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D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q And I think when we last spoke, you said you were looking at raising a two million dollar round, but you weren't sure if you were going to close it or not. You've been bootstrapped previously. What'd you end up deciding to do?
A I did raise, uh, two million dollars from Sequoia at a twenty million dollar valuation. I did that in 2020. Uh, we also got selected by Combinator, but we decided to not go ahead with it. Because, because this thing happened like one week before YC, YC was all remote. I'm a big YC fan, but it didn't make sense, you know, to dilute so much, uh, when we were already getting, they wanted what, seven, seven percent for a 125 K. Yeah, so they put you, they give you a standard valuation of, like, 2.1 post, and the, the, the disadvantage to that, Nathan, mainly is, it was remote, so you don't build a network, right? When you go into a thing like YC, the major takeaway or the major benefit is the network and the kind of people you meet. That, that doesn't happen over Zoom calls and, like, those Zoom sessions where a hundred people are coming together.
AI assessment note: “I did raise, uh, two million dollars from Sequoia at a twenty million dollar valuation.”
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D 5 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 3 4.15
Q Yep. Now, obviously, Sequoia put money in just at the same time at a twenty million valuation. YC wants a two million valuation. I mean, ultimately, did you want to do YC but Sequoia blocked it because it's a massive haircut on the valuation?
A Not really. I think Sequoia was very open about it. Uh, lots of other people in the same, uh, you know, cohort, like being funded at the same time, they did decide, my friends did decide to do with YC. Sequoia had no problem. I think they were like very cool as investors, very open-minded. If you have a reason to do it, they never block. I just, uh, spoke with a few of my existing customers where, you know, they wanted in at the previous valuation because I'm doing like my next round, but they wanted in at the previous valuation. And the reason is because these people are, like, extremely influential. They're people like you that can, like, promote this shit out of RichPanel. So they were like, you know, we, we, you know, we are your customers for the last two years. Give us in, and we want to, like, you know, work very closely with you. Because each time we do a catch-up, for a one-hour catch-up over, like, a review call, we're, like, 45 minutes discussing personal life, right? We're just helping each other grow, and, like, whatever. Both the founders both have, like, similar problems, and, like, similar shit that we go through. So, 45 minutes is that, and they're, like, you know, we want to invest in each other's success. And they did this and I went to Sequoia and they're like, yeah, absolutely cool. You know, it makes complete sense to have these people.
AI assessment note: “Not really. I think Sequoia was very open about it.”
