NYA FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT ‒ BRENT FARESE, ALINE CEO & CO-FOUNDER
Aline CEO & Co-Founder Brent Farese spent ten years as a lawyer in private practice and as Assistant General Counsel for a software company in New York City. This experience combined with his background in software engineering and AI gives him the technical expertise needed to found Aline, a legal AI software company. While he was in-house, he saw firsthand how inefficient contract negotiation could be within a business, which Aline automates and streamlines legal contracts, approvals, and negotiations. Brent shares how fundraising always takes longer than expected and why he appreciates New York Angels' structured investment process.
How did you first meet New York Angels?
We first met through one of our other angel investors. New York Angels has connections with many other angel groups and a wide network. During a pitch event, one of our existing angels made the initial introduction.
What was the fundraising process like for you, not just with NYA, but in general?
As an entrepreneur you need to focus on building your business and growing your company. Fundraising pulls you away from that, but ultimately, your business needs to be well capitalized if you want to succeed. Raising money distracts from product development and customer growth, but it’s essential to have good investment partners, which can be challenging and time consuming to find.
Every entrepreneur wishes fundraising would only take a couple of weeks, so they can get back to work, but the reality is that it takes a while to fundraise. Investors need time to get to know you before they feel comfortable writing a check.
What were you looking for in investors when you were fundraising, and why did you choose to work with New York Angels?
We were looking for operators, people who have run businesses before, ideally software companies, and people who know what it takes to build something successful. Overall, we were looking for a really professional group with people who have that type of expertise. New York Angels has a great reputation. They treat companies with respect and run a strong, efficient process.
What have you enjoyed most about working with New York Angels?
I really appreciate the professional nature of the group. New York Angels have made a lot of investments, which is a huge plus for any entrepreneur. You’re not really going to be jerked around with New York Angels. They’ll ask you hard questions and dig into your company in significant detail, but if it’s not a fit for them, they’ll tell you quickly and not waste your time. As an entrepreneur, that’s incredibly important because you cannot have somebody who is stringing you along and wasting your time.
New York Angels is also very reasonable in diligence and reasonable about setting up meetings. They also run a very structured process with a defined timeline and milestones, which gives you a sense of where you stand and what you need to do.
What advice would you give other founders who are looking to fundraise?
Start early. It’s hard because you’re focused on building your company, but if you can start early and maintain relationships with investors well before you’re actively raising, you can show them the traction you are building. Then when it’s time to raise, they won’t have any questions about your company’s progress. Having a structured communication process with potential investors will also make it easier to communicate after they invest. For potential investors, you might add them to your existing investor updates or create a “light” version of your investor emails.
What advice would you give other early-stage investors who are looking to invest in companies?
Be clear with entrepreneurs. If a deal is not a fit for an investor, they should be clear about that early on and share honest feedback. Entrepreneurs often hear from investors, “I don’t know if you are going to be the market winner because of X, Y, and Z” often driven by the investor not spending time to understand the market segment. It’s much better to tell an entrepreneur, “I am not an expert in this segment, and I haven’t gone deep enough into this space to have conviction in investing.” It is very confusing to an entrepreneur when an investor may say something with conviction without truly understanding your business.
The best investors are well-informed and have a thesis based on their research or experience. They give concrete feedback about reservations they have. As an entrepreneur, it is hard to find investors who are the right fit for your company and interested in your market. When investors share their clear feedback, entrepreneurs can identify whether an investor is a good fit and then move on to focusing on building the business.
What has driven Aline’s success?
Entrepreneurs have to do a lot well to be successful. There’s not one single thing. I do think that companies probably underestimate how much better you need to be in one key area or a couple of key areas to just get significant traction. When you are a no-name company versus the other big name companies, you need to be 10x better than your competitors in a way that actually matters to customers. That is the level of excellence you need to hit.
Aline has been exceling because we know the bar is high, and we’re doing a lot of things right between our products, sales process, and actively gaining a lot more customers. Still, nobody knows about us: we’re a little company compared to the big names like Salesforce and Hubspot.
What has helped drive your sucess an entrepreneur?
I’m a highly technical CEO, which is somewhat unique. I was an engineer before becoming a lawyer, and even in law, a lot of the patent work that I did was highly technical. I am hands-on with our software engineering and technical team by solving bugs and ideating about product design. It is a huge investment to actively be proficient, but it helps to be able to dive into the details alongside my team. Other non-technical CEOs may have other significant strengths like fundraising and hiring, but I can help move the needle on our core business.
What motivates you?
I want to make a dent in how legal work is practiced for businesses. I have lived the problem that Aline is solving, so that motivates me because I personally know how bad other existing software and products actually are. Also, working with real customers who tell us they love our product is highly motivating. It’s a dopamine rush when you have customers singing your praises. Finally, on a personal note, my family keeps me motivated. I’m not a 25-year-old single founder, so I’ve got to get this done. All of these things, keep my fire going.
