
Which investors will invest in your startup? - bjonathan
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2013/03/which-investors-will-invest-in-your-startup.html
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gbelote
This post is great. Having been through YC and TechStars (separate companies)
and founding a crowdinvesting platform, it seems to me that early stage
investing is very much about who you are and the relationships you've built.
You can raise money and survive without significant traction a priori.

What's interesting to me is how the barrier for investing is being lowered
(e.g. JOBS act) and how that's going to impact the dynamic of raising money.
Startups are going to be able to find people in their industry who grok what
they're doing (e.g. their customers) and raise small amounts of money from
many people. It's going to be easier for investors to make more small bets
($1k instead of $50k), so I think the need for obvious traction early on
(graphs going "up and to the right") is going to keep decreasing and it's
going to be more about speaking to a niche of investors in your space and
being great with product and communication.

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elvisds
Does "Investing in You", "Investing in your idea/team", and "Investing in
traction" correspond to Angel, Seed and VC funding? If yes, this might mean
the answer to "Investing in ..." should help you decide what round of funding
to raise. If you already have traction, you might be in a good position to
approach a VC. If you just have an idea or a team, then you must approach an
incubator/seed fund...

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crapshoot101
I don't know how much I agree with this - at the seed stage, in many cases,
the ONLY thing you're betting on is the team. Ie, that they have a coherent
idea is a good thing, but you're really betting on them figuring something
out. Of course, there's seed (like YC thinks of it) and seed (literally, the
first $20k).

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prakster
The third pie-chart is categorically wrong. I get the key point Gabriel is
trying to make (that it's all about the team), but that green should at least
be over 1/3rd of the pie.

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niggler
I wonder if "Investing in You" should be included somewhere before "Investing
in Your Team" -- in some sense, that separates the "friends and family" from
the "incubators"

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anonfunction
Great post and it certainly brings up a valid point, which is traction trumps
all.

