Aditi Sinha is the co-founder of Locale.ai which is a location analytics startup that recently has raised seed funding round led by two angel investors and an early-stage venture capital firm Better Capital.
In this post, Aditi being a first-time entrepreneur compiled her fundraising journey in a structured format so that one can easily relate and learn from her experience.
So lets look into Aditi’s post:
Outreach:
We know getting intros is the best way. But if you don’t have the network, always, always personalize your mails! Make them succinct! Make sure you stand out! Make sure you tell the investor why he/she needs to listen to you.
Build a brand:
Without spending money. At @Localeai, we started writing about our story, experiences, our problems & challenges. This led to a lot of investors reaching out to us directly!
Pitching:
I hate the word “pitching”. I always went to a meeting with the money of having a nice conversation & enjoying it thoroughly. I never used PPTs because I liked the idea of free-floating conversations.
Choosing VCs:
My best memories from the experience were brainstorming with investors. Don’t just take no- ask why. Ask them why you will fail. I chose an investor who I loved brainstorming with.
Process:
It’s definitely a draining process but teaches you a lot. When you’re building something new, you will find a lot of people who you don’t believe in what you’re doing. Just need to find out the select few who do!
Sales vs Investment Pitches:
This is a subtle one. You need to make the use cases for investment as broad as possible whereas with sales, as personalized as possible!
The problem:
Even though you probably would have never done this before, but if you really care about the problem, the passion shows & sometimes that’s enough.
Customers:
Nothing can beat this! The more you know about your customers, the stronger you become. Nothing can beat this, trust me! Knowledge feeds into confidence & vice- versa.
Bonus one on investors:
Don’t let investors drag you along. The best ones always tell you within 2-3 meetings. Make sure you keep asking them how the decision-making process is!
So, guys, this was a brief of Aditi’s fundraising journey for her venture Locale.ai. Hope you guys like it!
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