Navigating Venture Fundraising

Rob Go is a co-founder and Partner at NextView, one of the leading seed firms of the last decade with a portfolio including Attentive, Devoted Health, Whoop, and Grove Collaborative. Prior to co-founding NextView, Rob was an investor at Spark Capital and held product and product marketing roles at Ebay. He began his career as a consultant at The Parthenon Group.

1. Entry into the World of Venture:

• How a cold call from a VC firm led to Rob entering the world of venture?
• Why does Rob believe venture is a young person's game?
• What does Rob know now that he wishes he had known when started in venture?

2. Preparing Docs for a Fundraise:

• What docs should fund managers have ready before they start the raise?
• How should they structure their data room?
• Where do the majority of LPs spend their time, document-wise?
• What are the single biggest mistakes emerging managers make preparing docs for a raise?

3. Meeting Your First LPs:

• What is the best way for emerging managers to meet LPs for the first time?
• Should they send the deck before or after the meeting?
• What questions should emerging managers ask to qualify LPs in or out of a meeting?
• What are some clear early signs that a first meeting went well?

4. Closing LPs: The Tips and Tricks:

• How important is it for a fund to have an anchor?
• How much of a fund should the anchor be?
• Are there different qualities of anchor LPs?
• Should managers ever sell part of their GP or give an LP part of the carry?
• What can managers do to enforce a sense of urgency to get LPs over the line?
• What are signs that an LP will not invest in the fund without rejecting you yet?
• Should emerging managers impose a minimum check size on new LPs?