This is the first segment of a 10-segment show, called fundRazor with John Bautista. In the show, John interviews entrepreneurs and explores their fundraising activities and what it took for these hardworking dreamers to get others – particularly venture capitalists and angel investors – to believe.
In this segment, John interviews Bijan Mirashi, co-founder and CEO of Xoopit, which was formed in the fall 2006. Xoopit helps to bring productivity tools to emails. Bijan talks about his experiences fundraising.
Here are some highlights:
At the seed round, Xoopit had both angel and venture investors. At the seed round, Bijan and his team knew they wanted to build a technology-heavy product to solve the complex problem of indexing inboxes. The team decided they had to raise $1 million. They decided to split the round between Foundation Capital and angel investors they considered “industrial experts,” who came from eBay, iLike and Yahoo who are industrial experts.
Foundation Capital partners Adam Grosser and Charles Moldow helped Xoopit prioritize which products to develop first. Apparently, the team was flowing with ideas. Foundation also led a convertible round in Xoopit.
Foundation included a provision that allowed them to invest in a follow-on round and the venture partners also opened doors to the top Silicon Valley venture firms, like Accel Partners, which eventually came in on the Series A round. Theresia Ranzetta was the partner that brought the deal into Accel.
Be sure to check back for the second part of John’s interview with Bijan, which will air next week.
