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The actual name of this session was “All the stupid questions you wanted to ask about fundraising but were too afraid”. We had Brad Feld of the Foundry Group, David Cohen of TechStars who is also an angel investor, and Mark Solon of Highway 12 Ventures for a dinner session on fundraising. Questions (and answers) ranged from very general – What does Series A, B, etc. mean? – to very specific questions about specific investor-company relationships.

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“Raise the least amount of money to get you to that next step with the investors that will support you if estimated incorrectly”

“In any fair deal both parties walk away from the table feeling equally dissatisfied”

Mark Pincus (of Zynga) paid himself 32,000 a year for the first 2 years, minimum amount for a CEO in California.

Pay your team accordingly. If it costs 100,000 to prevent early talent from going somewhere else, that’s what it costs.

Another entry in my TechStars session notes. Brad Feld on being a CEO. (By the way, if you have any interest at all in startups, you should ABSOLUTELY be reading his blog).

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To previous CEO’s: What wasn’t awesome about being CEO of 10 persons company?

Not dealing with issues early on, classic problem.

It’s the CEO’s job to not run out of money. Front and center your job.

“If you the CEO, and the product lead, and responsible for money… you’re probably fucked”.

Mistake #1, CEO’s that wanna do everything.

“Having nobody that you manage as a cofounder is a very powerful thing”

Matt Van Horn spoke at TechStars and some of the things he said really stood out. I missed the first half of the talk, but even still I was incredibly compelled. Decided I’m gonna start taking notes on these session. Don’t read too deeply into them, they’re spontaneous, spur of the moment thoughts and it’s possible I misunderstood. Nonetheless, here they are (and will continue to exist in this blog’s notes category).

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Business development, VP at path.

Pulling from experiences with Digg and Path. Very compelling stuff about maintaining connections, following up, engaging in Twitter, Facebook. Considers IM to be a huge thing for developing a mentor relationship.

Hugely related to his uncomfortable feelings and chugging a glass of wind at a conference. That was my approach to SXSW.

“Just get 15 cards. Once you get 15 you can get the fuck out of there”

3 most interesting things about you.