Latest / The Series A Show with Fexingo: Early-Stage Funding, Pitch Decks, and Startup Milestones / Why Startups Are Building in Public on Social Audio
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this health-tech startup I've been watching — they raised a two-point-two-million-dollar seed round a few weeks ago, and the founder credits a huge chunk of that to something that would have sounded bizarre five years ago. Luna: Let me guess — they built the whole thing on Twitter Spaces? Lucas: Exactly. Every Wednesday night for three months, the founder hosted a weekly audio session — no slides, no pitch deck — just talking through the product roadmap, the metrics they were hitting, the mistakes they made that week. Sometimes ten people showed up, sometimes a hundred. Luna: And investors were in the room listening. Lucas: That's the key. One of the angels who led the round said he'd been lurking for six weeks before he ever reached out. By the time he DMed the founder, he already understood the business better than if he'd read a forty-page data room. Luna: It's like an inverted pitch process — instead of the founder chasing investors, the investors get to self-qualify by listening in. Lucas: Right. And the founder told me the biggest surprise was how much the audience taught him. People in the chat would ask things like 'why is your churn rate higher than your competitor's?' and he'd have to think on his feet. That forced him to sharpen his story way faster than any pitch practice session. Luna: It's almost like a public office hour. I've seen a few fintech startups do the same thing on Clubhouse — one raised a note round entirely from listeners who became investors. Lucas: There's a name for this now — some folks call it 'social audio fundraising.' It's still early, but I think it taps into something real about how trust is built in 2026. You're not just sharing your deck; you're sharing your thinking process in real time. Luna: And the bar for credibility is higher. You can't hide bad numbers when someone can ask you about them live. Lucas: Exactly. The founder I mentioned — he actually shared his monthly burn rate and MRR growth in one session. No NDAs, no confidentiality agreements. Just raw numbers. And the reaction from the audience was overwhelmingly supportive. Luna: That level of transparency would have terrified most founders even two years ago. But now it's becoming a signal of confidence. Lucas: And it's not just early-stage. I've seen later-stage companies use audio to test messaging for their Series B. They'll do a series of 'ask me anything' sessions and gauge which parts of the story resonate most. Luna: It's almost like a focus group that also doubles as a marketing channel. Lucas: Right. And the cost is basically zero. No ad spend, no PR agency — just time and willingness to be vulnerable. Luna: But there's a risk too — one bad session could spook potential investors. Lucas: Absolutely. The founder I talked to admitted he had one session where he fumbled a question about unit economics and saw three listeners drop off immediately. But he also said that forced him to go back and really understand his numbers. Luna: So the process itself becomes a forcing function for founder readiness. Lucas: Exactly. And I think that's why VCs are starting to pay attention. I've heard partners at a few top-tier firms say they now assign juniors to monitor specific audio rooms the way they used to scan PitchBook. Luna: Interesting. So it's becoming a legitimate sourcing channel. Lucas: Yeah. And it's not just for fundraising — some startups are using audio to recruit engineers. One dev-tools company I know hired two senior backend engineers who first encountered the company through a weekly tech deep dive session. Luna: That makes sense — if you want to hire people who are curious and engaged, showing how you think about problems is a better signal than a job description. Lucas: And look — I'm not saying every startup should drop everything and start a weekly audio show. But for founders who are comfortable with live conversation, it's a way to build an audience that already trusts you before you ever ask for money. Luna: It's basically content marketing with a live feedback loop. Lucas: Yeah. And on that note — and I'll tie this back — one of the reasons we're able to do shows like this, covering these specific tactics, is that a small group of listeners chips in monthly through Buy Me a Coffee dot com slash Fexingo. No ads, no sponsors — just people who find the episodes useful and want to keep them coming. Luna: Yeah, it's a model that only works if it's actually valuable to you. And we try to make every episode worth your time. Lucas: So if this conversation about social audio fundraising sparked something for you — or if any of our episodes have — that link is the simplest way to keep the show ad-free and focused on tactics like this. Luna: Anyway, back to the health-tech founder — he told me that after the round closed, one of the investors said the audio sessions were the reason they invested, not the deck. Lucas: That's the ultimate validation. And I think we'll see more of this as the fundraising landscape gets more crowded. The signal to noise ratio is getting worse — everyone has a deck, but not everyone has a genuine conversation. Luna: So for a founder listening right now — what's the first step? Lucas: Start small. Pick a platform — Twitter Spaces, Clubhouse, even LinkedIn Audio — and commit to one session a week for a month. Don't pitch. Just talk about a problem you're solving and what you're learning. If only five people show up, that's fine. Those five might include your future lead investor. Luna: And be ready to answer tough questions live. Lucas: That's the part you can't fake. And that's exactly why it works.