Tim Davis raised $130M for his AI platform using narrative memos instead of traditional pitch decks. Watch the full video — free, no account needed.
Tim Davis raised $130M for his AI platform using narrative memos instead of traditional pitch decks. His unique fundraising strategy focused on storytelling to achieve deeper investor alignment and secure significant funding.
You know, it's a tough journey coming from another country. Um, landing in the United States knowing no one and then ultimately, you know, trying to build something that's that's important for the world. Everything that matters in in Silicon Valley is just people. How you treat people, your relationships with people, your reputation. I think those are the things that actually become the most valuable thing over time. All righty. Hello everyone and welcome to the dealmaker show. So today we have a very exciting founder man. We're going to be having the battle of accents here, you know, from Australia, from Spain, you know, a little bit of everything. But um but definitely quite the inspiring story you know we're going to be talking about hyperrowth companies about working to uh larger companies also about building hyper networks you know and how to think about that how to build
relationships and then obviously the the all the good stuff that we like to hear like the building the scaling the financing you know in his case he's raised over 100 130 130 million now so um quite the story but again you know brace yourself for quite the inspiring conversation And without further ado, let's welcome our guest today, Tim Davis. Welcome to the show. Hey, thank you for having me. It's uh I love your show. I've listened to actually a bunch of the podcast. So, uh yeah, thank you for having me on. Amazing. Thank you so much, Tim. So, originally you were born in Australia in Melbourne. So, give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up for you? Yeah, you know, it was interesting. Um I I grew up in the in the 80s and the 90s uh in in uh Melbourne, Australia. And I think uh you know my mom and and dad my mom was an artist my dad was a banker uh and I got one older
brother who was a very uh you know imag uh I think you know from that uh I think we spent you know a lot of time outside a lot of time just uh uh imagining sort of uh you know different different stuff and I think uh my dad uh ended up buying Commodore 64 as our as our first computer in the house. And so, uh, as a result, we became very big gamers. Um, and so for for any of your listeners who, uh, who, you know, who had Economore 64 at that time, uh, games like Boulder Dash, Maniac Mansion, uh, Prince of Persia, uh, that's what we cut our teeth on. And, uh, I think we, we tried to start modding a lot of those games, uh, finding hacks for a lot of those games, programming in basic, um, way back, uh, you know, way back then. And then uh that sort of then naturally moved into Windows. We became a a Windows family or at least I think a lot of my friends in Australia, Mac was not not a
dominant uh you know um uh sort of operating system uh in Australia at the time. And so then we moved very quickly into uh Railway Tycoon, Doom uh and started uh you know playing those uh and and from there I think that you know ultimately was the start of my love of of technology and uh and computer systems um you know very much enjoyed uh puzzles and math uh throughout school and so went off to university uh in in Melbourne actually there's uh there's really only two two or three major universities. it's it's very different to uh to the United States. And so went off to though uh to one of those and and studied chemical engineering and and and actually microbiology um and ended up then down a a winding path of spending a long time in school. I I ended up studying a lot of different things. I I went into uh you know from there into commerce uh mathematics and and ultimately did an MBA
and a JD. I mean what's triggering all those studies? I mean, it's just like so random, you know, that you do engineering and then all of a sudden like doing a JD, like wanting to become a lawyer. I mean, it's just like crazy combo there. Yeah. I think part of it was uh was not really understanding what what I wanted to do. I I feel like I I sort of kept flipping uh a series of interests. Um I think you know the I had a really strange uh uh entrance into engineering because I at high school I I was actually doing some university subjects and so when I went off to uh to university in Australia I actually ended up finishing um certain parts of the course earlier and so it meant that um I you know fundamentally became a bit more bored with with other parts of uh chemical engineering is very heavily uh you know fluid mechanics and and these parts of uh of engineering. And so, you know, that
wasn't really something that I was loving. And so, I I thought to myself, well, maybe what I should do is uh you know, go off and and and look at, you know, becoming a quantitive trader or or diving in there. And so, uh went off and went down this road of sort of actural science and and studying a lot more finance. Um and then, you know, I think as I progressed through that realized, uh look at do I really want to go into investment banking? is this something that, you know, I could see myself doing long term. Um, and you know, wasn't convinced, uh, I was actually working part-time at a bank in Australia? And so, um, so then, you know, uh, not not having my heart set on any direction, I I I thought, you know, doing an MBA and a JD, uh, would maybe help me find purpose and and, uh, I might be able to discover something interesting, you know, uh, from from those. And so uh ultimately then
I think what came out of all of that was uh realizing look I I I think I would have a passion to just go and try and build businesses and do something on my own uh rather than working for someone else. And I think that was a long journey to discover that I'll be honest but I think every how did you discover that? Because I mean typically you got to go through the mistake of doing a 9 to5 to really realize that's not for you. Yeah, I did. And I think throughout that journey of education, I I did a lot of internships, you know, I went and did uh you know, internships at uh uh you know, doing doing a range of different finance and and uh you know, analyst based work and then also went off and did internships at at law firms and just discovered, hey, look, is this really the culture that I want? I I think I really riled at the idea that uh you know and certainly um at the time in Australia
it's very hierarchal growth trajectories on those business on those types of uh of companies there isn't a way where if you're you know real rockstar or you know you really uh exceed uh expectations you know it's like well sorry there's three other people above you in this hierarchy and uh you have to do your time in order to get uh you know further up further up the rank. And so for me that just felt strange. Uh it didn't feel like uh you know you would be able to really reward and recognize uh talent. And at that time you know I I didn't know if I necessarily would be that talented. Uh but I I think the view was more well why is that the process and and wouldn't it be better to uh you know to try and build something on my own and and you know see if it see if it works out. Uh and so yeah, that's what I think in many ways, uh you know, was interesting to me. I I think the other thing
was I always felt like uh you know, life's short. Uh you should at least give it a shot. Uh and you know, while you're young, it's uh it's really easy to to you know, I think most folk don't appreciate you have just so much time when you're when you're when you're younger uh to go and explore and and do a lot of different stuff. Um, and you know, certainly, uh, as I' I've gotten older and and now have family, you know, time just becomes the most scarce resource possibly available. And I don't think you have an appreciation for that, uh, you know, when you're when you're younger. And so, I think, you know, I really tried to recognize, hey, look, um, here I am. I I've done all this study. Uh, why don't I go and try to build some some interesting businesses? And at at worst if I fail I can always go back on and lean on this education which you know in many ways I'm also very thankful for
Australia for because they have a wonderful uh education system there that the government supports very heavily. You know you can go and do all these different things and you know certainly in other countries around the world uh you know that would just saddle you with a lifetime of debt that you would never be able to then free yourself from. And so for me um you know that was you know that was an incredible part of of growing up in Australia. And so I sort of had this uh you know strong educational background and then I was like well why don't I go and and see if I can make a shot of it. And so yeah that's what really started me on the on the entrepreneurial journey. I think the other thing just quickly was during the JD I did sort of fall in love with uh with technology. I studied uh sort of patent law and trademark law and and I I just found it fascinating uh you know looking at uh
you know some of the…