Фандрайзинг 101 Лекция ВШЭ

Александр Дресен Kown - The Lean Investor Club

@alekskown

Фандрайзинг 101

Who am I?• Product, code, sell

• As entrepreneur: 2 exits, 2 +/- ok, 3 fails

• Seedcamp, Eleven, Startup Chile, A-tier funds, >50 angels

• Invested in 1st round in 19 co’s: 1 exit

• Fintech, (Fashiontech, Crazy-stuff)

@alekskown [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Mobile app for AngelList

Before you start

• Check other people’s failures

• What is it that you want to do?

• Who can help you and how?

Sanctions don’t affect startups

• Forget that you are located in Russia - global vision

• Use power of the Internet to connect to anyone

• Investors don’t give a shit about nationalities

Investors care about great entrepreneurs &

disruptive scalable stuff

How do you become a great entrepreneur?

Make mistakes.

Make BIG mistakes.

Max Levchin

You learn a lot more from failure than from success.

#1: (co-)Founders are KING

• Don’t be a solo player

• Don’t just get cofounders to have cofounders

• Be ready that your friends, colleagues, employees become enemies

#2: Building a startup = rough

• Unpredictable

• Murphy’s law

• People suck

• Investors suck

• 99% fail. Failure is part of life

Startup #Mafia

#3: Focus on what really is important

PR SUCCESS

Звезды #R стартапов

Площадки для самопиара

• Rusbase

• Firrma

• Конкурсы

• Рейтинги

powered by $ from РВК

Рейтинги инвест привлекательности?

ААА АBA BBB XX?

No one gives a fuck.

What is wrong with #R startups?

• False sense of inferiority

• Go-west mentality

• Over-expectations of smart money

• Wrong KPIs (PR, Grants, Contests,…)

Biggest problem in #R:

being underfunded

2nd biggest problem in #R:

small-minded investors who crave control

3nd biggest problem in #R:

Инвесторы считают что фаундера можно легко

заменить

Result: snails survival mode

Понять, простить Российскиe фонды

So who can give you $?

The Investors

• Huge difference between SV, LATAM, EU & Russia

• Angels

• Private Equity

• VC’s

• New Investors (non-tech)



Different type of investors at different stages

• Vision + Team + MVP

• Product + Product Market fit + Some traction

• Revenue + LTV + CAC + clear growth strategy



Talk to the right investors at the right time



VC’s

Most #R VC’s are followers

• Most VC’s underperform and struggle to get access to hot startups.

• The leading 3% VC’s make 90% of all returns in startups.

• Analyst→Principal→Associate→Partner (decision)



How to connect to VC’s

• Be introduced by founders VC’s have backed previously

• Be introduced by someone they know and trust (angels, ban’s, accelerators …)

• Get noticed through TRACTION



Angels

• (ex)Entrepreneurs & top exec’s (senior)

• Invest from $20K to $100K

• Make 1 or 2 deals a year and take ages to decide

• Painful valuation & long negotiations

• Painful and long selection process

• Very (very) slow decisions

• Invest from $100K to millions $

Business Angel Clubs

35

Don’t talk to corporate investors too early

You’ll get fucked

Friends Family Fools ФРИИ

Don’t take $ from 3F

Modern fundraising tools

Investing is about trust


Before you start fundraising.


Build a relationship (first)

Find out everything you can about the investor

• Hobbies

• Previous investments

• Background

• Twitter, FB, Linkedin, …

Build trust through shared interests, views, …

The pitch is dead

Tell a story

What is the most important?• The Pain

• Context

• Emotional connection

• Your Product

• Business Model

• Team

• Market size

• Competition

• Traction



What is the most important?• The Pain

• Context

•Emotional connection • Your Product

• Business Model

• Team

• Market size

• Competition

• Traction



Tell your story

• Forget the slides … when you talk to investors … tell your story, vision and plans



Make the investor LOVE what you do



The “customer” investor

The “parent” investor

Be ready for investors

• Prepare, prepare, prepare

• MSP - have a product

• Traction

• What’s next



Know your risks



Know your competitors



Projections?

• Assumptions are useless until you have sales and understand customer acquisition costs and lifetime value of a client



Investing is to fundraising what sex is to dating



Time = $



Valuations (don’t) matter

• Max. 10/15% per round

• Even the best projects don’t get follow-up funding if your cap table is fucked up

• Get enough runway per round



Investor English

• Contact me when X or Y happens =

• What is yr business model? =

• What is your exit strategy? =

• How did you calculate your valuation? =



Где “легко” взять $

The weather

The Completo

The Food

The Wine

The LATAM Market

Americas GIA Member, Market Intelligence

“Халявные” $40K

http://www.startupchile.org/

http://www.startupchile.org/

• Cash (Euro 50,000)

• F+ck+ng amazing network

• Founders

• Investors

• Mentors

http://seedcamp.com/

http://seedcamp.com/

• Sofia (Bulgaria)

• Euro 25K for 8%

• Euro 75K convertible note

• Russian-friendly

http://11.me/

• Now: invest in 2 startups per month (exp. 5-10 per month in 2015)

• Very fast decisions

• Founder-centric (we founders)

• Huge network

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]?subject=

Stuff you should know

• Legal (you need to have a lawyer)

• Liquidation preference

• Smart money is as rare as a unicorn

• Devil is in the details

[email protected] @alekskown


Фандрайзинг 101 Лекция ВШЭ

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