Here’s a fun post by Henry Ward, founder and CEO of our portfolio company eShares, about raising money last year.
From Henry’s post:
We were 0 for 21 with Silicon Valley VCs. I never got close. Most of the big firms wouldn’t even meet. A few had an associate do a Skype call even though we were 20 minutes away.
After 21 meetings in SV, I took a Hail Mary trip to the east coast and met with 3 funds. All 3 invested.
Thank god Henry came east. We are hugely excited about the company he’s building.
Henry also makes some great observations about the fundraising process. I like this one a lot:
1. Fundraising is a filtering exercise, not a popularity contest.
I could tell within 5 minutes of meeting an investor whether they would invest. Investors who invested were excited about eShares before we met. They either saw the vision and liked it. Or they didn’t.
Most didn’t but met me anyway. They spent the entire meeting hoping I would convince them eShares was a good idea. I never did.
Excited investors (and the ones who invested) were different. They didn’t let me pitch. Instead, they asked questions to assess risk. They tried to find reasons not to invest. That is the pitch-paradox. The investors who won’tinvest will ask you why they should . The investors who will invest ask you why they shouldn’t. Your job is to make sure you don’t have reasons that they shouldn’t.
Fundraising is simple: find investors that get excited about your company. It is a filtering exercise. Too many founders believe they have the wrong pitch instead of realizing they have the wrong audience. On that note…
You’ve now read half the post here at AVC. To read the rest, go here.
