Thrilled to be Recognized as Startup of the Year in New York City

Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

Hey Hackers! I’m Blair Silverberg and I’m the co-founder and CEO at Hum Capital.

First of all, I’d like to say a huge thank you to the HackerNoon community for recognizing us as the winner of:

The Best Startup in New York City

HackerNoon Reporter: What does it mean for you to win this title?

We’re so excited to receive this recognition from the HackerNoon community! At Hum, we are working to make private fundraising more data-driven and accessible to companies seeking capital to grow their businesses and more efficient for investors.

Being named the Best Startup in New York City is incredible validation that the traditional fundraising process is ripe for disruption––and we look forward to continuing our mission of connecting great companies with the right capital.

How do you or your company intend to embrace the responsibility of this title in 2022?

Our goal is to help companies––no matter where they are located, who’s in their network, or where they went to college––fundraise with confidence.

We believe that all companies should be empowered to see their businesses through the same lens as institutional investors.

While the NY area is well served by capital, we have found that even NY-based companies can get higher valuations and lower cost of capital by leveraging Hum. So we embrace a dual responsibility of bringing transparent access to capital to NY companies while also continuing to hire stellar NY-based talent!

What are some of the goals you’re looking forward to accomplishing in 2022 (whether it be through company initiatives or your personal journey)?

A primary goal for 2022 will be to continue to grow Hum’s Intelligent Capital Market––both expanding our network of capital-seeking companies and private market investors. We will also open up more transparency into how the capital raising process works via content and product features so stay tuned!

From a personal perspective, I have leveraged quite a few tools to grow into a CEO. These range from therapists and coaches to SSRIs and budgeting exercises.

This year I am also experimenting with meditation and am curious to see how that impacts my ability to better connect with members of our team.

As you look at the variety of concerning trends in the world around you, what solutions can you think of? Name three trends and three solutions. Be as brief or as detailed as you like.

• Global volatility: Especially as uncertainty in the Ukrainian conflict impacts the public markets and has a ripple effect on fundraising in the private markets. In the best of times, using your performance data to articulate a clear story about your company’s potential is best practice, and in volatile market conditions like today, using data to tell your story is imperative.

  
  

  Whether looking to raise equity or debt, investors will pay even closer attention to a company’s performance and financials in order to manage their own investment risk. The more analytical work you can do for the investor, the less friction there is for them to fund you and the more control you have over your company’s story.

  
  

  As a former venture capitalist, I tell all founders that confidence in your data will have major implications on your valuation and deal terms when you’re looking to raise capital in the months ahead.

  
  

• Reducing bias in fundraising: COVID-19 and the rise of new variants has obviously been a challenge, even in the investing world. The absence of social connections formed during in-person meetings over the last two years has left companies and investors more dependent on data to determine if they’re a good match.

  
  

  Simultaneously, there’s the challenge of accessibility in financing - a challenge contributing to the lack of diversity we continue to see, despite recent improvements. In 2021, Black entrepreneurs saw a 281% increase in venture funding from the previous year, but still account for only 1.3% of U.S. Venture Capital money.

  
  

  Relying on performance data instead of personal connections has tremendous potential to remove bias from fundraising, while also allowing companies and investors to navigate the constantly changing COVID landscape.

• Expanding geographical access to funding: Historically, fundraising opportunities have been centered around finance and technology hubs like Silicon Valley or New York City. However, with COVID de-centralizing the access to opportunity via greater acceptance around hybrid and remote business models, companies in traditionally under-represented regions are now able to break down geographic walls to reach investors.

  
  

  Funding platforms like Hum are providing the solution to continue this trend, even when investors and companies return to in-person models. At Hum, 46% of the over 2,000+ companies on the platform are located across 47 states outside of the coastal US regions. We are seeing them having a much easier time breaking into the coastal clubs for capital that would have been impenetrable before.

After participating in this journey, is there anything that you would like the HackerNoon team to know?

After an exceptional 2021 where we introduced our funding platform to the world and closed our Series A round, our team is both excited and grateful to continue working towards our vision of creating a world where potential is unconstrained by capital.

What is something special about you or your company that you’ve rarely had the chance to properly share but really wanted to? (Give this one a proper think, I’ll know if you didn’t!)

One of my main priorities as a business leader, particularly in the VC/finance industry, is to lead by example when it comes to destigmatizing mental health and employee wellbeing.

As an early entrepreneur, I realized that properly addressing and managing mental health challenges (which for me meant getting my anxiety under control) was the underlying key to success.

*I was able to build the mental strength to develop the skills to reframe my ambitions into an enthusiasm for the daily challenge of the job, as opposed to building toward a particular exit or outcome. *

This is a mindset that I have strived to infuse into Hum’s culture, and ultimately it's something I aim to share with the companies and early entrepreneurs on our platform. I hope that it becomes an industry standard in the years ahead.

What song or music album are you currently enjoying?

I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old so seeing “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” appear on the Spotify Global 50 made me feel like I wasn't going crazy thinking the music in Encanto was good.

Then finding out that Lin Manuel Miranda wrote the majority of it made perfect sense!

What are some concepts you wish people knew more about?

Debt financing: Debt is often mistakenly thought of as an undesirable financing option, while equity is viewed as the gold standard. In reality, equity is typically in a preferred structure which is rather debt-like and I wish entrepreneurs better understood this. Whether you receive funding through debt or equity, you’re receiving the same money.

In consumer and personal finance, we understand debt in terms of mortgages, credit cards, and car loans––but when we borrow money to buy a home, we don’t expect the bank to take 80% of our home appreciation.

On the business side, there are still founders viewing debt as a negative option, largely because of the flawed way that the market views equity vs. debt. With debt, you get to keep all your ownership, while still leveraging your company’s cash to expand your growth beyond what your revenues will support. Debt is helpful in bridging revenue shortfalls and funding discrete expansion efforts.

At Hum, our Intelligent Capital Market gives founders and companies the opportunity to make the best choice in funding for their growing business.

It doesn’t necessarily matter if they choose debt or equity, but it does matter that they are empowered to make that choice. Our machine-learning engine analyzes a company's performance and identifies financing options as well as pre-qualified investors that align to its goals.

We want companies to have the visibility and clarity into what makes the most sense for them, having the opportunity to weigh all the risks and tradeoffs of capital and make the right decisions accordingly.

Thank you for everything that you do! – HackerNoon Team.

P.S. If you enjoy getting interviewed (AKA, the ol’ intellectual stimulation, check out some more interviews here!)

For more information:

Read about the Noonies here. To see all of the winners you may visit this site, pick any award, and view the name that appears at the top. Or follow this account for posts with the list of names released over the course of the week of February 14, 2022.

Read the FAQs about Startups here or here. To see all of the winners you may visit this site, pick any city and view the name that appears at the top. Or follow this account for posts with the list of names released over the course of the week of February 14, 2022.

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Startups:

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Noonies:

The Noonies Awards are sponsored by: Bybit, Avast, TECH Domains and hosted by: HackerNoon