Fundraising Panel at Female Founders Conference 2015

TL;DR

Danielle (Mattermark) recounts three years of nonstop fundraising, including a pivot from a failed ecommerce startup, a messy “party round” of 155 investors, and the eventual Series A led by Brad Feld.

Key insights

• Fundraising looked easy initially because Danielle raised from people who already knew and trusted her; that pattern changes dramatically when pitching strangers.
• Investors often say “no” – the panelist with a sales background treats fundraising as a pure numbers game: get as many meetings as possible to rapidly collect “no’s” until a “yes” appears.
• For seed rounds, close the investor in the first meeting; the seed decision is made by one person immediately. For Series A, the process becomes enterprise sales – you must educate and arm an internal