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They had 250+ meetings over ~3 months to raise only $1.5M? Wow. That's a lot of time that could have been spent building a product. Is this what YC money is sup

They had 250+ meetings over ~3 months to raise only $1.5M? Wow. That's a lot of time that could have been spent building a product. Is this what YC money is supposed to be for? You get a few months of runway that you need to turn into a higher raise to have a longer runway on someone else's dime? Are there any hacker/entrepreneur communities that focus on revenue-funded efforts instead of the self-perpetuating financing cycles?

santiagobasulto 5y ago
This is pretty common. I don’t say it’s right, but it’s practically the norm. The good news is that usually this time is not so impactful in the life of the startup. The founder will plan how much money they’ll need to execute the next ~2 years and will dedicate 2 entire months to fundraiser. After that, they’ll have 22 months of absolute focus and peace of mind to keep building product.
- jimmont 5y ago
  Has there been notable effort around improving the effectiveness of this process? From a distance it appears to be a waste of time. I'm making assumptions--that primarily makes guesses and significant assumptions about the range of those who attempt to raise funds. (Having gone through the seedfund process previously I have similar opinions about that program as well, not that this has much relevance to the question I'm asking. However that program doesn't require as much time which depending on circumstance makes it appear more effective.)
  - matijash 5y ago
    There is a lot of variance in how much time it takes for a startup to raise - some are already done before Demo Day, and some take a couple of months or they postpone it for later. Although it looks like a waste of time from the distance, since it prevents you from building the product, in our case it was actually a very useful and formative experience, I'd dare to say even the most of all parts of YC. Being an OSS, developer and tech oriented startup with no revenue it made us very aware of that and forced us to learn about how we can get there. As the result, we solidified our vision and actually feel much more confident about it now than before the fundraising.
nowherebeen 5y ago
Also, that 1.5 million isn’t going to last then very long. They are going to need to raise again in 12 months.
s7r 5y ago
Working on exactly this kind of effort (revenue-funding) Dreyfan. Just noting to come back and followup later. Would love to connect and collab on this!

santiagobasulto 5y ago

This is pretty common. I don’t say it’s right, but it’s practically the norm. The good news is that usually this time is not so impactful in the life of the startup. The founder will plan how much money they’ll need to execute the next ~2 years and will dedicate 2 entire months to fundraiser. After that, they’ll have 22 months of absolute focus and peace of mind to keep building product.

jimmont 5y ago
Has there been notable effort around improving the effectiveness of this process? From a distance it appears to be a waste of time. I'm making assumptions--that primarily makes guesses and significant assumptions about the range of those who attempt to raise funds. (Having gone through the seedfund process previously I have similar opinions about that program as well, not that this has much relevance to the question I'm asking. However that program doesn't require as much time which depending on circumstance makes it appear more effective.)
- matijash 5y ago
  There is a lot of variance in how much time it takes for a startup to raise - some are already done before Demo Day, and some take a couple of months or they postpone it for later. Although it looks like a waste of time from the distance, since it prevents you from building the product, in our case it was actually a very useful and formative experience, I'd dare to say even the most of all parts of YC. Being an OSS, developer and tech oriented startup with no revenue it made us very aware of that and forced us to learn about how we can get there. As the result, we solidified our vision and actually feel much more confident about it now than before the fundraising.

nowherebeen 5y ago

Also, that 1.5 million isn’t going to last then very long. They are going to need to raise again in 12 months.

s7r 5y ago

Working on exactly this kind of effort (revenue-funding) Dreyfan. Just noting to come back and followup later. Would love to connect and collab on this!