Moving on to how to startup series class, I spent time watching Lecture 9: How to Raise Money and Marc Andreessen, Ron Conway and Parker Conrad had an interesting take on it.
Some of my notes from the class:
- Build something awesome which pulls VC to you.
- Most VC invest in team, past success of the founders & product.
- If you have a prototype of product ready, some paid customer & solid co-founders getting money is easier.
- Getting a VC funding is easier than acquiring customers or hiring 20th employee.
- Most VC has a strict policy not to invest in competing companies.
- Keep a valuation real for first raisisng round.
- Don’t dilute too much in the initial round of raises.
- Always take money from VC who has partners with your product line, good connections for business development and for later stage funding.