Be Patient During Customer Discovery
December 3, 2024
Customer discovery is a grind. It’s not intellectually challenging, but it will test your motivation, as getting dozens, if not hundreds, of calls with potential customers is a lot of work.
It’s YC demo day in 2 weeks and fundraising around the Summer 24 batch is already at fever pitch. Many founders are experiencing a lot of demand and it’s tempting to raise a bunch of money from lots of small checks. I’m biased, but if you are lucky enough to have plenty of interest, I suggest you engage those with deep pockets.
Regardless of your momentum now, most companies end up needing a little more capital to reach the next round. If you’ve only raised from angel investors, they most likely won’t be able to add much more to their position.
Plenty of lead investors will ask for a minimum amount to be raised for the next round to close and for them to wire the funds. If your cap table has funds who can participate at the later stages, this relieves a lot of the pressure to fundraise beyond securing the term sheet.
Most funds are measured by who invests in their companies after they do and at what price. So your fund investors are heavily incentivized to help you fundraise your next round, if they’ve invested a large enough check.
Best of luck out there.
