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Clarity

Rachid Sefrioui

Los Angeles

VC @Finaventures since 1999.

Backed over 40 startups and growth companies. Founder & CEO who Grew Sales to $80M by merging 18 SMEs. Had a $700M IPO on Nasdaq, an IPO on the Taiwan Exchange, numerous Stars over $20M and $50M acquired by Global companies, a number of Runners over $5 million, and a few Duds.

Passionate about helping Founders & Entrepreneurs. Love the thrill of the startup and the determination to win. Multiple successes came as a result of hard work and even more failures. Read my Venture Thriller here: http://amzn.to/1hbWDjP

$8.33/min

1

1 Call

10

10 Reviews

26 minutes
Avg. call

Fundraising Sales Venture Capital Management Consulting Mergers Board of Director experience Growth Capital Private Placements Turnaround Revenue & Profit Growth

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Figure Out Your Sweet Spot. Pivot or Turnaround for New Funding

Dwindling cash, Stuck in a difficult stage, Need to re-invent yourself, Re-organize the company. I help you Pivot and put together a Turnaround plan that will make the company attractive to investors, existing and new.

Founder's Main Frustration? Team Leadership & Talent Management for Super Growth

Founders, new CEOs - Get over the frustration of day-to-day people management. How do you get your team to execute on your vision, how do you get them to work together, how do I organize them so their productivity is at the highest, how do I manage cash and budgets with each team leader. Lean startup execution vs Ego&Politics. Build Loyalty and Trust.

Get Traction. Build Stickiness. Close Sales. Stop Skating!

Talented sales team, tons of leads, full pipeline....poor closing ratio. Why? I help you re-invent your sales process, focus on a closing path - not a discussion one. I also help you assess your sales team members, and sort out those with closing potential from those who skate from one lead to the next without ever converting a discussion into a sale. Drive revenue rather than chase it.

Board Management for Founders, to Fuel Your Startup

Founders & new CEOs assemble boards based on random, subjective criteria. That gets you into challenging relations with board members, gets you frustrated by lack of support from them. You can't figure out how to get your board onboard. I put together over 30 boards. I help you organize your board, breakdown issues, segment problems, get iterative, incremental support. Build and Involve an Advisory Board. Read this: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140808061657-46775260-6-people-to-fire-as-a-board-director-in-a-startup

Startup Focused Execution for Super Growth

Startups and growth companies get spread over too many directions. I help you focus on what is your greatest value-building strategy and focus on execution like a hawk.

Answers 2
Reviews 10

Answers

Rachid Sefrioui answered

How important is it for a two month old startup to have a business plan and/or financial projections when seeking seed from angel investors?

it is always a good idea to draw some financial projections just for yourself as a founder, as a way of having a path to controlling your time spent and cash spent as well.

While seed investors might be investing in you more than financial projections, it is not a bad idea to have even a preliminary financial plan that shows where this startup can potentially grow. Most of these early financial projections get refined as you learn lessons on your product development costs, your launch costs, your rate of customer acquisition and overall stickiness.

Give me a call. I've helped and mentored many founders prepare early financial projections that helped them to, not only raise seed funding, but to also challenge their own business model.

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Fundraising

angel investing

Rachid Sefrioui answered

How long should a founder invest on creating a pitch deck? Are there any pitch deck templates? Should I have the deck reviewed by a pro investor?

your pitch deck should be crisp and short. 10-12 slides max. its core should be your product & the problem it solves, your market, your team, your execution path (timeline, subs, revs, cash burn) and your use of proceeds (cash needed and what you deliver for that cash). that's it. don't go into telling historical background, deep product specs, too many details about the team etc, that will be what you deliver once an investor is interested beyond your pitch.
you can use pitchxo.com as a template to track your deck's readers and be smart in your follow ups.

Happy to review your draft deck and give you feedback. I review over a 1000 decks per year, I see which ones get reactions and eventually funding, so I have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't. Give me a call.

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Fundraising

angel investing

Reviews

Rachid researched my company before we got on the call, and was able to provide helpful feedback immediately. Rachid knows what he's talking about, and provided straight-forward advice to the challenges I was having. I would not hesitate to reach out to him again.

Jad Chahine Source: Clarity

Rachid did an outstanding job at Petra Solar when he was recruited by the Board of Directors to lead the company. He brought the senior management together and due to his leadership skills and open and candid style of communication, re-established the sense of teamwork and trust that had eroded in the company. He efficiently drove a deep dive on the Company’s products and target markets and led a strategic planning process that resulted in refocusing the company strategy. His leadership skill and personal style resulted in a high degree of buy-in and commitment to the revised strategy at all levels of the organization. He also put in place the tools and metrics to track progress against the revised strategy which drove a high level of accountability, commitment and a renewed sense of urgency. Rachid’s management style makes him a very effective leader as he treats people with respect, makes decisions based on data, emphasizes openness and honesty in all communications and personal accountability for outcomes. He thinks and acts strategically and is able to effectively build teams and lead diverse multi-national organizations.

Daniel Brdar Source: LinkedIn

Rachid delivered a moving talk at TEDxAlsace. His topic, "Find Your Anchor", deeply touched many of the entrepreneurs, founders and CEOs in the 350-member audience.

We were so pleased we are going to use Rachid again as a public speaker in our future events.

Salah Eddine Benzakour Source: LinkedIn

"I have worked with Rachid on several financings and acquisitions, and have particpated on several Boards of Directors with him. Rachid has wonderful business acumen and insight on both strategic and operational matters, and adds great value to management and Board discussions. He is pragmatic, but with a good sense of business objectives and market opportunities. Rachid also has an ability to understand management concerns and issues - and to develope and implement realistic plans to maximize company performance. Rachid can contribute to company decisions on a theoretical level - or on the details of execution on a strategic decision. I enjoy immensely the work I have done Rachid and Finatech, and find Rachid to be one the brightest and most versitle executives and investors that I have worked with."

Mark White Source: LinkedIn

Rachid has one of the best strategic minds I have encountered, which is critical in his position. He has a rare ability to synthesize a wide range of information into a single strategic vision. For that reason, he was one of the most critical people on my board and very helpful to me, a CEO of one of his portfolio companies. He is supportive of his CEO's while maintaining a critical view of his portfolio companies so that he can jump in whenever he is needed. I would happily work with him or for him again!

Dave Shepard Source: LinkedIn

I worked with Rachid on a major privatisation assignment in the MENA region. Rachid is an excellant corporate financier, and he is also very strong at managing his own team and fostering close relationships with his clients and his business partners. It was a great experience to work with Rachid and I highly recommend him. Francois

Francois Wertheimer Source: LinkedIn

I met Rachid on a business situation where we partnered to jointly advise a Government on a privatization project. He was at that time Head of M&A at Wafa bank.

Thanks to Rachid's in-depth understanding of the political, economical and social issues around this project, we developed together a very thorough and actionable set of recommendations which were instrumental in the Government's decisions and actions.

Rachid is a very smart guy, always straigth to the point. His highly developed business sense allows him to develop at the same time a detailed understanding of the most complex situations, as well as the required 'helicopter' view to set goals and directions.

His style of interactions with people is always warm and friendly, which helps to install an open and motivating relationships atmosphere.

I would love to have another opportunity to do business with him.

private private Source: LinkedIn

It is always a pleasure to work with Rachid. He is dynamic, has always a lot of ideas and is fast. He has at the same time tactical and strategic view, he knows what he wants and takes the right decisions.

Raphael Jacquemard Source: LinkedIn

Rachid is one of the smartest persons you can find in your professional life. He is able to see the bigger picture in most situations, and to come up with a simple and straightforward solution.
Also, he is very good on the "soft side": I have seen him managing and developing a sizeable number of people, and I was impressed by his natural leadership. He was able to lead, excite, coach, and develop his team members almost effortlessly.

Fernando Morillo Source: LinkedIn

Rachid is an extremely sharp investor but more importantly is part of the team he invests in. He adds so much in areas like strategy and finance, but also is on the side of the entrepreneur as they grow their company. He actively seeks out ways to help the companies he invests in and is a great guy with a terrific reputation in the Southern California Tech community.

Lynn Foster Source: LinkedIn

Member since December 2014