Step-by-Step Guide to Raising VC (taught by a former VC)

Here we look at a timeline of a VC fundraise in practicality. We spell out each stage and their actions items clearly and give you a sample Gantt chart to copy. We then create a workshop around planning your fundraising goals.

If you are executing your fundraise using simple tools like email and excel, you are wasting hours of time. In this module, I give you free (or inexpensive) tech resources that will save you hours of time.

Meeting VC investors is like dating. In this module, we give you a practical guide to building relationships with VCs and discuss the nuances of those early meetings.

Once we have our target investors and nailed our story, how do we actually run an effective fundraising process that gets investors on our calendars.

Founders often make the same mistake when crafting their pitch decks. We discuss that that big mistake is and what is the right way to start crafting your story.

Rima Reddy, a Principal at Commerce VC, a seed-stage investment firm, talks about what she looks for in Founders during pitch meetings.

We start off with an exercise to help you distill the core story of your pitch deck. We then discuss what process to take to ensure that the story guides the building of the pitch deck, and not the other way around. We discuss best practices and tips.

Thus far, we have talked a lot about the strategy behind pitch decks and storytelling. In this session, we talk about the tangible tips: Do you send your deck ahead? How do you follow-up after a meeting? What types of questions should you ask? 

Introduction and review of previous module

Jon Sklaroff, Principal at Optum Ventures, a $1B venture fund joins us to talk about the venture diligence process.

We discus Competitive Landscape, Market Sizing, and the Frequently Asked Questions list. We then break into a group exercise in order to build our Frequently Asked Questions list.

We talk about the VC diligence process from the other side. What do VC's works streams look like and how can we use that information to our advantage.

What specifically do investors look for in your financial model?

What are the benchmarks investors expect in a financial model? A good financial model can never win you an investment, but a bad financial model can exclude you from investment. I want you to understand the difference.

James Shecter, Seed Stage investor at Fika Ventures comes to speak to our cohort about best practices for financial modeling. He shares with us some of the benchmarks his VC firm shares with their portfolio companies.

Investors will expect you to have an understanding of how your product will evolve over time. Pancrazio, who is a Mentor at Berkely's SkyDeck Accelerator and former Chief Product Officer, walks through the framework of how you build an effective product roadmap.

The cohort has a few questions for Pancrazio after his product roadmap session.

We discuss how priced rounds, pre-money valuation, and post-money valuations work. We also discuss Term Sheets and strategies for negotiating your best deal.