I think the other article referenced ( https://blog.ycombinator.com/process-and-leverage-in-fundraising/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/process-and-leverage-in-fu

I think the other article referenced ( https://blog.ycombinator.com/process-and-leverage-in-fundraising/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/process-and-leverage-in-fundrai... ) provides better guidance, specifically : > Because most venture returns are driven by a tiny number of companies, investors know that they need to invest in those companies in order to make money. The trick, then, is convincing investors that your company will be one of those outliers. The missing part in this article about "when", imho, is that _when_ might have a lot to do with the timing of a startup's outlier story and how well it matches with a particular VC's fund size.