Brad Feld

Your question has been sent to Brad Feld. Ask another

• What's the simplest and most powerful piece of information you should have in a venture deck? Graph going upward?

  • 

    It will vary by investor.

    For me, it’s a clear sense of what you are creating and why it matters.

• Is it acceptable for founders to pay themselves with funding they receive?

  • 

    Absolutely – most investors will expect this. However, salaries – especially at the beginning – should be modest. Just enough so you aren’t thinking about how to pay rent and eat.

• What's the best time to raise for web based startups? Eg; when newly launched, generate user base and then raise?

  • 

    Raise as little money as you need. Wait as long as you can to make the most progress without money.

• What VCs are looking for in startups? In order eg; 1. Solid Team 2. Great Idea etc.

  • 

    It varies dramatically – different investors care about different things.

    In general, team and product dominate, but some investors are very focused on market size and opportunity. There are also some investors that think you can “fix team after the fact” (I’m not one of them), while there are others that pay no attention to the product and just focus on the team.

    The best advice I could give here is to actually know the individual investors desires and strategy as it varies by investor.

• We bootstrapped our SaaS product and it's developed and launched. Now we're juggling trying to ramp up sales while preparing our investor pitch. Any tips for doing this efficiently? We're feeling very "chicken or the egg".

  • 

    There’s no magic here – it’s just a ton of work. If your product is launched, you’ve got to run like crazy to get and support customers. Investors are going to suck time – the best approach here is to have one of the founders focus all their energy on this while everyone else works on customers / products.

• What is the best approach for on-boarding/messaging beta testers with the idea of eventually converting them to paid customers?

  • 

    There is a huge amount on the web about freemium models. Rather than re-create the wheel, go find some great examples (Dropbox and Evernote immediately come to mind), study them, and so something similar.

• Hi Brad, I have a solving problem biz, but i don't know a software developer and I am sure the biz will work. i am in london and all londoner need it. Any hints

  • 

    Go find out where the developers hang out and hang out with them. “Find a co-founder” rather than “hire a developer”. We’ve written about this plenty in Do More Faster – www.domorefasterbook.com

• What's the best way to line up meetings with investors for an internationally patented amazing innovate niche technology?

  • 

    The best way is always to use your network. There is no magic here – you have to just work hard at it.

• What are some of the most future-facing, interesting investment models out there today? Some that immediately come to mind are Y Combinator/First Fund and First Light Ventures Village Capital.

  • 

    As a co-founder of TechStars, I’d put us front and center with this – both TechStars and the TechStars Network. Take a look at www.techstars.org

• Can you point me towards some successful startups that have team members spread across the globe. I live in Scotland, and there isn't really a strong startup culture here (that I can find), and I don't really want to be restricted by the skills and resources I have locally.

  • 

    Automattic (the folks that do WordPress) is the best example I know of. They’ve done a great job of this.