1 00:00:06,060 --> 00:00:09,420 So I'll end with a funny graph on kind of the way I would think about going 2 00:00:09,420 --> 00:00:14,340 after a VC investment is as we see the right funding model for your business. 3 00:00:14,340 --> 00:00:20,070 I building a lifestyle business. Are you building something that is going after a $10 billion market or $8 billion market? 4 00:00:20,460 --> 00:00:24,870 Maybe not. Maybe it's a passion business, something you just really want to build. I have a friend who runs a cookie business. 5 00:00:24,870 --> 00:00:28,380 He does pretty well with Ben's cookies. Pretty good too. 6 00:00:29,550 --> 00:00:37,950 It's not obviously that cool business. So think about other source of funding, crowdsourcing or Kickstarter or bootstrapping it. 7 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:40,560 So let's assume that you think the idea is big enough. 8 00:00:41,910 --> 00:00:46,350 Have you gone out and raised the angel round first before you approached institutional investors? 9 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:51,980 Can you have some more friendlies around the table to help you out? And if you haven't come, mom and dad and then call your friends. 10 00:00:51,990 --> 00:00:58,549 Was it friends? Fools and family is go the first the first stop and once you have and built out the business and 11 00:00:58,550 --> 00:01:02,520 it has some metrics proving it is working then maybe consider going out and raising VC funding, 12 00:01:03,510 --> 00:01:07,379 product market fit and unit economics. Two of the hardest things to prove. 13 00:01:07,380 --> 00:01:10,560 But two of the things that I'll always ask you about can you tell? 14 00:01:10,590 --> 00:01:15,720 Prove to me that what you're trying to build is what what consumers want usually at the early stage, no. 15 00:01:16,170 --> 00:01:21,659 But have you done enough validation through focus groups, beta users, to actually prove that there's value to consumers? 16 00:01:21,660 --> 00:01:27,600 And if you put more money into it, more consumers will want it. And I knew that economics is, I guess, 17 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:32,610 VC lingo for how much does it cost for you to acquire a user and how much money you're going to make for them over a lifetime? 18 00:01:33,810 --> 00:01:39,120 Can you prove to me that your Google FCM campaign and your Facebook ad campaign is going to acquire use that this much 19 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:42,929 and you think you're going to make this much from them and that's something you can actually go out and test with. 20 00:01:42,930 --> 00:01:48,420 Not that much money. You can run kind of mock campaigns and look at the data and figure out what the unit economics might be. 21 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:51,780 So I don't want you to have a full fledged five year business plan. 22 00:01:51,780 --> 00:01:55,140 By the way, if anybody asks you that seed stage, it's pretty crazy. 23 00:01:55,860 --> 00:02:02,549 I just want you to at least have validated it and through through some data channels and have no can you go through the channels to prove it? 24 00:02:02,550 --> 00:02:09,090 And if your business is never going to have product market fit and you're effectively building something crazy, like for example, 25 00:02:09,090 --> 00:02:18,510 there's a Kickstarter project right now for sending a UK mission to the moon and you can actually buy a piece of the UK's first ever moon mission. 26 00:02:19,530 --> 00:02:24,149 Definitely not VC fundable and but if you actually building something that's 27 00:02:24,150 --> 00:02:27,420 a consumer electronic product or something that might be a fashion product, 28 00:02:27,630 --> 00:02:34,320 is Lending Club or Kickstarter or some other crowdfunding channel more appropriate than going through through the process with a venture capitalist? 29 00:02:34,890 --> 00:02:36,840 And if all these answers lead to yes, 30 00:02:37,590 --> 00:02:43,709 then think about the pitch and how you tell a story and the metrics that you have and how you get good advice from other entrepreneurs and 31 00:02:43,710 --> 00:02:49,440 how you do research and who you're going to go target the right partner at the right firm who might have done something in a similar space. 32 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:55,410 Or think about maybe an incubator or an accelerator as a way to actually kind of define that story and then hit the road. 33 00:02:56,640 --> 00:03:02,010 It's not for the faint hearted, just in the sense of 99 times out of 100 I'll say no. 34 00:03:02,970 --> 00:03:06,360 But I will say this there's a changing ecosystem, especially in Europe, 35 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:11,190 of more people like me that come from a more entrepreneurial and operational background becoming investors. 36 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:16,169 So the questions that I ask you will be more around product and your roadmap and your technical 37 00:03:16,170 --> 00:03:20,040 team than there will be about this kind of cash flows and your five year projections. 38 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:25,020 That matters to me. But if actually I'm betting I'm taking a pretty bold bet at a very early stage, 39 00:03:25,380 --> 00:03:31,200 the idea is I'm here to back the ambition and let's work together in actually proving out that we can get there. 40 00:03:31,770 --> 00:03:36,360 So hopefully that gives you some insight into how we or at least I think about VC investment, 41 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:42,330 some of the pitfalls for entrepreneurs and some of the other ways in which you can think about funding funding your own Start-Up idea. 42 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:43,380 So thanks so much.