VC Minute
Quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better. Founders, do you feel like you're fundraising on an uneven playing field? You are. The VC minute is here to help you level up. Venture capitalists navigate pitches and negotiate investments every day. They know the ins and outs and are up-to-date on the current funding environment. But as a founder, it may be your first foray into fundraising, and no matter how much success you've had in other areas nothing truly prepares you for the fundraising journey. The VC Minute was created to help founders close this gap. While it may seem like securing an investment at the seed stage is mostly driven by luck, there are steps founders can take to increase the odds of successfully raising a round. And that's what we're going to cover on the VC Minute through a series of short episodes. I'm going to share with you insights to help navigate the seed stage financing dynamics. I'm Rich Maloy, Managing Partner at SpringTime Ventures with 25 years business experience a dozen years in the startup ecosystem. I've applied my experience from sales, finance, and venture investing, to help startup founders fundraise better.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 2 minutes
- Episodes
- 275
- Years Active
- 2022 - 2024
034. The Hard Truth
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There's a big reason that funds pass or ghost on investments, but they would never share it with founders. It's entirely subjective and often just based off gut i…
033. Venture Scale Returns
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Another common reason venture funds say "no" is because they don't see a path to returning the entire fund from that one investment. Wondering what that means? He…
032. Too Early
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When you're talking to an investor that writes checks at your level, and they're telling you that you're too early, here's the real problem: you haven't sold them…
031. Your Real Fundraising Competition
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Your competition in that moment are the half a dozen other startups that I have in my diligence process at the same time as you.
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringT…
030. Just Send The Deck
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Wrapping up the week with great advice from Saba Karim - don't email people asking if you can send them the deck, just send them the deck. That's the purpose of i…
029. Break The Frame of Reference
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One of the most powerful things that you can do in your email deck is to break the reader's frame of reference. My favorite example of this is from the Allhers de…
028. Two Decks
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Pitching is storytelling, and decks are a tool to tell the story. The email deck gets to meeting, the pitch deck gets the investment.
About SpringTime Ventures
Spri…
027. Don't Make Me Think
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My number one rule for pitching and pitch decks is: Don't make me think. Don't make me work. Here are six examples.
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures s…
026. The Deck Gets The Meeting
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The point of your pitch deck isn't to get an investment. The point is to get a meeting.
It's just like when you're job hunting. The point of a resume isn't to ge…
025. Don't Email The Whole Firm
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If you're reaching out to a small fund, don't email, every single person in the fund.
Time is our most precious asset; I'm grateful that you'd spend of some of yo…
024. Tell an Investor You're Interested
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You never know unless you ask. How are you going to get the investment if you don't ask for it?
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth sta…
023. Updating Investors
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As you meet with potential investors, your goal with the first meeting isn't to close the deal. It's for both you and the investor to get data points on each othe…
022. Reaching Investors
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The wrong way to ask for referrals from your network is to say, "please introduce me to investors."
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth …
021. Finding Investors to Target
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A fundraise process starts with knowing who to target. Here's my list of VC lists — all free.
- Signal NFX - Great database of VCs, Bay Area heavy
- Visible Connect - …
020. Oversubscribed
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There are three types of mythical creatures: big foot, aliens, and a funding round not described as oversubscribed. It's funny because it's true. But it's true be…
019. Target Raise
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This is completely counterintuitive but the amount you're telling investors that you want to raise is too high.
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds…
018. Runway
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When you set out to raise a round of capital, you'll get asked about your runway. This is important because fundraising is a waste of your time. 😁
About SpringTim…
017. Here, There, Capital
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Founders part of your job in a pitch is to convince potential investors that you will get to the next level on the treadmill. And to do that, you need to three th…
016. VC Treadmill
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Raising venture capital is a treadmill. One that only gets faster and only gets steeper.
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in…
015. Lead Investor
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Your lead investor needs to be the one having the most fun at the pool party.
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare…