Fundraising
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View all AudioHow can I create an awesome pitch deck?

As an angel investor, which qualities do you look for in early stage companies?

How much ownership should I expect to give up when fundraising?

How are valuations determined?

How do I negotiate on valuation?

How long do pitch meetings usually last?

Should I optimize for the highest valuation?

What advice do you have for moms who are starting their fundraising process?

What relationship should I expect to have with my investors?

How should I approach investors? Ask for advice, not money.

What is a VCs expected time frame for $100M in net revenue vs. run rate?

What is the difference between shares and options?

How does dilution work for founder shares?

How should I prepare for a pitch meeting with investors?

Do I need a pitch deck?

What should I include in my pitch deck?

Should I send my pitch deck out in advance of an investor meeting?

Part 2: What questions should I ask investors during pitch meetings?

Can you describe the relationship you have with your VCs?

How do I decide which investors I want in my syndicate?

When should I tell my VC bad news?

How do I know I'm ready to pitch VCs?

When should I think about selling my company?

Part 2: Should I bootstrap my company?

Part 1: Should I bootstrap my company?

Which VC firms should I target with my outreach?

Part 2: What should I consider when choosing an investor?

Part 2: How much should I aim to raise in my seed round?

How long do pitch meetings usually last?

Do I need a lead investor?

How do I ask my VC for a raise?

Part 2: What should I expect from my relationship with my VCs?

Part 1: What should I consider when choosing an investor?

How do I say no to an investor?

Part 1: What do I do if two important investors can't agree on anything?

Part 1: What do I do if my relationship with my investor isn't working out?

Do I need a pitch deck?

What role should the CFO play in the fundraising process?

What financials should I prepare for pitch meetings?

How transparent should I be with my VCs?

How many years of financials should I prepare for the pitch meeting?

Part 1: What questions should I ask investors during pitch meetings?

Part 2: How do I manage if multiple VCs are interested in my round?

How do I know what is fair in my term sheet and what isn't?

What is expected from an R&D focused company who won't have revenue for years?

Why does Pillar offer to buy common stock?

What should I say if I don't know an answer to a question?

How do I share data or confidential information with VCs?

What questions should I ask investors?

When a VC says "let's stay in touch", what does that mean?

How much potential revenue will get VCs excited?

If my product is more technical, how deeply should I dive into those details?

If I have an MVP, should I demo the product in the pitch meeting?

Should I show market opportunity bottom-up or top down?

How often should I be speaking with my VC?

What order should my pitch deck slides be in?

How closely should my voiceover match the content on my slides?

Do VCs help me build my team and fill it with experts?

Should I be concerned about the information in my pitch deck being passed around?

How long should my pitch deck be?

How much should I practice my pitch?

What's the first step in creating a pitch deck?

Part 2: How do I tell my personal story so it resonates with investors?

How do I get the attention of the VCs?

How do I create momentum in my deal?

How do I get the attention of the VCs?

Part 1: What should I expect from my relationship with my VC?

Should I take a meeting with an associate or principal instead of a partner at at VC ?

Part 1: How do I manage if multiple VCs are interested in my round?

How do I know VCs will like my idea?

How do I manage criticism of my business from investors?

Are there any alternatives to VC funding?

Which team members should be in the pitch meeting?

How much should each team member speak in a pitch meeting?

How much progress are VCs looking for in pre-seed and seed companies?

How big does my target market have to be to make my company VC backable?

Should I consider venture debt?

How much ownership do investors expect?

How long should the funding from my seed round last?

Part 1: How much should I aim to raise in my seed round?

What should I say when asked about valuation?

How are valuations determined?

Is there a minimum valuation that gets VCs excited?

Part 1: Should I optimize for the highest valuation for my company?

How do I know my idea is right for VC funding?

Guides
View all GuidesFounders’ Edition: What VCs Won’t Tell You About Raising Seed
No one understands the world of fundraising better than a founder who has done it before. We invited a group of experienced leaders to share their stories, experience and insider tips with us about how to raise a seed round.
W share advice from Andrew Lau (CEO, Jellyfish), Janet Comenos (CEO, Spotted), Dave Balter (CEO, Flipside Crypto), and Helen Adeosun (CEO, Care Academy). Learn from their biggest mistakes, understand whether to optimize for valuation, and discover how to build relationships with VCs.
How To: Raise a Seed Full Guide
Do you have a high-potential idea for starting a major new company? Would having additional capital make the difference between winning big and going home? If the answer is yes, raising a Seed Round might be for you. Read this A-Z guide on how to raise a Seed Round, from the inception of your idea to closing the round.
Top 10 Questions to Expect from VCs
Preparing for your first pitch meeting? Here are a few questions you will get often, and how best to answer.
How to: Reach Out to VCs
Raising a Seed Round? Then this may be your first time approaching a VC.
To avoid wasting your precious time and energy, invest 10-20 hours of research to create a list of targets who lead seed stage investments in your city.
Narrow it down rigorously before you ask for introductions, and be cautious about accepting well-meaning but unfiltered introductions. Protect your own resilience in the future by screening every target carefully now.
When reaching out, referrals are critical. Consult your advisers and angels to figure out how you can get a warm referral.
How to: Protect Your Profits
Imagine you launch a great product and start to grow quickly. What happens next? Life gets TOUGHER, because you will attract hostile attention from the incumbents who are losing business, and at the same time, a host of fast followers emerge to steal a piece of your success. What stops someone else from eating your lunch? In other words, how do you protect your profits?
VC 1.01
VC1.01 covers the following topics: The Business of VC – How Venture Firms Work; Stock and VC Investment Structures; and Key Considerations for Founders & Employees.
Advice for Founders During Uncertain Times
During economic downturns, every company faces a different situation, and what’s right for yours could depend on stage, funding history, cash balance, and space. What to do falls into three buckets: fundraising, operational focus, and reducing burn rate.
How VCs Really Evaluate Potential Seed Investments
The VC’s decision to invest comes down to four core elements: scope, chemistry, unicorn potential and financial match.
How to: Protect Yourself in a Fire Sale
Innovation is hard, and not all startups succeed. Get your carve-out in writing.
How to: Pitch a VC Successfully (Even Over Zoom)
Your pitch deck should be aligned with your audience. Here’s how you can do that, even over Zoom.
Term Sheet Grader
We developed the term-sheet grader, a simple way to compare different term sheets or help characterize whether a term sheet is good or evil.
How To Navigate a Term Sheet in the COVID-19 Era
Winners in the new world—as well as smaller startups or those leveraging existing relationships—will still close deals during this period. But be wary of investors who use this environment to propose term sheets full of red flags.
Part 5: The Final Pieces
In this final part, we close out the remaining terms you are likely to see -Voting Controls, Mandatory conversions, and dividends.
Part 4: Board of Directors
There are many venture backed startups that have a VC representative from every round — seed, A, B, C, D, etc. It is often said that the performance of a company is inversely proportional to the number of VCs on the Board. A better Board would be one that has a mix of VC representatives and industry experts. But how to get there?
Part 3: Anti-Dilution
The standard VC term sheet has the concept of anti-dilution, meaning if the next round is priced lower than the previous round, the VC will be entitled to more shares (retroactively) to make up for this unfortunate circumstance. We don’t like the sound of that at all.
Part 2: Preference / Preferred Stock
A Preference or Preferred Stock is where an investor buys a security that gives them the right to choose whether to get their money back or convert into common stock.
Part 1: Increase to the Option Pool
In a typical term sheet, the investor will specify an option pool — a bucket of stock options for future employees. Having an agreed on pool makes life easier for everyone — you don’t have to get shareholder consent every time you want to make a new hire and the VC doesn’t see their ownership get diluted by every hire either.
2019 US Micro-VC Firms
Samir Kaji from First Republic created an Airtable of over 900 micro-VCs (funds less than $100M) across the country.
Women Angel Investors in the US
Lolita Taub pulled together an Airtable of 500+ women angel investors in the US.
How To: Negotiate a Term Sheet
Just got a term sheet from a VC firm? Congratulations — that’s no small feat. Now we’ll help you navigate how to negotiate your term sheet.
How To: Manage Series A Termsheets
All of your hard work has paid off, you’ve received a term sheet! Now it’s time to manage the investors around the table to make sure you get the best deal possible.
How To: Develop a Series A Pitch
Writing a terrific pitch deck is hard, just like writing a hit song is hard. Don’t shoot for average. Seed was about whether you can get in the game. Series A is about showing how you can win the game, and why this is a game worth winning. Read on for tips on creating the perfect pitch deck.
How To: Build an Investor List
If your company is ready for Series A, your biggest limiting factor will be finding investors. The greatest factor that can reduce the effort required to run the Series A process is to invest heavily in researching your targets well before you’re ready to raise. Read this article to learn how to create the perfect investor list.
How To: Build a Series A Budget
So, you’ve raised your Seed. Congratulations! While it may seem like you’re swimming in cash now, if you’re building a venture scale business, at some point, likely within the next 12-18 months, you will need more money. Read this article for advice on creating a Series A budget.
How To: Raise a Series A Full Guide
80 page guides don’t scare you? Of course not! Follow this A-Z guide to help you raise your Series A seamlessly.
10 Steps to Raising a Series A
Raising seed was a grueling process, and you feel eager now to leave behind all thoughts of fundraising and finally get back to building your business. But, you know Series A is just around the corner. How can you successfully raise your Series A? Read these 10 steps, and apply their lessons.
Read This First
So you are ready to raise a Series A? Check out this quick overview to help navigate our How to Raise a Series A Guide.
Templates
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Carta
Carta
Carta was founded in 2012 to help private companies manage their cap table by eliminating spreadsheets and paper certificates. They've since expanded to valuations, compliance, investors services, and tools and services for public companies. See here for one pager.
Shoobx
Shoobx
Shoobx is a legal operating system for your company, providing the foundation for your growth. They give you a single place to take care of everything from executing your fundraise, to granting equity, to getting board approvals, to hiring employees. The Shoobx platform has over 50 workflows that handle common legal actions with standard documents and legal collaboration. They save valuable time for busy founders like you so that you can focus on what matters: growing your business. Founder's Guide companies receive 20% off their 1st year of Shoobx subscription fees. Learn more hereVendors
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IDEO: Storytelling for Influence
IDEO: Storytelling for Influence
This online storytelling course teaches IDEO methods that will inspire your team, superiors, or investors to get them excited about following your lead.
Visions in Focus
Contact: Beth Susanne
Visions in Focus
Contact: Beth Susanne
Pitch Coach Beth Susanne has helped her clients raise over $10B in funding to date, working with global leaders such as Singularity University, Oxford Foundry, Barclays, BMW, Disney, and over 3000 international tech startups from 60 countries, across all technologies. Founders have raised an average of $4M each, following her 2-day pitch intensive. Her online and in-person workshops focus on how to craft and deliver a compelling pitch so that you achieve your funding goals quickly, and your value is immediately recognised in the market. Beth came highly recommended to Pillar by one of our portfolio startups, based in Madrid, and will begin coaching our portfolio teams in 2020.Added to your playlist
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