Everything42 + Raise

Life, the Universe, and Fusion42 #018

Hello Hello,
I hope you all had a fantastic week and are making great moves. It was an up and down week here at Fusion-42. Here’s the 😇 Good, 😈 Bad and the 🤢 Ugly so we can all learn together.

😇 The Good

Now that was a week that was.
The raise summit was an absolute blast and first and foremost a massive thank you to all our amazing speakers.

Raise Summit — Day 1 & Day 2 in a Nutshell

Early-Bird Buzz

• ⚡ Almost 500 founders joined over the two days—proof the community is hungry for a no-fluff actionable voice.

• 🤝 Chat threads lit up with gratitude: “Fusion42 got me back on track when I hit bottom.”

A massive thanks to all of you for showing up and making this happen and the amazing 4.7 / 5 score we received.

Content That Hit Home

1. Capital Deep-Dive

   • Day 1: Funding landscape, capital stack sequencing, “math of venture”.

   • Day 2: Grants, sponsorships, and sponsor-capital playbook—non-dilutive cash if you earn trust.

2. Real-World GTM “Shredding”

   • Live teardown sessions delivered instant, actionable tweaks to founders’ go-to-market plans.

   • Feedback request: more of these hot-seat critiques next summit.

3. Founder ↔ Investor Dynamics

   • Trust is the primary currency; decks are secondary.

   • Build investor pipelines months before you need a cheque; warm intros beat cold mail every time.

The summit proved again that relationships, rapid execution and data-backed storytelling beat big decks and bigger egos—every time.

It could not have happened without our amazing partners ❤️

Alicia Mejia - Vegas - Eco building
Philip Peredo - Vegas - Millenia Ventures
Brian Bourgerie - Puerto Rico - Uncommon Entrepreneurs
Joshua Leavitt - Vegas - Tech Alley
Ashtan Moore - DC - Quoth Capital
Danielle Patterson - South Carolina - Family Office Access
Melissa Chalfant - San Antonio TX - InVentures
Mollie Jahner - Montana - Way Forward
Eric Perez - LA - Ai Mafia
DeMond Mickens - Atlanta - Entertainment
Ray Gibson - Amsterdam - Funded.club
Mack DeWitt - Vegas - Kingston Automation
Derek Bonner - Vegas - Key2
Avishay AJ Segal - Tel Aviv- Ai Mafia
Sebastian Celestine - Caribbean - EOG
JT Benton - Montana - Venture Studio Forum
Nastja Preradovic Visic - Serbia - Gem-Seed
Abdelrhman Soliman, Egypt
Hamed Saleh, Egypt
Rym Bachouche, Dubai, CNTX AI
Dr. Manish Patel - London - Ai Mafia / Jiva.ai
Oz Hutton - Utah - Sponsorships
Marco Banfi - Dubai - Capquest
Matt Ambrose - CDMX - Business Development
Eric Harris - Orange County - Pitch Coaching
Lorraine Yarde - Vegas - Tech Alley
Michelle Valentine - Vegas - Women in Web3 / Valentine Communications
Ricardo Aguilar - Central Am - Business development
Dock Walls - Vegas - Legal
John Jeffrey Lindell - Vegas - Funded.club

And last but not least, a big shout out to Kurt and Henrik for getting **it done 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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Watch the Raise and GSA reruns here. F42+ members

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What’s Next

• 🛬 Landing in Dubai - In partnership with Dtec, get a straight-from-the-source playbook on landing, launching and scaling your startup in Dubai and the wider GCC— incentives, setup routes and investor access, all in one punchy session.

• 🎓 Summer AI Camp details landing in inboxes this week; early-bird slots already 30 % filled.

• 🔥 Global Super Accelerator 2.0 drops this autumn—AI-heavy, sector-specific tracks, gov & corporate partners.

• ✋ Ask: Refer a corporate, gov agency or sector expert who should partner with GSA 2.0.

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  😈 The Bad (and how we deal with it)

We have reached that time of year in Dubai, and our invite only social meet up tonight is going indoors 😂

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We’d Love Your Feedback!

• Your experience matters — help us make the Fusion42 GSA even better!
  Please take 2 minutes to fill out the feeback suvey here:

• Thank you for helping us grow and improve!

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🤢 The Ugly

Henrik’s abandoning us next week to tie the knot— clearly punching well above his weight with his amazing bride. Send your congratulations

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Well that’s it from me, I am so excited and pumped for what’s to come over the next days, weeks, months. Thanks to all for being part of this journey.

For the ❤️ of startups
Cheers,

Enjoy and hope to see you soon.

Derek, Henrik and Kurt

If you have not joined the Fusion42 Community on Telegram —
it is probably time to do so.

For the ❤️ of Startups

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