VC Minute – quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better
Click below to listen. 1m 48s duration.
Subscribe to your podcast platform of choice.
Karyn Miller:
Board support is so important for fundraising, and I think it’s undervalued. I’ve worked with one particular client where the board was just super supportive, and it made the experience much easier.
The first thing is getting the board to agree to a fundraise. Of course, it’s going to mean potentially additional dilution for current investors. The second support we got from the board, once we had agreed to move forward, was we had established a working group with the board. We worked on a weekly basis; we all got together. We worked through the pitch deck together. I’d created the financial model. It was a three-year financial model. The board support group helped To review that model and make sure it made sense and it didn’t show crazy burn, and so helped to massage the model and make sure the model made sense to other investors.
I think it’s really all about that financial model and the CEO and the executive team having a very clear idea of where they want to take the company and how they want to get it there. I would tell you, all CFOs will say we can build any kind of financial model you want that will show anything. But if there’s no “how” sitting behind it, and the metrics too whether it’s CAC and LTV, retention, go-to-market strategy. And so you have to prove that out through both strategy and a really smart vision for where you want to take the company, and the financial model.
We continued to have weekly meetings as we even started to go out to the investors so that the board could understand who we were talking to, what we were hearing back, what were people saying about the company, asking about the company, and then ultimately, of course, once there were deals and proposals in place, they wanted to understand who those companies were, was there going to be a mutual fit among all the investors.
It was a really lovely, synergistic, collaborative experience to work with the board throughout the process, and made the whole process go much smoother.
About AVL Growth Partners
AVL Growth Partners, founded in 2009, is the leading fractional Finance and Accounting firm supporting organizations in pivoting from growth to scale. AVL brings an experienced team of CFOs, Controllers, and Accountants to your organization, delivering transparent, strategic actions for short and long-term success. Transform your financial approach affordably with AVL, supporting companies coast to coast – get to know AVL Growth Partners at avlgrowth.com. (Sponsored)
Visit the VC Minute homepage for more episodes and more ways to subscribe.
