Brendan Baker, an MBA student at Oxford, created a phenomenal infographic (pdf) of our $1MM angel raise for AppMakr. Here's how to read it and what it means. Additionally, below is a 7 minute interview I did with Brendan going over the top points gleaned from the infographic.
Brendan followed our raise from before I even moved from DC to SF last summer. I made a few trips to SF as I began the raise process, and then moved to SF fulltime in July 2010. The raise was wrapped up by October 2010 (here's the party we had to celebrate!). The core of the raise happened over a 14 week period.
How to read the infographic:
You can also view the slideshare with the full presentation.
In March of 2013 we were acquired by ShareThis and we also recently sold AppMakr to "focus on focus."
Here are my top tips if you're fundraising (in prioritized descending order):
Here's the video interview between me and Brendan with my top tips:
In 2010 I started writing a series of blogs titled "Fundraising Cribsheet" describing our experience raising a $1MM round for AppMakr.com.
My goal has been to allow other entrepreneurs to raise money more efficiently than the 14 weeks it took us. Brendan Baker, an MBA student at Oxford University, has added a deep layer of analysis to this experience by doing his thesis on our fundraising experience. Brendan's initial work is outlined in this blog post, with much more analysis here.
Here is my guide to this manifesto on fundraising, so you can consume the information in the chunks most relevant to you:
In 2010 I started writing a series of blogs titled "Fundraising Cribsheet" describing our experience raising a $1MM round for AppMakr.com. My goal has been to allow other entrepreneurs to raise money more efficiently than the 14 weeks it took us. Brendan Baker, an MBA student at Oxford University, has added a deep layer of analysis to this experience by doing his thesis on our fundraising experience. Brendan's initial work is outlined in this blog post, with much more analysis here. Here is my guide to this manifesto on fundraising, so you can consume the information in the chunks most relevant to you: Daniel's "Rule Of 10" Angel Intros + $1MM Raise Infographic with Brendan Baker. Cliff Notes on Raising Your First $1 Million Through AngelList' Keynote + Panel Interview with Naval Ravikant, co-founder of AngelList, an angel fundraising vehicle I highly recommend Interview with George Zachary, a partner at Charles River Ventures, on how to approach and pitch Venture Capitalists Interview with Stephen DeBerry, a partner at Kapor Capital, on recommended deal structures and more Interview with Shai Goldman, a director at Silicon Valley Bank A panel hosted by Shai discussing the differences in raising angel vs. Series A funding A blog showing visually how 8.47% of the potential investors I spoke to ended up funding us How to 'Hack Your Funding' by Naval Ravikant of AngelList Other good resources include: VC Panel at the Digital Media Conference Fundraising Panel at TechCocktail's Startup Mixology Event Don Rainey talks about investing in LivingSocial
One of the more interesting people I've met since moving to San Francisco is Ramit Sethi, bestselling author and blogger at I Will Teach You to Be Rich.
He takes an out of the box approach towards personal finance that resonates well with me. In particular I like how he focuses on conscious spending and automation. His stuff is extremely practical, to the point of sharing fill-in-the-blank scripts to be used when calling credit card companies and banks.
His advice is practical and immediately applicable, and he focuses on getting people take action and really improve their lives, rather than sit and read about it all day.