Season 1 Compilation, Part 1
VC Minute is quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better. This is Part 1 of the Season 1 complication, covering Episodes 1-25.
August 17, 2022
The VC Minute - Tag: Fundraising Basics
A beginner-friendly guide to raising a seed round and launching your startup fundraising journey.
050. VC Validation
If you’re struggling to raise venture capital, take heart. It does not invalidate your business. If you truly want to build this business, then you must focus on creating value for your customers. That is what matters.
August 12, 2022
049. Learn From Every Pitch
The vast majority of investors you pitch will pass, so use the time to ask for input & feedback. Ironically, it reflects better on you to ask questions than just pitch the whole time.
August 11, 2022
048. Building Investors’ Confidence In You
SpringTime’s Allyson Plosko shares three things that erode investors’ confidence in founders, and actionable steps that you can take for each to build, rather than erode, confidence.
August 10, 2022
047. Pausing the Treadmill
What happens when you miss your milestones? Can you pause the VC Treadmill? Of course. Here’s how one company did it.
August 9, 2022
046. Sell The Vision
My friend Eric Marcoullier, multiple-exit founder, coaches startup CEOs now, has a great post that I riff on today: A CEO Has Three Responsibilities. I’d argue the CEO has only one.
August 8, 2022
045. No Is the Second Best Answer
As you come into the close of your round, a classic sales tactic and can be used effectively as you wrap up it up: the takeaway.
August 5, 2022
044. Dribs & Drabs
Another fundraising red flag is the “dribs and drabs” round. With this, you don’t know if you’ll have enough capital to make those key hires or fully execute your growth plan, so your growth suffers.
August 4, 2022
043. That Aspen Money
The massive returns needed to succeed in venture capital is one of the key drivers of the TAM obsession. Bigger markets offer bigger opportunities for growth and bigger exits. Or at least, that’s the commonly held belief.
August 3, 2022
042. Questions for Investors About Risk
Building a business is extremely hard. There are risks all along the way. I dig in on this and offer some questions to ask investors to gauge their risk assessment of your business.
August 2, 2022
041. Too Risky
We invest in risky businesses, which means that we feel we’ve got a good grasp on the odds of different types of outcomes, including a zero return outcome. When we hit on uncertainty, that’s when it becomes hard to get to a yes, because uncertainty is where we’re unable to assess the risk.
August 1, 2022
040. Series A in 6 Months
I asked my teammates for their least favorite thing to hear from startups and it’s, “six months after this seed round, we’re going to raise a Series A.”
July 29, 2022
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