Fundraising Do’s & Don’ts
Here is an excerpt from the article:
You probably know by now that I’ve coached hundreds of high-tech startup entrepreneurs over the last twelve and a half years and have worked with hundreds of VCs mostly in the Silicon Valley looking at deals together. In the process, I’ve encountered many missteps made by entrepreneurs including my own mistakes, which I’m going to share with you, not in any specific order but as they come to mind, so that you can put your best foot forward while fundraising.
Series Seed/A VCs continue to seek 10X exits. So, talking about getting acquired by Google for $30M within 3 years may not excite them. A fast exit is NOT their driver.
VCs DO look at your financial projections – it’s a way for them to gauge how well thought through your business is. And they will bring it up in future board meetings to assess milestones, so make sure your projections are doable. And, VCs DO want to review your projected monthly expense lines even at the Series Seed.
Don’t tell VCs that your financial projections are “very conservative”, everybody says that!
VCs don’t expect to see $100M in revenues in 5 years in your financial
In your Competitive Landscape slide where you are using four quadrants, your company MUST BE at the top right-hand corner. This is not negotiable!
You can find 20 more Fundraising Do’s and Don’ts at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140809174726-17664-fundraising-do-s-don-ts-i-learned-from-vcs/.
Happy Fundraising!