Fundraising

The fundamentals of pitching a startup during a pandemic are no different than pitching in normal times. In fact, there is a strong argument for looking at the crisis as an opportunity to start...

How long does it take to raise capital? Why am I not getting term sheets when other companies are? Is that investor really interested? These are among the most common questions entrepreneurs ask themselves and VCs. Rounds...

You had a great idea. You built a great team. You know that hardware is a significant part of the product but also provides defensibility. Then why are you still hearing too many polite...

The term pre seed has really become institutionalized in the last couple years, before that the idea / powerpoint stage wasn’t called by any other specific name. Let’s delve into definitions before  1) Definitions There is...

Previous articles have talked about party rounds and keeping momentum in your fundraising. This one will focus specifically on the close, which ideally is a foregone conclusion but sometimes becomes the period of highest...

Examples of previous articles: Raising A Bridge Round -- 3 Core Principles Insider Rounds -- the Good, the Bad and the Ugly How Best to Pitch to a VC The Art And Science of...

At Tau Ventures we believe the fundraising process is always a bit broken -- it works for some startups some of the time but by and large it’s inefficient. While part of it is...

Genius is in the details that other people skim.  Answer me honestly. When’s the last time you bothered to read beyond the first line of a Terms and Conditions agreement or take the time to...

1) Preferred vs Common Historically there have been two types of stock: preferred and common. Preferred is for investors, common for everyone else including founders. When a company has an exit, preferred gets paid...

If there is one thing that most startups misunderstand entirely, that’s probably fundraising. Thus, they create their own mental image of what needs to be done to raise money successfully. After interacting with more...

If your VC wants to invest more in you then you have a good problem in your hands. Here are five practical ways to think about it. 1) Prorata (and Super Prorata) A prorata is the...

Entrepreneurs always look for the right recipe to increase the odds of success. Steve Blank was probably one of the “recipe” pioneers as he started the lean startup movement. Before the lean movement, I would...

Pitch decks are a topic of permanent debate, no matter how much has been written about them. As such, this article will focus on 10 guidelines we advocate for entrepreneurs. Hopefully they can be...

What is the right cap and discount for your convertible? Should you even have them at all? The latter used to be a very rare situation, now it is a commonly asked question. This...

$530M round: Snyk snags another $530M as valuation rises to $8.5B $400M round: Cityblock Health raises another mega-round of funding, tipping its valuation over $5 billion $130M round: TrueLayer raises mega-round as open banking heats up These...

If you are asking the question then you probably already believe in the answer. Pitchbook is a company focused on analysis and research in VC, PE and M&A and per their data till the end...

Someone wants to give you money before you start fundraising? When you still have cash in the bank? And you are getting a great valuation? Hurray! But while it’s almost always a good thing, there...

When it comes to startup fundraising, using intermediaries is looked disfavorably in many if not most ecosystems. Three key reasons for this trend -- more investors around, technology has made coordination and communication increasingly...

This is an article meant primarily for entrepreneurs and LPs (limited partners i.e., those investing in a VC fund), albeit we think it’s useful for VCs too. Managing Partners are typically the ones managing...

Signaling risk typically happens when a large fund comes into an early round, creating an expectation in the market that they will lead the next round. For instance, if a $1B firm puts in...