Charles Hudson’s Post

You’ve just finished your #funding 💸 round, well done! You have been successful in searching for #BusinessAngels, making sure you speak to them the right way, setting up your funding round and raising the #funds that will get you to your next #milestones 🚀! You must be wondering what’s next. In our Startup Survival blog series, we’re sharing 5 things to do after fundraising. Keep on reading.

Get ready to unlock the secrets of successful fundraising in the upcoming year at #TechCrunchDisrupt2024

Ever wondered what really works in fundraising? Let me tell you, it's not what you think. This is my third fundraising round. I feel I have enough experience: - Crafting a slick pitch deck; - Spinning a compelling narrative; - Laying out a solid business plan. But getting that crucial investor attention in an ocean of startups? That's the real battle. I've tried every trick in the book. 1. Signing up for fancy online platforms promising to connect you with big-name investors; 2. Seeking advice from fundraising experts, 3. Sending out carefully tailored emails with catchy subject lines... Guess what? None of it worked. Here’s the truth: real connections come from personal introductions. I once sent five meticulously crafted emails and follow-ups to an investor without a response. Later, a mutual contact introduced us, and I got a meeting in the same week. So, what's the key takeaway? Leverage your 1st level network. It’s all about who you know and who they know. Sometimes, you don't need a direct line to a VC but rather to someone who can make that introduction for you. On my current fundraising journey, I was fortunate to have allies who opened doors. A huge shout-out to some of them: Afonso Pinheiro, André Ribeiro, Bruno Fonseca, Brunno Boaventura Ribeiro, Carla Alves, Fábio Santos, Gabriel Matias, Gil Quadros Flores, Gonçalo Sobral Martins, Gonçalo (G) Martins Ribeiro, Jason Fan, Joana Pinto, João Pedro Cortinhas, João Hugo Silva 🇵🇹, Pedro Vasconcellos, Vasco Lopes, and Rodrigo Pessoa Jorge for making those crucial introductions. In my final post, I'll dive into my top fundraising tips. Stay tuned and remember—start with your network! *𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀: Session 6 (fundraising) | Part 2 (networking)

Are you #fundraising or have you ever tried? Wandelbots did it four times and went through that enormous feat. What did we learn? First of all, the disclaimer: our CEO Christian Piechnick was always in the driver's seat. Before you leave the startup character behind, the ability to successfully fundraise is one of the most appreciated traits of your CEO. The remaining #founders, and the company as a whole, have to back up the process. Choose a competent but not too large group to balance speed and decision making. What I recall are several phases that a fundraising round undergoes: 1️⃣ Finding the right point in time. Usually, you fundraise when you need to, which might be at least half a year before cash zero. However, sometimes you must adhere to the market sentiment. Can you predict how your company will perform, is an earlier point in time better, or is the market already crashing? 2️⃣ Finding funds. Intros work best, cold outreach is hard. We were lucky to have built a network already in our PhD time (special thanks to Frank Fitzek). In subsequent rounds, your shareholding funds are incentivized to find follow-ups, so you can leverage their network. 3️⃣ Pitching. Much has been said about it. We mostly connected a pitch with a live demo. Yes, we took the risk of failing and often something went wrong. However, the immersion of the audience was much better and authentic, which gives you a lot of credit. I recommend not faking demos, even if all takes place in a video call. 4️⃣ Negotiation. If you receive multiple offers, you are in the great situation to choose. It’s not only about the terms but also about how well you feel your connection with the people because you have to work with them for a very long period of time. Choose the term sheet not only by the paragraphs. After you signed a term sheet, there’s a period where you are obligated to exclusive talks with your chosen fund. Due diligence might take some time, either people are coming by to look into the details or they are checking your contracts. We always pushed hard to close that phase as soon as possible to not cool down the excitement. 5️⃣ The closing. In Germany, that means sitting with the notary. It takes hours and hours for her/him to read out the three-digit number of pages. You might check all contracts with a lawyer beforehand but you will hardly find one who will speed up the process. I recommend reading 📘 “Venture Deals” by Feld and Mendelson to foster your own competence on what’s going on. After the closing, take a breath 🥂 Celebrate what has been achieved, optimally with your fund partners but most importantly with your employees. Some of them might have been involved and need new energy, others might need explanations. That’s our experience with fundraising. What’s yours? What was counterintuitive? Leave a comment 🙂

💡 One of the best 10 minutes, I *Jan H. have sped this year. Your startup's round is ice-cold, until… all of a sudden… everyone wants to join – Your round became hot 🔥. It brilliantly captures the reality of fundraising for first-time founders. A key takeaway is to understand how the other side (VCs/Investors) thinks. This post is a must-read for anyone trying to navigate the ups and downs of raising a round. #Startup #Fundraising #Blog #RAG

With YC Demo Day approaching, here's my best fundraising advice (and advice to others giving fundraising advice): Our DD fundraise for Tandem in S19 ended strong (7.5m from A16Z), but we didn't know it would at first. I remember as we went into DD, it felt like we were being pulled from a game we'd come to know well (building product), into a game we were novices at (fundraising). We rose to the occasion, and so did our batchmates. You will too. Fundraising is a Maslowian hierarchy you climb: L1: $ to get back to building. L2: is lower dilution, and a better partner L3: is the best possible deal and set of partners to give you an unfair advantage. There's no shame in L1. Remember, fundraising is a means to an end. Some companies will fundraise easily, others won't. Remember, there's little correlation between DD raise and ultimate success (Coinbase struggled at DD). Help your batchmates. You're in this together. DD fundraising moves fast. Strategy can change hourly with new info. One of the highest leverage things you can do is carve out some reflection time with co-founders beforehand to think about the future and get on the same page. Celebrate wins. Prepare for the whirlwind. You may find yourself on the weak side of the table, or the strong side. You may not know who has the most leverage, so just be true to yourself, and act with respect. Don't forget, in the frenzy, that the person on the other side of the table is a human being too. A fun resource if you're doing in-person meetings: Alex Cornell's treatise on where to sit at investor meetings: https://lnkd.in/eWax-Q6n Whether you're an investor or a founder, try to create and reinforce good patterns in the world. I think of YC and Paul Graham's biggest impact as creating healthy norms for founders and investors. Treat people as you'd like to be treated. When advising founders, remember there are many paths to the goal, and not every path is available to every company. Rather than prescribe what you feel is best, create more options for the founders. This is what our most crucial advisors like Dylan Field and Gustaf Alströmer 🇺🇦 did. Good luck, everyone!

Looking to boost your fundraising efforts? 📌 Consider sharing personal narratives about your startup's journey to engage investors and customers. This story should be infused into your corporate mission and purpose, which is key when pitching to investors. 📌 Be strategic about your social media presence. If you’re fundraising, then LinkedIn is likely your best bet. Not just because most investors are there, but because it facilitates professional connections. Put effort into sharing original content and engaging with that created by others. Click here to read more: https://bit.ly/3WDGuNC #Startups #Fundraising #FundraisingTips

Most fundraising fails. Here is how to create momentum to close your round ↓ When we did YC W21 our partners told us a secret. The catalyser to a great round is "momentum". Momentum is the blood of a good round 🩸 Great potential rounds collapse without momentum... And average deals sometime happen for the same reason 😱 So how does one create momentum? The best way to achieve that is to plan your round. Here is an approach that will give you more chance to succeed: 1. Get ready The first thing to do is to prepare. Prepare the list of angels & investors you want to meet. If you jump too early into the fundraising exercise. And haven't lined up the right people to talk with, things might not fly. Once you're head down pitching, it's challenging to bring more potential investors to the round ⏰ And often too late to get investors up to speed enough to catch up with those already pitched. So prepare a list before you start meeting. 2. Meet people within a short time range The second step consists of meeting potential investors within a short time frame. Something between 2 and 3 weeks to create momentum. Some people will tell you to start with investors you're the least interested in. And keep the big fishes toward the end. Don't do that ❌ Instead, start with the investors you think will need the most time to build convictions. If you onboard these people too late they won't be able to position themselves on your deal. Another practice is to meet early some of the funds that could be a great match. These funds might send you term sheets. And if they do early this could speed up your round. 3. Set a deadline Having a deadline is one of the best ways to create momentum. It gives a reason for potential investors to give you a YES or a NO. This deadline is often artificial. But it's useful to have one. To make sure you don't drag this process for ever. And get back to work ✅ Don't make this deadline too short either as this could fire back. When we did YC, we had a demo day. A day where we could present June to 100s of potential investors. This event was the deadline for our round. 4. Create FOMO. That last point is little documented. In short, there are ways people use to create FOMO around their round. Outside of the typical roadshow discussions. This includes weird tactics like: - spreading gossip about your round. - asking your angels to hit up your round with back-channel messages - etc. I don't have many examples here as we haven't explored this tactic much 🤣 But I've heard they exist. Ultimately, what's going to make or break your round is your business But momentum also plays an important role. And shouldn't be underestimated. Over the years I've seen great companies not raising because of a lack of momentum. And vice-versa. Hope this helps! #momentum #fundraising #startups

Sharing this valuable information for #founders and #startups wading into the intense process of #fundraising from Betty Chang Love this: "The best early-stage fundraisers are magical storytellers. You’re crafting narratives that paint a vision of the future that get investors clambering to be on the journey. 99% of magical storytellers get to that point with deep preparation and practice. So overprepare." https://lnkd.in/ekAs32xz

👀 If you're in a fundraising round, BrightPulse Marketing put together a blog post to help you secure that funding, including actual pitch decks from brands like Yammer and Peloton. ✅ Check out How to Use Marketing Concepts in Your Fundraising Pitch: bit.ly/4ha0W0A #StartupMarketing #Entrepreneurs #BrightPulse #Startup #Solopreneur #Fundraising #Preseed #Seriesa #Funding