If you keep going back to the same investors with the same story and without significant progress, it's a negative signal. You need to cross those investors off of your list.
About SpringTime Ventures SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech, logistics, and marketplace businesses. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.
About Rich Maloy Rich’s mission is to rebuild the American dream through entrepreneurship. He believes technology gives all people the opportunity to grow, learn and earn. He is a Managing Partner at SpringTime Ventures and the host of the VC Minute podcast. With prior careers in finance and sales, he's been focused on the startup ecosystem for over a dozen years. He's a father of two young children and loves sci-fi, skiing, and video games.
Rich:
Welcome back everybody to another week of VC minute, I've got some fun topics lined up this week. So without further ado, let's get after it. We have a portfolio company right now that is going back out to fundraise again. They have tried unsuccessfully to fundraise for at least the last year. The deck is beautiful. People love this product. It's just something that is outside of the wheelhouse for most venture funds, and they've been out to market to try to raise a few times already. We believe in the business. We believe in the founder. And we believe in supporting our portfolio companies through their ups and downs. So we're working with this company on this particular fundraise. Here's the lesson I want to share with you. If you keep going back to the same investors over and over again, and you have not made significant progress on the revenue, and you've not made significant progress on your fundraise. You need to cross those investors off of your list because they are not going to move your round forward. Those investors have been hearing the same story from you for the last six or 12 months. Without having made significant progress on at least one front, especially, and ideally the revenue front, without that significant progress when you come back to raise again it is a negative signal. So if you have that whole list of investors, and these are the 20 people that we've been talking to for the last year, and they haven't said yes and they haven't said no, those folks are a no. Cross them off your list. Don't waste your time with them. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but don't waste your time on these people. It's time to go hit up your network, do your research and find new contacts.