Bernd Wurth

Senior Lecturer (Associate Prof) @UofGASBS | @Venturithm | Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Complex Systems, Simulations | Simple models for complex answers

[Bernd Wurth @bewurth]

@henrythe9ths FUNDRAISE

[Henry Shi @henrythe9ths]

I got rejected by 144 investors before raising $150M for my $200M+ rev/year startup.

After 144 rejections, I started questioning our approach.

Were we solving the right problem?

What were we doing wrong?

Why weren’t investors seeing what we were seeing?

Were we the right team to build this?

We tried everything: different pitch angles, new deck structures, and reframing the problem.

Then came the 145th meeting, where we closed our first growth round.

That yes made everything worth it. But getting there took years of mistakes and hard work.

We went through a lot of trial and error just to figure out what resonates with investors.

We tried dozens of approaches to figure out what made investors engage.

Some landed, most didn't. But each iteration taught us something about what builds conviction versus what just sounds good on paper.

And once we cracked that code, our Series C closed faster than expected.

And today, I see so many founders in the exact same position I was in 10 years ago: grinding through rejections, questioning everything, and trying to figure out what works.

So today I want to give you the resource I wish I had back then:

Something that shows you exactly how to structure these conversations and navigate the entire process

(because the fundraising cycle can be a big distraction and take a toll on you as a founder).

So I've partnered with Notion's Startups Team to create the essential fundraising resource that helps you avoid the mistakes that cost me years.

Here's what you are getting:

• The actual decks I used to raise $150M for Super[.]com (Series B, C)

• 50 real examples from funded startups like Eleven Labs and Artisan AI

• A searchable database of 10,000+ investors - angels, VCs, and accelerators you can reach out to immediately (this alone would take months to build manually)

• An AI-powered fundraising agent built into Notion with step-by-step prompts (no separate ChatGPT needed)

Want access?

• Like and share this post

• Comment "FUNDRAISE"

• Follow me so I can DM you the link

I'll send it over ASAP.

P.S.: If you are serious about fundraising (now or in the future), you should grab it right away.

[Bernd Wurth @bewurth]

@ankurnagpal Would love a copy!

[Progress in Economic Geography (PEG) @ProgEconGeo]

🆕 New Open Access Alert!
"Industry Diversity in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems – A Longitudinal Study of Industrial Composition and Firm Locations in Tel Aviv, Israel" by @susann_schafer and @geobrenning

↪️https://t.co/NzsAmeAevs

[Friederike Welter @f_welter]

#ENT_researchers finally, published - an essay Ted and have discussed for a long while: digging into the #SiliconValleyentrepreneurship myths, and exploring why it became so popular and persistent. Looking forward to your comments #paradoxesofpopularity @sfb1472 @IfM_Bonn_en

[Dr David Johnson @DavidJohnsonENT]

I’m recruiting a #Postdoc to join the #Entrepreneurship Group @DUBusSchool. You’ll be working on a 3-year #research project investigating academic entrepreneurship and technology innovation management 👇

https://t.co/tlwv67LY5v

#ScienceCommercialization #TechnologyTransfer #AoM

[Bernd Wurth @bewurth]

@josemagalan6 @LiuhuayingYang Ha, sorry meant to actually tag @LiuhuayingYang!

[Bernd Wurth @bewurth]

This looks incredible @josemagalan6!

[Josema Galán @josemagalan6]

Impresionante recurso visual e interactivo para introducir el Agent-based modelling por @LiuhuayingYang . Y muchas gracias a @Iza_Romanowska por decírnoslo :) https://t.co/rNBlBMQAsa

[Bernd Wurth @bewurth]

Thanks for your positive feedback on our paper @gutocrocha! Links in very well with your previous research (as you’ve probably seen) 😉

[Guto Rocha @gutocrocha]

What a great read! Well done @bewurth and @drsuzannemawson

[Bernd Wurth @bewurth]

@EshipRules Thanks @EshipRules! Hopefully bringing some entrepreneurial innovation to @USE_UU @UtrechtCE and the Netherlands soon as well.

[Bernd Wurth @bewurth]

Thank you for the shoutout Niall and your continued support!

[Bernd Wurth @bewurth]

Thank you to the SI editors @Dr_MGuerrero, @ProfWadidLamine, @mcdiguardo, Alan Fayolle (@IDRAC_BS), Sarfraz A Mian (@sunyoswego).

Might be of interest @PerkmannM @bobwalrave @EshipRules @fgiones @DavidJohnsonENT @kristel_miller @fumi_kitagawa @magnusgulbr
12/12

[Bernd Wurth @bewurth]

I’m pleased to share our new paper “Not seeing the forest for the trees? A systems approach to the entrepreneurial university” published in @SBEJournal with @NiallGMacKenzie (@UofGASBS) and Susan Howick (@StrathBusiness)

Open access: https://t.co/UrnP2qbsEf

🧵below.
1/12

[Bernd Wurth @bewurth]

We believe taking a holistic, systems approach is vital for researching and managing entrepreneurial universities. Let us know what you think! We welcome feedback from the community and get in touch if you would like to collaborate!
11/12