One of the reasons I’ve written these resource pages in our Notion instance for technical founders is because selling and fundraising is really, really challenging, and it also requires technical founders to constantly “switch gears” from their sweet spot (eng/tech/product) to selling and fundraising. Growing a business is hard, hard work, and it requires founders to use a skill set that may feel challenging and uncomfortable.
Many of the founders that I work with initially contact me about sales issues, but eventually, they begin asking me about fundraising, either in the form of “when should I fundraise?,” “how much should I raise?,” “how should I set my valuation?” and “what kinds of people should I take (or not take) money from?”
So, I’ve assembled a short list of what I would read if I had to study up rather quickly on corp dev (in 2019 or 2020), especially if I didn’t have an advisor, or a lawyer who was that well-versed in venture deals. I’m trying to deliver, below, what will teach you the most about funding your startup with a minimum time investment.
Most of the founders I meet are under the illusion that corp dev is the hard part. I have found fundraising to be challenging and, at times, difficult, but rarely do I find raising a round an achievement to be cause for great celebration. The real work begins when the wire transfer clears.
- Tools: You’re going to need to use a tool to stay organized. I prefer Pipedrive (that code gets you 30 days free, and if you email me [my first name at my first name my last name dot calm] I can usually get it extended to a 90-day free trial). The other one I’ve been testing lately for fundraising is Foundersuite, which is essentially what Pipedrive would look like if it were built explicitly for fundraising. (Promo code RC2019 is good for 30% off a month of their silver or gold plan). Our Foundersuite promo code is METZ40 (that gives you a one-year subscription for 40% off).
- The Startup Playbook: In general, Rajat Bhargava’s and Will Herman’s book is short, inexpensive and rather direct. Part three of this book is a nice, short and direct primer. I like the way Rajat and Will put their book together because you can basically hand it to any smart high school freshman and they’ll get the gist of it in under an hour.
- Venture Deals, 4th Edition: This one, I actually prefer on audiobook. Brad Feld is a funnier guy than most people give him credit for, and as much as I love Eric Ferraro and Perry Narancic (my two go-to attorneys for venture and software I.P.), I love how much Feld makes fun of attorneys. The audio version of this one is a steal at $9.98. It will take 6.5 hours to listen to this.
- I don’t think you need to read the entire Angel book by Jason Calacanis as a founder, but it would be really smart to listen to the first 3 episodes of season one. If you want to understand what early-stage angel investors are looking for in your startup, this will be very helpful. They come as the bonus content with the audiobook version of Angel, and they’re very good interviews, and often rather funny. It will take about 90 minutes to listen to these three. That said, if you’re not a founder and you’re doing angel investing, this book is fantastic. Even if you’re an aspiring angel investor who’s supplementing your 401k/IRA doing stuff like eREITs, crowdfunding pseudo-angel stuff like Republic or Seedinvest, it’s a great book.
Bonus: If you get to the point where you end up needing to form a board for your startup, get the Brad Feld Startup Board book. Absolutely great stuff, and even very useful for aspiring or new angel investors who want to understand how to be valuable in their board roles.