Fundraising Strategies for First-Time Founders

Andrew spoke with 120+ VCs to raise a $1.5M pre-seed round. He closed $2.7M and had demand for many millions more. He devoted 90% of his time to fundraising, but only took weeks from the first meetings to close. 

99% of founders I meet do not fundraise at this level. It takes them longer to close, they have fewer choices and raise less. 

This is a specific, detailed and tactical guide to closing a round. If you're ever going to raise, you need to listen.

Why you should listen

• Why talking to more investors will help you raise 10x faster.
• How to use an investment memo to articulate your thoughts and as a base to build a pitch deck
• How to get warm introductions to VCs
• How to take control of investor meetings and put VCs on their heels

Keywords
fundraising, seed round, investors, memo, deck, pitch, negotiating terms, trust, conviction, dilution

Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:02:02)How Taxwire Thought About Fundraising
(00:04:02) The Start of Taxwire
(00:06:32) Making a Memo Before a Deck
(00:09:50) Reaching Out
(00:16:10) Wanting to Oversubscribe
(00:21:32) Keeping Control and Qualifying Investors
(00:31:10) The Basic Structure of the Pitch
(00:34:24) Target Close Day
(00:39:01) The Timeline for Fundraising and Meetings
(00:44:41) Deciding Who to Accept Funds From
(00:50:18) One Piece of Advice

Send me a message to let me know what you think!