Fundraising Tips for Early and Medium Startups in 2022 – TechCrunch

last couple Over the years it has been about huge assessments and less about the need to demonstrate the highest operational efficiency across the entire business. Even if you haven’t experienced this yourself as a founder or budding employee, the sheer amount of funding scattered in the past year only proves my point.

This year is a little different. In large part due to persistently high inflation, tour volumes and valuations are beginning to decline – or normalize.

As a CEO who successfully raised capital in the fourth quarter of last year and is actively ramping up another round at the moment, I’d like to share my notes and tactics tips with other founders looking to raise money in today’s volatile market.

What investors don’t care about

To give you an idea of ​​the size of my data sample, I interviewed nearly 60 investors to raise both the initial rounds and the first round. About 95% of these investors were based here in the US (mostly in Silicon Valley), and they came from a mix of private equity, investment banks, and growing venture capital firms.

Based on my conversations, here are three things I noticed from investors it’s not Interested now:

startup funding trends

I recently found that most investors are looking for reasons Not for investment. Common comments from founders include, “You run too high”; “You have a lot of revenue concentration from one customer”; and/or “Your product has potential future regulatory risks.”

Companies that have a lot of capital expenditures

If you have a capital-intensive business or go on long terms while your EBIT is negative, you may have a hard time finding a willing investor. Now is a tough time to show a big loss in short run operations.

Support for new companies

Venture capital is more willing to continue investing within their portfolio companies for the time being.

What do investors care about?

Don’t panic, VCs be Interested in investing at the moment, only in a few areas.