Jon Perl is the Co-Founder and CEO of QA Wolf, which specializes in automated end-to-end test coverage. He is committed to freeing people from repetitive tasks.

Subscribe to EOFire

Apple | Spotify | iHeart

Guest Resources

Jon’s Email – Connect to Jon in his Email.

QA Wolf Website – AI-native approach delivers 80% automated end-to-end test coverage for web & mobile apps in weeks, not years.

Jon’s LinkedIn – Connect with Jon on LinkedIn.

3 Value Bombs

1) When it comes to starting a company or in business, people underrate generosity. But in order to become successful you have to be generous.

2) The key to successful fundraising is to focus on making your business successful. Focus on how to deliver value to customers, how to increase revenue and have their customers fund the business.

3) To be proactive is to have a clear evidence or track record of success, clear metrics that will back up your narrative and vision of the company because this is what investors are looking up.

Show Notes

**Click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: Transforming your fundraising strategy from Series A to Series B

[1:46] – Jon shares something that he believes about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

When it comes to starting a company or in business, people underrate generosity. Instead of being stingy in equity or compensation, be generous and set up incentives and compensations with people you are working with.

[4:36] – Jon talks about QA Wolf’s story of the first round of fundraising back in 2021.

The company started in 2019 and started to hit product market fit in the summer of 2021. In 3 months , it went from 0 to a million in revenue and he knew he had the metrics to raise the funding.
The key to successful fundraising is to focus on making your business successful . The narrative will be the multiplier in the underlying business in terms of raising funds but focus on how to deliver value to customers, how to increase revenue and have their customers fund the business. Using the investments to expedite things is an extremely important mindset and sets success to fundraisers.

[7:02] – Jon talks about the shift in the market as well as the macroeconomic environment and how it changed his approach to raising series B in 2024.

In 2022, the company started to lay off , interest rates came up which led to less money to invest in companies. Since valuations are coming down Venture Capital were hesitant to make investments and they are looking at metrics as core to their decision making in investing.
For Series B, its not just about traction, revenue growth and customers, investors also care about how capital efficient you are or how many dollars did you spend before you were able to acquire revenue and what is your capital payback. Capital Efficiency become more important in their series B.

[9:27] – Jon talks about the AI boom having a massive impact worldwide, and what impact did AI have in his pitch to new investors.

Investors naturally asks about AI because of the hype and he thinks it is important to have merit and results behind the AI story.
They started the company building AI to automate QA Wolf and that is the core but it didn’t work 5 years ago so they put it in pause. But when GPT 4 came , they started to invest in AI and built an AI team to automate QA. By the time they came out to fundraise, they have proven results on their 3^rd version that they can automate 80% of the task that people do manually and this showed impact to customers.
It will be very compelling if you can demonstrate results on how AI can impact your business and have proof to back up your story.

[12:38] – A timeout to thank our sponsors.

HubSpot: Get ready for growth, without the growing pains! Visit HubSpot.com/spotlight to see the dozens of major product updates that’ll make impossible growth feel impossibly easy!
Ziprecruiter: Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day! Try it for free at this exclusive web address: ZipRecruiter.com/fire! ZipRecruiter. The smartest way to hire.
Shopify: Upgrade your business today with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com/onfire!

[15:48] – Jon talks about how he accomplish to demonstrate success from his Series A in order to woo investors for a Series B.

In Series A, they hit product market fit and had customers that investors can call in and ask about the impact that QA Wolf is making in their business. In Series B, they have more revenue, more customers and more metrics for investors to look at like capital payback.
But, benchmarks change over time (capital payback, burn ratio and growth rate) and you have to understand it. Venture Capital care about growth rate and retention. Understanding where your metrics are and the benchmarks that are out there is important to investors because of less dollars to invest and with many competition.

[19:21] – Jon talks about the advantages of new round of funding offers.

The advantages of funding is they can invest more in the business and deliver more value to their customers . It also helps them eliminate more software bug in the world.
They can also test more features to their customers and invest more in AI to drive down the cost because the more they automate, the more tasks they can provide to their customers with lower cost.
Any fundraising they do is optional.

[21:55] – Jon shares his recommendations to those pursuing fundraising for their startup.

In Series A, he did not meet any investors but in Series B , it is much better to be proactive and to build relationships with investors so they can understand what you are building.
To be proactive is to have a clear evidence or track record of success, clear metrics that will back up your narrative and vision of the company because this is what investors are looking up.

[23:52] – Jon gives his key take away

Focus on building your business to be successful without investments. Put your customers first and focus on a successful business because this will make it more easier to raise funding.

[24:40] – Call to action.

Jon’s Email – Connect to Jon in his Email.

[25:19] – Thank you to our Sponsors!

HubSpot: Get ready for growth, without the growing pains! Visit HubSpot.com/spotlight to see the dozens of major product updates that’ll make impossible growth feel impossibly easy!
Shopify: Upgrade your business today with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com/onfire!
Ziprecruiter: Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day! Try it for free at this exclusive web address: ZipRecruiter.com/fire! ZipRecruiter. The smartest way to hire.

Killer Resources!

1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!

2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!

3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!