Gumroad founder Sahil Lavingia details the company's early fundraising trajectory and growth rates prior to attempting a Series B.
Insight
Lavingia: Venture-backed startups need 10-20% MoM growth by Series A/B
“You need to be growing in the article, I say, 20% month over a month, but it can be 10%. It just needs to be sort of exponential or so. Or polynomial or whatever the correct math term is. And if you're doing that, you can stay on this path. If you're not doing…”
Insight
Lavingia: Pre-Seed VCs Abandon Founders Once the Investment Closes
“They're selling cash to get on your cap table and they're really good at that. But it's like the second they sell you the car. They, they're, they've sold you the car. I mean, they, you know, they've done the 90% of the work, you know, sort of pre-seed investo…”
Insight
Lavingia: Outsized Windfalls Drive Startup Work Ethic and Competition
“It's not that everyone has the expectation that they're going to become LeBron or Kanye West or anything like that, but the idea that it's possible and that one person is going to win the Hunger Games is going to really kind of, it drives the level of competit…”
Insight
Lavingia: VC Portfolio Theory Leaves Struggling Founders Completely Ignored
“The nice thing about the portfolio theory that VCs have is they don't care that much about you if it doesn't work either, right? So they're all, they're sort of focused on, on other things. They're kind of content to let you Figure it out. At least the good on…”
Insight
Lavingia: Startups must constantly project growth to retain venture capitalist backing
“Startups, like you have to signal that you're growing. You can't say, Hey guys, we're going to take a break, figure this thing out. Cause everyone's going to look at that and say, Oh, these like, as a venture capitalist, you don't want those people. You don't …”
Disclosure
Lavingia: Gumroad raised a $2M bridge round at 4x liquidation preference
“We raised a small bridge round, two million dollars at four-act liquidation preference from Kleiner and Mark Cuban and some other folks”