86 Meetings to Close $1.5mm
[Last Updated: December 2018] Aunt Flow closed our seed round of $1.5mm. It did not happen overnight.
I tracked our whole fundraise process in Hubspot (free version CRM) in an effort to show the strain, effort, and time that it took.
PLEASE NOTE: This CRM did not track the time I spent panicking, calling friends to beg for moral support (thank you Alex Iskold), and the relationships that I have built over the years to ensure positive, thoughtful introductions. This CRM did not track the emotional stress that I endured. Given our company stage, many investors shared they were investing in "me", that is why the "no's" hurt more. They were not saying no to the company, they simply did not believe in 'me.'
Number of unique investors that I had a conversation with: 86
This refers to an investor that I had a 30+ minute phone call or in-person conversation
Total number of meetings with investors: 102
Some investors or funds take more than one meeting to make a decision.
Most number of meetings, just for an investor to say no: 9
Note to investors, please don’t string entrepreneurs along for 9 meetings for a $25k check and then say no because "we didn't fit the fund thesis."
Least number of meetings for an investor to say yes: 1
Total hours spent: I purposely lost count after 150 because it was depleting
Mean check size: $75K
Number of investors that said no for now, but to stay in touch for future rounds: 34
Amount spent on legal bills: $55k
Please note - We disputed $30k of this considering $55k for a series seed round is outrageously high.
Investors involved in this round: Precursor Ventures, Break Trail Ventures, Harlem Capital, Ashley Merrill, Bryan Rosenblatt, Edward Zimmerman, Alicia Syrett, Eric Salzman, Ethan Auslander, Techstars, Rough Draft Ventures, Marc Schwartzberg, David Fassler, Rachel Lam, Tom Rutledge, Lumos Fund, Social Capital
*Only meetings (in person or phone call) were recorded. These stats do NOT include simple email introductions or cold outreach to emails like fund@fund.com that never responded.
*"Investors" refer to both funds and accredited angel investors.