Triangle Tweener Talks

00:00:04 - Announcer
Welcome to Tweener Madness, the high stakes startup showdown where eight promising companies go head to head for a $25,000 investment prize from the Triangle Tweener Fund. But before the competition kicks off, let's meet the people making the tough calls. The judges. In this special meet the Judges episode, we're sitting down with the investors and industry leaders who will be asking the hard hitting questions, evaluating the startups, and ultimately deciding who moves forward in this bracket sty competition. Each round, three judges will vote on which startups advance leading up to the finals in early April where one company will take home the top prize from the judges. You'll hear about their backgrounds, what they look for in a winning startup, and maybe even get a little inside scoop on their decision making process. So if you're a founder looking for investment, an entrepreneur curious about what investors really want, or just someone who loves a good business battle, you are in the right place. Let's meet the judges. Here's your host, Scott Wingo.

00:01:06 - Scot Wingo
Hey. With me today is one of our esteemed members of our Tweener Madness selection committee, Zakiya, and she is from IdeaFund. Thanks, Zakiya, for joining us today.

00:01:18 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Absolutely. Thank you for having me. I am excited about this.

00:01:22 - Scot Wingo
Yeah. So what we're doing here is you and I have known each other, I think, since you got in the biz, but a lot of people don't know Idea Fund and they don't know you and they're going to randomly see you as on the selection committee in our contest. So we wanted to give folks a chance to hear a little bit of background about you. So I'm excited to, I know some of the parts, but I'm sure I don't know the full story. So where are you from and how did you get into this fun business we call venture capital?

00:01:48 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Yeah, absolutely. Well, let me first start by saying for those of you that don't know, I'm actually born and raised in the Triangle, so I am from Raleigh, North Carolina. So super excited about what Tweener is doing. But yeah, I've had a very non traditional background, as people say, and a lot of people say that. But I think when you hear my background, you're gonna be like, yes, it's truly non traditional. So always been a person that believed that my path to success in life would be through following my passions. I think it's very important for you to discover those types of things and follow them if you're able. And so undergraduate, I went off to Florida State University, majored In dance. Minored in business. Minored in business because I always knew in some way, shape or form business would come back around. But yeah, went off, followed my dreams in my younger years. Traveled the world performing. Spent four years in the NBA with the Atlanta Hawks dance team. Moved out to Los Angeles, produced a television show, sold a pilot, did all the things you could do in the entertainment world. Then I started a company. So at that time, I became an entrepreneur. Started a company called ZPRO Prep, essentially a consulting firm and training camp for women trying to become professional NFL and NBA dancers and cheerleaders pivoted into helping others achieve their goals. Got women on teams like the Lakers and the jets and the Panthers and.

00:03:10 - Scot Wingo
You know, any Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. That reality show's big in my house right now.

00:03:14 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
It is, right? Not quite. They made it like to one of the final rounds, but not quite the team yet. So I know you should have done.

00:03:20 - Scot Wingo
A reality show in Hyena. That's a. Dang it.

00:03:23 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
That's the pilot that I sold. It didn't go to network though, but still, it was the first thing I produced. So, you know, not bad. Not bad as far as attraction is concerned. But long story short, I loved it. It was great. Had a fun time, Went to the Super bowl, did all the things you could do, but realized I understand the grassroots space, but I want to understand big business and enterprise. That's what led me back to Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Got my executive MBA there, did everything entrepreneurial you could do there. Melissa and Doug, founder, student founders, concentration in innovation and entrepreneurship. And then after my mba, I made a slight pivot. I wanted to try corporate, try my hand at corporate to see if it would be a good fit. It was not, although I learned a ton. And then when this opportunity at Idea Fund Partners opened up, I jumped on it. So I've been here since then. It's been almost two years. I'm excited about supporting founders, supporting companies, you know, finding the best deals, all the things. So, yeah, that's my background.

00:04:21 - Scot Wingo
Cool. Well, we're excited. I'm an LP in Idea Fund and, you know, the original folks are awesome, but they. Your energy levels here and yours is here. So I appreciate your energy.

00:04:32 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Had to bring in some new people.

00:04:34 - Scot Wingo
You know, they need a little cattle prod and you were just the person to do it.

00:04:37 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Yeah, I'm here for it.

00:04:42 - Scot Wingo
The, you know, this interest in entrepreneurship. Do you have parents that did entrepreneurial things? Like, where does that come from?

00:04:47 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
You know, honestly, I think it came from like great grandparents. When I talk to my parents about their parents and their grandparents, they tell me about entrepreneurial things they were doing back then. One of them owned a little store. The other one had a lot of land and put homes on it and would rent them out and all of these different little things. And so I believe that's where it came from. But my parents have always been very supportive of all my entrepreneurial endeavors. I think I remember my first little entrepreneurial endeavor when I was in fourth grade. A couple of friends, we got together, we put some twigs together, made some wreaths, put some flowers on them, sold them throughout the neighborhood. It was great. There was a lesson there. We kept the money at their house, never saw a dime. So I learned a very important mess, a very important lesson about always be the bank.

00:05:33 - Scot Wingo
Yes. So, yeah, yeah, that's funny. That's more innovative than a lemonade stand. Like anyone can do a lemonade stand. You were like creating a whole new category.

00:05:44 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
See, look at that.

00:05:45 - Scot Wingo
Did you do a TAM analysis and that kind of thing?

00:05:48 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Not. Not quite. We just kind of. We just kind of threw some sticks together and hoped for the best.

00:05:52 - Scot Wingo
Yeah. Okay, so you've been there two years maybe. For folks that don't know IdeaFund and the full name is IdeaFund Venture Partners. We call it IVP. Yeah. And then maybe kind of walk through a little history of the fund and we'll have Lister on too. And if you want a punt, I can ask Lister, but I know you know it too. So how big is the fund now? What fund are y'all on? And then kind of like the usual, like what is your sweet spot, check size kind of thing.

00:06:19 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Yeah. Well, so since I've been on Scott, and I know you're an og, so you may know it's been Idea Fund Partners. Now if it was Venture partners back in the day. Could have been. Could have been. I'm new. I'm new. So yeah, Idea Fund Partners. We are on our fourth fund. I'll probably punt a lot of the details to Lister, but we're on our fourth fund. We're actually still raising our fourth fund, but we are making investments out of it. We really focus on pre seed to series A companies. From my perspective, our sweet spot are those seed deals. But we both have pre seed and series A deals in our portfolio. Really focused on tech and tech enabled services. Not really doing much or anything for that matter in biologics, life sciences, things of that nature. Not because it's not great, but that's just not what we know. And so we are generalists. Right. And so that gives us an opportunity to kind of look at a lot of different companies. For Fundforce specifically, we've decided to focus on a geography as opposed to like a sector. So we are focused on the geography from kind of the Baltimore area, D.C. area, all the way down to through Georgia. And so, you know, we just essentially did some research on that area and found that there's a lot of amazing activity happening in the Southeast and not as many active investors. And so we don't want these great companies going to get their money from outside of the Southeast. Right. If they're right here in the Southeast. And so that's why we're focused here. But yeah, it's been great. I think we've made 11 investments so far out of Fund 4, so we're actively investing.

00:07:50 - Scot Wingo
Awesome. And then what's the typical check size that you guys write?

00:07:53 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Yeah, so usually I would say about 250 to 500k for that first check with additional follow on checks as it makes sense. Right. So we're really tracking those KPIs because we believe that cream will rise to the top. So as we're tracking those KPIs, we see what companies are really beating their KPIs or just really outstanding. And then from there we're providing the second and third check when it makes sense. But yeah, I think like I said, we're seeing some fantastic companies. And just note that if your pre seed company or series A company, that check size could vary a little bit. But usually for the seed deals, around 250 to 500.

00:08:35 - Scot Wingo
Got it. Cool. And then in the venture world, there's a fair amount of activity you've got, like working with LPs is your investors is one chunk. Sourcing deals, which is meeting entrepreneurs and hearing pitches and then supporting the portfolio. Where are you spending your time? Kind of across those three.

00:08:51 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Yeah. So what's really great about our team is that we all have the opportunity to do a little bit of everything. Right. So there'll be a lead in a certain area, but we really value at idea from partners the opportunity to grow. Right. In whatever areas you need to grow in to eventually become a really great investor. And so for me, I spend a lot of my time amongst a few categories. So one, we have a club fund. Right. And so I don't know. Yes, you know about the club fund. So we're doing fundraising for that. I do a lot of fundraising on that end also. Definitely supporting our LPs or investors, always there to support them, trying to connect them with our portfolio companies, things of that nature. I do some portfolio company support as well, but I definitely listen to founder pitches and help source deals. So I pretty much answered your question by saying I do a little bit of everything.

00:09:49 - Scot Wingo
Yeah, it's when you're that kind of person, you're a Swiss army. And I'd be good at pretty much.

00:09:54 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Scott.

00:09:56 - Scot Wingo
And then the club is, my understanding is it's where some of your LPs want to put more into a deal. But then sometimes you may have some people that maybe missed your window for investment or don't want to make a big commitment, but they have to be accredited investors and they can kind of like look at some deals too. Is that kind of how you guys think about it?

00:10:13 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Yes, that's exactly what the club is. So essentially, you know, for some people, like you said, they miss the window to invest. The window has closed, you know, once the fund closes. For those people that may not know that are watching, once the fund closes, you can no longer be a part of that particular fund. But sometimes people, yes, still want to see great deals. That's one group of people. Another group of people are people that are maybe new to investing and they're saying, hey, like, I really want to get into VC investing. I'm an accredited investor, but I'm not ready to lock away, you know, maybe six figures for the next 10 years. I don't know VC that well. And so I want to get to understand VC a little bit better. I want to get to know idea fund a little bit better before I make those investments. And so they essentially join our club fund. You pay a nominal fee once annually and then you get access to our deal flow. And so you get the memos, you get to see the founder's pitch and then from there you're in the driver's seat. Right. So you determine, this is a deal I want to invest in. This is a deal I don't. It's also great for people who have a personal thesis. So sometimes someone will come and say, hey, like I only want to invest in, invest in female founded companies, for example. And so from there, instead of being invested across our portfolio, they say, put me in for five or ten thousand dollars every time a female founded company comes up. And so it just allows you to be in the driver's seat and kind of dip your toe in investing.

00:11:33 - Scot Wingo
Yeah, it's good on ramp. We found that with our LPs you know, our goal is to like get people used to this and then get them into the idea funds, the bull cities and the co founders if they want to want to do more.

00:11:43 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Fantastic.

00:11:44 - Scot Wingo
Takes the village.

00:11:45 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Absolutely.

00:11:47 - Scot Wingo
Yeah. So there's going to be a lot of in this contest we're going to see, you'll be, you know, selecting between two companies that are pitching and they're going to be what we call pre tweeners, kind of like that, pre seed level. What's some advice you can give to folks that are pitching that you've seen a lot of pitches just in your two years. I'm sure. You know, what are, what are Zakiyah's like top tips for pitching?

00:12:07 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Oh, that's a great question, Scott. So a couple of things. One, I want to remind founders that firstly, we don't know your company. We don't know the ins and outs of your company. If you guys have special abbreviations that you use for things within your company. Right. That are specific to your company as you're speaking about your company, just keep in mind, we don't know your company, we don't know your product yet. So make sure you explain it very well from a foundational perspective. That's the first thing. The second thing is remember to be excited about your company. Once again, we don't know your company yet. You've been working on your company for some appreciable amount of time. And so some things that were very exciting to you initially may not be as exciting anymore. But I would like to encourage all of the founders to remember to be interested in your company. And excitement doesn't necessarily look like me. Right. This is my version. But just be interested in what you're talking about. So try not to be too nervous. Be interested, be excited. Also remember, investors are there because they want to invest. We are looking to invest. So as you go into the pitch, I would have the perspective of I'm the company they're looking for, not from a cocky perspective, but go into it with a positive mindset. I'm the company that they're looking for. And all of these things just help with nerves. That's what I'm trying to help with. Because a lot of times with the younger companies, it's a lot of nerves is what I see. Right. So go into it like, hey, I'm a great company, I've got a great product. They're going to want to see me because we do want to see you. And then finally, I would just say whatever the length of your pitch Is. So let's say how long are these companies going to have to pitch? Is there?

00:13:47 - Scot Wingo
It's going to be about eight to 10 minutes. So it's pretty short, but not crazy. Like a two minute, like, you know, elevator kind of thing. Yeah.

00:13:53 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Okay, so if it's an 8 to 10 minute pitch, right? And let's say your pitch, historically, you've been talking to investors or folks and you normally have 15 or 20 minutes to pitch. Do not go through your entire pitch, but just go through it super fast. Don't do that. Go through your pitch, because we won't understand anything you're saying. Go through your pitch, take out the most important parts and then make sure you present on those. Those things that, like when we, when we walk away from your pitch, we say, wow, this is so interesting. This is so amazing. I think it's a great idea. I want to learn more. Like, that's what. We should walk away with it. And then. Oh, the last thing I would say. And this is from someone who pitches a lot in the ecosystem. I do a lot of reverse pitches. Make sure you practice your pitch out loud in front of new people, not just the same people that you've gotten used to. So just walk up at any moment next to your best friend and just say, hey, when they turn around, start pitching. Right. Or don't. Probably be like, what? It keeps you on your toes. And if you mess up when you're practicing, do not stop and say, oh, oh, wait, I need to start over. Don't do that. Because what you practice is what you'll do when it's time, when it's time to go.

00:15:05 - Scot Wingo
We need to recruit you to be a pitch coach here. Yeah, I can feel you. I feel like pitching right now. Your energy is just so. I appreciate that.

00:15:13 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Thank you.

00:15:15 - Scot Wingo
That's awesome. And then I know you've only been at this two years, but I'm sure all of your babies are loved equally. Your 11 portfolio companies, but any ones that kind of stand out or maybe like give an example of a couple interesting portfolio companies so people kind of understand what's in your portfolio. They can always go to Idea Fund Partners and see it, but just like a quick blurb about a company or two.

00:15:38 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
So there's a company that is gaining just a lot of attention right now. They're doing some really cool things. They're in Oxford, North Carolina. They're a company called Planted. Essentially they have building materials for anyone that hasn't heard of them. Building materials. Right now they're focused on Wood, but building materials that are better for the environment, leave less of a carbon footprint, are more durable against rain than regular wood. All of these things, right. And they're essentially doing some incredible things. I'm always careful, like how much can I share what is proprietary? But yeah, they found a way to create this really cool, more sustainable building material. And so they're getting some great traction, getting a lot of attention from Dr. Horton, a really strong team, former SpaceX folks. So that's a company that I'm really excited about. We have a company in our portfolio, Bionic Health. Bionic Health is a really cool company. I am all into living longer, better. I have a grandmother that's 106 years old. I just want to say that. And so I'm all about like, how can we live longer, better. Right. And so Bionic Health is really tapping into that and just really helping people to live healthier longer. Right. And so that's something that, that's a company that I'm really excited about. And so, you know, there's so many that I could talk about. And you're right, you know, I do love our babies equally. There's Keep Company. That's a female founded company. I'm excited about them. They are helping caregivers, right? And I get that because I've got two little ones. They're helping caregivers beat the burnout. Right? And how helping companies allow their employees to deal with just the burnout that happens from being a caregiver, whether it's with a child, a parent, a spouse and just providing tools there. Right. And they're using tech in a really cool way to bring these groups of folks together. And so, I mean, there's so many to talk about. Like the ones I didn't mention, I love no less. Like you said, those are just three. That kind of popped in my head based off of, you know, recent conversations and things like that. But. But we've got a diverse portfolio and so. Yeah.

00:17:45 - Scot Wingo
Yeah. Awesome. Any last words for founders that are going to enter the contest? Words of encouragement?

00:17:51 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
You've got this. This is the first of many, right? You're going to be pitching pretty much for the entirety of as you build your company. We are so excited to see you. This is an opportunity to be a part of this and so just take full advantage of it. Pitch network, do all the things. But we're excited. We're excited. I mean, who doesn't like amazing companies? Head to head competition and prize money. Because there is prize money, there's prize money. Correct.

00:18:21 - Scot Wingo
Yeah. Yeah. The Tweener fund's gonna invest $25,000 in the winter, so we're excited about that. Yeah.

00:18:26 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Oh, man, I need to get my little pitch together.

00:18:28 - Scot Wingo
Yeah.

00:18:31 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Cool, cool, cool.

00:18:32 - Scot Wingo
Well, thanks, Zakiyah. We look forward to seeing you during the contest and a appreciate you taking time to introduce yourself, folks.

00:18:38 - Zakiya Alta Lee-Hill
Absolutely. Thank you, Scott.

00:18:45 - Announcer
That's a wrap on this meet the judges episode. Now you know the minds behind the decisions, the investors and industry leaders who will be putting these startups to the test. As Tweener Madness kicks off. They'll be asking the tough questions, making the tough calls, and deciding who advances in the bracket, all leading up to the finals in early April. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss a single matchup. And if you want to follow along with all things Tweener Madness and the triangle startup scene, head on over to tweenertimes.com also, if you're thinking about launching your own podcast or want to bring professional production to your brand, check out earfluence.com the competition is about to begin, and we'll see you soon in the next episode.