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Take only “smart money” investments

Berkonomics

We have previously made the case that professional investors demand more in the form of restrictive covenants and lower valuations. In a number of cases, these VC partners have made the difference between success and failure or at least growth vs. stagnation. This statement could be considered controversial.

Invest 296
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How Much Should You Raise in Your VC Round? And What is a VC Looking at in Your Model?

Both Sides of the Table

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It goes something like this … VC: “How much money are you raising?” Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” A VC is looking for reasonableness.

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How to Talk About Valuation When a VC Asks

Both Sides of the Table

VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. What was the post money on your last round (and how much capital have you raised)? So why does a VC ask you? In the first place they’re looking for “fit” with their firm.

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Venture Capital Q&A Session

Both Sides of the Table

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. In fact, far better if you haven’t raised venture capital.

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How Many Investors Should You Talk to in a VC Fund Raise? And How Do You Prioritize?

Both Sides of the Table

The typical VC process is as follows: They say there are three rules in property: Location, location, location. The surest sign a fund-raising process has stalled is when you aren’t getting follow-up meetings or hearing from the VC or hearing from friends that they got a phone call or email asking about you. Same with VC.

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This Week in Venture Capital – Episode 3

Both Sides of the Table

So there is likely robust demand from borrowers. The idea is that in a world in which companies need to deal with customer support requests from Twitter, Facebook, email, phone, IM, etc. Collaboration in business starts and ends with email. In business you spend your life in email. Because email works!

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Premature scaling can kill your business.

Berkonomics

Many, many companies accepting venture capital lost it all following this instruction. VCs have a goal of creating extraordinary value for their investors. To state it again: what might be a success to angel investors and to founders could be only of marginal interest to a typical VC. But beware.