Skip to Content
Venture Deals, 3rd Edition
book

Venture Deals, 3rd Edition

by Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson
December 2016
Beginner
304 pages
7h 21m
English
Wiley
Content preview from Venture Deals, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 12 Raising Money the Right Way

While most people ask themselves “What should I do?” when seeking venture capitalist (VC) financing, there are also some things that a person should not do. Doing any of the following at best makes you look like a rookie (which is okay, we were all rookies once, but you don’t want to look like one) and at worst kills any chance that you have of getting funded by the VC you just contacted. While this chapter isn’t about the best way to fundraise (there are many other books covering that), we encourage you to avoid doing the following when you are raising money from VCs.

Don’t Be a Machine

While you may have created the greatest technology in the world to invest in, fundraising is ultimately about the people involved. If a VC doesn’t like you personally, they probably won’t invest in you despite your brilliant idea.

We tell entrepreneurs that we want to fall in love with them in the style of “first date” energy. We want to feel time slip away and regret when we must go onto our next commitment. After you leave, we want to keep thinking about you and wondering when we’ll get to meet again.

Some others call this the “beer test.” If we don’t want to have a beer with you now, imagine how bad it will be when things inevitably get tough later on down the road. Being from Boulder, we also accept chai lattes or Vitaminwater as substitutes.

So, don’t be a machine. Be human. Be yourself, let us get to know you, and become inspired by you. As the ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Venture Deals, 4th Edition

Venture Deals, 4th Edition

Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson
Venture Deals, 4th Edition

Venture Deals, 4th Edition

Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson
Corporate Finance, 6th Edition

Corporate Finance, 6th Edition

Pierre Vernimmen, Pascal Quiry, Yann Le Fur

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781119259756Purchase book