Some take-aways from our latest founder event with panelists from Atomico, Balderton, Accel, Index Ventures and Northzone.

1. How to Raise your Series A.
Notes from the event on November 29, 2018

2. Some high-level notes on our founder
event with panelists from Atomico,
Balderton Capital, Accel, Index Ventures
and Northzone.
*These are not firstminute capital views – these are summary notes from what panelists said.

3. Part I:
Relationship Building with
Series A funds

4. • “Last two Series A investments we made we’d known the founders for 8 and 10 years
respectively!”;
• Warm intro is always better than a cold email;
• Use email updates as a tool to keep prospective investors in the loop. Make the investor feel
that this is personalised or exclusive;
• Call people out in newsletters, people like to see their names up in lights
• Be careful not to overdo chasing the VCs before you officially raise – easy to do this. E.g.
attending lots of conferences without clear aims can make investors question your focus as a
CEO;
• Pick your seed investors cautiously as all will have a reputation with Series A investors,
whether positive or negative. Reference seed investors with Series A funds.
Part I:
Relationship Building with Series A funds

5. Part II:
Gearing up for the Series A
Part II:
Gearing up to Raise

6. • Captable:
• More than 20-30 investors on cap table at Series A is a yellow flag – make sure you have a clear reason;
• Make sure key people (execs) are incentivised with equity going into your raise;
• To be safe, start your series A round when you have 9+ months of runway;
• If a series-A investor pre-empts (pitches to you before you start your round) be upfront
with yourself and them about an acceptable price and % you envisage selling;
• Bridge vs Series A: If you want to do a bridge, be clear what you are bridging to. If you
can explain the milestone you needed the bridge for then it can be seen positively by
Series A funds;
• Don’t worry about not having hired senior execs before a Series A (e.g. Sales VP). -
Series A investors understand exec talent is often too expensive for pre-Series A
companies. However, investors love to see evidence that you are good at hiring.
Part II:
Gearing up to Raise

7. Part II:
Gearing up for the Series A
Part III:
Investment Process

8. • Ideally, founders shouldn’t go below 15% ownership post-Series A;
• Most Series A funds target 15-20% initial ownership;
• Momentum:
• Powerful tool for founders to speed up process;
• However, not an excuse to run a bad process. Well run process can help founders by;
• Providing the founder with more options and greater leverage in negotiation;
• Will reduce disruption to the founders’ business during the raise;
• Too much pressure on VCs can lead them to dropping a deal because they can’t keep up and have too many other deals on their plate;
• Metrics: Revenues are not the key issue. Many other factors are important like moat, churn, customer engagement, product
market fit, reproducible sales playbook;
• Vision: Selling the long term vision? Walk in showing what the product will achieve over the next 2 years with various "value
inflection points" that will be reached;
• Call referees before accepting a deal. Reach out to them cold. Stress how the A-series firm performs in negative situations;
• EU founders raising in the US: fundraise from US funds when you already have some significant presence there (sales office or
clients), otherwise it's a long shot.
Part III:
Investment Process