Tag Archives: VC

The two goals of startup fundraising

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Money’s been flowing. VCs have been investing money at levels not seen since the bubble year of 2000. Entrepreneurs have been raising enormous amounts of money at valuations that assume years of future growth and eventual profitability. So what’s the downside of all this? That entrepreneurs mistake what they’re reading on Techcrunch as the reality for their own companies both now and for the foreseeable future. Raising money seems like a cakewalk, but that’s only because you don’t read about the failed financings, down rounds and recaps nearly as much as the unicorns and decacorns. And warning signs are emerging that the cascade of cash is about to end. The reality may be very different soon, and that’s something that we’ve emphasized to our Homebrew partner companies as they’ve hit the fundraising trail this year. Fundraising is confusing, frustrating and all-consuming at its worst and informative, exciting and rewarding at its best. But regardless of the process, we like to say that for all startups there are only two goals in the fundraising process: put money in the bank and maintain optionality.

Put money in the bank: The number one goal of fundraising is to get money in the bank so that you have the opportunity to solve the problem you set out to solve. If you’re fortunate enough to have a story or metrics that attract multiple term sheets, feel free to aggressively negotiate pricing, structure, syndicate partners, etc. But more likely is that you won’t have so many options and you’ll need to accept the terms you’re offered (more or less) so that you can live to fight another day. The number one cause of company failure is running out of money. And many times the key to winning is just surviving so that market timing finally lines up with your product or service. If you want to build a high-growth, venture-backed startup, do whatever it takes to push cash on the balance sheet. That way, you’ll be able to fund operations to hit the next set of milestones that will allow you to raise additional capital or achieve profitability.

Maintain optionality: It’s incredibly tempting to raise as much money as you can at as high a valuation as you can. All startups believe that with more money they will accomplish more in the same amount of time. But in our experience, constraint is what yields innovation and results. More money typically yields more spending. Companies often end up trying to solve problems by hiring more people and burning more cash. In the meantime, the bar for the next financing has been set much higher because investors expect to see greater results given the larger amount of money and the higher price at which it was raised. Everytime you raise money, consider that you’re cutting off possible paths in your financing/exit decision tree with every increase in dollars raised and valuation. While every founder envisions building a unicorn, the odds are that if your company is successful, that success will be at an exit value much lower than $1 billion. So why not approach your financing in a way that maximizes your options for raising more money when you have additional data that gives you the confidence to take more risk and double down on the business? Or why not maintain the option of accepting an acquisition offer or going public at a fair valuation and still generating incredible wealth for you, your employees and your investors? With a currently mixed exit environment (even for unicorns) and historical exit data skewing much lower than $200 million, maintaining optionality through your financing can be the difference between surviving or winning and the failed financings, down rounds and recaps that no one wants to talk about.

Raising large amounts of money has been glorified. Being able to do it quickly and painlessly has become the expectation. But the reality is very different and likely to become more so as the market adjusts to a reality with few exits and difficult to justify valuations. So just remember that at the end of the day, only two things matter when it comes to fundraising. Put money in the bank and maintain optionality. Give yourself the ability to control your startup’s destiny and take on more risk only when you feel ready.

No surprises: The key to the founder/VC relationship and avoiding the “Oh shit” board meeting

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In the VC business, there is a running joke about the “Oh shit” board meeting – the first one that takes place after an investment has been made.  That’s when all of the bad news that was hidden during the diligence process gets uncovered and the VC is faced with the reality of the business for the first time (and the founders are faced with the reality of the partner they just “married”!)  At Homebrew, when we partner with a startup in support of the founders’ vision, we expect to share in the good, the bad and the ugly.  And we expect to share in it well before we invest.  After all, startups aren’t all rainbows and unicorns (see what I did there? 🙂 ).  Bad hires get made, product releases fall flat and revenue doesn’t materialize.  These challenges are not the exception, they are the rule, particularly at the seed stage.  So we believe that the key to successful relationships between founders and their VCs is one simple rule: No Surprises.  And the application of that rule starts well before a formal partnership is formed between VCs and a founding team.

Accordingly, when we evaluate potential investment opportunities at Homebrew, we try to make the diligence process beyond the first meeting feel like a series of working sessions, which in part help expose potential surprises for both sides.  We find that this approach provides us with both a better understanding of how the founders think and a deeper appreciation for the nuances of the business.  Most importantly, it helps both sides get a feel for what it would be like to work together.  In these sessions, we tend to be pretty open and direct about what we find compelling and concerning about the startup.  We ask the entrepreneurs to be equally honest about not just their business, but also about the possibility of working with us.  What questions or concerns do they have?  What kind of help are they seeking from investors?  Are they concerned about forming a board and having board meetings?  Nothing is off limits in those sessions, because the last thing we want is for either side to go into a long-term relationship based on misinformation or misaligned expectations. We build the relationship on No Surprises.

On an ongoing basis, information needs to be shared openly and in a timely manner.  As major investors in your company, it’s failure if we’re hearing significant news for the first time in a monthly email update or at a board meeting.  No Surprises means that everyone has the same information at the same time so that they can react as a cohesive team.  And the No Surprises rule should apply to both sides.  Entrepreneurs should never be surprised by their VC, whether it’s related to personnel, business metrics, follow-on decisions or anything else. Trust is fundamental in startups, but it’s possibly even more important in an effectively permanent founder/VC relationship.  And living by the No Surprises rule helps keep that foundation of trust pristine.

So do yourself a favor when talking to investors.  Establish the No Surprises rule for both sides.  You’ll avoid the “Oh shit” board meeting and have a great long-term partnership as a result.

Homebrew’s 1%: The VC Metrics Behind Investing in One of Every 100 Companies We Meet

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Most VCs spend a significant amount of their time generating and evaluating new investment opportunities.  When Hunter and I started our Homebrew seed fund last year, one of the common questions from potential LPs was “How will you generate deal flow?”  Our hypothesis at the time was that we would generate investment opportunities from four primary sources: our personal networks, other investors, inbound thematic leads and proactive outreach.  Now that we’ve closed out 2013 we thought it would be useful to share our data in hopes that entrepreneurs who want to get in front of us or other VCs can learn a few lessons about how VC deal flow works.  So here’s a look into our pipeline for 2013 (note: this isn’t 100% accurate as we certainly missed tracking every single opportunity we reviewed and every meeting we took).

First, the high level funnel metrics:

  • 885 opportunities evaluated (100%)
  • 399 first meetings or calls (45%)
  • 71 further diligence, defined as second meeting or greater (8%)
  • 11 investment offers made (1.2%)
  • 9 investments closed (1.0%)

Let’s breakdown where our opportunities came from:

  • 55% from entrepreneurs and executives in our network
  • 16% from other investors (includes angels, VCs, accelerators, etc.)
  • 4% from service providers (legal, finance, etc.)
  • 25% from other sources (inbound, proactive outreach or ideation)

And what about the 71 opportunities where we dove deeper?

  • 41 from entrepreneurs and executives in our network
  • 25 from other investors
  • 5 from other sources

Finally, here are the sources for the companies we wanted to invest in:

  • 9 from entrepreneurs and executives in our network
  • 1 from another investor
  • 1 from another source

Our Takeaways

When we reviewed this funnel there were a few things that jumped out at us.  First, our hypothesis about where opportunities would come from was largely confirmed.  Second, we were surprised by the percentage of our opportunities that come from “Other Sources”. However, upon reflection, we realized that the 25% came about by design.  At Homebrew, we actually review and respond to nearly every opportunity that comes to us via a credible or thoughtful email.  Why do we do this even when the data suggests that those opportunities tend not to become investments?  Because we appreciate that Silicon Valley is a tightly networked community and that not everyone has access to that network.  While we focus on SF and NY, we understand that innovation and talented entrepreneurs can emerge anywhere. That belief is embedded in our Bottom Up Economy thesis.  The other reason for the high percentage is that given our thematic focus, we try to be proactive about reaching out to entrepreneurs thinking about or companies operating in markets that we are excited about. We are thrilled to work with entrepreneurs who are early in their thinking.  For us, it’s incredibly rewarding to help formulate, refine or even test ideas.  And we anticipate doing even more of that going forward.  The final takeaway from the data for us was that we aren’t yet seeing as many high quality opportunities from other investors as we would like.  We’ve participated in syndicates with many notable institutional and angel investors but it’s also possible that we haven’t done enough to educate other investors about who we are and how we can be great partners.  We have a plan for tackling this in 2014.

Lessons for Entrepreneurs

Warm introductions are critical.  Unfortunately, the reality is that most VCs can’t or aren’t willing to spend the time needed to review opportunities that come over the transom given how few ever turn into investments.  So it’s not new news, but your best bet as an entrepreneur is to find some way to get a warm introduction to potential investors.

The best cold intro has data or a demo.  If you’re going to send an email to Homebrew, we’re most interested when you can share data or a demo.  Talking about an idea that you have or seeking general advice about entrepreneurism doesn’t give us enough context to engage.

Expect to hear “no”.  As the data suggests, somewhere around 1% of companies we see receive funding from us.  And that number (1%-2%) holds true for most venture firms we know.  As an entrepreneur raising capital, it can feel like the world is against you and you alone.  But the truth is that everyone hears no and everyone hears it often.  It’s not personal, so keep fighting for that “yes”.

No second chances for first impressions.  We end up speaking to or meeting with less than 50% of the companies we are introduced to.  And we spend more time with less than 20% of the companies we meet or speak to once.  What message you deliver in that introduction or first interaction matters a great deal (admittedly unfairly so).  Seek feedback on your messaging or your pitch before sharing it with potential investors.  Prepare for meetings by listing and answering all of the questions you have about your business, because investors are likely to ask the same ones.  Research your audience by using their website, social media posts and their existing portfolio to understand more about how they might think about your business.  While we’ll share more of our thoughts in the future, Mark Suster has an oldie but goodie on how to prepare for a VC meeting.

Thanks to all of the entrepreneurs who gave us the opportunity to know them in 2013!  We’re able to share this data because of your interest in working with Homebrew.