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On episode 4, season 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Tyler Tringas. Tyler is the founder and General Partner at Calm Company Fund (formerly Earnest Capital). The Calm Company Fund invests in exactly what it sounds like — “profitable, sustainable, calm businesses.” About Tyler and Calm Company Fund Tyler offers a unique perspective as someone who invests in companies that may not be the huge companies that a traditional venture capitalist eyes. He joins us to break down what exactly a “calm” business is, the current market dynamics that are creating more need for funders like Calm Company Fund, and much more. Our CEO, Mike Preuss, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Tyler. You can give the full episode a listen below: What You Can Expect to Learn from Tyler How companies in smaller markets can still be winners What a SEAL is and how Calm Fund uses them The market dynamics creating a need for more funding options like Calm Fund Why and how they raised crowdfunding How Calm Fund and Venture Capital can co-exist for startups How to best cold email investors Related Resources Tyler’s Twitter Calm Capital — What We Invest In Shared Earnings Agreement Our Original Sit Down with Tyler The Calm Fund Visible Connect Profile Bootstrapping 101: Pros & Cons of Bootstrapping Your Startup

On episode 3, season 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Elizabeth Yin. Elizabeth is the founder of Hustle Fund, a venture fund for “hilariously-early founders.” About Elizabeth As a past founder and current investor (and a founder favorite Twitter follow), Elizabeth knows what it takes to successfully raise a round of venture capital. Elizabeth breaks down how founders can leverage tranches, raising from small funds and angels, and shares other tactical tips to knock out your seed round. Our CEO, Mike Preuss, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Elizabeth. You can give the full episode a listen below: What You Can Expect to Learn from Elizabeth How to raise capital from angels How small checks can lead to big checks How tranches can be an effective way to raise capital How tranches and meeting cadence can create FOMO Why you should have a 5 slide deck What changes between a Seed and Series A round How to get the attention of an investor via cold email Related Resources Elizabeth’s Twitter Hustle Fund’s Connect Profile AngelSquad by Hustle Fund

On episode 2, season 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Brett Brohl of Bread & Butter Ventures. Brett is the Managing Director of Bread & Butter Ventures as well as the Managing Director of the Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator. About Brett As a past founder and current investor, Brett has a wealth of knowledge on how founders can best create momentum during a fundraise. Give Brett a listen as he walks us through best practices to build out a fundraising process. Our CEO, Mike Preuss, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Brett. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn from Brett How to determine if VC is right for your business How much time you should allocate for a raise How to model financials for a fundraise How to leverage investor Updates to speed up a fundraise Why you should send a 4 slide pitch deck before a meeting How you should think about moving investors through your funnel Related Resources Brett’s Twitter Brett’s Fundraise Faster Video Series Troy Henikoff Financial Modeling Series The Bread & Butter Investor Update Template Bread & Butter’s Profile on Visible Connect, our investor database

On the first episode of season 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast, we welcome Kenn So of Shasta Ventures. About Kenn Kenn is an associate at Shasta and invests in B2B enterprise software companies (with a personal focus on Machine Learning). Kenn joins the Founders Forward to break down the trends taking place that are influencing company valuations. We also dig into how founders can leverage investor updates and cold email to create momentum in a fundraising process. Our CEO, Mike Preuss, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Kenn. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn from Kenn Why founders should take the time to pitch associates The supply & demand of venture capital that are impacting valuations Why the emergence of “mega-funds” is changing the VC landscape The risk of raising at too high of a valuation How to create momentum in a fundraising process using an email newsletter What he likes to see in a cold email from a founder Related Resources Kenn’s Book, “Breaking into Early-Stage VC“ Kenn So on Tech Valuations Kenn’s LinkedIn

As more capital flows into venture as an asset class, investors are increasingly competing for LP dollars and space on the cap table from the best founders they work with. Gone are the days when capital is enough of a differentiator for a VC fund to get on a hot startup’s cap table. Considering the average VC + Founder relationship is 8-10 years (longer than the average marriage in the US) — founders are beginning to look for a true partner out of a VC fund. In order for a VC fund or emerging fund manager to stand out among other funds, they need to have the data and systems in place. LPs have increasingly higher expectations for fund performance while founders have increasingly higher expectations for VC funds. About this Report The goal of this report is to break down the best practices we see hundreds of VC use to collect and share their portfolio data. We outline best practices related to: Market Data Overview Timing of Data Requests Number of Metrics to Collect Most Common Metrics The Founder Experience Qualitative Questions Minimum Viable Data Request Company Success = Fund Success Venture capital funds are only as successful as their portfolio companies. There are few people who have been in a founder’s shoes and can help them navigate the challenges they are facing. However, investors are in a unique position as they’ve likely seen many portfolio companies and potential investments face the same challenges. In order to best help portfolio companies, investors need to have a strategy in place to collect both qualitative and quantitative data from their portfolio companies. Collecting a few KPIs and company asks is a great place to start (more on this later in the report). At the same time, there is a balance between helping and being a burden on a portfolio company. Download our report to learn some simple best practices so you can collect the data you need without burdening your portfolio companies

What is the best way for a SaaS company to grow? According to ProfitWell, “Acquisition is the weakest growth lever. How do we know this? We studied the levers—acquisition, retention, and monetization—of 23.4k SaaS companies. We found that monetization and retention have much higher revenue impacts than acquisition when considering the same level of impact across each growth lever.” In this webinar you’ll learn: How retention can boost your business Best practices to improve retention What ProfitWell has learned from surveying 23k+ companies about retention The new Visible + ProfitWell integration Why you should send an investor update

Founding a company is no easy feat. From idea to execution, it can be almost impossible to get up and running as an actual, legitimate company and that’s just the beginning. Across all industries, 90% of startups fail and 10% of startups fail in the first year alone. The odds are stacked against you and only the bravest (and maybe craziest) folks choose the path of entrepreneurship and founding their own startup. Going this road is risky and daunting so often it makes sense to bring on additional support, a co-founder or multiple co-founders, to join in on the wild ride of launching and building a startup. However, it’s not always clear when bringing on a co-founder is right. Timing, needs, trajectory, bandwidth, and business outcomes should all be considered when thinking about what a co-founder could mean for your business’s success (or failure). So how do you know when you need a co-founder and how do you find the right one for your business? The Visible team has outlined 4 ways to find the perfect startup co-founder. How Do You Know if You Need a Co-Founder for Your Startup? There are no one-size-fits-all perfect way to run a startup. Some founders are successful on their own, hiring a great leadership team around them. Others make the choice to bring on a co-founder or group of co-founders early in the business. So how do you know if you need a co-founder for your startup? Consider two main categories, what stage your business is at and what your competencies are as a founder. Not every founder (or every business leader) is perfect at every task that a founder needs to learn. Some founders come to the table with a product and technical strength – the how and the possibility of what’s feasible with your new idea is clear in your mind. Other founders come to the table with business acumen – maybe they’ve founded a company before or lead a company in the c-suite through major milestones like fundraises, acquisitions, or even IPOs. Still, other founders excel in an area of expertise that their new tech startup fits into. For example, maybe a 20-year restaurant management vet wants to start a startup focused on restaurant tech. They bring industry knowledge and even some business acumen to the table, but are missing the technical and the startup funding knowledge that may be needed. Some founders choose to stay the course and work through the areas they aren’t experts in alone or with the guidance of trusted advisors. It is critical to go into your startup as a founder to understand your strengths and where you might be missing skills. Taking an assessment of personal strengths and areas of competency is a great way to decide if you need a co-founder. A co-founder with another set of skills or expertise can help round out your startup and increase your odds for succeeding right out of the gate. This can also be done with early hires, but there are some unique benefits that come with purposefully choosing someone to co-found a startup with you instead of just joining as an early team member. Check out why Yaw Aning, Founder of Malomo, believes it is important to find a co-founder below: Why You Should Consider a Co-Founder After you’ve identified that there are some core pieces of knowledge missing from your team as you move to found a startup, there are some key reasons why you should consider a co-founder to join the team instead of just making specifically skilled early hires. Commitment to the Vision With the ups and downs a startup can bring, commitment is critical for early team members. A co-founder is more bought into the vision of your startup than an early hire. They are tasked with helping to shape the vision, typically have the opportunity to grab major equity options, and have the responsibility of shouldering the success or failure. An early hire may be committed and you may even give them great stock options, but their ideas and direction aren’t shaping the business in the same foundational way. When things get tough, they can jump ship with a lot less hesitation. Understanding how startups go about splitting founder equity is important in understanding how committed a co-founder will be to your business. Move Fast Sharing the responsibility of the quick, high-stakes decisions that must be made while launching and growing a startup can help your team scale faster, saving time and money. Knowing you have a trusted partner to take ownership of parts of the business will allow more to get done simultaneously. For example, a technical founder can help lead the engineering and product decisions while a business-minded or CEO partner can focus on fundraising and scaling a GTM plan. It becomes much easier to move fast with multiple folks leading in lock-step. Get Unstuck As you move fast and scale your vision, roadblocks will pop up. A co-founder or multiple co-founders ensure that there are multiple folks with the same stake and commitment to the business ready to solve these challenges. Board members and investors (as you develop and bring on those partners) will have perspectives, advice, and even an ideal vision but a co-founder can help keep you focused and is a built-in, strong sounding board to move through the inevitable challenges that founders face. What to Look for In a Co-Founder Maybe you’ve thought about it and you do want to seek out a co-founder for your startup. But what exactly makes a good co-founder? Strong co-founders should have indispensable skills and experience, a complementary and collaborative mindset, and a clear vision and commitment to the company you’re planning to build. Skills and experience Reflecting back on identifying your own core competencies as a founder, whether you’re seeking out a co-founder with a very specific skill set or a complimentary one, looking for a co-founder with a background of skills and experience is key. In some cases, friends from college or young entrepreneurs are able to scale a successful business. But that is the exception, not the rule. In most cases, choosing a co-founder with skills and expertise in the competency area you are looking for, as a successful previous founder or business leader, or an impressive resume of wins and experience in the space your startup will play are good guidelines to follow in your search. Complementary and Collaborative Mindset Co-founders spend an unimaginable amount of time working together. Understand your working style and strengths and make sure you partner with a co-founder that you can work well with and who brings ideas and a drive to work together to the table. You might have the most skilled and experienced candidate on the table but if the energy between co-founders is off, the collaboration and execution just won’t get done or will be a very painful process to go through day after day. Commitment Is the person you’re considering bringing on as a co-founder a startup hopper? Are there weird gaps on their resume or unexplained reasons for exciting startups (outside of the reasons that startups fail 90% of the time)? Every founder is looking to be that 1 in 9. Best case, you take your startup all the way to a successful conclusion of acquisition or IPO. Looking for a co-founder with a track record and personality that can remain committed to the vision of your startup through all ups and downs is critical. Additionally, it’s important that any co-founder you take on has a passion and excitement for the problem you’re solving. The nitty-gritty will get stressful and even boring at times, but the commitment to growth and vision, what COULD be, will help any co-founder team preserve. 4 Ways to Find the Right Startup Co-Founder Take Advantage of Your Network Think about all the great networks and experiences you’ve been a part of in your career. From alumni networks at undergrad or business school to your LinkedIn connections, chances are someone in your circle knows someone looking to join the startup founder game too. Folks are always open to connecting with others so starting within the circles you feel comfortable with is a great place to start searching for a co-founder. Nobody knows you better than folks you’ve worked with or had personal experiences with. The perfect person may only be a degree or two connection away so put those feelers out in your network first. Network in Your Startups Industry Starting a company focused on the hospitality industry? Maybe the finance space? There are plenty of online groups on LinkedIn or on Slack as well as in-person associations and meetup groups that are industry-focused. Joining a few industry associations or networking calls can help you find a co-founder with the expertise and passion in your new industry space. Look for Advisors While it may not make sense to bring on a co-founder at the very beginning of your startup, start by bringing on a few trusted advisors and confidants to provide guidance and collaboration that a founder would. As you refine your work style and vision for the company, one of these advisors or collaborators could turn into a co-founder or after working with you, feel comfortable and excited referring to someone in their network to be considered for the partnership. Find Founder-Focused Communities In addition to networking in your personal circles and engaging with industry-focused events, there are many events specifically for founders. Some VCs and even top tech cities will host “founder speed dating” or “founder networking” events for current founders or past founders seeking to meet and build a network of collaborators and advisors or even as a place to meet others interested in founding a startup together. Conclusion All in all, outside of maybe how you choose to fund your startup, the decision to bring on a co-founder (or not!) is one of the most important decisions you will make in the early stage of a startup. It’s a decision that if executed correctly, can result in a great long-term partnership, allow for faster growth, and provide long-term success for your business. Start with our 4 ways to find the perfect startup founder and let us know how your startup journey goes. Happy founding!  Interested in learning more about the foundations of a startup and how to measure success from the very beginning? Chat with the Visible team here.

Keeping tabs on your SaaS metrics, like subscription growth, MRR movements, churn rates, etc., is vital to continued growth and improvement. We are excited to announce our direct integration with ProfitWell to do just that. About ProfitWell ProfitWell is a free tool that provides SaaS metrics insights, helps reduce churn and optimize pricing. Visualize your ProfitWell data directly in Visible, share it with your most important stakeholders, and combine it with other data sources to understand how your subscription growth is impacting your overall business. ProfitWell + Visible Our integration with ProfitWell allows you to sync 39 metrics to your Visible account (learn more about them here). Check out a few examples of different charts and data you can pull into Visible below: With ProfitWell, you can bring in all of your recurring revenue movements — new, upgraded, downgraded, churned. If you’d prefer to not share such granular data with your investors (and potential investors), you can also pull in your current recurring revenue which may look something like this:Alternatively, you can also chart your customer count movements to get a look at how your customer base is growing. How SaaS Metrics Help Fuel Growth ProfitWell has taken an added focus on leveraging your current customer retention to fuel growth. As they put it, “Acquisition is the weakest growth lever. How do we know this? We studied the levers—acquisition, retention, and monetization—of 512 SaaS companies. We found that monetization and retention have much higher revenue impacts than acquisition when considering the same level of impact across each growth lever.” Keep tabs on your retention directly in Visible. If you’d like to learn more, make sure to save a spot in our webinar with Patrick Campbell, CEO of ProfitWell, as we discuss all things churn and retention. Learn more about connecting ProfitWell Don’t forget you can combine your ProfitWell data with any of our other integrations as well. P.S. We are hosting a webinar with Patrick Campbell, the CEO of ProfitWell, on July 7th to discuss all things net revenue retention and churn. Save your spot here.

When is the right time to raise a Series A round of funding? You made it past your initial seed funding round which means you successfully raised money on a story that got your investors excited about you as a leader and the vision of what you were building. You then turned that capital into a solid customer base, consistent revenue, or are hitting other KPIs relevant to your company and now you’re thinking about raising your Series A. At this point, you may be wondering when to start the fundraising process, how investor expectations have changed, and how to get in front of the right investors. You are right to be asking yourself all these questions and mentally preparing to transition to a full-time job of fundraising. The reality is, Series A financing is much harder to obtain than seed financing. First Round Capital shares a founder’s perspective, “Our seed round was super fast and hyper-competitive, and then we went into the A and started getting interrogated about our data. It was like graduating from elementary school and going straight into college.” To better understand how investors are thinking about the A round, Andrew Chen of Andreessen Horowitz distilled the early-stage investment thesis into this: Pre-seed – Bet on the entrepreneur Seed – Bet on the team Series A – Bet on the traction Series B – Bet on the revenue Series C – Bet on the unit economics There’s no getting around the fact that Series A are the new Series B and the heightened competition for capital at this stage means you need to go into the Series A fundraising process equipped with the knowledge and a level of preparedness that will set you apart from the others. The right time to kick off your Series A fundraising process is… before you think. It’s a rare breed of founder that will tell you they closed a financing round in LESS time than they thought it would take. Y Combinator suggests kicking off your fundraising when you have 9 months of runway left but you should be nurturing informal relationships with investors before then (view prospective Investor Update templates here). Additionally, you should always have a finger on the pulse of your burn rate and how it influences your runway. If you don’t know your key metrics cold, you’re not ready to fundraise. Recommended Reading: The Understandable Guide to Startup Funding Stages What if you’re running out of cash but still not hitting Series A benchmarks? With the hurdles for Series A financing reaching new heights, it’s good to think about whether you’re really ready to set these types of expectations with investors. If not, it’s becoming more common for startups to raise seed extensions (Seed II, Seed Extension, Pre-A, etc) to supplement their growth until they are able to hit the milestones that Series A investors are looking for. If this sounds like you, be sure to know the difference between a bridge round and post-seed round. The name of the financing round will attract different types of investors so be sure to consider this early on when developing your fundraising strategy. What is the purpose of a Series A round? To keep things straightforward, your seed-stage round was about achieving product-market fit. Your Series A round, typically between $2 million to $15 million, is about expanding your customer base and product offerings. Investors will also want to see you develop a strategy for generating long-term profit during this stage. What types of investors are good for Series A? It’s important to think strategically about what type of investors you want joining your cap table for your Series A, especially since the average investor + founder relationship is 8-10 years and investors’ brand, reputation, and resources can influence your chances of success. To start narrowing in on what your potential investors will look like, check out this All Encompassing Fundraising Guide for Startups which includes an Ideal Investor Persona outline. If you’re further along in the fundraising process and want to due diligence on an investor, here are some diligence questions to consider: What do other founders in their portfolio (funded or failed) have to say about what the investor was like to work with during hard times? What do your current investors think about this investor? Does this investor have a reputation for working well with others? Does this investor have deep pockets? Are they a potential source of follow-on funding? Do they have great brand recognition? Will being associated with their brand give you instant credibility? Do they provide support in areas you need to grow? (CEO forums, marketing resources, etc?) How available were they during the diligence process? (If they’re busy and hard to reach during diligence, this will likely remain the same or be worse after the deal closes.) Do their ‘terms’ signal they’re in it for the long haul? Avoid these Common Series A Mistakes Being unclear about how much you’re raising Ranges look indecisive and unresearched. Investors know that your numbers may change slightly but you should be raising the minimum amount needed to hit your Series B milestones. Y Combinator suggests this is typically ~3-5x your current numbers. Be sure to do your research in advance and have a specific ask. Not learning from your investor meetings You’re going to spend a lot of time talking with different investors but the truth is there is only a 1-10% chance that investor is going to give you money. This is why James Currier, General Partner at NFX, says it’s better to view meetings with investors as “an opportunity for you to build your company using the information you get from the VC, not just the money you might get. This will give you a higher return on your time.” This means your pitch deck should be evolving over time as you meet with investors. Not tailoring the deck to the investor Just as you wouldn’t send the same resume and cover letter to different employers, you should be tailoring your Series A pitch deck to each investor. Do some research in advance about their investment thesis, criteria, and current portfolio. Make sure you emphasize areas you know they care about. LinkedIn can be a helpful tool to get to know more about an investor before your first meeting. For example, by taking a quick look at their profile you could learn they used to work for a potential customer of yours and then you can include their logo in your deck. Wasting time on investors You will certainly come across investors who will drag you along in the diligence process, keeping your hopes up, only to hear a ‘no’ for obvious reasons later on. Sometimes investors use the diligence process to do their own research on your sector even though they have no intention in investing. To avoid this, listen for doubts during your first investor meeting. If they don’t think your market is big enough or don’t get excited about the problem you’re solving, pay attention to these signals. You can also Automate your Investor Updates to keep relationships warm without wasting time. Recommended Reading: How to Write the Perfect Investment Memo Tips on Pitching a Series A Round Before you start setting up meetings with potential investors it’s wise to invest ample time clarifying your fundraising narrative and creating a winning pitch deck. Tip #1: Start brainstorming your Series A fundraising narrative in a word document before you even open PowerPoint. This will allow you to focus on the important parts of your story without getting distracted by slide formatting. Once you feel confident about the fundraising narrative you’ve outlined in a document, it’s time to make it more digestible for investors. Tip #2: Create a ‘listen to me’ version of your deck in PowerPoint with more visuals and less text (10-14 slides) and a ‘read me’/send away version with more detail (20-22 slides). Here’s an overview of recommended slides to include in your Pitch Deck: Company Purpose Problem Solution Why Now Market Size Competition Product Traction Business Model Team Financials Ask Summary Back Pocket Slides Tip #3: Practice your pitch with current investors, peers, friends/family. Your back pocket slides should include information that answers the most common questions people are asking. Let’s break down what to include in your Series A Pitch Deck even more: Company Purpose This should be concise and can be displayed in a memorable, punchy sentence on your first slide. Problem The title of the slide should boldly communicate the problem you are solving. Consider including a graph/figure/image to demonstrate the gravity of the problem. This is your chance to connect with the investor and get them to relate to what you’re trying to accomplish. Are there storytelling examples you can give? How can you make them ‘feel’ the problem? Solution This slide should focus on ONE solution and it should come across as clear and concise. You should answer the questions — How are you solving the problem? What is your vision and strategy? How are you making the customer’s life better? Feel free to highlight use cases. Why Now Emphasize why investors are joining you at the right moment in time. You can highlight the historical evolution of your industry and define recent trends that make your solution possible. It’s important to highlight growth trends in the market so as not to assume the market has already hit its peak. Market Size Investors want to know you’re creating a solution for a BIG market because market size correlates to potential returns for an investor down the line. Be sure to tell them just how big the space is and your potential market share. To do this you can calculate the Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Available Market (SAM), and Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM). Competition It’s never a good idea to talk bad about your competitors or say you’re the only solution on the market, both approaches make you seem naive. Instead, focus on how you are differentiated and solving a pain point keenly felt by the market. Tip #4: If you don’t think you have competitors, you haven’t done your research. Crunchbase or Pitchbook are a good place to research other players in the space. Product Get investors excited about the state of your product but don’t spend too much time walking through all the hard work it’s taken you to get there. While reaching milestones on time demonstrates your ability to execute, investors care less about past work and more about where you’re headed. In this slide you can highlight the product features, architecture, IP, etc. Be sure to also share your product roadmap. Traction This is where you highlight your key metrics. This is arguably the most important slide because you’re showing the facts to back up your narrative. Business Model This is where you describe how you are making money, your pricing strategy, margins, etc. If it makes sense, you can highlight your sales funnel or metrics such as average account size. This slide should make your investors very confident in the future positive cash flow of your company. Team Just include your key team members and bullet point bios. Consider including logos from reputable past experiences if it makes sense. You can include a separate slide for Advisors. Financials Investors spend over 23% of their time reviewing this slide. Include just a summary on this slide and be sure to clearly communicate your numbers. Be sure to include a more detailed overview of your P&L statements, balance sheet, cash flow, and cap table either in backup slides or another shareable format. Asks Outline your funding roadmap. What have you achieved with your funding to date? Clearly state how much you are asking for and what this capital is going to help you achieve. Summary This final slide tends to stay up on the screen for a while. Instead of including a ‘thank you’ slide, include a summary of your key points. This can spur a more robust Q&A and is an effective way to summarize the most poignant parts of your pitch. Affordable ways to build a great looking Pitch Deck If building attractive slides is not your strong suit, there are a lot of excellent pitch deck designers to be found online. However, if you’re looking to improve your deck design but not break the bank, consider looking for pitch deck designers on UpWork, Fiverr, or 24slides for a quick turnaround. While it’s important to have professional looking slides that effectively communicate your fundraising narrative, remember, investors invest in teams not slides. Aim to be well-rehearsed, conversational, and treat your Q&A like an interview. In addition to evaluating your business’ potential, investors are using this time to assess you for coachability, credibility, and personability. The Do’s and Don’ts of Creating your Series A Slide Deck Do: Do brainstorm your pitch narrative in a Word document first so you can focus on the narrative before getting distracted by formatting. Make a copy of this framework to get started. Create a ‘listen to me’ version with more visuals and less text (10-14 slides) and a ‘read me’/send away version with more detail (20-22 slides) Aim to present it in 20 minutes Do use 34 point font for your ‘listen to me’ version Do include a one sentence summary at the top of each slide Don’t: Exceed 25 words per slide Use acronyms Downplay your competitors Use animations or transitions Use photos without captions or titles Use excessive explanations or caveats Use excessive branding per slide Recommended Reading: How to Write the Perfect Investment Memo Download our Free Template The process of raising your Series A may seem daunting, especially since only ~30% of founders who raised seed funding close a Series A round. This is all the more reason to make sure you’re equipped with the knowledge and resources you need to lead a successful Series A campaign. Start by clarifying your Series A fundraising narrative before you even dive into your pitch deck. Then you can move onto creating your Series A Pitch Deck by using this template which you will want to iterate as you get feedback from investors. Related Resource: Pitch Deck Design Cost Breakdown + Options Next, you should curate a list of prospective investors. You can use Visible’s connect database to narrow in on your list and manage these contacts in a Fundraising CRM. If you’re not already doing so, you should be sending out regular updates to keep in warm touch with potential investors. Companies you send out regular updates are 300% more likely to get funded. Check out Visible.vc’s library of Investor Update Templates to get started today.

The most common startup funding stages are: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, and Series C. As the company matures and develops it moves through each of the rounds as it seeks further funding. It all begins at a pre-seed or seed round where companies are often still pre-revenue which is why raising capital, from friends and family for instance, is so important to help get ideas off the ground and form a company from it. Preseed can also be considered a seed round, since it’s also a startups earliest funding stage and includes investment from angels or friends and family. Some note that the main difference between seed and pre-seed is that a pre-seed round is often much less (usually under $150,000k but can also go up to $2 million). It is also obtained through sources outside of any kind of institution, like a bank. It is still common though in the pre-seed round to give up equity in exchange for capital. Three of the main sources for pre-seed funding come from either angel investors, the company founders themselves, or friends and family. The terms and conditions for angel investors though are often different than what you might offer to people you know directly. It’s worth mentioning that this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t provide clear terms to your friends and family, it just means you might structure it a bit differently. Why Should You Raise Money From Friends & Family? Different funding options make sense at different stages of a business’s lifecycle. For example, raising capital with a simple idea and business plan varies greatly from raising capital when you have $100M in revenue. In the early days, more founders are turning to their friends, family, and immediate network to launch their business and prove its ability to grow into a larger organization. Pre-seed funding is used to start the company itself and is therefore considered more of a high-risk investment since it hasn’t had the chance to prove itself. This can make it harder to gain capital from traditional investors or a bank, which is why seeking funding from friends and family can often be an easier choice. This risk is often compensated through more equity given to those who invest early (when the company is at its lowest valuation) rather than later. This makes it compelling and rewarding for those who invest early and is often why there are angels who specifically seek out early-stage companies to invest in, while they are (pre)seed. Knowing this can help shape your mindset from feeling like you’re asking a favor from your friends and family to inviting them to have the opportunity to invest early and reap the potential financial success that can be gained from their investment in your company. Elizabeth Yin, Founder of the Hustle Fund, is a huge believer in small checks from friends and family, check out her thoughts below: Raising from friends and family can also be beneficial because you have people who are not only financially invested but personally invested as well. What people don’t often realize is that your investors will often become contributors to your business in the form of feedback, guidance, and suggestions. When your investors are your friends and family though, you can trust that these suggestions not only have your companies best interest at heart but your own as well. Who Counts as Friends & Family? It is your job as a founder to uncover the potential investors around you. Seeking out VCs is generally a bit more cut and dry (check out our investor VC database, Visible Connect) than friends and family. For example, friends and family investors could be: Relatives Friends or friends of friends (try seeking out the ones that have relevant experience or have a relevant network of people they can reach out to) People you know from school (mentors, professors, classmates) Past work colleagues Community members (virtual or in-person networks that you’re a part of, such as mastermind groups, co-working spaces, and business networks) Who Should you Approach for a Friends and Family Round? This question is best approached by first assessing what kind of round you’ll raise from them- such as equity, convertible notes, loan, or gift. Since this method of fundraising isn’t as straightforward it is important you first decide the form of investment you will take (more information on that to come) since this determines the role that they will play in your company in the future. If you want them to have a seat at the table and are hoping they can bring value through their expertise and network, then it is important that you are more selective. If you are raising via a crowdfunding platform, in the form of a loan, or as a gift then it is likely that your friends and family will have little to no involvement in your business, which means you do not need to be as selective for who participates in the round. Most importantly you want people to invest who believe in you and your business, who understand that there is risk involved, and only contribute what is feasible for them. Lastly, it helps if they understand your business and are able to contribute in other ways through their knowledge, connections, or ongoing support. Who Should you Avoid Asking? It is always tricky to mix family and friends with business or money which is something to be very aware of going into this. Taking certain precautions is advised to avoid any problems that may arise because of mixing personal relationships with business. One of these precautions would be to avoid asking the wrong people. Here are some examples of what to avoid: People who you know will try to give feedback which will not be useful but will be expected to be taken Someone who you can not have open, honest, and constructive communication with If you know that the financial means of the person is unstable and they might be reliant on the money they are giving you People who don’t understand investment risks and wouldn’t be ok to lose the money which they invested in you Avoid these Common Mistakes You want to make people aware that even though you see the opportunity in your business and want to assure it’s a success, there is always a risk of the business failing. Avoid asking people who are in a situation that if they lost the money they invested in you it would cause them serious hardship that could ultimately affect your relationship. You also don’t want to put anyone in a position that as a friend or family member you want to avoid seeing them in. It’s also important to not make your friends and family feel pressured into investing, or bad if they choose not to. You can also let them know that you would also appreciate support in other ways such as time spent with you to discuss things you might be going through, feedback, or helping by creating awareness for your company (this could be in the form of word of mouth or reaching out to their network for additional support). How to Raise a Friends and Family Round Keep it Professional You should try to be as professional as possible and treat communication and documentation of things as you would with a real investor. This means having a business plan, creating a pitch deck, and making sure to share any relevant metrics or successes you’ve had so far, as well as where you expect the business to go and how you plan to grow it. Have a Number in Mind Decide what your target number is that you want to raise and back that number up with the calculations you used to arrive there. This is an important step to share as people want and need to understand how you plan on spending their investment and the milestones you plan on reaching. What are the Terms Then determine what kind of round you want to raise from your friends and family. There are a few options that are very different from the other. The most common are; investment in return for equity in your company, loans, convertible notes, and donation based. Once that is decided it’s best to create a formal contract that documents everything so it’s all clearly outlined and everyone can be held accountable by it. Communicate On an ongoing basis, you can communicate these updates in a less formal way through email, text, social media, etc. Staying in front of the people you potentially want follow on funding from is vital- this is true for this stage but will become even more crucial as you move further along in the next funding stages. Test Social Media! Before you even start pitching friends and family you can also leverage social media to do the pitching for you in an indirect way. Once you’ve caught their attention, spiked curiosity, and inspired them on your idea you might be able to already move them to want to make an investment before you even make the ask. Tell a Story Strengthen your storytelling abilities by taking people on your startup’s journey, so they feel involved and inspired. Having this skill is important as you try to move people to take action whether it be investors or customers. People are more inspired to make decisions when they feel they came up with the idea themselves through compelling factors they calculated based on the evidence you presented. How to Make the Ask in an Indirect Way Avoid coming across in a way as if you were asking for a favor, but rather that you want to offer them an opportunity to gain access to an idea that has great potential for success. They will realize themselves the added benefit that they are also helping you make your company a reality. If you want to take yourself out of the equation to start, it’s best to utilize other platforms that can tell your story and reach more people in an indirect way. This could help ease any uncomfortable confrontations that might come from a direct no. One option is to use a crowdfunding platform, which also allows you to have the opportunity to find other people who are interested outside of your network, so you’re casting a wider net when looking for those first investors. Use the herd effect to help rally others to back your idea after you have your first initial investors on board. People are often motivated and prompted into action when they see that others around them are already taking part. Think of ways that you can showcase this (make sure you ask permission from those that you spotlight) on either a landing page, shoutout on social media, or mention in the opening text of wherever you might be directing people. You can also ask friends and family who have already invested in you to share out information as well since they have proven to believe in your company and are likely able to advocate it well. Also if you were looking to get funding beyond just your inner circle this is a good way to do so as people are more likely to trust recommendations made by people they trust rather than companies themselves. Related Resource: Our Favorite Seed Round Pitch Deck Template (and Why It Works) Common Friends & Family Questions How Much Capital Should You Ask For? There is no right or standard number to go off of here as this completely depends on how much you need to get you through the first few months of your business until you either are making a profit or are ready to raise another round. Ranges are usually anywhere from $10,000 to $150,000 but can also go up to 2 million. Use modeling and advice from the market to get a ballpark idea. You can check out a template for modeling your early financials here. How To Make Sure You Don’t Over-Dilute Your Equity? You will want to set up anti-dilution provisions which help keep the percentage of the investor’s original ownership intact. It’s a clause that is constructed into options and convertible preferred stocks that helps protect investors from their investment potentially losing value. Anti-dilution provisions can discourage this from happening by tweaking the conversion price between convertible securities, such as corporate bonds or preferred shares, and common stocks. In this way, anti-dilution clauses can keep an investor’s original ownership percentage intact. What Do You Offer Your Friends and Family for their Investment? This depends on what kind of agreement you have come to with them based on if the money you are receiving is a loan, gift, or is in exchange for equity. No matter which option you decide to go for you would offer them a document which states in detail either the repayment options or how much stake they now have in your company. How Do You Manage The Relationship Between Your Friends and Family Investors? Just like with any other type of investor you want to keep things professional and offer them regular updates. As well make sure you have formalized and documented any agreements so that everything is in writing to make sure there is no confusion and everyone is on the same page. How Do You Know When To Buy Out Toxic Investors? If you feel that your relationship with your friend or family member is suffering or your business because of their involvement/ investment then it is a good idea to buy them out. It is good to be aware that this possibility exists no matter who it may be. It is wise to already think how you might do this and have something in writing as well that everyone agrees to ahead of time so if the time comes you already have an agreed upon course of action. Use Visible to Manage Your Raise When raising any round, it is most important to keep all stakeholders informed on your process and progress through documented updates. This is also a good practice for you because it forces you to track your success and evaluate important metrics you should be tracking. This process starts with your friends and family round and is good to strengthen for your later fundraising rounds. Share with them anything and everything on your progress. This can include your wins, current status, relevant metrics, insights, and asks- where you could potentially use their help. This can be done through sending an email, arranging a call with all stakeholders, or recording a video to message out (this should be accompanied but something in written form though which is better for people to refer back to). To get inspiration on how an update should look, check out our update template library or try Visible for free to send out those first updates!

When setting out to build a company, it is important to understand the potential market size, especially if you plan on raising venture capital. Venture capital funds follow a power-law curve, or simply put, a small % of firms capture a large % of industry returns. Because of this, investors will want to see that your company is capable of a huge exit to help improve its returns. While some investors will tell you that they do not care about an accurate calculation of your addressable market, they will want to understand how your company can turn into a large company. Learn more about calculating your TAM, SAM, and SOM below: What is Total Addressable Market (TAM) As put by the team at Corporate Finance Institute, “The Total Addressable Market (TAM), also referred to as total available market, is the overall revenue opportunity that is available to a product or service if 100% market share was achieved. It helps determine the level of effort and funding that a person or company should put into a new business line.” Related Resources: What Is TAM and How Can You Expand It To Grow Your Business? How to Model Total Addressable Market (Template Included) Real-life Example of TAM For a TAM example, let’s say we are a software company called Adventure App that is helping campers find lesser-known camping spots. Let’s say that we charge customers $10/mo for our application. Using a bottoms-up approach we know that the average consumer would spend $120 a year ($10/mo X 12 months). Next, we’d need to calculate how many customers exist in the space. Using research and our own data, we believe that there are 20,000,000 consumers in our market. That would lead to a total addressable market of $2.4B ($120 X 20M consumers). How to Calculate TAM There are multiple approaches when it comes to calculating your total addressable market. The most common being: Tops Down Approach Bottoms Up Approach Value Theory Approach Learn more about calculating TAM and use our free template to get you started in our post below: Related Resource: Total Addressable Market Template Importance of the TAM One of the more infamous examples of TAM is Uber. Initially, Uber modeled their TAM based on a luxury black cab service in select markets. In reality, Uber has transformed into a global company offering everything from shared rides to food delivery. Uber used both a top-down approach and modeled their future based on the past Related Resource: Total Addressable Market: Lessons from Uber’s Initial Estimates Uber is a case study on the importance of using the correct approach to an addressable market. What is Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) TAM implies that you capture 100% of your addressable market. Of course, this is not realistic. Serviceable addressable market, or SAM, hones your market sizing one step further. As Steve Blank describes it, “The serviceable available market or served addressable market is more clearly defined as that market opportunity that exists within a firm’s existing core competencies and/or past performance. The biggest consideration when calculating SAM is that a firm most likely can only service markets that are core or directly adjacent to its current customer base.” Related Resource: TAM vs. Sam vs. SOM: What’s the Difference? Real-life Example of SAM Continuing with our Adventure App example from above, we’d want to continue to tweak that number with our serviceable addressable market. As Steve Blank put it above, “…a firm most likely can only service markets that are core or directly adjacent to its current customer base.” Your business will depend on what you define as “core or directly adjacent” to your customer base. For Adventure App, let’s say that we believe that only 5M of the 20M potential consumers are in the geography we can support. That would mean that our SAM would be $600M ($120/yr X 8M). Alternatively, you could calculate this by taking TAM of $2.4B and multiplying it by % of the serviceable market, 25% (5M/20M). How to Calculate SAM SAM requires equal parts art and science. It is on you to determine what % of the TAM you believe is core to your product it can vary how it is calculated. You will need to use publicly available data plus your own internal data to make sure your best assumption for what you can reasonably service. Importance of SAM Serviceable addressable market is important because it will give you a more realistic look at how large your business can be. 100% market penetration is not realistic (as demonstrated in TAM) so it is important to continue to hone in what % of the market you can realistically service. What is Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) Serviceable obtainable market, or SOM, dials in your addressable market 1 step further. As we wrote in our blog, Modeling Total Addressable Market, “ SOM is the percentage of the market that you can actually reach with your product, sales, and marketing channels. This should be a realistic view of the customer base your company can pursue.” Related resource: Service Obtainable Market: What It Is and Why It Matters for Your Startup Real-life Example of SOM While our example above shows that Adventure App has a serviceable market of $600M, we will want to hone that further to give an obtainable view of your market. Using past data and public data, we know that Adventure App can penetrate 20% of our serviceable addressable market. That means that our SOM would be $120M ($600M X 20%). How to Calculate SOM Like a serviceable addressable market, there are a few ways to approach your SOM. Depending on how much data you have available will depend on how you calculate your SOM. For example, if you know your market share % you can use that against your SAM. If you do not know your true market share %, you can use the best data available to model the % of your SAM you believe you can capture. Importance of SOM SOM is important because it is the most realistic view of your business and your place in the market. It should offer a better short-term view and can be leveraged to set realistic goals and forecasts over the coming year or years. The Similarities and Differences Between the Three Markets TAM, SAM, and SOM all serve their own purpose but share many similarities and differences. They are all cut from the same thread. They are all versions of the addressable market but slowly narrowed down to be more realistic. They are all based on roughly the same estimates and slowly add in more restrictions as you hone in on the market. For More Information on Markets Visit Visible Today Want to learn more about calculating and tracking your total addressable market? Check out our free Google Sheet template here.

There are different instruments and financing options when it comes to raising capital for a business. SAFEs (or Simple Agreement for Future Equity) have been one of the more dominant options since Y Combinator introduced them in 2013. As a founder it is important to know what financing options and instruments are available to your business. Learn more about SAFEs and what they mean when it comes to a fundraise below: Related Resource: All Encompassing Startup Fundraising Guide Note: We suggest consulting a lawyer when determining what financing options are right for your business. What Does SAFE Stand For? SAFE is short for Simple Agreement for Future Equity. As we mentioned above SAFEs were introduced in 2013 by Y Combinator and are here to stay. SAFEs are a type of convertible instrument that converts to equity at a later date. This means a founder is promising equity in their company at a later date when a founder goes out to raise money on a priced round. As Paul Graham put it in the 2013 blog post announcing SAFEs, “A safe is like a convertible note in that the investor buys not stock itself but the right to buy stock in an equity round when it occurs. A safe can have a valuation cap, or be uncapped, just like a note. But what the investor buys is not debt, but something more like a warrant. So there is no need to fix a term or decide on an interest rate. Safes should work just like convertible notes, but with fewer complications.” Related resource: The Startup's Handbook to SAFE: Simplifying Future Equity Agreements The Difference Between SAFE Fundraising and Other Types of Investment Rounds While SAFEs are popular in the market there are other funding options that can be compared to them. Learn more about how SAFEs stack up against other funding instruments below: Related Resource: How to Secure Financing With a Bulletproof Startup Fundraising Strategy Note: We suggest consulting a lawyer when determining what financing options are right for your business. SAFE vs. a Priced Round One alternative to a SAFE is a priced round. As the team at Vincent puts it, “A priced round is an equity-based investment round in which there is a defined pre-money valuation. This means that before completing the investment, the asset has a valuation and, thus, a price-per-share. In Venture Capital, priced rounds are the most common investment structure.” This means that a company has a determined valuation when working through a priced round. As for a SAFE, you are setting a valuation cap to hit in the future. Because of this, SAFEs only require you to negotiate 2 things when raising: How much money the investor will put into the company What is the valuation cap On the flip side, a priced round will require more negotiations as you are determining a valuation. SAFE vs. a Convertible Note Another funding option is a convertible note or convertible debt. As the team at Investopedia writes, “A convertible note is a debt instrument often used by angel or seed investors looking to fund an early-stage startup that has not been valued explicitly. After more information becomes available to establish a reasonable value for the company, convertible note investors can convert the note into equity. Investors have the option to exchange their notes for a predetermined number of shares in the issuing company.” How Do SAFEs Work? Of course, when seeking out to raise using a SAFE you should be able to understand the components of a SAFE. When looking at the document from the team at Y Combinator there are only 5 sections (link to the Y Combinator documents here): Section 1 — Events Equity financing – This explains what happens in the event of equity financing Liquidity event – This explains what happens in a liquidity event Dissolution Liquidation priority – who comes first to be repaid in the listed events above. Section 2 — Definitions Section 2 will help you understand the different language and terms used throughout the document. A few of the key terms from section 2: Section 3 — Company Representations Section 4 — Investor Representations Section 5 — Miscellaneous/Legal Language We encourage founders to check out the document from Y Combinator above as they offer definitions and thorough breakdowns of how SAFEs work. How Do SAFEs Benefit Investors? SAFEs have not picked up in popularity by luck. SAFEs can be a beneficial instrument for both investors and founders. In order to understand if SAFEs are right for your business, you need to understand how they work from the investor’s perspective. A Streamlined Process to Acces Early-Stage Investments Due to the ease of negotiations when it comes to raising via a SAFE, investors are able to see more deals. For example, if an investor is constantly negotiating with potential companies, they will be hindered when it comes to deploying capital in an efficient way. Ability to Convert Investments into Equity Investors also have the ability to convert their investments into equity. Because of the valuation cap and discount rate, investors can convert their equity at better terms than newer investors. How Do SAFEs Benefit Founders? Of course, SAFEs only make sense if they are beneficial to you as a founder as well. As we’ve previously mentioned the main benefit of SAFEs is their simplicity for both founders and investors. However, there are a few other benefits: Enhanced Flexibility With Shareholders When making an investment via a SAFE, investors are not entitled to voting rights and rights that might create interference and additional work on a founder. Faster Access to Financing Speed is crucial when it comes to building and financing your business. SAFEs are a great tool to speed up a financing round and allow founders to get back to what matters the most, building their business. 3 Questions to Ask Before You Raise a SAFE Before going out a raising a SAFE, there are a series of questions you should be able to confidently answer. As we’ve previously mentioned in this post, we suggest consulting a lawyer when determining what financing options are right for your business. 1) Are You Willing to Give Up Equity? First and foremost, you need to ask yourself if you are willing to give up equity. Although you are not giving it up in the immediate, you ultimately are promising to give up equity at a later date. While it can be tricky to determine exactly how much you’ll be giving up, it is important to meet with lawyers and financial advisors to model how much you will be giving up. 2) Are You Considering Raising Money in Your Next Priced Round? Seeing the future, especially as a startup founder, can almost feel impossible. But when it comes to a SAFE you should have an idea of how much you would like to raise in a future priced round. This way you’ll be able to avoid over diluting future investors and keep all parties involved happy. 3) How Will You Track Your SAFE Investments? Of course, you’ll need to a way to track your SAFE and manage your cap table after closing a SAFE. We recommend using a cap table management tool, like the tool from the team at Pulley. Learn More About SAFEs & Fundraising SAFEs are one of the many funding options available to you as a startup founder. No matter what instrument or vehicle you determine is right for your business, you need to have a gameplan in place to find, nurture, and close potential investors. Learn more about how Visible can help you with your next fundraise here.

Developing and learning new skills can benefit individuals at all stages of their careers. Taking the time and initiative to focus on new skills can be pivotal when looking for a new role, a promotion, or taking on new responsibility within an existing role. For leaders, developing specific leadership skills is critical to succeeding in a leadership role. While some people are born with more natural leadership skills than others, dubbed “natural leaders”, many qualities of highly effective leaders can be learned and practiced. Leadership skills, unlike the hard skills that are needed within most job skills, extend beyond that. Leadership skills are soft skills that aren’t as easy to quantify and develop in a measurable way. Most career paths see folks that develop and consistently practice and refine their soft skills rise the ranks and jump into leadership roles. If leadership is something you aspire to or is something you’re stepping into now, focusing on developing leadership skills should become a part of your weekly routine and habits. At Visible, we work with a fair number of leaders in the startup and venture capital space. Based on our insights, we’ve compiled an overview of top resources to develop your leadership skills, and what those specific skills are as well as some key methods for developing them. Key Skills for Startup Leaders There is no shortage of ideas on what skills are critical for leaders to develop. Thinking about the specific leadership skills that are critical for startup leaders, a few come to mind. While many skills are important for startup leaders to develop, for this specific guide we’re going to focus on 5 specific skills that are key. The five areas of skills that are crucial for startup leaders to master include communication, open-mindedness, critical thinking, trust, and conflict resolution. Communication Skills Leadership communication spans both internal communications as well as external. Additionally, leadership communication is way beyond the verbal. The non-verbal signals from a leader can be almost more impactful than the verbal. At the core, leadership communication is a philosophy, a vision that leaders should use as a compass that guides their entire leadership style. Strong communication skills allow a leader to articulate new ideas, inspire their teams, share positive and negative information with broader teams, investors, and customers in a way that keeps things moving forward. Strong communication skills can make or break whether a leader inspires folks to action. A leader with bad communication skills can struggle to get anyone to actually follow. Master communication is a key leadership skill for startup founders to master early so they can continuously articulate their vision, inspire their teams, and share ideas in a way that grows the business up and to the right. Open-Mindedness As a leader, it’s almost natural to adopt the mindset that your decisions are the ones to be followed and guide the way. While you were put into a leadership position possibly to lead the way, the best leaders demonstrate the leadership skill of open-mindedness. Smart leaders hire even smarter people to join their teams. Developing a mindset to accept new ideas, create an open environment where ideas can be shared, and showcasing a desire to learn and change towards what’s best even if it means it wasn’t your idea are critical leadership skills. Open-mindedness in startups is especially critical because testing, ideation, and sprinting to new outcomes and test new ideas can make or break a business. YOu only have as much time as capital in the bank so a willingness to be open and pivot quickly, and foster an open-minded culture, is crucial. Critical Thinking In a startup, especially one where you are a founder along with holding an executive leadership role, emotions are running high. The funding time clock is ticking and you have a very limited runway to produce major results and keep the business alive. Due to these high-pressure circumstances, it is extremely important for startup leaders to develop the leadership skill of critical thinking. By informing your thinking with facts first, stepping back to analyze, and making a judgment and decisions from there, you will avoid making emotional decisions that may feel right in the short term, but in the long term aren’t smart business decisions. Thinking critically about your business and leadership decisions as they come allows you to base decisions in reality and in a way that makes sense to all involved instead of taking the emotional, passionate, and probably biased view you might have as a leader with a heavy stake in the success of the business. Trust All around, trust can build up or totally destroy a business, especially a startup. As a leadership skill, trust needs to be developed in a number of ways. Trust needs to be developed in a way so that your employees trust you as a leader. It also needs to be established in the way the organization runs, so peers and teams have trust in each other. That type of organizational development and trust starts with the leadership. As a leader, developing a leadership style that embodies trust and sets the standard of trust in your team to get things done will affect overall organizational success and functionality. Conflict Resolution In any organization, conflict arises. In startups, that conflict can sometimes feel magnified, especially when teams are small and there is pressure to move fast. As a leader, developing strong conflict resolution tactics and skills is absolutely essential. Learning to resolve conflicts in a way that embodies critical thinking and trust as well as understanding and empathy will push the outcomes of conflict in a positive direction and allow your team to build on and grow from conflicts together, rather than conflicts tearing the team apart. 10 Resources to Develop Your Leadership Skills Now that we’ve outlined the key leadership skills we believe are most imperative for startup leaders to focus on right now, we wanted to pull together a few resources to get you started. You’ll notice there is a book recommendation in almost every category. Reading continues to be one of the most powerful ways leaders can sharpen their skills and develop their minds. Outside of our recommendations below, check out our post on The 23 Best Books for Founders. Communication Skills Visible’s 7 Leadership Communication Principles of Successful Startups Based on our observations working with VCs and startup founders, we put together a straightforward guide on leadership communication. These 7 principles are actionable and a good starting point for developing this specific soft skill. Radical Candor by Kim Scott This book outlines a possible leadership philosophy around communication, focused on caring personally while challenging directly. This approach is a good one to learn and adapt in your organization, playing into the authenticity of good communication while still learning to deliver the information, feedback, and decisions in a way that is clear and to the point as a leader should. Practicing Radical Candor at your startup from the beginning is a great way to develop strong communications skills. Open-Mindedness Sigma Assessment Systems Guide to Open-Mindedness in Leaders SIGMA is a consulting, leadership development, and talent assessment group. Their guide to open-mindedness for leaders provides a number of practical articles, techniques, and tangible steps that one can take to move towards developing a more open mind as a leader. Specific plays such as learning to practice gratitude and ask for feedback are explored. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just 5 Days Developing an open-minded approach to new ideas is critical in a startup. However, time is money, so testing new ideas is important to do before executing and this testing should be done quickly. Sprint provides an easy framework to solve problems and run new ideas through a testing structure to determine if they are worth spending more time on. Implementing Sprint methodology into your organization can help build a culture of open-mindedness and testing and show that you as a leader are open to new ideas and visions. Critical Thinking Entrepreneur’s 16 Characteristics of Critical Thinkers Critical Thinking has its own soft and hard skills that need work to build up the ultimate skill of critical thinking. In this list, explore some of the characteristics that serve as building blocks to developing a critical thinking muscle. Think Big, Act Small by Jason Jennings A great read for general best-practices when building a business, this book dives into the type of soft-skills that go into big thinking but the fact-based, analytical mind needed to process that big thinking and make small, sustainable changes for the business. Trust The Predictive Index Assessment Building trust in an organization and developing a muscle for trust as a leader starts with understanding what makes a good team and who you are hiring to do great work. Taking the PI assessment or even working it into your interview process is a great way to build trust in the hires your making early, take a step back to understand your own strengths and others strengths, and pair folks to roles and tasks that best suit them, knowing the best people are in place to get the job done. It can also be a way to understand the why behind your own decisions as well as your teams, breaking down misconceptions and building up trust too. Visible’s Guide to Building Organizational Alignment Plain and simple, trust affects alignment in an organization. A lack of trust can completely change the alignment and cohesiveness across an organization. We put together our own guide to help with building organizational alignment, critical for building trust. Conflict Resolution The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle Diving into some of the largest, most well-known organizations like Pixar and the Navy’s SEAL Team Six, Coyle breaks down what makes these organizations tick and how leaders pushed through to resolve these issues. Learning from success stories is a great way to develop conflict resolution skills in your own organization. Cornell Online’s Conflict Resolution Certificate To really master something as crucial as conflict resolution, investing in a more formal educational approach could be a route to take. Cornell offers a certificate in the art and science of conflict resolution that can be done entirely online. Visible for Leadership Interested in learning more about how Visible can improve your team’s communication around updates and tracking, foster trust in your organization, and help you capture data to make critical decisions? Learn more here. Related Resource: Startup Mentoring: The Benefits of a Mentor and How to Find One

What does Leadership Communication really mean? Communication is critical for success in any organization. More important than just blanket, inter-organizational, and peer-to-peer communication is leadership communication. Top-down communication from the executives within a company can make or break an organization. One of the most defining characteristics of a great leader is their communication. In today’s digital-heavy world, strong leadership communication must span multiple channels that are rapidly changing and expanding. Mastering leadership communication, across all viable channels, is critical for the success of your team and your business, especially as a new startup. At the core, leadership communication is a philosophy, a vision that leaders should use as a compass that guides their entire leadership style. But what does that really mean? Leadership communication is really any verbal or non-verbal message that a person in authority at your company shares with the team or representing the organization. Leadership communication spans both internal communications as well as external. Additionally, leadership communication is way beyond the verbal. The non-verbal signals from a leader can be almost more impactful than the verbal. In a breakdown from Psychology Today, non-verbal body language contributed to 55% of the total interpretation of interpersonal communication. Additionally, 38% was attributed to voice and tone leaving only 7% to the words actually spoken – meaning for leaders especially, it’s less about what you say but rather how you deliver that message. Another element of the non-verbal part of communication that can make or break a leader’s communication is listening. How a leader reacts to and adapts their communication after listening to feedback or ideas from their team plays into how their communication messages are delivered. An active listener, meaning someone who is genuinely engaged while hearing what another has to say, and someone who adjusts their message based on listening to feedback or shares their openness to new ideas with their tone and body language is going to exude stronger leadership skills than someone who is closed off and doesn’t’ truly listen to their team. Leadership communication is truly a philosophy that each leader develops because it guides the way that they are viewed by those in their organization and the way that their companies’ messaging and growth evolves. For startups, understanding what good leadership communication can look like and do from your business from the very beginning is crucial. Why Leadership Communication is so important in 2021 There are a lot of indicators that 2021 will be a much better year collectively than 2020, but many of the changes to work-life and organizational operation and communication that occurred in 2020 are still very much prevalent in 2021 and here to stay. Many organizations and leaders have completely reorganized the way they do work and the way they communicate all across their organization. The Remote Work Shift While remote work has been fairly common in the software industry, for many organizations remote work was unheard of prior to the pandemic. However, more organizations than ever are embracing it. First out of necessity, but now many organizations are offering at least some option of work from home or remote-first work options to employers indefinitely. It is now more common to hear of employees starting new jobs totally remote, working 9+ months in a new role without ever meeting any co-workers or managers in person. This shift to remote-first work is not going away. While offices will reopen and some companies will op to go back into their spaces in-person at least part of the time, large tech leaders like Slack building a virtual office or Twitter allowing employees to work from home forever are paving the way for a continued digital-first future of work. For startups founded in 2020 and 2021 so far, more than likely you have been completely remote from inception to launch. There are benefits of the shift to remote work, especially for startups. Big savings on rental costs for office space are a big plus. Additionally, startups’ access to top talent isn’t geographically limited with a remote-first approach. However, with everything being remote-first in a startup environment where everything is so new and evolving so fast, effective leadership communication is harder than ever yet more important for startups to make it into the 5% success rate. Communication Channels and Asynchronous Work In 2021, many companies have been founded completely remote or now possess a large portion of their workforce only familiar with a digital experience of their company values, culture, peers, and leaders. That being said, leadership communication channels are more important than ever. With a spread-out, sometimes global workforce. Most work in startups is happening asynchronously now. That means that your important leadership message may not reach everyone at the same time. Choosing to utilize different communication channels for different types of communication is key for leaders to successfully execute positive leadership communication. Three common communication channels: Zoom, Slack, and email. Knowing how to best leverage these primary channels to reach out to your employees across multiple time zones or working different schedules is critical. Reserving company-wide announcements for Zoom all-hands calls or company-wide emails can get specific messages across clearer than quick notes in Slack. Knowing when and where to say what is key. Without the ability to turn to the person next to you, raise hands and ask a question real-time, or schedule a meeting in-person with management after big news is shared – leaders need to take into account the why behind the messages they are delivering and think through all the outcomes of their delivery. Focusing on clear messaging and leveraging the right channels to make it most effective is crucial. Setting up the right channels for feedback and response is also important so that as leadership communications go out, every employee has an easy and equitable way to respond and react. How to Improve Leadership Communication in 2021 Knowing leadership communication is more important than ever in 2021. It’s critical for overall organizational alignment. There are a few quick ways you can improve your startup’s leadership communication right away. Channel Selection Standardize the way your entire organization is communicating. It may seem like overkill, but starting with clear guidelines and purpose for each communication channel in your org is critical to keep good leadership communication (and general communication) going as you scale. Do an internal audit of your current communication tools. If there are duplicates in your stack, work with managers to figure out what the critical channels are. From there, identify and document the purpose of each channel. For example, slack for quick questions and timely updates or real-time conversations, email for big announcements or questions that take more than 5 minutes to formulate a response, and zoom for company-wide news, team brainstorming, and feedback on new ideas. A Additionally, it can be helpful to document best practices for each channel such as threads in slack or the use of team-wide email aliases, and share this documentation as part of your onboarding process, standardizing communication expectations at all levels from day-1. Team-Wide Learning While standardizing the communication channels and best practices are critical boundaries to set, your team members will still all fundamentally have different communication styles and practices. Investing in a self-assessment like the Predictive Index test can be helpful in understanding how each team member prefers to give and receive feedback, their ideal work style, and more. Vowing to invest in this type of learning as a leader and then encouraging managers to adjust their leadership communication style to what best fits their team members’ strengths can be a great way to improve not only leadership communication but general company communication as well. Ask for Feedback As simple as this sounds, it’s rare that organizations are asking for feedback as often as they could. Depending on the size and culture of your company, hosting a forum on the company and specifically leadership communication either within a team meeting or through anonymous surveys can be a great first step in improving leadership communication. Knowing what specifically your employees like and dislike about the way they are currently being communicated to is a great first step to point the needle in the right direction. 7 Principles for Effective Leadership Communication While there is a lot that can be done tactically for leaders to improve their leadership communication, at the end of the day effective leadership communication is a constant, ever-evolving idea. Focusing on a few guiding principles to use as the process and idea of leadership communication evolves for you and your organization is a great way to ground your leadership communication in a fundamental philosophy and vision. We’ve put together 10 principles we believe can help guide effective leadership communication. Be Authentic Fakeness is easy to spot. Being your true, authentic self as a leader will make your communication better overall. Sharing moments that are tough for you or moments of pure joy for the company with the entire company are easy ways to showcase your authentic self, building more trust in you across your team. Knowing that your investment in the startup is human and has variety will allow your team to fully buy into the vision and bring their full selves to work every day, improving culture, communication, and teamwork. Get Out of Your Silo It’s easy to stay heads-down in your own company and executive team. Get out of the silo of your own org and learn from others. Spending time with fellow startup founders or reading about various leadership and communication styles are easy ways to continuously assess and evolve your own leadership communication based on industry best practices or other successful organizations and leaders. Consider the Timing Timing is everything. Considering the timing of each and every message or communication you share with your team (or externally representing your company) is critical. A poorly timed announcement or press release can make or break the success of a big announcement or confuse the team internally. Taking timing into consideration even for the seeming simplest messages is a big game-changer for leadership communication. Think about Equality and Equity Along with timing, understanding if your leadership communication is both equal and equitable is important. If the timing or format of your communication is more accessible for certain groups of your company, rethink how you can change your channel or delivery to better reach all folks equally and when all have a fair opportunity to digest and respond. Beyond timing, equality and equity can come in with communication channel and what’s most accessible to different roles in your company, as well as expectations for response as some folks may have outside priorities like parenting that keep them to strict workloads and deadlines. Stop and Listen Even if you feel as though you’ve mastered the art of leadership communication, always take time to stop and listen. Ask for feedback, get a pulse on what your company is feeling about your leadership communication style. Pause and give yourself time to digest feedback or company talk and learn from there. Take Communication Seriously If your company is doing well, it can be easy to get rather lax in your communication style or forget why good leadership communication is so important. However, it’s critical to always take communication seriously as a leader. When a crisis or big change does arise, you’ll be ready to communicate about it effectively if you consistently take your leadership communication seriously. Invest in Yourself Don’t forget that as a leader, you cannot effectively communicate and make positive decisions for your team if you aren’t investing in and taking care of yourself outside of the 9-5. Sleep is a simple, yet critical part of self-care that is often the first to be neglected by leaders, even though it’s proven to make you a better one. Setting boundaries for yourself and taking breaks will allow you to come back into your work with a clearer head and guide you to make the best possible decisions and communication possible. Poor Leadership Communication Can Hurt It’s absolutely crucial to master strong, positive leadership communication because poor leadership communication can be detrimental to your organization. According to Forbes, poor communication can affect businesses by derailing focus, misaligning the team on the true purpose of the org, prompt a lack of motivation and inspiration, and dropping overall company morale. For leaders specifically, poor leadership communication can diminish credibility. Implementing our practical actions, as well as the 7 guiding principles for leadership communication, are great steps to implementing excellent leadership communication at your startup from day 1. Visible for Leadership Communication Interested in learning more about how Visible can improve your team’s communication around updates and tracking? Check out how we can support your startup as your investor relationship hub.

Fundraising is a full-time job for startups. It’s a process most founders are running 24/7/365. The fundraising lifecycle typically has two parts: Actively Raising: Founders are actively raising new capital for their business. Hopefully, they are using a process to build momentum (check out this First Round article for great tips). Passively Fundraising: This is when founders are building relationships with future, upstream investors that might be a good fit for future funding events. The Fundraising Process We believe if founders run a great process when they are actively raising and build rapport with potential investors when they are passively raising they will raise faster, with better terms, and get back to building their business. Over the last year, we’ve built and improved (with features like custom properties, update sends to potential investors, and Visible Connect) our Fundraising CRM with features to make a founder’s next raise as efficient as possible. We are thrilled to announce our Zapier + Fundraising CRM integration. The integration will allow founders to fit fundraising into their daily workflow by using Zapier triggers to automatically add potential investors to their Visible Fundraising CRM. Visible + Zapier Examples Some examples of our favorite Zaps to get you started: Send email to a potential investor –> Add to Visible Pipeline Zapier Google Chrome Extension –> Add to Visible Pipeline Slack message –> Add to Visible Pipeline and more Give Visible + Zapier a Free Try Here are some templates to help get you started: To learn more about getting your Zapier connection setup with our Fundraising CRM, check out this post. If you have a Zap you’re using to automate your fundraise, we’d love to hear about it. Send a message to marketing at visible dot vc.