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Ask HN: Advice on first round of VC funding

3 points by flthrowaway ↗ HN
Long-time lurker, using a throwaway account.

I'm the cofounder of a tech startup and we are in the B2B SaaS space. So far we've been fueled by founders' own savings, some angel funding and some revenues. We have established product-market fit, and while the general tendency is a 3-6 month sales cycle, we think we can accelerate it.

We recently began our fundraising efforts for a Series A round, and I am seeking advice from others who have been through that journey.

In particular, I would like to learn what level of details to share during tech due diligence, what sort of financial projections make sense, how detailed they need to be, how to best share a product roadmap (any tools that you prefer?) and so on.

Would really appreciate your suggestions. Thank you!

1 comment

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RtBVCFO
Let me focus on the financial part: First question is if funding the right route for you – if it aligns with your goals for the business. I’ll assume it is.

For the pitching phase: You want to show you understand your market and your customers – if you found product market fit – what is that market, how big is it, and what is your approach to achieve that? Your roadmap and strategy and leading. Your financial projects should back up your story and show you understand how you plan to scale your business and what it takes to do that. So the metrics and and projections to include depend on your exact business. 2 sources with suggestions on key metrics:

https://tomtunguz.com/saas-startup-benchmarks/

https://abel-finance.com/8-saas-performance-metrics/

In the pitching phase – in the main deck you don’t have space for much detail – 1 or max 2 sheets with financials (cashflow, MRR, and some key metrics) - but do prepare more detailed sheets to have at hand if investors ask.

In the DD phase: You’re going to have to be very open – you want to show the truth, your positive and realistic assumptions and be honest about your challenges. This is the time to build and solidify trust. You’re probably going to share your full financial model with the investor. Investors don’t expect you have every potential challenge solved. They expect a leadership team that understands where they are going and how they want to get there, and is capable of dealing with roadblocks that arise along the way.