Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round • Hacker News Board

Re: Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round

#61

Post by thecupisblue » Thu, Oct 13, 2022, 4:58 PM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #20

thecupisblue wrote: post #13

Looking at this as a founder thats currently raising a seed round (or pre-seed, tho as I understand, same position as OP) in Europe with an MVP. Some parts ring true, as in VC's you never heard of contacting you on LinkedIn, sharing decks between their contacts and keeping in touch to build a relationship. The part about common pitch deck advice being geared towards live pitches especially - we haven't done a single…

Two questions: have you considered raising in the US? It’s gotten easier with the pandemic And: re new pitch decks. Is there a good template for the new type of pitches?

1. Not really, since we don't have enough connections in the US to make relevant warm intros to the VC's.

2. Also, not really - we did the YC style one but had to explain a lot more in the slides, which means adding more pages and more tradeoffs in what's important/what's not. Also influences the design a lot, since you can't just do the "pretty minimal slides" presentation. If you are used to speaking at conferences/meetups/companies, this will probably throw you off guard since you have to completely switch-up your style.

Re: Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round

#62

Post by nakedrobot2 » Thu, Oct 13, 2022, 5:03 PM UTC

Sorry but is this a f*ing satire article? Ex-google ex-apple guy calls up his VC friends to ask how to raise a $5M (!!!!) seed round?

For god's sake. It's something straight out of the Silicon Valley TV series.

Re: Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round

#63

Post by thecupisblue » Thu, Oct 13, 2022, 5:06 PM UTC

CalRobert wrote: post #28

thecupisblue wrote: post #13

Looking at this as a founder thats currently raising a seed round (or pre-seed, tho as I understand, same position as OP) in Europe with an MVP. Some parts ring true, as in VC's you never heard of contacting you on LinkedIn, sharing decks between their contacts and keeping in touch to build a relationship. The part about common pitch deck advice being geared towards live pitches especially - we haven't done a single…

I'll ask - what's your startup? As an American living in Europe who really doesn't want to move back this is disheartening to say the least. Moving here did basically mean taking a sledgehammer to my career, admittedly.

Check the link in bio!

In a way it is, the more you know about the US tech scene - the more it feels like you're handicapped in Europe - especially if you're not living in a tech hub.

Re: Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round

#64

Post by zcombynator » Thu, Oct 13, 2022, 5:26 PM UTC

davidhunter wrote: post #7

For anyone reading this advice. The number 1 reason why Matt’s fundraising process went as well as it did is because he has a world-class personal track record. This dwarfs all other reasons by a long way. Quite frankly Matt would have been able to raise with complete air (assuming that his cofounders have similar personal track records). That’s not to take anything away from Matt. He’s clearly an accomplished indivi…

Growth is the most convincing metric. If you have growth, you will get funding. So how to get growth? Build something users want/like. How to know what they want/like? Talk to them. Build. Talk. Build. Talk.

Re: Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round

#65

Post by iovrthoughtthis » Thu, Oct 13, 2022, 5:35 PM UTC

"Before starting the fundraising process, my first stop was to call up some VC friends of mine and ask them how to get things going."

ah, so it is

Re: Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round

#66

Post by mbesto » Thu, Oct 13, 2022, 5:49 PM UTC

zcombynator wrote: post #64

davidhunter wrote: post #7

For anyone reading this advice. The number 1 reason why Matt’s fundraising process went as well as it did is because he has a world-class personal track record. This dwarfs all other reasons by a long way. Quite frankly Matt would have been able to raise with complete air (assuming that his cofounders have similar personal track records). That’s not to take anything away from Matt. He’s clearly an accomplished indivi…

Growth is the most convincing metric. If you have growth, you will get funding. So how to get growth? Build something users want/like. How to know what they want/like? Talk to them. Build. Talk. Build. Talk.

Sure, but this isn't mutually exclusive.

Re: Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round

#67

Post by jiveturkey » Thu, Oct 13, 2022, 5:50 PM UTC

davidhunter wrote: post #7

For anyone reading this advice. The number 1 reason why Matt’s fundraising process went as well as it did is because he has a world-class personal track record. This dwarfs all other reasons by a long way. Quite frankly Matt would have been able to raise with complete air (assuming that his cofounders have similar personal track records). That’s not to take anything away from Matt. He’s clearly an accomplished indivi…

> number 1 reason [...] a world-class personal track record.

> That’s not to take anything away from Matt.

Why would that take anything away from Matt? That's tremendous.

Anyway I'd disagree. The number 1 factor is luck. I like this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LopI4YeC4I but there are plenty like it. Luck accumulates/aggregates/concentrates. I don't know if they cover it that way in that video.

Re: Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round

#68

Post by exhibitapp » Thu, Oct 13, 2022, 6:11 PM UTC

No post body was provided.

Re: Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round

#69

Post by uranium » Thu, Oct 13, 2022, 6:35 PM UTC

indymike wrote: post #32

If you are in a flyover state, learn about venture tax credits and other startup investment incentives. You can often get investors a state tax credit that is up to 25% of the amount they invest. For angels, this is basically a 25% discount on their investment, and substantially reduces financial risk. Also, at least until you take in institutional money, being an LLC can unlock loss cary-forwards for your investors.

+1 this helps even if your angels are out of state. At least in Kansas, they can sell the tax credit to someone in-state for maybe 80% of its face value.

Re: Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round

#70

Post by mdwelsh » Thu, Oct 13, 2022, 7:13 PM UTC

davidhunter wrote: post #7

For anyone reading this advice. The number 1 reason why Matt’s fundraising process went as well as it did is because he has a world-class personal track record. This dwarfs all other reasons by a long way. Quite frankly Matt would have been able to raise with complete air (assuming that his cofounders have similar personal track records). That’s not to take anything away from Matt. He’s clearly an accomplished indivi…

OP here. Thanks for the kind words. I certainly didn't feel like this was an easy raise, but then again it's the only time I've done this and my comparison points were other first-time founders who raised 2x what we did with less than we had done. Yes, these are all pretty senior, well-established folks, not kids straight out of college.

The main point of my article was the surprise around the extent of the VC network and the helpful interactions with them. Before going through this process, VC was a black box to me. Now, a lot less so.

A few folks below have pointed out that I must have had an extensive VC network to draw on. Not quite. I knew 3-4 VCs casually from having worked at a couple of other startups. None of them invested in us by the way. It certainly didn't hurt to get their advice. Now, of course, I have a rolodex full of dozens I could potentially call up at some point, which is useful. I can see how founders who have done it before likely find it a lot easier to get the ball (and the checks) rolling.