VC Minute – quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better.
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One word you should never say while fundraising is bridge.
Saying you’re raising a bridge round immediately conjures this question in investor’s minds, “is it a bridge to nowhere?” Investors will ask this of themselves or their colleagues, and it’s gone from being a joke, to an old joke, to simply the next expected question.
If you say this while fundraising, it puts you in a defensive position having to explain why this is not a bridge to nowhere.
If you never want to call your funding round a Bridge Round, what do you call it? The beauty of the current seed fundraising environment is that it’s a phase. You may raise a Pre-Seed, a Seed, Seed 2, a Seed Extension, all before you raise a Series A. I even saw a funding round recently come through announced as a Series A-2.
Even better, if you have most of your current investors committed to a re-invest in this round, then it’s an insider round. That carries even more weight.
None of these is a Bridge Round and no one should ever label it as such.
It may seem minor, but investors can no more stop themselves from picturing a bridge to nowhere, than you can prevent yourself from thinking about a pink elephant, no matter how emphatically I tell you not to think about a pink elephant.
So good luck raising your seed to round!
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