Mark Suster produces another one of this trademark, long-but-packed-with-info articles, this one about fund-raising.
Mark presents fund-raising as sales, and offers a whopping 13 mini-articles about every aspect of achieving this:
- Identify the right target investors
- Determine how to get access to them
- Meet early
- Meet in person
- Avoid the dead times in the year when no one raises funds
- Have a narrative / make it simple
- Create a sustained campaign
- Lobby - get referrals
- Don't neglect your other duties
- Test interest
- Take appropriate risks
- Understand the importance of marketing
- Create urgency
I'm not a fan of raising investment unless you already do know what you're doing, as I've discussed before, but if you do feel ready to go the funded route, this article is gold dust - a bucketful of it. Bookmark and read at leisure.