Category Fundraising
Why sending Decks to Investors before the first meeting is generally a bad idea and what to do about it
A typical exchange between founder and investor: Founder: Hi! Would LOVE to meet you and talk to you about what we are doing. Investor: Do you have a deck? Founder: Sure, here it is. When can we meet? 1-2 week(s) later….. Investor: Sorry, doesn’t look like I could help. OR WORSE I am pretty busy […]
How to introduce your startup in an email
We encourage Techstars companies to perfect the way they introduce themselves. An introduction is a first touch point. Make it simple, clear, and awesome. To start with, master the etiquette of forwardable email. Get it right. Make the subject line clear and searchable. Don’t call it Intro. Call it: Intro TO/FROM, where TO is the […]
7 Sources of Startup Seed Capital – from friends & family to billion dollar funds
When thinking about financing your startup, it is important understand different types of potential investors. Not every wallet is right for you. Figuring out who to raise money from and why will save you time and yield better results. 1. Friends and Family Often times the first check comes from a family member, or a […]
The fast route to a partner meeting is a route to a NO
There is a dynamic that we’ve observed time and again: VCs get “very excited” about the company, pull the founders into the process, go fast, have a partner meeting, and then say NO. This is very painful and unexpected for the founders. After all, the investor seemed to be so excited about the company, said […]
VC Introductions: How to ask and how NOT to ask
I’ve been getting a large number of bad VC asks lately. What is a bad VC ask? A bad VC ask is an open-ended ask for an intro to a venture firm. Here are some examples: – Do you know anyone who might be interested in investing in my company? – I am in NYC […]
8 things you need to know about raising venture capital
If your startup is growing, at some point you will likely be seeking venture capital. Unlike angel investors, who typically write checks between 10K to 100K, VCs have an ability to write multi-million dollar checks. This means that VCs support startup growth from seed round, to much later stages. Because VCs deploy large amounts of […]
How to write a forwardable introduction email
Getting an introduction is a basic thing that startup founders do pretty much every day. We talked about introductions in the post about business development tips, and also in this post about asking for introductions. One other thing we teach Techstars founders how to do properly is to send something called forwardable emails. Why Forwardable […]
Founders, beware of Happy Ears
David Cohen, co-founder of Techstars, has a ton of amazing advice for founders. One of my favorite bits from him is about Happy Ears. What’s that, you ask? It is what most founders have when they are talking to investors. Instead of hearing what the investor is saying, founders hear what they want to hear. […]
Startups: Go fast, but pitch slow
Techstars’ program mantra is DO MORE FASTER. Coined by Brad Feld and David Cohen in the earlier days, the saying reminds founders that they are on the clock, and have the opportunity to get years’ worth of work done in just 3 months. But when it comes to Demo Day, the culmination of the program, […]
9 Seed Funding Gotchas
‘Chance favors the prepared mind.’ – Louis Pasteur. One of the objectives of the companies going through Techstars and other accelerators is to secure financing. Most companies are coming in focusing on accelerating their business and then securing capital to continue to accelerate growth. As the common shareholder in the company, Techstars is completely aligned […]
