Jul
22
I had a great question from an entrepreneur this week who is deciding whether or not to take VC into his business. He heard that VCs want 10x returns and if you accept VC$ then you need to deliver that. He was worried that VCs block sales that don’t deliver the required returns. This question [...]
Back in March, uber-VC Fred Wilson issued a challenge to startup lawyers in the US to do seed deals for $5K or less. There are some great templates for seed documents in the US and he felt correctly that seed deals should not cost more than $5K. We don’t have such widely accepted templates here [...]
May
16
This post falls under the boring yet crucial category. As a seed fund we are routinely working with companies that are very young. It is common for these companies to have early collaborators come and go before the core founding team gels. You try people out, rely on some outside help and try and bootstrap [...]
May
12
I’m a big mobster movie fan. Just love’em. There’s a lot we can learn from the ways and rules of the Mafia. One of their many lessons comes in making effective intros. If you’re introducing someone new to “the family”, you need to do two things: i.) Vouch for that person; and ii.) Show that [...]
May
05
Recently I met a great entrepreneur working in a hot space. Like many entrepreneurs he’s bootstrapping his company by running a services business on the side. Today, I passed on that opportunity. Why? – Does not yet have a clear vision and direction – Not working on it full time
I spent last week in the Valley and met a number of entrepreneurs that either recently raised $ or were in the process of raising. I won’t comment on the crazy valuations going on out west (that’s been covered already). Instead, I want to talk about an interesting phenomenon regarding high profile angels and the [...]
Apr
21
As we know all too well, most VCs you pitch will say ‘no’. So, when it comes to raising your round, you shouldn’t be jumping in a plane for every 1st meeting you get. 1st meetings mean nothing. There is no assurance that they will move ahead. Investors could be learning about the space, just [...]
Apr
18
We are fortunate at Real Ventures to meet a lot of entrepreneurs and regularly lament in our partners’ meetings that we wish we could do more deals. The truth is, we won’t do the majority of deals that we see. This is true of all venture investors.
Often, when I meet companies and we talk about what milestones they will accomplish with their seed funding, one of them is to get to cashflow positive. I don’t have hard numbers but would guess that 1/2 think they will do this with seed funding and another 30 – 40% will do it after Series [...]
Apr
12
There are lots of posts, templates and resources out there on how to build your VC pitch, but few items on how investors actually assess these presentations. Obviously the two should be linked together very tightly. Your content should be designed to hit all the points investors are looking for. Since I am seeing pitches [...]
Apr
07
Startups are a team sport. All great founders and management teams are surrounded by advisors, investors and service providers that bring complimentary skills, perspectives, networks and prior experience that presumably help your startup move faster. But when it comes to fundraising, that “outer circle” around your company should play a secondary role. Advisors can play [...]
Mar
29
Now that I get to hear company pitches for a living, I have started looking for patterns that separate great opportunities from the rest. This is a mix of subjective and objective criteria. When I have a 1st pass, I will share it. In the meantime though, here is one trait that stands out as [...]
Mar
12
It was pitch day yesterday. I met with three companies to hear their story. Each founder had a different background, profile and style, but there was one common thread amongst the three pitches – open, honest discussion about the good, the bad and the ugly in each business. To be clear, an investor pitch is [...]
Mar
03
One of the most frustrating aspects of raising capital is how long it can take. Even if an investor loves the idea after the 1st meeting, the process still takes months. Now that I am sitting on the other side, I have a better appreciation for why things take longer than entrepreneurs would like. So, [...]
Feb
12
I’m pretty new to the investment business. It’s been just over 3 months since we closed our fund. In that time I have done three investments (Fabric, DokDok, Rewardli) and looked at many more opportunities. Yet, in this short amount of time, I have gained more clarity around what makes a good investment than I had [...]
