The Series

The Founder Playbook is a video series where Rachael Ferm shares founder-focused insights straight from the investor side of the table. Each episode includes practical lessons and perspectives on the realities of fundraising, building credibility, and scaling with confidence to help founders cut through the noise investors see every day.

This series is designed to support startup founders at every stage, whether you’re preparing for your first raise or refining how you tell your story heading into the next one.

About The Host

As Florida Funders’ Director of Investments, Rachael Ferm leads deal evaluation and portfolio strategy for one of the Southeast's most active early-stage VCs. Her background spans high-velocity deal execution at Alumni Ventures, where her team deployed capital across 70+ deals alongside top-tier global investors, and institutional portfolio construction at VoLo Earth Ventures, where she helped lead a $135M fundraise.

Rachael's investment focus includes vertical software, cybersecurity, and AI orchestration. She's known for synthesizing complexity quickly, connecting the right people, and asking the questions that reveal whether a company is truly ready to scale. In the Founder Playbook, she brings that same candor and expertise to founders.

Episodes

Episode 1: Welcome to the Founder Playbook 

An introduction to the series, what to expect, and why Florida Funders built a content resource specifically for founders. 

Episode 2: How Enterprise AI Companies Should Present Revenue and Pipeline to Investors 

Investors evaluating enterprise AI companies want to understand revenue quality, not just velocity. Rachael walks through two reporting frameworks: how to break down historical revenue by customer to show what's meaningful, and how to structure pipeline by separating existing customer growth from net new business. Together, they give investors the transparency they need to trust your trajectory.

Episode 3: Why Founders Should Map Market Structure, Not Market Size

A founder who can map their market earns more trust than one who can size it. Rachael walks through how to teach market structure to investors, covering the control points where demand, distribution, and margin concentrate, and the layers underneath, from decision drivers to distribution models to product positioning. 

Episode 4: How to Prove Your Enterprise AI Revenue Is Built to Last

Investors are discounting enterprise AI revenue over doubts about whether it lasts. Rachael shows founders how to answer that by treating retention as a system they design, not a number they report afterward. She covers the leading indicators worth tracking, the inactivity signals that flag risk and who owns the response, and the behaviors that predict renewal across segments. For companies too early to have renewal data, she explains how to raise the topic first and show command of it.

Think you might be the right founder fit for FLF? 

Connect with Rachael to find out.