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Alejandro Cremades

Investor & Serial Entrepreneur

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Best-selling Author

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Cofounder at Panthera Advisors

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His Life

Born to Bernardo Cremades and Leticia Roman, Cremades was born and raised in Madrid (Spain) where he attended primary school and high school at Colegio Retamar. At a young age, Cremades was drafted to play soccer for Real Madrid but his mother never told him so that he would study instead. Cremades only found out about this 15 years later…

At the age of 22, he moved to the United States after obtaining his law degree at Universidad San Pablo CEU.

2009

In 2009 he obtained a master’s degree in International Business and Trade Law at Fordham Law School in New York City. After graduation, Cremades joined the law firm King & Spalding as an attorney where he was involved in one of the biggest investment arbitration cases in history which was Chevron v. Ecuador ($113 billion at stake).

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Photo: Graduation at Fordham Law School

2012

In 2012, Cremades founded Rock the Post with the goal to help entrepreneurs, including those without strong business connections, raise funds and gain exposure. Initially, the platform offered projects that could receive funding or in-kind contributions (e.g., time and/or materials), but switched to equity and debt-based funding only.

Within a year of launching, Time Magazine called it one of the best crowdfunding sites, Business Insider include it as one of the top startups to watch, and Forbes include the platform as one of the top tools for entrepreneurs.

2013

On June 6, 2013, Cremades testified at the U.S. House Committee on Small Business to voice his stance on the challenges the company was facing as a changing industry and the future of equity crowdfunding. Later that year he was also invited to The White House.

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Alejandro Cremades at the US House of Representatives and at The White HouseAlejandro Cremades at the US House of Representatives and the future of equity crowdfunding. Later that year he was also invited to The White House.Alejandro Cremades at the US House of Representatives

2014

Later in 2014 Cremades becomes a member of the Advisory Committee of the Spain U.S. Start-Up initiative of the Spain-U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

2016

In April 2016, Cremades authors The Art of Startup Fundraising, published by John Wiley & Sons. In addition to having a foreword by Shark Tank‘s Barbara Corcoran, in the book Cremades tries to distill everything he has learned in the past years down into an actionable guidebook for angel investors and startup founders.

The book provides guidance on how startup funding works. Cremades also covers how the JOBS Act impacts the fundraising model, insights on startups from early-stage to growth stage, crafting presentations and optimizing the strategy, building momentum, identifying the right investors, and avoiding the common mistakes.

The magazine Inc., named it one of the best books for entrepreneurs and Book Authority included the book as one of the best fundraising books of all time.

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The Art of Startup Fundraising at Barnes & Noble on 5th Ave in NYCAlejandro Cremades at the US House of Representatives

On July 27, 2016, Cremades announced that Onevest was acquiring its major direct competitor, FounderDating, in order to merge that platform with its very own CoFoundersLab. According to the announcement, the result of the acquisition would increase the number of registered entrepreneurs to over 300,000 on the platform and now providing services to entrepreneurs that would range from idea to funding and beyond.

2018

On April 11, 2018, Onevest/CoFoundersLab was acquired by a media corporation based out of California. At this point, the company had over 500,000 active registered members. The deal was worth millions according to a post published on Forbes.

In June 2018 Cremades partnered with M&A superstar Mike Seversen to launch Panthera Advisors to provide M&A and fundraising advisory to early-stage companies.

The firm specializes in:

  • 1. M&A (buy/sell)
  • 2. Capital Raising (Fundraising)
  • 3. Company Valuations
  • 4. Financial & Growth Strategy
  • 5. Financial Modeling & Pitch Decks
  • 6. Strategic Planning.

In the first 12 months of operations, Panthera Advisors supported over 80 transactions all over the world. Most recently Panthera Advisors advised a mobility company out of Sao Paolo (Brazil) in one of the largest Series A financings in history ($100 million raised).

In November 2018, Cremades announced the launch of the DealMakers podcast. In less than 24 hours it received over 20,000 downloads. It is currently in the top 5% of the most popular podcast with individual episodes that are listened by as many as 10,000 people.

The podcast features entrepreneurs that have been very successful with fundraising efforts or with getting their company acquired for millions. Some of the recent guests include Valentin Stalff (built N26 to $4B), Kristo Kaarman (built Transferwise to $3B+), Mike Cagney (built SoFi to $4B+ and Figure to $1B+), Marco Zappacosta (built Thumbtack to $2B), Kevin O‘Connor (sold DoubleClick for over $1B), Rick Stollmeyer (sold Mindbody for $1.9B), Reggie Aggarwal (sold Cvent for $1.6B), Mohit Aron (built Nutanix to $7B and Cohesity to $1B), Henry Ward (built Carta to $2B+), Stefan Heck (built Nauto to $1B+), Matt Salzberg (built Blue Apron to $1B+), Henrique Dubugras (built Brex to $2B+), Ajeet Singh (built Thoughtspot to $1B+), and many others.

With millions of downloads, the DealMakers podcast is currently ranked by Listen Notes in the top 0.5% of most popular podcasts around the world.

Lastly, Cremades has also been an avid contributor for Forbes where he has authored hundreds of articles on the topics of fundraising and M&A.

2019

In November 2019, the president of Colombia at the time, Ivan Duque, invited Alejandro Cremades to give the keynote speech for the announcement of the launch of the fund of funds by the Colombian government in the region with the intention of making Colombia be the Silicon Valley equivalent in LATAM.

Cremades was presented for his speech by the Minister of Commerce in Colombia at the time, Jose Manuel Restrepo Abondano.

At the end of the presentation of Cremades, which lasted 45 minutes, President Duque took the microphone and called Cremades a professor several times stating that he was calling him a professor because he had given such a great class on venture capital and entrepreneurship to the audience of 450 people in attendance.

2021

Most recently, Cremades published Selling Your Startup. Also published by John Wiley & Sons, the book includes a foreword by serial entrepreneur, Bhavin Turakhia, and it is intended to be a founders guide to getting their company acquired. The book includes testimonials from over 20 entrepreneurs that have sold their companies such as Will Glaser (sold Pandora to SiriusXM for $3.5 billion), Reggie Aggarwal (sold Cvent to Vista Equity Partners for $1.65 billion), or Kevin O'Connor (sold DoubleClick to Hellman & Friedman for $1.1 billion).

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Selling Your Startup displayed at the window of Barnes & Noble at 5th Ave. and 46th St. in NYC

Moreover, Cremades is a sought after speaker at large scale events around the world where he has spoken in front of thousands at a single time. He also guests lectures at Wharton, Columbia, and NYU to MBA students on topics around entrepreneurship and business.

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Alejandro Cremades giving a keynote presentation at the Angel Venture Fair

Cremades accomplishments have been covered by some of the top tier media publications which include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, and many others. He was included in the Top 30 Under 30 lists of Vanity Fair, Entrepreneur Magazine, and GQ Magazine. Moreover, TechCrunch recently featured Alejandro as one of the expats that is shaping New York’s tech.

Furthermore, Cremades is a member of Soho House. He is also a member of Real Club De La Puerta De Hierro in Madrid as well as Woodway Country Club in Darien CT.

His Family

As seen on the picture below, Cremades currently lives in New York City with his wife, three daughters, and two little dogs.

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