037. Bridge Round

One word you should never say while fundraising is bridge.Saying you're raising a bridge round immediately conjures this question in investor's minds,"is it a bridge to nowhere?"Investors will ask this of themselves or their colleagues,and it's gone from being a joke,to an old joke,to simply the next expected question.If you say this while fundraising,it puts you in a defensive position having to explain why this is not a bridge to nowhere.If you never want to call your funding round a Bridge Round,what do you call it?The beauty of the current seed fundraising environment is that it's a phase.You may raise a Pre-Seed,a Seed,Seed2,a Seed Extension,all before you raise a Series A.I even saw a funding round recently come through announced as a Series A-2.Even better,if you have most of your current investors committed to a re-invest in this round,then it's an insider round.That carries even more weight.None of these is a Bridge Round and no one should ever label it as such.It may seem minor,but investors can no more stop themselves from picturing a bridge to nowhere,than you can prevent yourself from thinking about a pink elephant,no matter how emphatically I tell you not to think about a pink elephant.So good luck raising your seed to round!