May 15, 2024

20VC: Fundraising Wisdom that is Total BS; Dilution, Meeting Associates, Taking the Highest Price, Always Be Raising | Why Second Time Founders Are More Investable & Why Not To Hire People Out of College with Dan Siroker, CEO @ Limitless

Listen Later

1 hour 16 minutes

Dan Siroker is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Limitless, a personalized AI powered by what you’ve seen, said, or heard. For his latest funding round, Dan took an unusual approach resulting in 1,000 preliminary offers with valuations as high as $1BN — and resulted in a $350 million Series A valuation. Prior to founding Limitless, Dan was the Founder of Optimizely, scaling the company to $120M in ARR and raising from some of the best in the business including Peter Fenton @ Benchmark who led the Series A.

In Today's Episode with Dan Siroker We Discuss:

1. Serial Entrepreneurs are More Investable:

Why would Dan always prefer to invest in serial entrepreneurs than first time founders?
How do serial entrepreneurs approach team building and size of team differently?
How do serial entrepreneurs approach focus and prioritisation differently?
How do serial entrepreneurs approach pivoting differently to first time founders?
What is Dan's advice from Elad Gil and YC's Dalton Caldwell on when to pivot?

2. The Secret to Fundraising: How to Speak VC

Should founders always be raising?
What is the right thing to respond to investors when they reach out to you outside of a round?
What question are investors really asking when they ask, how much are you raising?
How should founders approach valuation, what should they say when they are asked for it?
How can founders create urgency in a funding round? What works? What does not?

3. How to Raise the Best Funding Round:

Should founders engage with associates or only worth it with decision-makers?
Why should founders always choose the investor who is on the early arc of their career?
Why was Dan's first meeting with Peter Fenton the best meeting he has ever had with a VC?
Why does Dan believe that taking the highest price is never the right answer?
To what extent does having a true Tier 1 VC lead your round, change the game for your company?

4. Dan Siroker: AMA:

How did becoming a father change the way that Dan operates?
Why is Dan scared we might see technological progress stall for the next 20 years?
Why did Dan not do YC the second time around with Limitless?
What is the story of how Optimizely nearly bought Amplitude?

...more

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The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

By Harry Stebbings

4.4

467467 ratings

May 15, 2024

20VC: Fundraising Wisdom that is Total BS; Dilution, Meeting Associates, Taking the Highest Price, Always Be Raising | Why Second Time Founders Are More Investable & Why Not To Hire People Out of College with Dan Siroker, CEO @ Limitless

Listen Later

1 hour 16 minutes

Dan Siroker is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Limitless, a personalized AI powered by what you’ve seen, said, or heard. For his latest funding round, Dan took an unusual approach resulting in 1,000 preliminary offers with valuations as high as $1BN — and resulted in a $350 million Series A valuation. Prior to founding Limitless, Dan was the Founder of Optimizely, scaling the company to $120M in ARR and raising from some of the best in the business including Peter Fenton @ Benchmark who led the Series A.

In Today's Episode with Dan Siroker We Discuss:

1. Serial Entrepreneurs are More Investable:

Why would Dan always prefer to invest in serial entrepreneurs than first time founders?
How do serial entrepreneurs approach team building and size of team differently?
How do serial entrepreneurs approach focus and prioritisation differently?
How do serial entrepreneurs approach pivoting differently to first time founders?
What is Dan's advice from Elad Gil and YC's Dalton Caldwell on when to pivot?

2. The Secret to Fundraising: How to Speak VC

Should founders always be raising?
What is the right thing to respond to investors when they reach out to you outside of a round?
What question are investors really asking when they ask, how much are you raising?
How should founders approach valuation, what should they say when they are asked for it?
How can founders create urgency in a funding round? What works? What does not?

3. How to Raise the Best Funding Round:

Should founders engage with associates or only worth it with decision-makers?
Why should founders always choose the investor who is on the early arc of their career?
Why was Dan's first meeting with Peter Fenton the best meeting he has ever had with a VC?
Why does Dan believe that taking the highest price is never the right answer?
To what extent does having a true Tier 1 VC lead your round, change the game for your company?

4. Dan Siroker: AMA:

How did becoming a father change the way that Dan operates?
Why is Dan scared we might see technological progress stall for the next 20 years?
Why did Dan not do YC the second time around with Limitless?
What is the story of how Optimizely nearly bought Amplitude?

...more

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