal Makers (& Fakers), Niclas talks with Dr. Nick Kanopoulos, founder & CEO of Brite Solar, about how he still built a solar factory in Patras and closed an €8.6M Series A plus more than €10M in grants and R&D funding.

We go deep into:

• How a Duke-trained engineer went from semiconductors in the US to launching Brite Solar back in Greece for family reasons – right when the macro looked worst.
• Why agrivoltaics and semi-transparent solar glass can boost crop yields, save water, and generate energy on the same land.
• How he self-funded ~€1.2M, survived years of R&D, and then convinced the ultra-selective EU EIC Fund (sub-5% acceptance) to lead his €8.6M Series A.
• The brutal reality of raising capital-intensive hardware money in Europe when local VCs mostly want software, platforms, and “asset-light”.
• How he defends against Chinese competition on price, IP, and manufacturing flexibility – and why their line was designed from day one for agrivoltaics, not generic PV.
• What investors really asked in the final EIC panel, including patents, China, gender balance, governance, and scaling risk.
• His metric founders forget to show in their pitch decks – the valuation-to-investment multiples of comparable companies – and how he uses it to shut down “your valuation is too high”.
• His unfiltered advice to hardware & deeptech founders: OEM vs. your own factory, when to pull the Series A trigger, and why “the name of the game is: don’t give up”.

If you want to learn how to raise serious money for real-world, capex-heavy tech when basically everything is stacked against you, this is the episode.

Learn more about Brite Solar:
https://www.britesolar.com/

About spectup / your host: I’m Niclas, building spectup into a new kind of capital advisory. Follow along if you’re raising, investing, or just curious how the game really works.

In this raw, honest conversation, Lars shares:

• Why he turned away from the classic VC path.
• The near-failure moments and struggles he faced.
• The challenges he solved to secure long-term, flexible funding.
• Why he believes this “VC-free” route is a massive advantage for founders.

If you’re tired of endless pitch decks, term sheet negotiations, and investor pressure, this episode reveals how one founder found a smarter, less stressful way to fund and scale his company.

Who is Lars Eickhoff?

Lars is the Co-Founder of DeepImmo, a fast-growing PropTech startup building solutions for the real estate industry. His journey shows how founders can break the mold and find funding that truly fits their ambitions.

About the podcast: Deal Makers (& Fakers)

Deal Makers (&fakers) is a spectup podcast where founders and operators reveal what actually works in fundraising, investor outreach, and building companies—plus the “fakers” moments nobody posts about on LinkedIn.

Who should listen?

• Founders tired of the classic VC treadmill.
• Anyone considering alternative funding routes.
• Operators who want to scale without losing control.

🔗 Learn more about spectup
🔗 Check out DeepImmo

In this episode, we go deep on what it really takes to raise a pre-seed round (Jessica raised >$1M), how to approach investor outreach without burning your network, and the real differences between fundraising in the US vs. Europe.

If you’re tired of slow data requests, endless spreadsheets, and “can you send me that by EOD?” chaos—Intriq’s vision is simple: get answers on demand so you can spend your time on strategy, impact, and results.

What you’ll learn

• How Jessica approached investor outreach and built momentum for a pre-seed round
• US vs Europe: what changes in investor expectations, speed, and storytelling
• What it’s like fundraising as a female founder (and what should change)
• What Intriq actually does: from document analysis to report drafting—without the grunt work

About Jessica + Intriq

Jessica Liew is the CEO & Founder of Intriq, an AI startup transforming how advisory teams and consultants work with complex data.

Intriq positions itself as an “AI-powered toolkit” for corporate finance advisors and consultants—built to speed up research, data collection, insight extraction, and report drafting.

About the podcast: Deal Makers (& Fakers)

Deal Makers (& Fakers) is a spectup podcast where founders and operators share what actually works in fundraising, investor outreach, and building companies—plus the “fakers” moments nobody posts about on LinkedIn.

Who we are

spectup is a capital advisory firm helping founders and growth-stage teams raise capital through investor readiness, outreach systems, and a global investor network. We run structured fundraising processes designed to create real investor conversations—not just “nice intros.”

Links

• Learn more about spectup: https://www.spectup.com
• Check out Intriq: https://intriq.ai

Subscribe + connect

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