Chris Rodde: We recently just completed our Series A funding, in which we raised $1.1 million. The round was led by MentorTech ventures, with participation from Amicus Capital and prominent Bay Area and Seattle angels. We started fundraising in earnest in August of 2009, so from start to finish it took us eight months.
Raising money was a lot harder and took a lot longer than we expected, but obviously with determination and a bit of luck it can be done. This post covers the top lessons we learned along the way:
1. Raising money can be incredibly hard: Yes, I’ll repeat it again it case you missed it the first time. I’m sure there are plenty of startups out there that skate through the fundraising process -- we were not one of them. Despite having many of the elements of an attractive investment (experienced team, huge market, proven business model) our hit rate with investors was very low. We had to push through hundreds of “No’s” before we got to the few “Yes’s.” Set your expectations properly so that you don’t get discouraged five months in when you are still eating Top Ramen and your bank account is near empty.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Guest Post: Eleven lessons I learned raising venture capital
Author: Chris Rodde is the co-founder of SeniorHomes.com.
