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The Art of Raising Seed: You’re Either Hot, Or You Make Your Own Heat

54 points by dariusmonsef 14y ago

wamatt 14y ago
Good article.
allantyoung 14y ago
Darius and I were in the same batch at YC and he was one of those guys you just thought would outshine everyone else. My takeaway from this excellent post was that once you start fundraising, you need to be on the hunt 100% of the time. I see too many co-founders sharing fundraising duties and product development duties at the same time. The idea is that you should have already spent enough time building a product that is at least partially compelling and showing some traction. Once you set out to raise funding, you can't effectively skip between building product and talking to investors.
- dariusmonsef 14y ago
  Too kind. Too kind. And yes. Full focus is key.
turoczy 14y ago
I've been lucky enough to follow Darius' career for a number of years. And I can't say that I've seen a more masterful use of AngelList to round out a who's who of investors. This post shares some great insights on how he managed to make that happen.
- dariusmonsef 14y ago
  And you were there supporting me when I couldn't even get any kind of coverage on a blog like TC... So thanks for everything.
dave1619 14y ago
Thanks for the helpful post. We're considering raising funds but aren't from Silicon Valley. How would you suggest getting our initial list of investors to contact and people to intro for us?
- dariusmonsef 14y ago
  Where are you located? I think when you're fundraising you have to go where the money is. Plan to spend a few weeks in the Valley driving up and down the 280 (avoid the 101 it sucks). You can use technology and services like Angel.co to make the connections and schedule the meetings... then you have to go out. I raised this last round from my home in Hawaii. I spent the first few weeks doing phone meetings and then was in SF & NYC for another couple weeks doing partner meetings and wrapping things up.
  - dave1619 14y ago
    I'm located near San Diego. Thanks for the suggestions. Any special advice on how to use angel.co?
    - dariusmonsef 14y ago
      Everything I said in the post. Get prepared... then create your profile on Angel.co and then work it.

54 points by dariusmonsef 14y ago

Good article.

Darius and I were in the same batch at YC and he was one of those guys you just thought would outshine everyone else. My takeaway from this excellent post was that once you start fundraising, you need to be on the hunt 100% of the time. I see too many co-founders sharing fundraising duties and product development duties at the same time. The idea is that you should have already spent enough time building a product that is at least partially compelling and showing some traction. Once you set out to raise funding, you can't effectively skip between building product and talking to investors.

dariusmonsef 14y ago
Too kind. Too kind. And yes. Full focus is key.

turoczy 14y ago

I've been lucky enough to follow Darius' career for a number of years. And I can't say that I've seen a more masterful use of AngelList to round out a who's who of investors. This post shares some great insights on how he managed to make that happen.

dariusmonsef 14y ago
And you were there supporting me when I couldn't even get any kind of coverage on a blog like TC... So thanks for everything.

dave1619 14y ago

Thanks for the helpful post. We're considering raising funds but aren't from Silicon Valley. How would you suggest getting our initial list of investors to contact and people to intro for us?

dariusmonsef 14y ago
Where are you located? I think when you're fundraising you have to go where the money is. Plan to spend a few weeks in the Valley driving up and down the 280 (avoid the 101 it sucks). You can use technology and services like Angel.co to make the connections and schedule the meetings... then you have to go out. I raised this last round from my home in Hawaii. I spent the first few weeks doing phone meetings and then was in SF & NYC for another couple weeks doing partner meetings and wrapping things up.
- dave1619 14y ago
  I'm located near San Diego. Thanks for the suggestions. Any special advice on how to use angel.co?
  - dariusmonsef 14y ago
    Everything I said in the post. Get prepared... then create your profile on Angel.co and then work it.