Resilient

7Raising a Pre-Seed $400,000

Even if no one sees it for you, you have to see it for yourself.

—Sevetri Wilson

Pre-Seed, Better Known as a Friends-and-Family Round

I look back on my fundraising journey and all the hurdles I faced. I don’t think then I really understood the gravity of what it meant for my earliest investors to take a bet on me. For them to realize their money could have went to zero, and for them to have invested in the company, into my ideas and aspirations anyway. Later investments become more aligned with milestones and monetary gain. Investors want a return and you are reminded of expectations of you to meet goals aligned with that result often at every turn. Even with this I held a great responsibility to those who invested in our friends and family round, and most importantly I wanted to show them that their investment wouldn’t be in vain. A lot of the early fundraising success founders have is through their network.

Yet, many don't have the network or friends and family who can pitch in money to help them raise that first pre-seed round.

I didn't inherit a network at the beginning of my business career either, but over time, I built one. I was in a conversation where the individuals were discussing the value of a college education today, saying that they had found the most value in their careers outside of college. Yet, one of college's biggest values is building a network. When people are thinking about individuals who might have $5,000 to spare, ...