> What are the best resources to learn the fundamentals?
There’s no substitute for running the gauntlet yourself. ;) The best way to learn the fundamentals is to do it and make mistakes, but you can prepare, and you can keep learning; try to always stay open minded during this bumpy ride.
Learn as much as you can about the perspective that VCs have, and how they work and how they think. If at all possible, find some VCs to talk to who you’re not pitching to. Nothing will help you more than this, if you want to raise VC money. They generally don’t care very much about your technology or understand it or get excited by it, and a few one hour meetings won’t change that. They, like you, are having an exchange with you over money, and they are motivated to learn about your tech enough to see if you have an advantage over other companies. Some VCs are playing the odds, and others believe in their investments.
Pay the most attention to whether VCs can help you with anything other than money. Networking, business and marketing advice, and even technical issues (consider that some might know a lot about your competition, and that some can help you with thing like patent filing.)
> How much should we aim to raise and at what valuation?
Start with : how much do you need to be profitable? You might not know, but you should take a real effort stab at estimating it (which could take weeks or months to research, depending on how far along you are). How quickly do you need to raise money? How long can you go without any investment? How long can you go with investment? How many people do you need in 2 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years…? How many times do you expect to raise money? How much of the company are you willing to sell?
Last time I was pitching, the best investors I talked to told me I wasn’t asking for enough money, because they could easily see it didn’t give me enough growth and runway to succeed or even make it to the next round.
> How to show financial projections in a field that evolves at such a breakneck speed?
FWIW, this question is a red flag. Your business plan needs to be able to succeed in spite of technology’s progress, and you need to be truly confident about that by understanding how you’ll weather new technologies and smart companies that adopt new technologies. If you view technology as a risk, then VCs will look at it that way too. BTW, technology is (of course) always a risk in a tech company, but look around for how successful companies deal with this and make their business depend primarily on people and not technology, and take note of how many tech businesses are not running on the latest developments in their field. VCs might be happiest if you have some kind of unfair advantage that cushions and buffers you against technology risks.
There’s no substitute for running the gauntlet yourself. ;) The best way to learn the fundamentals is to do it and make mistakes, but you can prepare, and you can keep learning; try to always stay open minded during this bumpy ride.
Learn as much as you can about the perspective that VCs have, and how they work and how they think. If at all possible, find some VCs to talk to who you’re not pitching to. Nothing will help you more than this, if you want to raise VC money. They generally don’t care very much about your technology or understand it or get excited by it, and a few one hour meetings won’t change that. They, like you, are having an exchange with you over money, and they are motivated to learn about your tech enough to see if you have an advantage over other companies. Some VCs are playing the odds, and others believe in their investments.
Pay the most attention to whether VCs can help you with anything other than money. Networking, business and marketing advice, and even technical issues (consider that some might know a lot about your competition, and that some can help you with thing like patent filing.)
> How much should we aim to raise and at what valuation?
Start with : how much do you need to be profitable? You might not know, but you should take a real effort stab at estimating it (which could take weeks or months to research, depending on how far along you are). How quickly do you need to raise money? How long can you go without any investment? How long can you go with investment? How many people do you need in 2 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years…? How many times do you expect to raise money? How much of the company are you willing to sell?
Last time I was pitching, the best investors I talked to told me I wasn’t asking for enough money, because they could easily see it didn’t give me enough growth and runway to succeed or even make it to the next round.
> How to show financial projections in a field that evolves at such a breakneck speed?
FWIW, this question is a red flag. Your business plan needs to be able to succeed in spite of technology’s progress, and you need to be truly confident about that by understanding how you’ll weather new technologies and smart companies that adopt new technologies. If you view technology as a risk, then VCs will look at it that way too. BTW, technology is (of course) always a risk in a tech company, but look around for how successful companies deal with this and make their business depend primarily on people and not technology, and take note of how many tech businesses are not running on the latest developments in their field. VCs might be happiest if you have some kind of unfair advantage that cushions and buffers you against technology risks.