Written By: Marc Halpin
Brad Feld is interesting.
He wears very colorful shirts, he’s got a great hairstyle, he writes one of the most painfully open and honest blogs I’ve ever read and yeah, he’s one of the most successful VCs on the planet.
What I find really interesting about Brad is this: he doesn’t seem to have a filter. I trust what he says is what he actually believes. No pretense, no trying to impress; he seems like an open book!
Talking of books, his views on raising capital are captured in a must-read page turner for Founders. Venture Deals is pretty much a ‘How to’ book for raising venture capital.
The book covers topics from ‘how to start a venture’ to the breakdown analysis of a term sheet through to the different stages of venture capital and what a LP is. All very pragmatic and useful stuff.
But, that’s not where the value is.
Venture Deals is a 245 page book. The most valuable lesson in ‘how to’ raise capital is a short paragraph buried on page 209. It gives an astounding insight on how a super successful VC thinks about a Founder pitching them. It is a fascinating perspective.
It’s a feature of pitching that some Founders are fantastic at. Others not so much. It’s the foundational part of how you should think about every meeting with a VC and how you approach the whole process of raising capital. It’s more important than ARR, GMV, TAM, LTV or CAC. It may make you question your whole approach to fundraising.
It’s about falling in love!
Brad talks about Founders like this: “We want to fall in love with them in the style of “first date” energy. We want to feel time slip away and regret when we must go on to our next commitment. After the founder leaves, we want to keep thinking about him or her and wonder when we’ll get to meet them again.”
Want to raise a $3M Seed round? Figure out how to make VC’s fall in love with you!
Kerosene Ventures – Helping Great Founders Raise Capital