Flora: Asher Bio raised its first $1M on SAFEs with an idea
Brad Flora · How Startup Fundraising Works | Startup School · Y Combinator · Mar 29, 2023 · at 17:26
Brad Flora illustrates how early SAFE rounds provide biotech startups with leverage before raising traditional institutional venture rounds.
0:00 / 0:29exact quote · 29.9s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“The founders of Asher came into YC with just the idea. And they were able to raise the first round of funding using safes quickly from angels. This is pretty novel for a biotech company. And using that first million or so that they raised, they could accelerate their progress. They could make more progress in the lab. And when they were ready to start talking to larger investors in the pharma space about a proper round, they'd made a lot more progress and they had more leverage in talking to those investors. They've since raised over a hundred and fifty million dollars”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Brad Flora
Flora: Early-stage startups learn nothing from ad-acquired customers
“You don't learn anything when you get a customer from an ad at an early stage.”
Flora: Early-stage founders prioritizing self-service are hiding from customers
“When we see people, oh, like let's jump to self-service early on. It's, in some ways you wonder like, oh, they're, they want to hide behind their computers versus going out and talking to their customers and really grappling with their problems and their pain.”
Flora: Pitch competitions are marketing events where investors do not invest
“Shark Tank, the pitch competitions, the business plan competitions, they're just for show. They're marketing events for the organizations that put them on. And in fact, a lot of the investors at these things, they don't invest. They're just there to meet other…”
Flora: The best startups seem the most terrible at first
“See, most startups seem terrible at first. And in fact, the best startups seem the most terrible at first.”
Flora: Nobody uses discounts in SAFE fundraising rounds
“The amount of the investment, the valuation cap of the investment, and then the discount. And guess what? Nobody does discounts. So there's only two terms that you really need to discuss when closing a safe.”
Flora: Founders using SAFEs retain more control than ever in history
“Founders have had more, have more control over their companies today than ever in the history of startups. And why is this? It's because when you raise with safes, you don't give up any board seats. All right. There's no board seat nonsense in safes. After you…”