Entrepreneur and economic developer with a history of starting and growing organizations. Skilled in Coaching, Entrepreneurship, Economic Development, Nonprofit Organizations, Startups, Business Planning, Fund Raising, and Program Development.
Jacob Schpok has been a guest on 1 episode.
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Moats & Multiples in Hardtech with Venture Declassified
June 8th, 2026 | Season 3 | 1 hr 4 mins
What actually changes when you raise money for a hardware company instead of a software one? In this Hardtech Podcast crossover with the Venture Declassified crew (Jacob Schpok of Elevate Ventures, Mike Kelly of Start Something Ventures, and Ben Pidgeon of VisionTech), Grant plays the founder and asks three active investors to grill him on how hard tech is underwritten differently at pre-seed, seed, and Series A: the metrics, the moats, the multiples, and why the same traits that make hardware slow and expensive early are exactly what make it defensible later.