INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Having raised about $90 million for a few companies and sold his startup Twitch to Amazon for almost a billion dollars, not being shy is
actually part of what Kan teaches
startups raise $100 million since it started in beta five months ago
The two-day in-person seminar includes pitch coaching, intros to investors and mentors, follow-up online pitch deck help, legal advice,
Amazon and Google Cloud credits and tax and accounting services.I went through Atrium Scale myself, pretending I was the founder of a
While the lectures were full of valuable tips, you can get a lot of those from instructional blog posts by Kan and other VCs
who fly themselves in from all over the worldWho gets in: Atrium selects the 10 percent of applicants most ready for venture funding
LightspeedMentors: Justin Kan (Atrium, Twitch), Holly Liu (Kabam, Y Combinator), James Richards (Teleborder, TriNet), Andrew Trader
relays.First, explain how the world is a certain way
Provide metrics on traction and mechanisms for growth, and show why your team is uniquely equipped to succeed
VCs will demand to understand your unit economics and scalable customer acquisition strategy that turns cash invested into more cash
earned.Perhaps the most important part of the pitch is practice, though
Pitch to fellow founders, investors or angels, but explicitly tell them you want feedback, not money
Running through the pitch over and over boosts confidence, A/B tests narratives and unearths questions
Know your numbers by heart so you always seem sure of where the business is heading, and define a personal pitching style that plays to your
Scale helps here by letting you pitch in groups, as well as one-on-one with mentors
Simply being surrounded by people all trying to improve creates an atmosphere conducive to progress rather than getting defensive about
There could be better homework or takeaway materials to help startups continue to improve after the workshop ended, but I heard
shined brightest was digging into the cadence of the fundraising process
Anyone can work out a decent pitch in their garage, but it takes special know-how to navigate turning that pitch into money in the bank
This is the kind of in-group knowledge that often makes it tough for outsiders to break into Silicon Valley.You should pitch wide, planning
recognition but their expertise and track record in your industry
Contact investors at least three to four weeks out and schedule meetings in as rapid succession as possible
with single partner meetings
Those that like you will set up multi-partner meetings, and you should ask them what their colleagues will want to know
investor that will put in at least 25 percent of the round volume and then fill it out with other firms, strategics and angels
Know that the median delay for investor due diligence is 41 days, so make sure you have enough runway to wait that long after you complete
money from strategic investors, equity versus SAFE financing, crooked deal terms like ratchets and liquidation preferences and how to manage
answers to industry-specific questions and their own edge cases.There are plenty of people looking to help startups in Silicon Valley, but
few are giving away this high-quality of education for free
Accelerators can charge 7 percent of equity and advisors can charge a percentage point or two
That can be worth a lot if the startup does well
Consultants want cash that pre-A startups rarely have
But Atrium is merely looking for lead generation and it needs them to raise money to be able to afford its legal services
That aligns the workshop well with the outcomes for the companies.If you have a dumb business idea, no amount of turd polishing will get you
But for startups on to something that just need help communicating, Atrium Scale could be a quick and cheap way to boost their chances of
getting picked from the crowd.
