Determining if an Accelerator is Right For You with Lisa Besserman of Expa

Matt Preuss
Marketing Manager
About Lisa What You Can Expect to Learn from Lisa Related Resources
Unlock your investor relationships. Try Visible for free for 14 days.
Start your free trial

On episode 9 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Lisa Besserman. Lisa Besserman is the Managing Director at Expa — an accelerator based in Austin, TX dedicated to supporting pre-seed companies.

About Lisa

Lisa started her career as an economist but ultimately found her way to founding Startup Buenos Aires — an accelerator located in Buenos Aires to help support startups in Latin America. Since then, Lisa has made the move to Expa where is the managing director of their accelerator. Between her time at Startup Buenos Aires and Expa, Lisa has a wealth of knowledge related to all things company building, fundraising, and leading — especially at the early stages.

Our CEO, Mike Preuss, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Lisa. You can give the full episode a listen below (Or listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any standard podcast player):

What You Can Expect to Learn from Lisa

  • How founders can best connect with investors
  • How to determine if an accelerator is right for your business
  • What kind of companies Expa is interested in funding
  • Why founders should try their best for a warm intro
  • What she likes to see in a cold email
  • How to determine how much to raise
  • What she thinks the future of VC looks like

Related Resources

You may also enjoy:
Fundraising
Exploring Founder <> Investor Relationships with the Thrive Through Connection Podcast
Beyond pitch decks, valuations, term sheets, and growth rates, fundraising is about relationships. Behind every round of capital is a series of conversations, introductions, and partnerships that result from human-to-human connection. That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of our new podcast season, Thrive Through Connection, a series dedicated to exploring the human side of fundraising. Why Thrive Through Connection We’ve seen firsthand that at the center of successful startups, good old-fashioned relationship building consistently shows up, because founders don’t raise capital in a vacuum. They rely on their teams, peers, and investors to navigate the ups and downs of building something from nothing. Thrive Through Connection highlights the relationships that fuel the growth of both founders and investors. We candidly discuss what it really takes to raise venture capital, including the setbacks, tactics, and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. What to Expect Each episode features real stories and actionable insights from founders and investors, from first-time founders reflecting on closing their first round to seasoned investors sharing what they look for in a deal. Every conversation is packed with lessons you can apply to your fundraising journey. The First Episodes We’ve got three episodes to get things started, and we’re excited to continue recording and publishing new episodes throughout the year. Check out the first three below: Finding the Right Investors with Laurel Hess On the first episode of the Thrive Through Connection Podcast, we welcome Laurel Hess, the CEO and Founder of hampr. Laurel has raised over $10M for hampr across multiple rounds. She joins us to share her journey and the importance of building genuine relationships with investors. Navigating Investor Relationships with Brett Brohl On the second episode of the Thrive Through Connection Podcast, we welcome Brett Brohl, Managing Partner at Bread & Butter Ventures. Brett joins us to dive deep into all things founder fundraising, sharing tactical advice on everything from cold outreach to evaluating if an investor is a true culture fit. Going From Operator to Funder with Leo Polovets On the third episode of the Thrive Through Connection Podcast, we welcome Leo Polovets, the General Partner at Humba Ventures and Co-founder of Susa Ventures. Leo joins us to talk about his journey from operator to supporting over 100 companies as an investor at both Humba and Susa. The first three episodes are live now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and most places you get your podcasts. Subscribe to the Thrive Through Connection Podcast to stay in the loop as more episodes are published.
Fundraising
Finding the Right Investors with Laurel Hess
Reporting
Navigating Investor Relationships with Brett Brohl
Fundraising
Going From Operator to Funder with Leo Polovets