Stephen M. Lowisz’s Post

Is your startup getting lost in a stampede? We dive into the difference between early-stage cash and VC windfalls. Spoiler alert: sometimes less is more! The Startup Hustle newsletter can help you decide what’s good and not. Sign up today!: https://zurl.co/OJpW

Hear Maneesh Srivastava, founding partner at Alphavalue Ventures highlight how Build to Sell is fixing the biggest problem of 'illiquidity' in startup investments and revolutionizing the startup journey for founders and investors alike.⚡ We're glad to have his trust in us - Alphavalue Ventures is an ecosystem partner for Build To Sell. 🤝 Join the Build To Sell investor tribe to learn how we're solving for exits for both investors and founders - www.bts.favcy.com #buildtosell #founders #investors #exit #strategy #favcy

Investors give startup founders money to grow the startup. Growth is not optional, it is the very thing you sold them a stake for. It’s extremely stressful. Losing your OWN money is one thing. Losing your investor's money is next-level stress. This is why I do what I do at Midstage Institute. I help founding teams speed up their startups systematically. So they don’t need to have those awkward no-growth investor meetings. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/gtFy_Zhe

I've seen your post today David Levine and Charlotte Morley's post on the same topic - paying to pitch pros and cons. If you're a founder and you want to raise money there's a lot of routes you can go down - and paying-to-pitch is only one. There's a whole circus that's sprung up around helping founders fundraise and 'earning' from it - from up-front charging them money, taking equity, both, to having an exit levy, to pushing people through accelerator courses, on-line training courses, success fees, fees earnt from introductions to support services, sponsorship fees, and very low-end costs like my book AngelThink (on Amazon). The circus has to be funded because so many people are holding on to a guy rope so their living doesn't blow away. In the interests of transparency, can you share with us what Manchester Angels business model is please? If I could have come by your table I would have asked you exactly that. #AngelThink

"VC Summer" isn't real, but here is my take on how this data from Carta affects you. VC vacations still need to be taken into account. You need to create competition between VCs to pull a round together. My advice is you may need more VCs in your funnel in summer than you may need in the spring or fall. Otherwise your point of contact may be out of town for a week or two in crucial periods, and make it hard for you to create the urgency for other VCs to make up their minds. That drags out the timeline. While there isn't necessarily a "VC Summer" - January is a reset month for many VCs. They sign their final deals before going on holiday break, some of those deals actually wiring in January, and take a little time in January to scope out the next year. Again, this is more of a problem with momentum in your round than getting a deal done, so you need more VCs in the funnel to create urgency. Yes, in the Summer of 2023 there were tons of VCs not writing any checks, but that was pretty much the story for the entire year, not just the summer. #startups #venturecapital #founders

Can't wait for this FinTech Week Investor Breakfast event tomorrow that Dentons is hosting in partnership with Empire Startups - Everything FinTech. Check out below the great lineup of leading VCs pitching on stage. Let me know if you'll be there! Dentons: Global FinTech Leadership Victor Boyajian Chris Errico Joe Guagliardo Matthew Gruenberg Chris Hagenbuch #DentonsVTG #NYFinTechWeek

for those taking notes... #1 a 1.5x exit after 4 years is a really bad return. High risk investment and a return equivalent to the DOW is a terrible outcome #2 raising venture capital is buying ROCKET FUEL, you'd better be prepared to drive growth #3 depending on the capital terms (participating preferred) common shareholders may have not made any $ from this exit, the devil is in the details Founders with such outcomes should not act as victims.

The best VCs are the ones who have fought on death ground themselves. A startup community fights on death ground with the founder. Best VC is from community. 2nd best: death ground inst. VC. Easy upside sharing at the idea stage. That's Slyk IO

Non-VC backed founders often face challenges in accessing capital, which is crucial for scaling their businesses. Without venture capital, they might rely more on bootstrapping, personal savings, or loans, which can limit growth speed and scale. Additionally, they may miss out on the mentorship, network, and resources that VC firms provide. Thanks Debarghya (Deedy) Das for this brilliant insight . Aim to get acquired by a larger competitor in a similar domain. . Apratim Banerjee Preeti Banerjee

I actually love chatting with VCs and talking product, but I'll never take their money. And honestly, most ideas don't really need VC cash. You can get a lot further with way less money than you used to. Doing more with less is the sign of a good founder. Overfunding is like obesity for startups - it'll bloat you up and slow you down. Stay lean and hungry. It's all about control for me and staying as independent and self-sufficient as possible. That's why I'm taking the bootstrapping path. I don't want to end up as just another diversified bet in startup portfolio, all of us chasing the next funding milestone.