Techstars Founder David Cohen: 5 Fundraising Tips

Today, we brought you 5 quotes of startup fundraising advice by the founder and CEO of Techstars, David Cohen. Here goes: - Three elements to investor conviction: - "They must have an instinctive belief that your company is attacking a substantial opportunity with plenty of whitespace. - The thing you are doing actually solves the problem in that market. - You have the ability to execute well against this idea." - The first third of your round gets the rest: "Focus on the First One-Third. We teach that around TechStars... if you can find a third of the money, the rest of it usually follows pretty quickly." - Build relationships long before you raise: "Fundraising is hard. It usually doesn’t happen immediately. And so just reaching out to someone that you respect, that knows a lot about what you’re doing, engaging them and getting them involved in what you’re building and trying to become as a company, and then down the road when you have that relationship, moving it towards the funding discussion." - Start your round with your existing investors: "Imagine you’re about to go out for your next round of funding. Who do you pitch first? It should be your insiders! Pitch first to those who have already invested. They are the most likely to give you direct and honest feedback to help you make your pitch better. They’re also more likely than anyone else to invest (again)." - Don't ask investors to lead: "...there is never a reason to ask anyone to be a lead investor. Just ask them to invest, build momentum, and make terms the last thing you figure out instead of the first thing."