Александр Дресен Kown - The Lean Investor Club @alekskown Фандрайзинг 101
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]
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)
@alekskown [email protected]
Different type of investors at different stages
• Vision + Team + MVP
• Product + Product Market fit + Some traction
• Revenue + LTV + CAC + clear growth strategy
@alekskown [email protected]
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)
@alekskown [email protected]
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
@alekskown [email protected]
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
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
@alekskown [email protected]
What is the most important?• The Pain
• Context
•Emotional connection • Your Product
• Business Model
• Team
• Market size
• Competition
• Traction
@alekskown [email protected]
Tell your story
• Forget the slides … when you talk to investors … tell your story, vision and plans
@alekskown [email protected]
The “customer” investor
The “parent” investor
Be ready for investors
• Prepare, prepare, prepare
• MSP - have a product
• Traction
• What’s next
@alekskown [email protected]
Projections?
• Assumptions are useless until you have sales and understand customer acquisition costs and lifetime value of a client
@alekskown [email protected]
Investing is to fundraising what sex is to dating
@alekskown [email protected]
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
@alekskown [email protected]
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? =
@alekskown [email protected]
Где “легко” взять $
The weather
The Completo
The Food
The Wine
The LATAM Market
Americas GIA Member, Market Intelligence
• Cash (Euro 50,000)
• F+ck+ng amazing network
• Founders
• Investors
• Mentors
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
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