SocialStartups.com

Just got this sent to me by one of the organizers:

GigaOm just posted about the $350,000 angel round we just raised. Here's the inside story how we raised the money.

Back in January, we raised about $150,000 from friends & family – my mentor from DreamIt Ventures, my old Amazon VP, my parents, a friend from college, Jeremy Arnon (a bizdev guy I met at NYTM) and his twin brother, and a Wall St. banker who is the best friend of Josh (my new business development guy). We considered doing convertible debt, but ended up pricing the round. (Happy to explain that in a future post if anyone is interested).

Our excellent lawyer (Jay Rand, Manatt) put a clause in the term sheet that gave us 60 days after the close to fill out the round, which officially closed February 4th. Smart move, considering we just filled up the round today, 57 days later. 

Then, Venturehacks launched AngelList, which changed everything.

AngelList is a collection of amazing angel investors, all waiting for your brilliant idea. You fill out an application and, if you're awesome enough, your application will be sent out to everyone on the list. You'll then be introduced personally over email to anyone who is interested.

As reported by Venturehacks, we sent out our application once, touting our idea of "social media management for businesses", got 8 fantastic introductions, and were ultimately funded by David Rose and Chris Yeh. The Venturehacks guys came back to us and said, "We want to send your application back out onto AngelList with the added social proof of being invested." 

To give you some context, over the last 3 months, we followed the Customer Development methodology and went outside of the building. And we found that the social media management tools space was commoditizing quickly, with everyone concentrating on selling to a small sliver at the top (media companies, PR, agency, etc). We also met with VCs, who gave us the same feedback. So it was time to pivot.

So we pivoted (explained in the GigaOm post, but I'll say more soon), and sent the new direction to AngelList. And this is where the craziness started.

My first phone call was with Tom McInerney, 3 hours before I was flying out to SXSW. After about a 30 minute phone call, Tom was in. He then introduced me to his friend Paige Craig, who would also be at SXSW. I met Paige in Austin, and after meeting, he told me he was in. The next day, at a Venturehacks meetup at the Four Seasons hotel, he pulled over Dave McClure. We went out to the balcony (he wanted a cigarette) and I pitched him. He was in. The following day, I spoke with Thomas Korte, who moved up our scheduled phone call a couple days once he heard Dave was investing, and he was in. I also got an email introduction via my friend Russ (founder of SeatGeek) about his investor Kal Vepuri, who was also at SXSW. Kal and I spoke on the balcony of the Austin Convention Center, and I was blown away by his intelligence and humility. So Kal was in. Finally, my friend Michael Galpert of Aviary connected me with Gary Vaynerchuk, who is a perfect investor for us given what he is passionate about (social media for businesses). David Cohen finished off our round not too long after that.

So that's it. Through a combination of a great team (Chris & Haim founded Etsy), customer development, responding to feedback, AngelList, networking, and being able to articulate a compelling vision backed by domain expertise, I was able to raise $200k in the 6 days of SXSW! 

If you have any questions, leave a comment or email me at david.lifson@gmail.com. Thanks!

A couple of days ago, I had a phone call with a partner of an early stage VC firm whose portfolio is filled with successful startups you've heard of. Halfway through our conversation, they told me: "We only invest in companies that believe they can be worth $1 billion dollars. If you think you'd be happy with $50-100 million, you're not the right company for us. The companies we invest in generate $100,000 per month in revenue within 6-12 months of launch, and $1 million per month in revenue by 1 year after that. How do you plan to do that?"

What?

I was shocked. I can't think of a single non-ecommerce startup that can boast $100k in monthly revenues within 6-12 months of launch AND were creating a new market. Not Google. Not Facebook. Not Twitter. Not Yahoo. Maybe Apple? Microsoft?

As Steve Blank so eloquently says, when you are creating a new market, you have no idea how long the flat part of the hockey stick really is. That's because you are creating a new product that people don't even know they want, because they've never seen anything like it before. And you are creating something based on a mountain of assumptions, because you don't know what people will want once they know they want something. 

This is all to say, choose your investors wisely. 

(NB — This partner, by the way, has never started their own company or worked at a startup.)

A couple of days ago, I had a phone call with a partner of an early stage VC firm whose portfolio is filled with successful startups you've heard of. Halfway through our conversation, they told me: "We only invest in companies that believe they can be worth $1 billion dollars. If you think you'd be happy with $50-100 million, you're not the right company for us. The companies we invest in generate $100,000 per month in revenue within 6-12 months of launch, and $1 million per month in revenue by 1 year after that. How do you plan to do that?"

What?

I was shocked. I can't think of a single non-ecommerce startup that can boast $100k in monthly revenues within 6-12 months of launch AND were creating a new market. Not Google. Not Facebook. Not Twitter. Not Yahoo. Maybe Apple? Microsoft?

As Steve Blank so eloquently says, when you are creating a new market, you have no idea how long the flat part of the hockey stick really is. That's because you are creating a new product that people don't even know they want, because they've never seen anything like it before. And you are creating something based on a mountain of assumptions, because you don't know what people will want once they know they want something. 

This is all to say, choose your investors wisely. 

(NB — This partner, by the way, has never started their own company or worked at a startup.)

For the first time since November 2008, I'm getting a paycheck today. It's not much ($930.46) and 1/5th of what I used to be paid, but I'll take it. Needless to say, I have no money left and credit card bills to pay, so it's coming at a good time.

Being an entrepreneur means sacrifice. I gave up my $3000/month beautiful Brooklyn loft for splitting a 2 bedroom with 3 people in Bayonne, NJ for $300/month. I was without health insurance for 15 months. And I can't tell you just how much I appreciate J for putting up with living in Bayonne when I know she misses NYC and hates the commute.

Being an entrepreneur means being comfortable living on the edge. Last March, when I was still in Brooklyn, I had a $3000 rent check due in 2 weeks, and I didn't have the money to pay it. And yet, you find a way. I was able to secure an investor and pay my rent on time.

Being an entrepreneur means riding a rollercoaster. One day in December, we're celebrating because an angel investor told us he wanted to put in $200,000. Over the following weeks, we agree to a price and terms, and then he pulls out. From what Chris Dixon writes, this is more common than it should be. In the end, though, I think it was the best thing that could have happened to us.

Being an entrepreneur means compromise. Having no money means you can't buy what you want, go out to eat whenever you want, travel wherever you want. But in return, you get to create something meaningful, be your own boss, and love what you do.

I wouldn't have it any other way.