VC Minute – quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better.
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I don’t know if Rich is gonna like this, but I would actually say don’t raise from VC. I think one of my best pieces of advice to any founder is to really think deeply and do a lot of research on if your business actually needs VC funding. Are you wanting to build a business that requires VC investment? There are different ways to fund businesses outside of venture capital.
For instance, at Rescripted, the only institutional dollars we have in our business, those dollars are from Techstars, which is an early-stage accelerator. Those were the first dollars that we ever took. Outside of that, we never raised money from VCs. Being a media business, VCs don’t wanna invest in media, and that’s fine. I still love my life and love the business that we’re building, but it just wasn’t a fit, and that’s all fine and well.
Think deeply about the type of business that you’re trying to build, especially at this early stage. Make sure you know if it is actually going to fit the VC model. In Rescripted’s case, we’ve raised three different rounds from Angels and we’ve gotten to profitability with those rounds. And, you know, never say never; we might go on to raise institutional dollars. I have no idea. But so far, so good. And we’re profitable and growing like wildfire.
I’m a former venture investor, and that was super hard for me emotionally to say, oh gosh, VCs don’t wanna invest in me. And it wasn’t me, it was the business, and it was the business that we’re building. It wasn’t a venture-style business. During our seed round, we did try to raise VC, but before we were three months into the process, we had filled 75% of the round with angel checks. And at that point we were like, okay, well, no VC is even gonna invest in this, so we’re just gonna keep going down the angel track. That was the right move for us.
On that note, angels can be really great, especially if you are building a business that doesn’t require a lot of capital, like Rescripted. In some cases, Angels can close your round before you can even get to a VC check, which was a really valuable learning experience for me. So, VC is not for everybody. It’s not for every business, and it’s not for every founder. And that is just fine. Don’t get yourself all in a mess because you didn’t raise VC.
About Rescripted
Reaching 9M people monthly, Rescripted is the #1 global media platform for women’s health and fertility, providing content, tools, and resources for wherever you are in your reproductive lifecycle. Learn more at rescripted.com, and follow along at @hellorescripted on Instagram and TikTok.
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