Most Popular
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Hi Brad. Can you outline the keys to a giving a killer pitch to potential investors?
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There are two formats that are interesting to me: (1) short (6-8 minute) overview and (2) medium (15 – 30 minute) presentation.
For (1) use the first minute to get my attention (tell me what is important about what you do and why I should care), then use the next three minutes to tell a story that shows (rather than “tells”) about your product / solution, and then use the balance to build credibility about the team and your current status.
For (2) you can be a little more structured. Still use the first minute to tell me what you do and why I should care, but then slow down a little and focus on product, market, and team over the balance of the presentation.
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As a startup in the initial development stages, what do i need to approach investors?
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The more you have to show the better. Prototypes, demos, or early alphas are always helpful.
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What's the best time to raise for web based startups? Eg; when newly launched, generate user base and then raise?
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Raise as little money as you need. Wait as long as you can to make the most progress without money.
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I'm a married 41 yr old w/ 2 kids & a full time job currently working on a bootstrapped startup idea. According to recent posts, I'm regarded by VC's as over the hill and washed up in the web entrepeneur area. I get the reasoning, un-married 25 yr olds w/o kids can devote all their time, energy & passion into their dreams, whereas I have real world commitments that must come first. As an investor, do you share the same perspective? If so, should I stop working & get back to reality?
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Ignore the noise about age – it’s bullshit. I imagine some day someone will do a real regression study of success over a 200 year period and figure out whether or not age really matters, but this meme comes and goes. Focus on living your life and going after your passions. If that’s the startup idea, go for it!
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What sort of process do you suggest founders take to clarify a complex or difficult-to-communicate value proposition?
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Simplify, simplify, simplify. Find people that don’t know anything about the problem and explain it to them. Have them play it back to you. Keep tuning until they get it.
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You often speak of the importance of team members for the companies you invest. Are there any personal qualities/characteristics that you look for?
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I’m interested in two specific things.
The level of passion, dedication, and enthusiasm people have for their business.
The ability of the early team to work together – I pay close attention to how they interact.
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What is the process of the foundry group when considering an investment?
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Just email us (brad@feld.com). We focus on whether or not you fit in a theme of ours first. If you fit, then we spend time going deep with you and your product. If not, we pass immediately.
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What's the simplest and most powerful piece of information you should have in a venture deck? Graph going upward?
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It will vary by investor.
For me, it’s a clear sense of what you are creating and why it matters.
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What VCs are looking for in startups? In order eg; 1. Solid Team 2. Great Idea etc.
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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.
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When is the best time for initial funding: idea, business plan, prototype, working project, any other stage?
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There is no best time.
Make as much progress as you can before you take money.
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Hi Brad, I have sent you my company brief a month ago but I did not receive your feedback Thanks, Govinda
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Sorry – I must have missed it. I try to respond to everything. Can you resend it to me (brad@feld.com)?
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My new startup <a href="http://www.grabachat.co">www.grabachat.co</a> is currently getting ready to launch, within the next week or so, and I want to know from an investor
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Those two (traction vs. pivot – find product/market/fit) are basically the same thing. Almost by definition you’ll need to pivot around after you launch. So – just launch, pay attention to the feedback you get, and pivot quickly.
Also, each investor looks for different things. Don’t view “investors” as a single, one-dimensional beast.
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What are your thoughts about an entrepreneur obtaining a doctorate, how valuable would such an individual be to start-ups?
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A PhD is totally worthless to an entrepreneur. Ed Roberts (MIT) wrote magnificent things about this in the 1980s.
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What is a good way to start a personal training business? I also plan on owning my own gym.
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Just start!
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I've read Foundry tends to invest above $500k, and has only dropped down to $300k in a couple instances. If we are looking for a seed round in the $200k range, should we pitch you for angel investments & intros to other angels? Or should we only pitch you if it's a larger round that Foundry would participate in?
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We’ll do a $200k seed round – we don’t have a minimum.
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Is Investing your passion?
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No. My passion is helping amazing people create incredible things from scratch.
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How important is branding to an early stage startup?
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They key thing is to pick a brand / name, keep it simple, and stick with it. The worst thing you can do is keep changing it as you grow, or have a complex sub-branding scheme. However, the specific “brand” itself is not that important – beware the brand specialist who wants to charge you $10,000 to come up with something.
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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.
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Automattic (the folks that do WordPress) is the best example I know of. They’ve done a great job of this.
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How do you think about whether and to what degree non-technical founders should learn to program, given recent successful (to-date) self-taught founders at Yipit, SeatGeek, Everlater, etc.?
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I’m a huge believer in this, if for no other reason for the founders to understand how to use the tools to create the business they are ultimately going to be running. The Everlater guys are such a great story – I’ve done a few posts on this at www.feld.com
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What is the part of a business plan / venture that most people tend to miss/neglect when presenting it to you? I.e. what part of my business should I emphasize to not do that common(?) mistake?
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People often focus too much on the market and not enough on the product. For the stuff I invest in, I almost always know the market really well. I’m interested in YOUR unique approach to the market.
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As a sole founder in the concept stage do you think I should work alone and test assumptions until I find something worth talking about or is networking and meeting other people in the startup scene valuable?
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Meeting other people early is hugely valuable. At the minimum you’ll get lots of feedback; you might end up with a co-founder!
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Is it possible to create a novel startup (for example a platform for people to complain and be rewarded for the best gripes) gain users, and possibly make revenue off an advertsiing model?
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An advertising model will only work at very high usage volume. It’s certainly possible to do, but in almost all cases won’t generate enough revenue to be interesting.
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What advice do you have for someone who is thinking about trying an idea?
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Surround yourself with great people (partners and mentors) and GO FOR IT.
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Is there a formula for knowing how much money to raise?
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Nope. My general advice is “as little as you need to raise to get to the next validated step.”
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How do I provide value to my startup as a non-technical cofounder?
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It depends on your skills and background. Some non-technical founders can contribute meaningfully to the product and vision of the company, even if they can’t code. Others focus on the customer / business development side of things early, figuring out the market, finding early users, and working closely with early customers. Depending on the type of business, there are often plenty of other generalist roles, including operations and finance.
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Is it acceptable for founders to pay themselves with funding they receive?
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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.
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Is there a way for a founder (of a successful and profitable startup) to "pass go and collect 200$" without going through IPO or through a M&A?
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I’m not sure whether you mean $200 or $200,000,000. Obviously, the bigger the number, the hard it is to cash out at that level without a liquidity event. However, these days there are more options for partial liquidity events and stock sales of private company stock. In addition, if you are profitable, just consider distributing (or dividending) profits on a regular basis – that’s what my partner and I did with my first company (Feld Technologies).
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