Jason Kirby: Hey everyone, welcome back to Fundraising Demystified. Today we are welcoming Nick Cuomo on the show, CEO and co‑founder of Allstar.gg. Welcome to the show, Nick.

Nick Cuomo: Thanks Jason, glad to be here, appreciate you having me.

Jason Kirby: I’m excited to share your story. You’ve raised a couple of rounds of financing, most recently a Series A mid last year. I’d love for the audience to get to know you—your background, your story, and what led you to starting Allstar.

Nick Cuomo: Totally. I’m a former pro gamer; I played Counter‑Strike in high school and college, and it left a big impression on me. My claim to fame was making videos that went viral before YouTube and Twitch existed. At the next tournament I went to, the room shifted—people wanted to talk to me and watch how I played. That stuck with me.

Much later I realized I was lucky: I was creative, technical, had a fast computer, and time. Creating and distributing content was fun for me—but for most gamers it’s labor‑intensive and hard. We started Allstar in 2019 to change that. Our mission: enable any gamer to be a creator. We build tech that makes sharing your gameplay simpler than posting a selfie. We’re gamers building tools that make creating content easier and more fun.

Jason Kirby: I appreciate the context. OG esports before “esports” was a brand! You were early, but you also built a whole career before Allstar.

Jason Kirby: What was the general arc of your career leading up to Allstar?

Nick Cuomo: I met great people in esports who helped early in my career—running tournaments, event admin, pitching Dust‑Off at Samsung Experience in NYC—jobs I got through esports connections. Then I had to retire from esports to finish college. I’m a graphic designer by trade; I designed and coded websites for small businesses—first client was my high‑school design teacher—and did work for brands like NVIDIA and NASCAR through esports contacts.

I freelanced for years with contractors, always entrepreneurial. Then I tried working for someone else—joined Blue Fountain Media, a digital studio/agency in NYC that did marketing, mobile apps, websites. Over four‑plus years I became a senior account director, running about a third of the company and learning digital marketing, product, and team leadership. Most recently I was at Movable Ink, a venture‑backed SaaS company in New York, leading sales teams and learning SaaS sales from the inside as the company scaled from ~$10M to near $100M ARR while headcount grew from ~75 to 300+.

Nick Cuomo: I fell in love with startups. I saw momentum in gaming: friends starting companies, getting funded; stadiums like Barclays Center filling. I still played games and wanted to share moments, but existing tools weren’t satisfying. With my skill set and network, I felt prepared to recruit the team and build the product. That drew me back to gaming and into Allstar.

Jason Kirby: That’s a well‑articulated journey—accumulating the experience to build something aligned with your passion.

Nick Cuomo: Not all founders have that path. Some drop out at 22 and make it work. It’s valid to have a 10‑year career, then find your problem and start your first company in your 30s. There’s no single template.

Jason Kirby: It’s 2019—you launch Allstar to make clipping easy. As a user, I know the pain; I’d sometimes just snap a photo of the victory screen with my phone.

Nick Cuomo: Exactly. Everyone shares selfies because there’s an AI‑powered, multi‑lens camera in your pocket. Gaming tools aren’t that easy, and the output quality depends on your hardware and editing skills—time or money. That’s not what gaming is about.

Jason Kirby: Topical tangent: OpenAI’s Sora announcement—compliment or competitor for Allstar users?

Nick Cuomo: We were talking about it in Slack. It’s powerful—and a bit scary. In gaming context, it should help us deliver more compelling creator tools and further democratize content, closing the gap between pros/top creators and everyone else—the 99% who play, watch, and spend. Faster, cheaper, easier tools mean more and better content from more people.

My other take: like CG in movies, at first it tricks your mind, then the brain adapts. Early gen‑AI video wowed us; then we learned to spot the tells. I’m curious whether we’ll distinguish generated vs. captured content as the tech advances.

Jason Kirby: Back to Allstar—at some point you raised money. Where were you when you first started and what was that like?

Nick Cuomo: First we pitched investors while still employed, thinking we’d quit after closing. Investors said, “If you’re not all‑in, how can we be?” So we quit and bootstrapped ~18 months without salary. Fundraising is a different skill than sales; there’s some overlap but it took time to learn the investor language and thresholds.

We began raising pre‑seed via friends & family—blue‑collar backgrounds, so modest checks. Our attorney, Neil Friedman, became one of our earliest investors and connected us to Mark Cuban. While leaving for my engagement trip, Mark replied with questions; I did diligence from Florence on my giant gaming laptop. He said yes, oversubscribed the pre‑seed, and social proof kicked in.

Jason Kirby: What’s it like having Mark Cuban on your cap table?

Nick Cuomo: He’s great—doesn’t bother us, there when needed, and he’s reinvested. He’s incredibly fast and grasped what made us special. We communicate by email—my preference for clarity and speed. He’s helped with intros and advice; not all investors are like that.

Jason Kirby: How much did you raise and over what timeline?

Nick Cuomo: $415k pre‑seed over ~3–4 months on rolling SAFEs. No salaries—cash went to first hires, office, infra, marketing, and early PMF validation.

Jason Kirby: Is your co‑founder technical? How did you build v1?

Nick Cuomo: Yes—Gavin is our CTO. We met at Blue Fountain Media. He’s a true full‑stack “open a terminal and fix it” engineer. We bonded over classic PC games. I’m creative/product; he’s technical/methodical—great balance. I designed v1; he built it with support. He now leads a larger eng team.

Jason Kirby: Co‑founders help a lot in raising and resilience.

Nick Cuomo: Data suggests multi‑founder startups perform better. Beyond execution, it’s the emotional support through a tough journey.

Jason Kirby: You ultimately raised close to $4M seed. When did you decide to raise and what was that process?

Nick Cuomo: About six months into pre‑seed runway we saw strong traction—compounding growth and feedback—so we prepped a seed. COVID’s onset froze capital, so we delayed until end of 2020. It takes ~90 days to prepare: materials, pipeline, intros. We ran an eight‑week process pitching VCs and angel groups. New York Angels led with a term sheet after a 10‑minute Zoom pitch to ~85 investors. We oversubscribed—targeted $2M, raised $3.85M with VCs and angel groups participating.

Jason Kirby: Did you change valuation as you oversubscribed?

Nick Cuomo: Pre‑money stayed; post increased. With many groups and individual angels, changing terms mid‑process risks meltdown—minimums, timelines, etc. It was a careful dance and an atypical round structure.

Jason Kirby: Angels only or institutional too?

Nick Cuomo: Mix: VCs like Studio VC, Gaingels, J Ventures, Emerging Ventures; angel groups like New York Angels (lead), Miami Angels, Sand Hill Angels, and others.

Jason Kirby: Then market turned. How did you approach the Series A environment?

Nick Cuomo: We watched venture sentiment and extended runway: cut costs, paused paid marketing as efficiency declined, and looked for new growth. We found a tech‑enabled partnership channel that skyrocketed acquisition and engagement—our “pour gas on the fire” moment. We did a small insider seed+ (~$2.2M on SAFEs) to shore up runway, then pursued Series A.

Jason Kirby: How did you run your Series A process?

Nick Cuomo: We set up Salesforce, built a proper pipeline, hit the road post‑COVID (e.g., GDC), prioritized lead‑capable firms, and maintained lots of at‑bats. We opened a complete data room before kicking off. After advanced conversations with several firms, Drive Capital led—partner meeting in Columbus with a term sheet on the spot. They said our data room was one of their favorites.

Jason Kirby: What made the data room special?

Nick Cuomo: We over‑delivered: beautifully designed traction slides, abundant supplemental data, and investor‑friendly organization—probably two levels beyond necessary. We also hosted it on a branded, white‑labeled open‑source data room Gavin deployed for great UX.

Jason Kirby: What metrics won investors over (beyond a pretty data room)? And business model?

Nick Cuomo: Several: rapid user growth; volume of content created and engagement; bottom‑funnel traction with creator‑tool power users; monetization benchmarks comparable to industry leaders (e.g., conversion rates, ACV). Our mobile app beta had exceptional engagement (investors triple‑checked). The overall story—scalable partnerships + strong monetization signals—was compelling.

Jason Kirby: Final tactical: why raise $12M specifically?

Nick Cuomo: Always think in ranges. If you can take more at acceptable dilution and terms, you should. Amount depends on valuation, dilution tolerance, cap table health, and what’s actually available. We could have gone a bit higher or lower; $12M fit our plan and the syndicate dynamics. It wasn’t exactly where we started but within range.

Jason Kirby: Parting advice for founders raising now?

Nick Cuomo: Don’t let others dissuade you. The only thing that can stop you is you. Expect the jagged journey—hard then easy then hard again—and keep going. Line up warm intros, maintain great advisors, prepare a tight data room, and treat fundraising as its own process separate from execution.

Jason Kirby: Best way to follow or contact you?

Nick Cuomo: Email nick@allstar.gg, connect on LinkedIn (search Nick Cuomo or allstar.gg), and my site (nickcuomo). Always happy to help other founders when schedule permits.

Jason Kirby: Nick, thanks for sharing your insights. Great having you on the show!