138. Build Your Network Before Fundraising feat. Neha Govindraj, CEO @ Bonside
If you don't have a network of investors, start building that network now, before you need to fundraise.
About Bonside
Bonside is the first institution created specifically to finance brick-and-mortar businesses. Where venture capital has evolved to suit the needs of tech, Bonside’s structure (based on “Repeatable Revenue Agreements, RRAs) both leverages and encourages the distinct attributes of service-based brick-and-mortars—such as measured growth, repeat revenue and community involvement. By providing a centralized source of capital and resources, Bonside harnesses the strengths of an age-old, yet recently-evolving industry in order to empower its modern growth and establish a compelling new asset class for investors.
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech, logistics, and marketplace businesses. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.
About Rich Maloy
Rich’s mission is to rebuild the American dream through entrepreneurship. He believes technology gives all people the opportunity to grow, learn and earn. He is a Managing Partner at SpringTime Ventures and the host of the VC Minute podcast. With prior careers in finance and sales, he's been focused on the startup ecosystem for over a dozen years. He's a father of two young children and loves sci-fi, skiing, and video games.
If you don't have an existing network in venture capital, or you are about to embark on fundraising for the first time, I would spend a bit of time upfront before kicking off your fundraise. What I would do is I would take some time to identify a network and build the network without the ask of fundraising. Just relationship build. Go on LinkedIn, find a first degree connection, a second degree connection. Reach out, ask for coffee. Say you're working on something, you're not actively fundraising, but you would love to speak with them. Venture capitalists will take your meeting because that's what they do; they're meeting with founders. It's almost better to have that first meeting be when you are not fundraising. So that way when you are going to them and saying,"Hey, I'm fundraising," you've actually built a little bit of a reputation with them. And this is kind of like, the"always be fundraising" mindset, which I think has mixed reviews on it, and I don't believe in it post-seed but definitely in pre-seed. I would meet with folks in venture all the time, even when I wasn't fundraising, just so that way they had updates and milestones about the business. And so that way when I did kick off fundraising, it wasn't like I was starting from scratch and I knew that, okay, I'm already comfortable and friendly with these people. I'm gonna reach out to them and we are gonna really talk about the business in a deeper level than we have have before. Versus, I'm gonna reach out to them. I'm gonna tell them who Neha is. I'm gonna tell them why I started Bonside. I'm gonna tell them all the milestones. I'm gonna be like, no, that really happened in a six month period of time. There's just a lot more work you have to do. And so I would say make it easier on yourself. Do a little bit of the work upfront so that way you can have a quicker process when you kick off fundraising. Cuz with fundraising, speed is everything.
Throw the hottest pool party in town
Get you started on your fundraising journey. In true VC Minute fashion, all 50 episodes are less than 1 hr 30 min combined.
