Startuphacks.vc

First, a little bit of history… (If you are impatient, just scroll down to the tips). D.E. Shaw & Co. (aka DESCO) was one of the pioneers of modern quantitative trading. The firm was famous for being super secretive and super selective in its hiring. The firm’s success was predicated on bringing on board the smartest, most talented, and ultra-competitive people — from PhDs at top schools like MIT and Harvard to Putnam Medal winners. The place was as elite as it gets.

Startups fail for many, many reasons. This is just what happens. Paul Graham famously observed that most die from suicide, not from homicide, meaning that it is not the competition that kills, but typically the founders themselves destroy the business. Founders can break up or execute poorly. More often than not, founders can’t build the product that’s good enough for the customers to buy. If the founders are technical but not commercial, they may build a product but struggle to sell it.

VCs obsess with repeat founders, but there is a great difference between them and we 2048.vc gravitate towards a specific type of a repeat founder - Mission Driven founder working in the Same Space. We call them the Unfinished Business Founders. A lot of these founders are in Healthcare or Fintech or many other verticals where deep domain expertise, knowing the customers, knowing the problem, knowing how to sell really matters.

I wasn’t an investor in Bench, but I knew Ian from the Techstars days way back and was disappointed to hear the news. Failure is never a pleasant thing, especially after more than a decade of hard work. I don’t know the details of what happened, but the thing that stood out is that the founder was fired by the board. This, unfortunately, is not uncommon and happened to me as well with my second startup.

Raising pre-seed is really hard in any climate. That's why founders should prepare / study and AVOID COSTLY MISTAKES when interacting with VCs. In this blog we’ll look at mistakes that are MASSIVE RED FLAGS with VCs that founders can and should avoid. 1. Having an advisory firm or non-CEO reach out to a VC Fundraising is the job of a CEO - period, full stop. Never use an advisory firm to represent you in a fundraising when you are raising a pre-seed. Never have CxO other than CEO reach out to VC. 2.

2023 is off to a rough start in terms of fundraising and VC. Many rounds will not get done or will get done with very different kind of terms. HOW DO VCs HANDLE PORTFOLIO COMPANIES WHEN TIMES ARE TOUGH? What kind of support can founders expect from VCs that backed them? 1. VCs ALWAYS PRIORITIES EXISTING INVESTMENTS, ESPECIALLY IN BAD TIMES Once a VC invests in a business they are highly incentivized for it to succeed. WHY?

Angel investing has become very popular - from successful founders to executives - many are Angel investing. But WHY? And HOW to be SUCCESSFUL at it? Here is YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO ANGEL INVESTING! 1. Why Angel Invest ? There are several main reasons to Angel Invest To make money To learn To give back to the community For fun To later become a VC 2. Angels investing to Make Money Most Angels invest to make money - while this maybe seems obvious it is not always the case.

Founders are always confused about what it means to be Founders, Shareholders, Directors and Executives as well as what are the differences between Common stock and Preferred stock. Let’s unpack how it all works! 1. Definitions: Shareholder Shareholder - someone who owns a STOCK of SHARES of a company. All Shareholders VOTE to elect the BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 2. Definitions: Common Stock Common stock is an ordinary stock of a company. Typically, each share corresponds to a single vote.

Many founders don't bother preparing for investor meetings or researching investors. This is a BIG MISTAKE that puts them at a BIG DISADVANTAGE. Here is a Complete Guide for Founders on WHY and HOW to PREPARE FOR INVESTOR MEETINGS. 1. WHY SHOULD YOU PREPARE FOR AN INVESTOR MEETING? Let’s start with the obvious. Chance favors prepared minds - you are ALWAYS better off preparing. By preparing you gain INFORMATION ADVANTAGE.

Investor meetings are notoriously hard especially THE 1ST MEETING. Here is how Founders can prepare for and run an AWESOME 1ST INVESTOR MEETING. 1. KNOW YOUR GOAL First, the obvious. You only have 1 goal in the first meeting. One goal only! GET TO THE SECOND MEETING. This is it. Of course, if you totally dislike the investor then it doesn't matter, but otherwise you only have 1 goal - MOVE FORWARD TO THE NEXT MEETING! 2. PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE You know where I stand - chance favors prepared minds.