VC Minute – quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better.
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If there’s one thing that will ruin your chances with an investor, aside from being a jerk, it’s not knowing your numbers.
As the CEO of this business, you are going to be ultimately responsible for every aspect of it.
You need to know, without having to look it up, without having to scramble for it, and without giving a range of estimates, what your revenue is right now. What was your revenue at the same time last year? What’s your MRR? And what’s your ARR? And are you giving me a run rate, or are you giving me an actual ARR because you signed 12-month contracts? How many active, paying members do you have? What’s your CAC? What’s your LTV? How much money have you saved people? How much money have you made for people? What’s your ACV? How long does it take you to win a contract?
Ultimately, the CEO’s responsibility is the business.
As I said last season, there are risk beasts around every corner for a startup. If you don’t know your numbers, it makes me think that you don’t really understand what’s going on in your business.
CEOs that don’t know their business—that don’t know their numbers—are not going to do well.
At a minimum, just know at least what’s in your deck so that you can talk to it. Know that you’re going to get asked about the next level down from those numbers.
You don’t have to have every single number in your business memorized. Have your proforma financials and your historical financials already pulled up and be ready to talk about those as questions come in.
Show that you know your numbers, and it shows that you know your business.
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