Fundraising 101Shervin Talieh

Level Set

Don’t raise money. Period. Its hard, hard work, and will take 6-12 months You will get desperate, and “qualify in” This will start the “death spiral”: false-positives as the

clock runs out Unless you are on your 2nd or 3rd successful startup, went

to Stanford, or dropped out of MIT, this will consume you

Now, lets do this…

The Approach

Strategy

Research

One you know how much, when, what type, and from whom, identify all sources of money

Know who is raising money, who is investing, what terms, etc. Know your market and competition (I spend 3 hours a day

reading) Find people who can connect you

lawyers, organizations, other startups, banks, LinkedIN, events, conferences, Quora, AngelList, TheFunded, OCTANe, startup camps, co-working facilities

Incubators, grants, tech companies with programs, paying customers, rich relatives

Document in a spreadsheet, and prioritize

Execution

Raise money when you don’t need it, but when its available Ideally, raise money when you have momentum, but before

you launch Raise money from multiple sources, at once, but identify a lead Set the terms, unless the lead comes strong Be prepared to walk away, while knowing what your “zero

hour” is Create deal heat, play the game Get to NO quickly, demand an answer, and don’t mess with

associates When they go dark, you move on

execution

Qualify out, not inFinal words: