10 takeaways from
@SuperteamUSA event on Raising Funds + managing your startup
- Superteam is an incredible resource
Everything from networking, leads, grants provided by an incubator that takes no equity. Couldn't get more helpful and bullish than that.
- 1st goal is to stay alive
Lofty goals are great, but the first order of business is not dying. Simply surviving longer than competition can already be a major win.
- Hire slow, fire fast
A bad hire can be a cancer on your organization. Make sure they align with company values, vet slowly and be quick to cut the cancers out.
- be ready to pivot
Many times market conditions, better products, etc change the opportunity set of your original thesis. Be prepared to change course when necessary and quickly enough to survive.
- bigger valuation =/= better
Huge valuations look good for announcements, but often leave both founders and investors in a bad position later. It can stunt future rounds, and can be an embarrassment when you can't do atleast a 2x on the next round.
- secure warm intros
The person who introduces you is atleast as important as the quality of your idea. With so much AI slop, having a quality person with credentials presents you automatically increases your odds with investors.
- Acquisitions can be > IPOs
IPOs are often hyped, but acquisitions can allow you to scale faster under a major company, or survive a storm from a strong competitor. Don't be quick to rule them out.
- Lean team = good
Don't become payroll bloated, save things like dedicated legal, compliance, etc departments for a scaled business. Close tight-knit, AI empowered teams are great for early in your startup, and strong.
- product should be 10x improvement
If your product isn't a standard deviation atleast of increase in ease of use, quality, etc it will be hard to gain traction. It can be 3-5x sometimes, but factor that into your valuation.
- Don't force ideas that aren't working due to sunken cost fallacies
It's better to sunset an idea that the team has worked on for months if it doesn't fit the market, than to ship it anyway. Keep it in the backlog and use when the time calls for it.