Yamin Durrani
Contributor
The past couple of years were all about huge valuations and less about needing to prove peak operational efficiency across the entire business. Even if you didn’t experience this first-hand as a startup founder or employee, the sheer amount of funding dispersed just last year proves my point.
This year’s a bit different. In large part due to persistently high inflation, round sizes and valuations are starting to come down — or normalize.
As a CEO who successfully raised capital in Q4 last year and is actively raising another round right now, I want to share my observations and tactical tips with other founders looking to fundraise in today’s volatile market.
What investors aren’t interested in
To give you an idea of my data sample size, I met roughly 60 investors to raise both my seed and Series A rounds. About 95% of those investors were based here in the U.S. (mostly in Silicon Valley), and they came from a combination of private equity, investment banks and growth VC firms.
Based on my conversations, here are three things …
