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Everything I wish I had known about raising a seed round

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

#81

Post by spoonjim »

smackeyacky wrote: post #73
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…

That and "being able to call up a few VC friends of mine" also means he is a lot better connected than 99% of startup founders. This just reinforces the idea that raising VC is more about your background than it is about your ideas or ability to execute.

If you are a former Harvard CS professor and engineering director at Google then you don't need to know any VCs. They will take your call.

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

#82

Post by lucidlive »

This article is not useful for a typical entrepreneur. Most work for many years with little chance of raising capital. This guy makes it sound like all you need is some experience and a good idea. And now he’s writing a “all I learned” article about his past 3 months. Give me a break. (And no offence OP but I do feel it sounds out of touch)

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

#83

Post by [deleted] »

smackeyacky wrote: post #73
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…

That and "being able to call up a few VC friends of mine" also means he is a lot better connected than 99% of startup founders. This just reinforces the idea that raising VC is more about your background than it is about your ideas or ability to execute.

[deleted]

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

#84

Post by vecter »

smackeyacky wrote: post #73
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…

That and "being able to call up a few VC friends of mine" also means he is a lot better connected than 99% of startup founders. This just reinforces the idea that raising VC is more about your background than it is about your ideas or ability to execute.

> This just reinforces the idea that raising VC is more about your background than it is about your ideas or ability to execute.

At the seed or pre-seed stage that Matt was at, what else would it based on? If you have no product or barely an MVP, you're almost certainly not near product-market fit and you probably have close to zero traction. As an investor, you have practically no signal to go off of at that point.

Ideas aren't worth much at that stage, so ability to execute is key. And given that there's been so little done, the best signal for someone's ability to execute should be their background.

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

#85

Post by Kiro »

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…

Matt was even portrayed in The Social Network.

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

#86

Post by metadat »

helloworld11 wrote: post #42
influx wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be careful, US companies usually have you sign IP contracts and do not approve of moonlighting. They could well try to claim stake or ownership on your company, even if they lost, the distraction and money it would cost to defend probably aren’t worth it.

How the hell can they justify this habit of telling a developer what they can and can't work on in their own time, or making any claim to it afterwards just because someone worked at company X during the same time they made side project Y? The whole tendency seems grossly onerous and unjustifiable to me.

This is precisely it, you get it.

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

#87

Post by Centigonal »

sirspacey wrote: post #24
haasted wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, reading the sentence "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" made me roll my eyes. Rest of the article is interesting, though.

Why? Making friends with VCs before soliciting them for money is a smart move.

yes, but Matt Welsh has yet to write the Everything I Wish I Had Known About Making Friends with VCs companion article.

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

#88

Post by etothepii »

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.

Someone's been watching the partner lounge / Dalton & Michael explain.

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

#89

Post by gray_50 »

I disagree with your approach on deciding if YC is worth it. I feel like VCs are particularly biased against YC and are incentivized to tell you it's not worth it. I think what you should have done is also seek out as many YC alumni as you can and ask what their opinion was. I guarantee you all of them would've said it's worth it.

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

#90

Post by quickthrower2 »

davidhunter wrote: post #59
FranksTV wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is some "the rest of the owl" material for sure.

How to raise a seed round: 1. Become a professor in CS at Harvard. Achieve big career successes in prestigious technology companies. Build a network of SV founders and VCs. 2. Raise the f*king seed round.

Or…, and possibly easier: make that much money yourself and seed yourself
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