What's Below in Issue #57:
📰 - A curated list of VC books for founders
📊 - Data behind the increased gender gap in VC funding
🎙️ - Podcast w/ Ali Ansari, raised $3.3M Preseed at $30M valuation
💵- Premium startup resources
🆓- Free startup resources
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Fundraising Demystified Episode #25 is Live!
🎙️ Excitement is in the air as the Fundraising Demystified podcast returns with Season 2!
Get ready for a power-packed journey through the dynamic world of fundraising, where we feature in-depth conversations with founders, VCs, and industry experts who reveal the proven strategies behind successful capital raising and delivering returns to investors.
Fundraising Demystified Season 2 is poised to broaden the show’s perspective and propel your fundraising journey to new heights. 📈✨
Ali Ansari, founder, CEO, and the brains behind Micro One, shares his experience transitioning from an agency to a tech company and raising pre-seed funding. Join the conversation as Ali dishes on the hurdles of dodging the "staffing agency" label and convincing investors that Micro One is the real deal. Ali emphasizes the importance of building momentum in a capital raise, engaging with investors, dealing with rejection like a pro, and even spicing things up with public exposure and leveraging social media.
Ali spills the deets on productizing, fundraising, and everything in between. Trust us, you don't want to miss this episode! Listen Here
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Data Corner
Venture Equity is Getting Worse
2023 was not a good year for gender equality within VC as female founders continued the trend of raising less money compared to their male counterparts. Even mixed founding teams raised less than men-only teams.
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Best Books on Venture Capital for Founders
The problem with newsletters is that they can only focus on individual topics. To solve this problem, we put together a list of books on venture capital for founders. In creating this list, we considered many different books but only included the few books we felt were of great benefit to founders. These books are NOT for new VC analysts who want to know more about their industry (while many still help with this) or written by VC firms who want to show off their superior thinking to other firms.
These books are for founders. We included a reason why each book is a good read, our favorite quote, and how we recommend consuming the material.
We hope you enjoy the list and share other books you felt we missed.
The Fundraising Rules
Why Read: If you want a crystal-clear explanation of the fundraising process, Mark Peter Davis is one of the best. As both a serial founder and investor, he has seen the process from both sides of the table – pretty and ugly. Most importantly, he founded Interplay, a NYC-based innovation ecosystem that invests in, confounds, and incubates companies – including Thunder!
Favorite Quote: “Everyone wants what they can’t have in dating and the same is true for start-ups so it’s important to be signaling to folks throughout the fundraising process, that you are a highly sought-after company.”
Read or Listen: Read
Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist
Why Read: You will get an explanation of all the technical aspects of venture capital that you MUST know before raising money from the founding partners of the Foundry Group. This includes the math behind liquidation preferences, how board structure impacts your control, and common legal document language. This book will prevent you from making critical mistakes in the fundraising process, know what to defend, and understand the terms your investors and lawyers are using.
Favorite Quote: “I encourage entrepreneurs not to take valuation personally. Just because VCs say their take is that your business is worth $6 million, when your take is that your business is worth $10 million, doesn’t mean that they lack appreciation for you as a CEO or your business’s future potential. It means they are negotiating a deal to their advantage, just as you would.”
Read or Listen: Read and take notes. Quite dense and has many important topics to study.
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Peter Thiel & Blake Masters
Why Read: It is a true classic read by almost every VC investor and should be mandatory for founders as well. Peter Theil was a co-founder of PayPal and the first outside investor on Facebook. He will revolutionize the way you think about problems startups should look to solve and the best ways of building a team. The “PayPal Mafia” went to start many of the largest tech companies today, and it all starts with how he built his company.
Favorite Quote: “The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.”
Read or Listen: Listen
Founder vs Investor: The Honest Truth About Venture Capital from Startup to IPO
Elizabeth Joy Zalman & Jerry Neumann
Why Read: It will make you feel understood. It is a funny and engaging debate between a serial founder (Elizabeth) and a venture capitalist (Jerry). They debate the relationship between VCs and startups, the benefits of investors, and the annoyances of working together. This is one of the best raw descriptions (the good and the bad) of the two sides of the deal that will help any new founder looking for VC investments understand what to expect.
Favorite Quote: “This book isn't new knowledge. No one who has been in the startup world for more than a few years will think, "Gee golly, I didn't know that." It's just knowledge that no one likes to say out loud.”
Read or Listen: Either read or listen. Not a dense book, but it is made of small sections that can make it easier to read.
Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It
Why Read: This is a masterclass in VC given by the managing partner of one of the most famous VCs of all time, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). He provides a great background on how VC decisions, why most VCs only invest in one startup per business category, and what to do in a down round. While this book is focused on the inner workings of VC funds, it is written for founders to understand how each aspect is important for them and to optimize their fundraising process.
Favorite Quote: “Whatever the evidence, the fundamental question VCs are trying to answer is: Why back this founder against this problem set versus waiting to see who else may come along with a better organic understanding of the problem?”
Read or Listen: Read
Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on Your Terms
Why Read: Jeffrey has the background to teach you everything about VC. He was a co-founder of Upromise, is the managing partner of Flybridge Capital Partners ($1B+ AUM), and is a professor at Harvard Business School (HBS) teaching Launching Technology Ventures. This book will cover many of the technical aspects of navigating the VC space and what a founder should expect. The focus is on the founder maintaining control of what they are building and knowing how to build a partnership with their investors.
Favorite Quote: “If you’re going to fail, fail quickly and cheaply.’ There’s no stigma in failing that way.”
Read or Listen: Read
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Free Fundraising Resources
🤓 - Free pitch deck reviews - Submit your deck
💸 - Access working capital fast - Explore options for free
😍 - Free list of AI Recommended VCs - Apply for free
👨💻 - Free fundraising coaching session - Schedule 15 minutes with us
Premium Resources
🗓️ - Book a one-hour private capital strategy call - Book Now
💫 - Pitch deck design services for founders by VCs - Decko
💼 - Startup Legal Services - Bowery Legal
📚 - Startup Friendly Accounting Services - Chelsea Capital
Upgrade to Thunder Premium to Unlock:
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Access to VC firms' team tabs to see active partners of the fund & their LinkedIn
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Navigate a VC's portfolio to see relevant portcos or competitors, quickly find their founders on LinkedIn to connect with them, and request warm introsA downloadable CSV with the investor emails & LinkedIn URLs
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Ability to filter your matches and adjust your profile
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LiteCRM to track your progress
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Request intros to VCs directly through the platform
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Get our fundraising guide on how to increase your odds of getting a meeting
- Upgrade to lifetime access (one-time fee of $497) and get a free coaching session
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Let's stay in touch:
Written by Jason Kirby - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonrkirby
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