In his newsletter Monday, leading Brooklyn venture capitalist Charlie O’Donnell laid out some rules of the game for fundraising.
Many of his points were fundamentally about the importance of just being honest. It saves people time.
For VCs, O’Donnell writes, “Don’t take multiple meetings and then pass for a reason that you should have passed on at either the e-mail state or after the first meeting. ‘We just can’t get there on a consumer deal’ is not a reason for passing after five meetings.”
Tl;dr- fundraising sucks. @ceonyc offers some simple tips to make it suck less. https://t.co/BGOtseu08F
— HowardKaplan (@HowardKaplan) August 1, 2017
O’Donnell is the founding partner of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the largest VC in Brooklyn. His piece this week is called “Some Rules for Fundraising.”
For founders:
Be transparent around where you are in the fundraising process. Does the VC need to call a special partner meeting because you already have three term sheets or is this the beginning? I know you want to move fast, but don’t make a VC prioritize your timing when I’m literally the first meeting. I have other founders who literally need to know tomorrow or the round will close.
Also, O’Donnell says, don’t take these meetings over drinks. Just have a regular work meeting.
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