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YC and PG has probably the best content. My advice would be not to go or try raise from VCs until you know what you are doing if you can. I would try to build
by enra 4y ago
YC and PG has probably the best content.
My advice would be not to go or try raise from VCs until you know what you are doing if you can. I would try to build something first then see if can get some user interest, then see angels that would be interested. Once VCs start to get interested then start talking to them. The reason I say this is that raising without having any kind of momentum or previous experience can be really hard but it’s very easy if you have good momentum.
The fundamental is basically that the more formidable company you can build, more easier it is raise funding. If you have no connections, no product, no traction, no experience it might be close to impossible to raise.
1. Raise the amount you need (like you need to hire 5 people and pay for some servers). If you don’t need to raise then you don’t have to. Just hack your project and raise later. Some common amounts (SV/US): pre-seed $500-750k, seed $1-4M. Ideally you sell less than 15% of the company. The valuation is then factor of amount/15% and how much interest you can get. Eg: $3M/0.15 = $20M
2. I don’t think you need financial projections at seed. Smart investors understand those projections are fantasy anyway. Obviously you should have some napkin math and make sure whatever you are doing is feasible with the amount you plan to raise.
3. There are trade offs. Generally the more west you go, more optimistic people are and more willing they are to invest in unproven companies and fields. Silicon Valley investors are generally the best and easiest, but might be hard to break in if you have no connections, have not worked in SV or generally understand how things work. Many SV investors like Sequoia now have Europe offices. Europe investors are a mixed bag. There are some smart ones but most don’t understand this kind of blue sky investing. But if you are from there then you might have better chance because you might have someone you know that can do a warm intro for you.
- kirubakaran 4y ago> Generally the more west you go, more optimistic people are and more willing they are to invest in unproven companies and fields. I'm going to raise money in Hawaii then :-p
- dontbenebby 4y ago>My advice would be not to go or try raise from VCs until you know what you are doing if you can. I'll second that motion. (I am also not a lawyer.) Speaking as an American, the people I know who I'd hit up if I actually wanted to start a company who are Swiss work for companies in the Bay Area or a satellite office, I've not heard positive things about startups in Switzerland... nor California really. Basically, high taxes paired with... social stuff? I've known more than one Swiss person but obviously this is the polar opposite of any kind of scientific poll, but I suspect there's something about specific places in Silicon Valley -- like that part of Mountain View with all the coffee shops, or the similar stretch in Palo Alto -- that serve to mix people together in a very analog way that stops happening once you get hired by one of the FAANGs then have to dine every day in the cafeteria. El Camino Real actually has a similar vibe to the road I used to take to church -- the difference being they've built up all these apartment complexes and there's orders of magnitude more cars on that main drag. (I'm from Pennsylvania -- I keep running into tech bros who have this aggressively right libertarian attitude in the extreme short term, which really sucks, since from the perspective of a well I can't call myself a tech savvy at risk youth if I'm in my 30s now guy, we just had everything set up perfect: we scared the ever living shit out of the boomers about what would happen if they stopped having elections, had one, and the new president seems to be actually doing his job, though like most elderly white men, he keeps slow walking things to go try to touch people, and thanks to the magic of federalism, even if social security goes bust they can just raise the taxes on DuckDuckGo.) Anyways sorry to ramble a bit, but the parent's advice of "don't try to raise from VCs until you know what you are doing" tracks with everything I've every heard, and you'd be surprised what the rich, white neoliberals say when they think it's "just us fellas".