4) It turned out to be bifurcated. A number of investors worked SO HARD. While a number of investors tended to other things.
Few really went on holiday. People were around.
5) This yr my prediction is that investors are going on holiday. It’s been too long sitting at home.
I think it will be harder than last year to get in front of investors at this time of year.
6) Investors have done SO MANY deals this year that I think it will slow this holiday season. They have already exhausted a lot of capital and are pretty tired.
7) And as such if you haven’t started your process and have runway through q1, I would strongly recommend (and what I’m telling all my portfolio companies) raising in Jan.
8) If you are mid-way through your raise, try to get this done before mid-Dec or wrap up whatever you can by then to get through the end of the yr.
9) It’s not that it’s impossible to raise at this time of the yr but it’s just really hard to vie for attention. And if you are in the mkt for “too long” ppl start to wonder why other investors didn’t back you even if it’s just bad timing. I’ve seen many companies “get stuck”.
10) In many ways, it’s also better to get pitch mtgs on calendars when they’re blank slates.
As opposed to trying to fight for mtg slots that are limited and not packed together with your other investor slots.
10) tl;dr get the round / tranche done / start wrapping up.
I’d recommend to start prepping for a Jan raise and get on calendars now while you have your choice of timing for pitch mtgs.
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2) There are a few kinds of fake investors -- ppl who:
-Pretend to be investors to gather info (usually for competitors but sometimes just to learn)
-Have no $$ but wish they did & like to "play investor"
-Are delusional & make commitments they cannot uphold & then renege
Startups are chaotic. But, the goal is to take that chaos and turn them into repeatable processes.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks I see founders do is they do too much "random sh*t" for too long instead of turning them into processes.
More here >>
1) A big reason for this is it takes time to create processes, so it feels easier to do "random sh*t".
But, it's better to carve out some time to create processes for long-run gain.
Here are common pitfalls where ppl do "random sh*t" for way too long.
2) Getting intros for fundraising en masse. The founders who are best at this have a curated list. They do their research on ppl. They outreach in a methodical way and everything is planned.
2) Doing a startup is a marathon. It's pretty brutal. You have to train. And you have to pace. And you have to rest. But sometimes you have to sprint. But most ppl can't sprint the whole way.
One of the fascinating things about investing in startups is the risk to reward profile.
A quick thread >>
1) I just tweeted about friends who have done really well in crypto. Eg if you got into Solana at $0.50-0.60 per token just last year (so not even the exclusive pre-sale price), you’d be up 300x!