Hey - it’s Jason Yeh 🕺🏻

This is my weekly recap of thoughts I’ve had while helping founders solve their fundraising challenges this past week (6.14.22)

If you have any questions, please reply! I try to get to every comment/question I get :)

On to the Fieldnotes for 6.14.22…

Drive to Survive (extend your runway…)

Tactical advice on extending your runway to raise in the fall- first in a series of tactical fundraising posts

Last week’s goal was inspiration. This week we start on tactics. 

Last week my message was – “Yes this market sucks, and pausing a fundraise can be painful…BUT it could be a blessing in disguise.”  

I wanted founders who had their fundraises blown up by the market to realize this newfound time with added constraints (euphemism of the century, I know) could drive incredible outcomes. Deep and deliberate preparation for a fundraise, I argued in the podcast I referenced, can be transformational.

In normal times, that change can be accessed with just a bit of planning and guidance.

However, when you’re unexpectedly forced to push off fundraising for months in the middle of crashing markets and a swirling economy, transformation is on the other side of a major first step…

DRIVE TO SURVIVE 

To even consider using your unplanned time towards preparing a fundraise, first you need to survive.

The basics of this means organizing the company so you have the breathing room to execute a fundraise once we emerge from the current period of irrational pullback by early stage investors. After summer vacation ends and the uncertainty of crashing markets settles, investing activity will start picking back up. Holding off fundraising till September at the earliest means you will need to stay alive till December, but ideally you extend your cash out date till March (who knows how slow processes will be in the fall).

So how do you pull this off?

Basic Survival Steps

The best first step in surviving is intelligent planning. You must get a hold of your financials so you can identify your cash out date and then do what it takes to MOVE that date.

As soon as possible, jump into the numbers and build a great model. If you don’t know how to do this, ask for help! An accurate handle on how much you’re burning every month is essential to getting this right and you can’t get there without spreadsheets.

Side Note: don’t be ashamed if you don’t already have a great financial model or aren’t great at financial modeling. MOST early stage startup founders are in this situation (but don’t admit it). The positive effect of this fire drill is to make sure you know how to do this for the future (either on your own or with help).

Once you’ve got the model in place, there are only two things to focus on… costs/expenses and revenue/investment. In other words - decreasing / increasing your outflows and inflows of cash.

Adding Inflows

There are limited options here but you should leave no stone unturned.

While it’s not a great time to run a traditional fundraise process, there are a few opportunities that could be easier to access.

(Click to continue reading and check back next week for more tactical fundraising advice)

Smart Twitter Takes

Selling tokens to fundraise…topic for a future essay? It’s new for everyone. Here’s a place to start…

This made me lol. Most 1st time founders either hate marketing or hate sales… newsflash, they’re both SUPER important.

P.S. Haha Packy... More web3 jokes (don’t hate me. I like web3 and Packy but these are funny).

In case you missed it…

Last week’s post explained why pausing your fundraise until the Fall might be a blessing in disguise:

Small asks!

If you thought this was helpful or enjoyable in any way, I’d love for you to:

• Share this newsletter with others who would enjoy it using your referral link above

• Follow me on Twitter where I’ve begun building in public (my course, my podcast, etc)!

• Ask me your fundraising questions so I can help you and cover them in a future issue

• Listen with a friend to Funded, my podcast that tells the rollercoaster stories of how founders raised millions (and subscribe🙏)