In Chapter 2 of Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist, we cover the basics of the VC fundraising drill.
Your goal when you are raising a round of financing should be to get several term sheets. While we have plenty of suggestions, there is no single way to do this, as financings come together in lots of different ways. VCs are not a homogeneous group; what might impress one VC might turn off another. Although we know what works for us and for our firm, each firm is different; so make sure you know who you are dealing with, what their approach is, and what kind of material they need during the fund-raising process. Following are some basic but by no means complete rules of the road, along with some things that you shouldn’t do.
In this chapter, we cover topics like Do or Do Not; There Is No “Try”, Determine How Much You Are Raising, Fund-Raising Materials, Due Diligence Materials, Finding the Right VC, Finding a Lead VC, How VCs Decide to Invest, and Closing the Deal.
Hopefully we are whetting your appetite for the tasty morsels to come.