Marketing @Wefunder | Writing @Founder Secrets

Manuel Bleve

I guess we can make it official, I'm joining beehiiv 🐝

Crazy to think this was happening 2 years ago

Week 2 at beehiiv. I already knew the product was world class. Now I can tell you the team is too. Honestly not sure how anyone would even try to compete with us

This is one of the most bittersweet things I've ever written.

I'm leaving Wefunder. And it feels so freaking weird to say it out loud.

I still remember meeting the team for the first time after writing a pretty aggressive newsletter about Startengine's ridiculous funding round.

(Always hated those guys. Even before joining Wefunder)

I was just a dude in college writing about my startup investments from a little town in southern Italy, with no formal investing education. I can steel feel the imposter syndrome kicking in even six years later.

I will be forever grateful to Wefunder for giving me the opportunity to join them despite being 10,000 km apart and having no serious track record or references.

And I will be forever grateful to Jonny for being an amazing leader. And most importantly, a real friend. I'll never forget you flying out all the way from Nashville to this little town in southern Italy just to come to my wedding (and somehow ending up hugging my wife's uncle on the dance floor)

I know you'll miss me and your "work trips" to Puglia.

There are so many other people I'd like to shout out. Too many to include here. But Jake, keep being the coolest dude at Wefunder. Justin, keep being the passionate, volatile, intense, and hands down one of the most interesting people at Wefunder. Joe, I'll miss our 30-min chats that always became 2-hour chats. Suzanna, somehow it still feels insanely weird that you're not Wefunder's president anymore!!! Haley, I'll keep watching all your comedy shows. You're a fucking legend. And it'll feel so cool to say I knew you before you got famous!! Christopher, hands down the coolest lawyer in SF. I'll miss our ping-pong matches!! 

I'll miss all of you guys so much.

I'll forever be a Wefunder and community rounds fan.

(If you're a founder reading this, go launch your community round on Wefunder!!!)

And to all the young dudes thinking about getting into startups, do yourself a favor and try to get into Wefunder. I don't think there is any other place on earth where you can just take your raw talent and make some very crazy shit happen.

Goodbye, Wefunder ❤️

P.S. As for what's next, I'll write a little more in the next few days. But just funny to think how it all started with newsletters, and it's all changing because of... well... newsletters!!

beehiiv this, beehiiv that… what if I just shut up and build something on it from scratch? Like a real media brand. In public. Documenting everything. Should I do it? 👀

Rollups

Building Roll Up Vehicles and Consolidation Vehicles so companies can take control over their equity. 

Rollups is a new brand, powered by AngelList.

Startups

AngelList

On the Founder Products team, building startup tools like RUVs. 

RUVs enable you to raise from up to 250 investors on one cap table line.

Founder Operations Associate

levy

TL;DR: I lead VC partnerships at Levy and I am also the first sales hire. I am responsible for building out sales processes and systems including a full go-to-market motion, CRM, and partnership network with VCs and vendors. 

🔸 Sales: Drove over $1M in sales in my first 9 months. 

🔸 Venture Capital Partnerships: I created strategic partnerships with VCs like Khosla, Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and many others driving over $100k in sales volume in the first 6 months. Hosted events, webinars, and co-marketed in partnership with other VCs.

🔸Vendor Partnerships: Established clear relationships with a suite of key vendors and initialized revenue share agreements.

Partnerships and Growth

Wefunder

TL;DR: A founding team member to create Capitalize, an AngelList competitor. We ideated a new product line (founder-led SPVs) and launched within 5 months. We served over 30+ YC companies at launch and launched a $1M VC fund to invest in the W23 batch.

🔸 Product Management: Responsible for researching the industry, analyzing competitors, ideating our unique differentiation, and conducting user interviews to implement improvements. 

🔸 Product management: Worked closely with our engineers to QA and flag prioritizations. 

🔸 Growth and Strategy: Implemented a GTM strategy, sales pre-launch, and strategic partnerships at public launch. We successfully launched with 30+ YC companies.

🔸 Venture Capital and Fundraising: We raised a $1M venture fund to invest in YC W23 companies.

Founding team, Capitalize

TL;DR: After launching Community Rounds I went back to my roots. I directed my focus on our outbound growth efforts.

🔸 Responsible for reaching over 30k companies to educate them on the changes in the equity crowdfunding, bringing in over $10M in inv. vol.

🔸 I helped organize and run weekly founder dinners creating a space for founders to meet other founders and investors over a home-cooked meal and some whiskey.

🔸 Managed and trained a team to scale our outbound systems.

Outbound Growth Lead

TL;DR: Our partnership effort wasn't driving short term growth! I was hand-selected to work directly with the CEO to create Community Round by Wefunder. A growth marketing strategy involving rebranding the industry. A success!

🔸 Created strategies, systems, and a management process to track and reach hundreds of high-value ICPs with various sales strategies. I was directly responsible for Series B company, Replit's Community Round.

🔸 Worked to create communityround.com, a growth marketing effort to provide fun educational content to inform on industry changes, market Community Rounds, and remove stigma surrounding crowdfunding.

Growth Marketing Manager

TL;DR: Led an initiative to strengthen our partnership reach with a focus on co-marketing, content-creation, and brand awareness. Maintained this initiative as my focus changed to other projects within the company.

🔸 I created partnerships with over a dozen companies including, Deel, Intercom, Mercury Bank, Carta, Rippling, and Pilot. See more here: https://wefunder.com/deals

🔸 I was involved in the creation, planning, and production of various co-marketing efforts including podcasts with CXOs at partner companies, educational published content, and webinars.

🔸 I created and ran a monthly founder newsletter reaching over 50k founders.

Strategic Partnerships

TL;DR: Created the processes to scale our outbound sales efforts. Basically became the email god.

🔸 Created the lead generation processes and systems to scale our outbound growth efforts.

🔸 Scaled and led the Outbound Lead Generation team, onboarding, and training interns.

Sales Development Representative / Growth

TL;DR: Dove head first into recruiting. I help source, manage the process, and hire for SWE, compliance, and a variety of other roles. 

🔸 I was the first recruiting hire. I helped build out our recruiting and sourcing process for a variety of technical roles and non-technical roles.

🔸 I help source, interview, and manage the pipeline to hire 9 software engineers in 2 Months -- a faster pace than Google.

🔸  Created the hiring process for the compliance manager role, administering talent tests, and hired a candidate within 3 weeks.

🔸 I helped source and hire for a couple other roles and internships.

Technical Recruiter

Was the first venture scout, working to find innovative startups that fit the ICP for Wefunder. 

🔸 Closing two deals worth just under $500k inv. vol.

Venture Scout

Assisting customers with best-in-class support. We strive to deliver happiness. 
- TalkDesk
- LiveChat
- Salesforce
- Adyen

Customer Service Representative

Trinity Western University

A Student Ambassador Coordinator for the University. This role encompasses giving tours and hosting preview-overnight-weekend visits with up to 300 visitors. While leading a team of 9 current students to assist with hosting, individual visits, and group events.

Student Ambassador Coordinator 

Promoted to coaching development group leaders. The responsibilities included in this role revolved around coaching, mentoring, and advising current personal development group leaders using previous experience, consistent communication, and organized meetings.

Personal Development Team Coordinator

Leading a group designed around personal development. This role consisted of key responsibilities such as mentoring individuals, creating a safe, open space for effective communication, and preparing content for discussion.

Personal Development Team Leader

Student Orientation Staff

Glacier Properties

Assisted in sourcing deals for Glacier Properties. The internship was an educational program focused on real estate. The training include basic underwriting, sourcing, and the mailing of off-market contacts. The majority of the internship involved learning about real estate industry through readings and assignments. The main focus was on the BRRR method.

Real Estate Intern

Other companies

Numerous other roles

Building Rollups. We're building next-generation equity tools to help founders efficiently manage their cap table.

Our two flagship products are Roll Up Vehicles and Consolidation Vehicles.

RUVs enable companies to raise from many investors on one cap table line:

- Streamlined fundraising: Launch and manage RUVs directly through our platform
- Reduced administrative burden: One entity instead of dozens of individual investors
- Proven track record: Trusted by companies that have collectively raised billions
- Powered by AngelList: Investors still invest in and track their RUV investments using their AngelList 

CVs enable companies to roll up their existing stakeholders into a single entity:

- Consolidate existing stakeholders into a single entity after the fact
- Simplify complex cap tables from previous funding rounds
- Regain control over equity structures that have become unwieldy

Learn more at Rollups.com

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The Battle

Manuel Bleve

Joshua Webster

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The Battle

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Joshua Webster

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Manuel Bleve's LinkedIn Performance

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