Dear SaaStr: What Are Some Things That Make a Founder Look Naive to VCs?
Dear SaaStr: What Are Some Things That Make a Founder Look Naive to VCs? First, being a bit naive in fundraising is fine, overall. Sometimes, endearing. Being too polished, especially as a first-time VC, can almost be a negative for seed and early stage investors. (Although it starts to be expected by later stage VCs).... Continue Reading The post Dear SaaStr: What Are Some Things That Make a Founder Look Naive to VCs? appeared first on SaaStr.
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Dear SaaStr: What Are Some Things That Make a Founder Look Naive to VCs?
First, being a bit naive in fundraising is fine, overall. Sometimes, endearing.
Being too polished, especially as a first-time VC, can almost be a negative for seed and early stage investors. (Although it starts to be expected by later stage VCs).
But a few things that make early-stage founders look less fundable in my experience:
- Mocking the competition, especially successful competition. The best founders do win, but they also profoundly respect the competition — and understand and learn from them.
- Hiding core issues during fundraising. Hiding that they don’t really have a CTO, or that they’ve already raised a ton of money, or other big issues. Get them out there, at least during fundraising.
- Thinking they can Go Big with just a tiny team or only a tiny amount of funding — unless there are exceptions reasons why. Sometimes this is possible, but it’s rare. Yes, maybe there will be a wave of 1 person unicorns. But if that’s you, prove it. Make the numbers really work. It’s probably going to have to be a super-viral, freemium service then.
- Arrogance. At least, too much. This just never plays well. I love the SaaStr Annual talk from the co-CEO of Atlassian below saying he still has Imposter Syndrome. Confidence is important. Maybe even a lot of confidence if the numbers back it up. But be careful crossing the line to arrogant and/or disrespectful.
- Generic outreach. The best founders reach out with amazing emails. Not generic emails that could go to anyone. Personlize, personalize, personalize, For real.
- Not knowing the VC you are pitching. This is just way too common. A version of the prior point. Read their bio. Research the fund. It doesn’t take that long, folks. This leads to almost instant dequalification.
- Anyone but CEO doing outreach. Many VCs say this, for a reason. It’s very true.
More here:
The SaaStr MiniGuide to Pitching, Raising and Closing VC Funding
The post Dear SaaStr: What Are Some Things That Make a Founder Look Naive to VCs? appeared first on SaaStr.
