Fundraising Q&A – Brad Feld, David Cohen, and Mark Solon

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.