Fundraising in a Down Market with Scott Stouffer, CEO and Founder of scaleMatters

Investors provide vital funds so that companies can achieve their next level of growth, whether it’s making the next important version of a product or a key hire that will unlock the company’s potential even further. 

But in a time of economic uncertainty, where we see layoffs, budget freezes, and falling tech industry stock prices, venture capital investors are putting the brakes on aggressive funding for early-stage growth companies. According to a Crunchbase report, in the last quarter of 2022, investments in startup companies in North America fell by 63% compared to the same period a year earlier.

In this episode of The Role Forward, Scott Stouffer, the CEO and founder of scaleMatters, gets into fundraising during a recession and why people are hesitant to invest in new companies. Scott and our host Joe Michalowski discuss what makes a company investible and what companies can do to become more efficient with their go-to-market motions.

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Guest-at-a-Glance

💡 Name: Scott Stouffer

💡 What he does: Scott is the CEO and founder of scaleMatters.

💡 Company: scaleMatters 

💡 Noteworthy: Scott Stouffer is a serial tech entrepreneur, 5x CEO, and 3x founder. He took his first company (Visual Networks) public in 2001 and grew it to a peak market cap of $3 billion. Since 2011, Scott has focused on early and growth-stage tech companies, building quantitative data and process models that uncover waste, inefficiency, and friction in the customer acquisition function.

💡 Where to find Scott: LinkedIn