The Startup Playbook, 2nd Edition

Chapter 20Running Your Fundraising Process

Even though I (Rajat) have learned a lot since my first very difficult fundraising process, raising money is never easy. There's no doubt that getting funding for your startup can be challenging, even with the right people, idea, and results. My company StillSecure was a prime example.

My co-founder and I were repeat co-founders with previous successes under our belts. We had previously raised VC money, and our idea was in a big category. Yet, even with those attributes on our side, we still had been rejected by numerous venture firms. Sometimes, the concern was whether we could compete against the large incumbents in our space. Other times, it was that the company was too small or growing too slowly. Still others had concerns about where the company was located (Boulder, Colorado) and whether we could recruit enough high-quality talent. Regardless of the reasons, we were rejected by some investors in each of our rounds.

The silver lining of the story was that our first investment partner, Mobius Venture Capital, had supported the company from inception despite the lack of interest from other investors. The moral of the StillSecure story has been that even with many of the right characteristics in your startup, you may still face the prospect of struggling to raise money.

Chances of Getting Funded

When it comes to raising money for your startup, we have good news and bad news for you. First, the good news: there is more money to ...