Brad Feld's 4 Startup Fundraising Lessons

Brad Feld is a co-founder of Foundry Group and Techstars, and has been a key figure in the startup world for decades. He launched his first company in 1987 and later became an early investor in companies like Zynga and Fitbit. Here are four of the most important fundraising lessons from his blog, books, and interviews: - Start by bootstrapping: “It’s important to recognize that the best way to fund your business at the beginning is either with money from customers or by not having to raise any money or spend much money at all. Your goal when you’re starting your business should be to make as much progress with no money or as little as you possibly can.” - Fundraising is Sales: “When fundraising, you are quite literally selling a piece of your company, and you need to be able to capably sell it to whoever you are pitching to.” - Be precise about your fundraising needs: “Understand clearly how much money you are trying to raise and then target the right type of investors. Be able to articulate about what you will use the money for and be clear about what your long term fundraising needs, beyond this just this round, are.” - Smart and Simple Capital: “First, make sure you know where the capital is going to come from to fully fund your business…Until you are consistently generating positive cash flow, you depend on someone else for financing…Second, keep your capital structure simple.”