Zach Coelius, Managing Partner at Coelius Capital, discusses how startup founders should leverage fundraising conversations with VC associates at SaaStr Europa 2022.
“I think one of the other good things to think about when you work with associates is they can inform you about what they're seeing in the market in really powerful ways. So they spend A lot of time focused on your sector, your competitors, your ecosystem generally, and they're, they often get to meet with many of your competitors. They know a lot about what's happening that you may or may not have access to as a result of your day to day job. And so one of the things that you can do in that meeting is after you kind of share what you do, you can start asking a lot of questions. You can be like, Hey, what are you seeing? What's working? What's not working? Who's winning? Who's losing? And they can be this like, The source of really, really deep intelligence that is, it's incredibly powerful.”
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