I first met Nika when I posted on a Facebook group asking if anyone was attending an education conference in San Francisco. She responded, stating she'd be happy to meet. She was on-time for the meeting and spent over an hour talking with me about education and providing feedback on my business. Even though her firm invests in a later stage than my company, she's happily met with me several other times when I've reached out to provide an update. She's also reviewed my pitch deck and video pitches without any hesitation. She asks thoughtful questions and always offers a helping hand. It's always a pleasure speaking with Nika, and I would highly recommend her.

Santosh has an innate ability to see strong founders and market opportunities, long before others. On top of that, he is uniquely not afraid to roll the sleeves up and iterate with the founders — helping turn an idea into a compelling and growing business. He was critical to us in this regard, and so many others. Once you work with him, his biggest value is being straightforward and helping you think through the critical decisions. Santosh will play "devils advocate" and, in a straightforward way, push you to think through different decisions, approach from different angels, and more—but ultimately will default to what the founder thinks is best at the end of the day and be massively respectful and easy to deal with. I would take capital from Dynamo many times over, and plan to do so in many rounds to come.

Jeff was the largest investor in our seed round, and he was a huge value add for almost a decade through our exit. He made countless introductions to potential customers, and he was critical in helping us organize our series A. He's unusually honest and transparent, and that made it easier to get advice from him in both good and bad times. I also got a lot of value through the Uncork events, and his partners Andy and Steph are great. I would definitely work with Jeff and Uncork again.

We tried to raise money from Eric for our series B. He gave us a relatively fast no, and his main feedback was that we should execute for 6 more months and then raise our series B. I was somewhat cynical about this, and I assumed that his team just wasn't interested. We ended up not raising our round at that point, and I was pleasantly surprised that 6 months later he reached back out, asked for a brief update, and then gave us a term sheet and led our series B. He did exactly what he said he would, and then he was a helpful and engaged board member for years. He was also extremely supportive when things took a turn for the worst and we had to pivot the company. I'd definitely work with him again.

Lee's track record speaks for itself; he makes decisions quick, and tries to add value as soon as he does.

If you're doing something slightly off the beaten path in fintech, GVC is the firm that you want on your cap table. Their network is extensive, their commitment to supporting founders is exceptional, and there's not a bad apple at the firm.

If you're doing something slightly off the beaten path in fintech, GVC is the firm that you want on your cap table. Their network is extensive, their commitment to supporting founders is exceptional, and there's not a bad apple at the firm.

If you're doing something slightly off the beaten path in fintech, GVC is the firm that you want on your cap table. Their network is extensive, their commitment to supporting founders is exceptional, and there's not a bad apple at the firm.

Tommy is a friend and mentor who has helped me a lot over the years. However, he is super busy with his own startup and somewhat disorganized as a person, so he's never on top of his email and very hard to get in touch with. He very rarely makes angel investments, but when he does, he's able to leverage a huge network of angels in Scandinavia and elsewhere. On a personal level, I feel he's someone with integrity and who really cares about founders.

I've had two one-hour meetings with Richie, at a time when my startup wasn't quite ready yet for a seed round. Richie agreed to meet anyway and was just super helpful and generous. He was honest about what he felt was missing in our current product strategy, and actively thought with me about ways to fix it. To me it seemed like he was a person of integrity and someone who cared. (As always, this is just ONE data point.)