Thoughts on how Seed stage entrepreneurs can prepare for raising their Series A round of financing

1. I just raised my first round of
capital, now what do I do?

2. Raising your first round is a significant
accomplishment for entrepreneurs, but…
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…it’s just the beginning!
Understanding and deliberately working towards next financing round
milestones is essential to thriving in the early stages of business
building
As soon as you close your Seed round, there are a few key activities
you can do to set yourself up for success in your next fundraise
- Set clear, measurable, resource appropriate milestones to achieve
- Build / maintain relationships with potential future investors

3. Tech startups are typically dependent on
outside financing to grow
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ScaleLaunch
Early Traction Product /
Market Fit
• Founding team
formed
• Concept defined
• MVP developed &
launched
• Tweak value prop
• Acquire paying
customers
• Refine core product
& features
• Key hires
• Go-to-market strategy
refined
• Huge customer growth
• Customer acquisition
efficient and repeatable
• Processes implemented
ExampleOperating
Activities
Ex.
Financing
Activities
Friends &
Family
Seed Round Series A Series B
The first thing you should do after raising capital…plan for your
next fundraising
Example early stage company lifecycle

4. Planning for your next fundraising
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Finding the right VC
• #2 reason startups fail – they run out of
money
• To prevent running out of money, need
to raise more money or generate cash
flow
• To raise more money you need to be
interesting to next round investors
WHY plan for the next round
right away
Source: CB Insights survey
To the be interesting to next round
investors, you need to achieve
milestones to meet their criteria
HOW plan for the next
round right away
Talk to potential next round
investors
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Create your next round pitch
deck
3
Create a resource plan to
support the pitch deck
1

5. Talking to next round investors
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• You probably heard investors say “I’m interested in the business, but
it’s too early for us”
• Those that were actually interested likely provided valuable feedback
on what they’d like to see in the future
• Investors will often also mention the stage of company they typically invest
in e.g. from HPVP website “startups with $500K to $3M in revenue”
While
raising
your first
round
After
raising
your first
round
• “Grab coffee” with potential future investors and say “I just raised my
[F&F/Seed, etc.] round, and I think you’d be a great fit for my next round –
what metrics do you look for in your investments?”
Use these data points to create a hypothesis on milestones you
need to achieve to raise your next round

6. 321
Creating your next round pitch deck
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The deck should:
• Incorporate feedback
• Be realistic and achievable
• Be focused on key milestones and metrics, related to:
Traction
(revenue, customers,
growth, etc.)
Product
(launches, integrations,
features, etc.)
People
(hire technical co-founder
or VP of Sales)
The deck should not:
• Focus on things you can’t control (e.g. broad market shifts, legal
changes, etc.)

7. Example next round pitch deck
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Traction Product
Team Other
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Customers
Sales
1 2
3 4
• Key metrics
• Approvals needed
• Etc.
Mallorie Brodie
Co-Founder,CEO
Adam Speakman
Engineering Lead
Lauren Hasegawa
Co-Founder,CRO
Zak Thompson
Web Lead
Rebecca
Thomson
Test Engineer
Laura Brodie
Director of
Marketing
Alannah Bird
Customer Exp.
Manager
Ben Porter
Sr. BDR
Haval Alarashi
BDR
Ryan Jannsen
BDR
Valerie Scharrer
Operations
Manager
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Version 1
Integration
Feature
Integration 2
Feature 2
Version 2
Today
Future

8. Creating a resource plan
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• The value of the deck creation is to give you an end goal to work
back from (e.g. I want to launch v2 of the product, shift from founder
sales to sales team, and have $50K MRR)
• Those goals, along with the key constraints of money & time, provide
the backbone for resource planning
• Most effective resource plans (aka use of funds) are often detailed
bottoms-up financial plans
• The hard part though, is to be realistic about building a startup, key
factors often overlooked:
o Product delays
o Employee onboarding/training/turnover
o Salesperson ramp up
o Sales process delays
o Cash flow issues from customer payments
o Time needed for future fundraising
If you don’t know what
assumptions to make,
ask someone who
does!

9. Building relationships with potential
future investors
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Current investors New investors
Two kinds of potential future investors
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• Should not be overlooked!
• Valuable part of any future financing
• Regular updates are important!
o Key metrics
o What’s going well
o What’s not going well
o How investors can help
• An excited current investor is a great
source of intros to future
investors
• Building relationships is key
• Grab coffee & lay out your plan for
the next round
• Provide regular updates – show
them you can do what you say
you’ll do
• Building relationships over time
shortens the actual “fundraising
process”

10. Thanks & questions?
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Thank you!
Please reach out with any questions
greg@hydeparkvp.com
Twitter: @greg_barnes