795 sats \ 3 replies \ @ambosstech 9 Feb \ on: Top Builder asks: Companies that have raised, what do you wish you knew goin in? builders
Great thoughts here!
You will spend an unholy amount on lawyers which is very hard to budget for. The more you want to do cool special Bitcoin things with your company setup, the more you will pay your lawyers. Keep it simple, standard, and lean with custom things wrt legal.
For pitches, practice a ton with acquaintances that have heard VC pitches before. Then, pitch to less likely VCs that aren't your favorites first and learn from their questions. Then, you'll sound awesome for your favorite VCs.
Know the lingo of burn rate, runway, TAM, SOM, KPIs, and be a business numbers wonk. If you don't have numbers yet, know what you're going to track and optimize for.
Use pitch.com for pitch decks to make it look really good.
Have projections that paint the picture of "hockey stick" growth and have a thesis that supports it.
Be a nice person. You will pitch to these people again. Bitcoin VC is a small space and they talk. Even so, don't make the VCs sign NDAs.
ALSO Don't do a post money SAFE like Y combinator recommends! It will dilute you like crazy if you do a subsequent SAFE aka "stacking SAFEs"
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Can you elaborate on this? Someone told me about this once but it seemed like a minuscule difference in dilution.
Let's say I raised two rounds on post-money SAFEs, selling 10% of the company each round for 20% total.
What the dilution difference when selling the same amount of equity on stacked pre-money SAFEs?
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Found the old thread I was sent for all the sports fans out there. The nut of it all:
Afaict you get exactly the dilution you thought you would ... past rounds just aren't diluted as you stack SAFEs. I guess those darn early investors shouldn't get what they are sold and hope their founder doesn't continue to raise on pre-money SAFEs?
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