Name: The truth about raising venture capital - there'll be more than just a cheque coming your way! Jason Voss, Deception & Truth Analysis
Uploaded: 2023-06-08T16:12:54.537Z
Duration: 421.52

FFo. 03 - Fintech Founders Int- Jason Voss.mp4

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FFo. 03 - Fintech Founders Int- Jason Voss.vtt

English

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So I'm Jason Voss, co-founder and CEO of

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Deception and Truth Analysis, and we are

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a force multiplier that allows investment

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management teams to surface actionable

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investment insights very, quickly.

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So it's designed to help due

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diligence professionals who are

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making an important due diligence

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decision in investment management.

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That can be a eight figure trade, like,

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think tens of millions of dollars.

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And it's  designed to help them

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immediately identify the key information

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necessary in making that decision.

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In lots of investment decisions we

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rely upon the representations of people

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such as management at companies, and

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we don't really have a technical or

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quantitative way of dealing with that.

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And so data is meant to redress

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that problem by surfacing deception

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and truth in almost any document,

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including things like transcripts,

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say for example of my testimony to you

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all right now.

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The inspiration is that in the mid

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1990s when I was a lowly research

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analyst and I had been on board at a

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mutual fund here in the United States

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for several months my portfolio manager

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said so how are you finding things?

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I said, well, I think okay, but I'm

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really uncertain how to judge the opinions

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of management at these businesses, but it

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seems to be 50% of the investment process

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he said, oh, "it's very simple, don't

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worry about that, just trust your gut".

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And I was always extremely

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unsatisfied with that answer.

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And so Deception Truth Analysis is

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actually the fulfillment of a almost

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30 year quest to solve this problem

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And that is how do we evaluate the

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statements of people for their veracity?

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And we don't really have techniques

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like that other than data, of course.

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Zero.

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Yeah.

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I, don't know that

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we've overcome them yet.

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We're two years into this journey.

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I think the hardest thing, honestly

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I, think they're two things, frankly.

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Hiring talent that is on board with

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the culture you're trying to create.

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And that's the thing that I'm

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really cognizant of as CEO  is am

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I creating an environment in which

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people can absolutely flourish based

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on the best of their abilities?

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And we're really committed to trying

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to create that core DNA of the company

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because we know there's a moment where

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we may be 500 employees and it'll be

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those original cultural transmitters,

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like Core 20, that if we've done a

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good job of hiring, likely the entire

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organization will be a reflection of that.

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That's really tough.

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The other tough thing as a CEO is finding

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the time to do deep dive, drill down

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deep thinking because your, time is

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pulled in so many different directions

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and you have to task switch like mad.

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And honestly, I think that's the

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part that suffers the most is when

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do I get my four hours in a row where

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I can actually do deep thinking?

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I don't know.

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I think, and the reason I say that is I

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don't think we've made errors of judgment.

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I think any difficulties we have

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had, have been ones that weren't,

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we weren't able to manage.

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What I will say is that I think we, my

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founders and I, we're all gray beard

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founders and we've all been in business

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for all, of us, more than 25 years.

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So we haven't made many mistakes

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because we've seen lots of

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businesses fail for lots of reasons.

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That said the thing that I always evaluate

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my team on as well as my own performance

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is how do we respond to challenges?

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Are we nimble and quick?

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And are we prepared?

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Have we thought of the

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different ramifications of

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different decisions we make?

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And I think it's always like balancing

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between what do I need to do today

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and anticipating what may happen,

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you know, six months from now.

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And that's, a tough challenge.

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Ooh, that's a tough one.

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And I say tough one and I, say it

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because I have some of the venture

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capitalists I deeply respect.

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And mind you,  I've been investment

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professional for 31 years.

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I deeply respect because I think they're

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actually pretty good at what they do.

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Sorry, venture capitalist community,

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but others I, can't tell them apart

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from one another, other than them

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offering a cheque I'm not sure

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what they do for our business.

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And we've actually turned down

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capital because we couldn't tell

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what the VCs were gonna do for

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us, and we're demanding, right?

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Again, gray beard founders.

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We need people to help us and help

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us do things that we can't do.

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So I think what I've learned about venture

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capitalists is it pays, even though it's

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really tempting to say yes to all the

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capital that comes your way, it pays to be

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picky about the capital because there's

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more than just a cheque coming your way.

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Just what I said before, like I think

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the challenging thing is like creating

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a culture so that those people that are

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on board are cultural transmitters, and

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then how do you balance all the demands

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for your time is really, difficult.

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I've set up multiple businesses.

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I think the, most satisfying thing about

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this company in particular is I think

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we have a real shot to address a huge

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gap in the way people do due diligence.

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And then the second thing that

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I really, enjoy is,  the sort of

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cultivation of people's talents.

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As I said, some of our,

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founders are gray beards.

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It's still my job to help them grow

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as individuals, and I really enjoy

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identifying what makes them passionate

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and putting them in a position

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where they can succeed, as well as

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identifying the things that are less

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their genius, and then helping them

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develop ways of compensating for that.

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I really, enjoyed that

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part of the  the work.

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Yeah, I think the vision of the

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business I'll try and be short.

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Literally there's like a one year, three

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year, five year, seven year, 10 year plan.

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I think if we've done our jobs well in

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10 years Deception and Truth Analysis

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has had gigantic market penetration

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and finance and investing, and we

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are a hygiene factor in that space.

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I also think if we've done our

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jobs well auditors all of the big

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auditors use our technology as a

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contributor to their auditing work.

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I think the legal domain, especially

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B2B business, Commercial lawsuit type

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things, they're going to be using us.

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And then maybe just maybe in a B2C

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space, it could be that when you go

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to Google and you pull up an article,

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it'll say something to the effect of

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Deception and Truth Analysis rates

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this article as strongly truthful.

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And I, think that's the vision of the

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company is that we all have wondered

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before, is that person lying to me?

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Are they being deceptive?

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And we don't really have a an ironclad,

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quantitative way of evaluating that.

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If we've done our jobs well,

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you should know a lot about us.

a force multiplier that allows investment

really uncertain how to judge the opinions

of management at these businesses, but it

seems to be 50% of the investment process

organization will be a reflection of that.

The other tough thing as a CEO is finding

don't think we've made errors of judgment.

That said the thing that I always evaluate

Fintech Founders

Case Study

“Greybeard founder”, Jason Voss, gets candid and drops some pearls of business wisdom on why you need to think hard about any VC dollars coming your way. Plus, the Deception & Truth Analysis Co-Founder explains why it’s so crucial to hire a core team who are onboard with the culture you want to create right from the start. We don’t have the data to prove it, but we’d say he’s being very honest!

Leadership

Data

Fintechs

Investing

Fintech

Investech

Investment technology

Fintech startup

Fintech start up

Financial startup

Financial start up

Startup

Startups

Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship

Start-ups

Funding

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Jason Voss

Co-Founder, CEO

Explain what your company does in one sentence.  

What business need is your tech solving for and who is it designed to help?

What inspired you to start this company?

How many times have you pivoted on the original idea? 

What were the biggest hurdles you faced in the early stages of your startup and how did you overcome them?

If you could repeat the process, what’s one thing you'd do differently? 

What’s the greatest lesson you’ve learnt from interacting with venture capitalists during the funding process? 

What’s the most challenging thing about running your own company?  

What's the most satisfying thing about running your own company? 

What’s the vision for the business in 10 years’ time and how do you plan on getting there? 

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The truth about raising venture capital - there'll be more than just a cheque coming your way! Jason Voss, Deception & Truth Analysis