Climbing the Mountain

Raising seed stage capital is a tricky business these days. I went to Part one of the Orrick, “TOTAL ACCESS Fundraising Series”, put on by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in Menlo Park.. Chad Lynch organizes it and he does a great job. He pulled together a stellar list of speakers.

Some nuggets that came out of it :

- The Kieretsu Forum has a good way of defining the funnel for investment. Approximately one in a hundred companies get funded

- Funding sources are changing. Historically Angels have been smaller investors and VCs larger. That may be blurring. Sequoia recently made a $20k investment (tiny in their portfolio), while 6 angels banded together and made a $1.3M investment

- Large markets are key. If you are in a large market then you have the time to zig and zag and get your solution truly honed to the customer. A small market gives you less time to fine tune your offering.

- The #1 issue is the team. As it takes on average 9 years to get to exit, it is imperative that the team members are strong, and that means honest and trustworthy. Investing was compared to a marriage so the team must be driven to succeed, have unique insight and operate ethically.

These Orrick sessions are free to entrepreneurs so don’t hesitate to contact me or Chad Lynch publications@orricklawfirm.com to get more information.

More to come

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