Hunter Walk advises a hardware founder on targeting retired industry executives for early funding rather than traditional angels.
Insight
Rushing into equal co-founder partnerships after brief dating is horrible
“The worst are the people who, like, think that you have to, and they do, like, two weeks of founder dating, and, you know, then become equal partners. It's horrible.”
Insight
Founders with specific domain expertise offer value when cold-emailing investors
“When you have very specific knowledge and expertise, you're not just asking, you are already exchanging. Even if they don't need your help right now, they're adding you as somebody that they might be able to reach to in the future”
Insight
Hunter Walk: Founder team dynamics are harder to read over Zoom
“The challenge I think sometimes, especially when you're talking to, you know, teams that are two or three founders, is I really care about the dynamics between those founders, and sometimes it's harder to read those across three different Zoom windows than it …”
Disclosure
Homebrew backs single founders who reserve equity for future founding teams
“Well, of course many of the companies we invest in have, you know, founder teams of two or three people already together. We've also made investments where it's a single founder who is then going to build what they call a founding team around them, and is sett…”
Insight
Stacking convertible notes often causes unanticipated and severe equity dilution
“It can often feel like free money until it converts, and then you're trying to figure out all these notes with different caps, and different discount rates, and different interest accrued. Yeah. And all of a sudden you realize you sold off more of your company…”
Insight
Cold emails showing pre-funding progress go a long way with investors
“I have a big belief that a good cold email, proof of being the type of entrepreneur who has developed something and even without funding, you know, has started to build a business goes a long way in the mind of an investor.”