SALES & GROWTH

An African crypto-radio team secured roughly $350K in grant funding

I helped prepare the documentation and coached the founder through objections to the pitch.

Grant money kept going to the same firms; a team below them wrote dozens of pages, ran a CRM with a public side, and raised $350K in a falling market after I coached its pitch.

A small team stands far below a ledge where the usual firms already stand, with a market line falling behind. Stacks of paper rise one by one as steps, the team's dozens of pages: market data, exact shows, every dollar, the team and its SOPs, and a CRM with a public side lit cyan. An orange step, my coaching of the pitch, closes the last gap, and the team stands on the ledge under $350K. — Grant money kept going to the same firms; a team below them wrote dozens of pages, ran a CRM with a public side, and raised $350K in a falling market after I coached its pitch.

$350K

grant secured

Dozens

pages of documentation

Public

CRM side anyone could check

Falling

market during the raise

Case Studies

Context

A small African team was building a crypto radio show to serve and teach its local crypto community, focused on one major Web3 network. It needed serious grant money from a global network whose grants were political and usually went to the same big, familiar firms.

Problem

On paper, they looked like long shots. The same firms kept getting tens of millions of dollars of marketing budget, and a team in Africa had a harder time raising money than a team in Switzerland would have. The team had the will and the concept, but not the grant machinery, documentation, or pitch strategy to be taken seriously.

Approach

The team led, and I consulted: how grant funding works, the copy, the CRM, and the pitch. The documentation ran to dozens of pages: market data, the exact shows planned, the collaborators, exactly how the money would be used, the team structure and its SOPs, and the CRM the team ran on, with an internal side and a public side anyone could check. Then I took every point of resistance the founder had already met and coached him through an answer to each.

The founder's pitches met resistance; I coached him through each objection, and the next pitch got through: $350K raised.

A founder walks a worn loop to a gate that stays shut on an objection, walks back to me, takes an orange card with the coached answer, and walks the loop again. This time the gate lifts and he walks through: $350K raised. — The founder's pitches met resistance; I coached him through each objection, and the next pitch got through: $350K raised.

Stack

CRM and project management tools
Grant documentation
Pitch materials
Reporting templates

Result

~$350K

grant secured by the team

The team secured roughly $350K in grant funding for the radio initiative in a declining, skeptical market. They went from "unlikely" to funded with a clear, accountable plan for execution.

Impact

I've helped raise far larger sums, and this is still one of the raises I'm proudest of, because grant money kept going to the same big firms and the market was falling the whole time.

Lessons

Being brutally pragmatic and consistent is what got this team funded: every question a funder could ask answered on paper, a CRM with a public side, and a coached answer to every objection the founder had already heard.

Who this is for

For founders and operators outside the usual power centers who need to convince conservative or political stakeholders that they are the safest, most serious bet on the table.

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