When I was a founder I was completely clueless about fundraising and what investors would ask me. And also why they were asking certain questions.

I don't think founders should ever be blindsided by the process.

A thread -- read on >>
1) @hustlefundvc, we've put together a page on what you can expect from us and our process.

hustlefund.vc/interview-prep
2) I've also put together a doc of questions I think investors will ask you just in general:

docs.google.com/document/d/1qj…

We've highlighted the ones that we tend to ask in blue.
3) I think it's worthwhile to talk a bit about why we ask some of these questions.
4) Tell me a bit about your background and your co-founder(s)’s background.

This q is meant to understand:
-how complementary is the team in skills?
-have they worked together?
-what motivates them to work on this?
-what is the team's experience with this problem?
5) A lot of investors care about founder-idea fit. Does the founder know a lot about this problem from before? Has the founder faced the problem in a prior career/life? Is the founder well-connected in the space to give them edge?
6) If you can show this, that's compelling to many investors.

However, we've also funded lots of teams who have done the opposite. Teams who are outsiders to a space but have LEARNED A LOT by doing cust dev. And, they have a unique angle / take on a problem as an outsider.
7) What is the specific problem you are solving?
Why is this a problem? Who has this problem?

Articulation of the prob is really impt. A really nuanced understanding of the problem as well as the day-in-a-life of the customer persona is compelling.
8) This shows that you have done your homework AND are really customer-focused. In this day and age, customer acquisition is generally the top problem that software startup founders have, so this is impt to demonstrate.
9) Why now?

This is a q that lots of investors like to ask. I used to think it was annoying. I mean -- for most ideas, they honestly could have happened 5 years ago! or 3 years ago. Or last year.
10) That being said, you just need to roughly explain why this era makes sense. For ex, Webvan, which did grocery delivery in the late 90s died. Why? The unit ec made no sense.
10b) Grocery delivery today has more density which makes the unit economics better. And there's density because everyone now has a mobile phone + the internet. So this sort of business could really only have come about during the mobile phone era.
11) What differentiates your solution from other alternatives?

Everyone has competition. If you say you have no competition, that basically means that your customer doesn't have this problem you're solving. Even paper & pencil is competition or manually doing somehting.
12) Along the lines of competition, you may learn through your fundraising process that you're in a crowded space. If that's the case, you may have to adjust your plans a bit in the worst case scenario.
12b) Competition increases CAC for startups. AND, downstream investors get conflicted out across a variety of companies. So it's more expensive to get customers AND there's less available capital.
13) These are just a few questions (many more in the doc). Feel free to add comments in the doc if you think I've left out critical questions that should be on there.

docs.google.com/document/d/1qj…

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More from @dunkhippo33

14 Sep
As someone who interned at a startup in HS in the summer of '00 & started building her own startup in '08, frothy times make me very nervous.

Everyone looks like a genius during the best times, but here are some sobering thoughts.

Read on >>
1) This is fascinating - the top quartile of VCs in 2007 had a 2.54x paper multiple. But the actual paid (IN CASH) is only 2.38x -- 14 years later!

Actual cash != paper markups.

2) Another data point. About 6-7 years ago, my friend was telling me about how he had passed on investing in some fund. He had seen that that fund didn't have a great multiple 3 years in.

Today, that fund is a 5x fund, 2x+ realized.
Read 13 tweets
13 Sep
I was talking with a founder today who recently pivoted his company.

The ups and downs of the conversation brought back so many memories of my own startup days.

Today's tweet storm is about the "human aspects" of pivoting a startup.

Read on >>
1) For ppl who have never been through a pivot, it's pretty brutal. A lot of ppl nonchalantly talk about a pivot like it's NBD. But it's a HUGE deal.

Specifically, changing a biz direction is sorta challenging but dealing w PEOPLE is the REALLY hard part!
2) Let's define what a pivot is.

It's when you change your biz direction in some way. It could be a change in target customer. A change in core product / service offering. Or many things at once.
Read 15 tweets
9 Sep
Researching startup investors is still one of the most time-consuming activities founders end up doing just to raise a round.

Here are a few lists of investors I often send entrepreneurs to that can help with this process. (Not in any particular order)

Read on >>
1) Saba Karim's list of investors (@sabakarimm). Check out other resources on his blog as well.

sabakarim.com/investors
2) NFX Signal (@NFX). Their list categorizes the deals that individuals and firms have done previously.

signal.nfx.com/investor-lists
Read 10 tweets
8 Sep
It's been a while since I've done a tweet storm. I was trying to be more heads-down the last 2 months thinking & reflecting.

Some building-in-public thoughts on growing and running @HustleFundVC >>
1) We recently had a company offsite where we had the chance to reflect on how we're doing in all aspects: financially, team morale, and with our mission.
2) Our mission at @HustleFundVC is to further the 3 things needed to grow successful startups: capital, knowledge, and networks.
Read 9 tweets
23 Jul
Which is more important for a startup? Product or distribution?

I think everyone would argue both 🤣 but if you had to pick one, what would you pick and why?

A thread >>
1) This is sparked by @justinkan 's tweet today where he did a 180 change on a tweet he made a couple years ago:

Read 16 tweets
22 Jul
Today's tweet thread is on the *real* secrets to content marketing that took me years to learn...

Read on >>
1) When I was starting my entrepreneurial journey, I had heard from other ppl that I should blog. Or that I should push content on social media. Or that I should do videos.

It was incredibly overwhelming advice. So many channels to try!

I also didn't know what I should post.
2) And then I would spend all this time creating a piece of content. And then push something out.

And then crickets. The content would fall flat.
Read 17 tweets

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