Aaron Harris on Fundraising and Meeting with Investors

Aaron Harris is a Partner at YC and before that he cofounded Tutorspree.
/ harris
The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.
/ craigcannon
Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.
Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: www.ycombinator.com/apply/
***
Topics
00:00 - Intro
00:25 - Seed fundraising process
3:15 - Emailing investors
9:15 - Parallelized fundraising process
12:00 - Meeting with investors
14:00 - Overcapitalization
16:50 - Communicating your plan to investors
18:45 - Evaluating investors
22:40 - Fundraising process for a Series A company
26:45 - Meeting Series A investors
28:40 - Post-Demo Day psychology

[@mahardikaprima]

I raised USD 50.000 from angel investors after looking at this. Thanks Aaron!

[@grapplerke]

This is one of the best, most pragmatic and realistic videos I’ve ever seen on startup and entrepreneurship.

[@TheSocialAlchemy]

10/10. Watch this then shut down the interwebs and get to work!

[@saoirsesheridan8248]

Gold dust wisdom.. listening to this on the bus home n Dublin, Ireland and working away on my business too!

[@amydesai4292]

Aaron Harris is one of my favorite VC. Extremely respectful. Wonderful Human Being. We love him and respect him. Thank you Aaron.

[@obliviox]

Thanks for the upload! Great content, hope to make it in the Winter batch!

[@uloga]

Great interview, learned a lot as always. Keep it up.

[@skylerpadilla7648]

Just started building my product few weeks ago great advice!

[@jhwitz3295]

Great advice and insight! Thanks!

[@iq-beat7998]

So few likes on this video, but so much helpful thoughts! I have to listen to it at least two times more.

[@cesarricardosuarezpabuence5466]

Great talk guys, thanks a lot

[@GauravSinghGKS]

Wow Great video, last part was awesome :the sacrifice thing

[@rsdntevl]

so much value being thrown

[@andu896]

Great end note. :)

[@AndyFryDesigner]

Wonderful & honest insights! Thank you for sharing this with us!

[@LeeNguyenLeeMobile]

nice advice. its helpful

[@sechysandro4686]

this guy is good...

[@jasmeregill1416]

How do you justify securing seed funds with your product when you need the money first to. launch the product ?

[@mohdmajid1]

You're probably better off trying to make some type of prototype of your product using your own money and friends and family. As soon as you tell investors that you need their money to start building your product, you basically lose all leverage and that means a much higher chance of investor just not investing. Try to get a prototype out on a small budget and then talk to investors. Of course, this wouldn't apply if you were trying to build the next supersonic jet. In that case, you'd surely have to try to get funding just by showing designs and how you and your co-founders can actually build it.

[@mariojohnson4695]

Abdul Yep, you hit it right on the button, it’s best to bootstrap as long as you can, seed Investors and beyond ain’t giving you no money with an idea or no product. If they give you money, they may request too much equity in your company.

[@oneavenuemedia2001]

I have two products. One is a physical product with AR and cloud connected features. This has a pitch deck, and tangible MVP. The second idea is a social network that, (imo) is simplistic in it's formulation, yet would cover an untapped need in the social space. This has an unfinished pitch deck, working MPV app and I've detailed the business logic, use case, and developed the technology scope required to get it built. How can I get in front of an investor to get the process moving forward on these two projects?

[@andersonmarcelo455]

How are your projects now?

[@Daniel-zq7nx]

in front of investors you have to be in a position that not you investors get anxious if he would not choose us to invest then you you get the money

[@bluprnt4512]

Build in silence and shock with results

[@rafeeqwarfield9690]

“I don’t know anyone so therefore I can’t know anyone” 😂 28:14

[@JosephProsnitz1]

The trade is worth it. Boy is there a lot of suffering though. I feel like this ignores how non software products get built but that is ok. I wish the graveyard of startups was talked about more.

[@ycombinatorapplication4947]

What if there is practically no way to show proof of concept without an initial relatively large investment - in the region of 25,000 - 100,000? My product is not technology, the technology already exists and merely supports the business. There is no point in readying the background tech without the actual product, which will be expensive to produce.

[@georgeadem5395]

Idea mining company. I regret sending my decks to YC.

[@doncorleone3901]

Very good insights. But i continue to think moneybags are overrated. If im chasing VCs and angels and looking up at them with puppy eyes and lapping up their advice, im not really ready. I don't think entrepreneurs need to take moneybags and their opinions seriously. Im not talking about Aaron though because he has been an entrepreneur first