fundraising

“What matters is that you grow up, you get out there, and I think for any kind of fundraising, it's ultimately not about the valuation. It's really about the team and the path you set yourself up for after that.”

“If you step back and take a more kind of macro view on it, you should try to raise money about every two years.”

“All other things being equal in a financing round, you can have somebody who's very nice and very smart from a no-name firm, or somebody who is equivalent from a big-name firm, your future fundraising will be much easier if you pick the second person.”

“So it's not a valuation driver. I now think of it as a financing enabler, right? Okay. So a higher one isn't necessarily by itself going to drive a higher valuation, but I could tell you if you don't have a high enough one, you're not going to be able to raise…”

“The ability to raise money is what separates the winners From the runners up and the losers.”

“You want to raise the money when you don't need the money, because then you can act financially independent because you don't need the deal.”

“The biggest thing I tell people is compress the process. You can, you know, I think one thing we can all agree on, you should spend most of your time not fundraising, and so do whatever you can to take that process, and when you start it, finish it as fast as …”

“When I say that fundraising is like hiring, what I mean is, if you can, try to apply the same logic I just shared about hiring a teammate to fundraising, right? This is someone that's going to join your company, Albeit part-time, not full-time. Although a lot …”

“Be conservative on how much you ask. You can always raise more. You can always raise more than you ask. And those things will just increase the odds in stressful times that you raise the money.”