Venture Hacks

Brad Feld recently proposed good criteria to distinguish true followers from tire-kickers when you’re raising money:
“While you can’t contractually commit the supporting investors [followers], you can usually separate the real ones from the tire-kickers (or—more generously—the call option people). Committed supporting investors are going to let you use their names with potential lead [...]

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Summary: Here are 2 more microhacks for finding a lead investor: (4) Incent followers to lead by telling them the truth: there probably won’t be room in the round for followers. (5) The best way to find a lead is to build something that attracts a lead: keep building your company and reducing risk.
In parts [...]

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Summary: Here are 3 microhacks for finding a lead investor: (1) If followers have good reasons to not lead, ask them for introductions to potential leads. (2) If you’re early stage, find seed investors who invest in people and high risk startups. (3) If every prospective investor says “we don’t know the market,” find investors [...]

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“Those kind of ‘sit on the sideline’ investors are worthless to you if you want to get a financing done… if you are raising a financing of any kind, spend all of your time looking for a lead investor.”
— Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures
Summary: Financings happen when you find a lead investor, negotiate a term [...]

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