A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
00:16:22 · Lee Silverstone, Pablo Srugo
[00:16:22] S0: It made sense. Things [00:16:23] S1: A flip man. So like, anyways, that's just my <laugh> my 2 cents is like if you're a founder, opt for premo safe if you can, or a pre around . It's funny man, I , I like half regret because I'm telling you, I was talking to my partners the other like two weeks ago and I'm like, guys, like we should only do post money safes . Like, we're so dumb for doing anything other than post money saves. It's [00:16:43] S0: Insane. But I think that like sharky and , and look like I , I'm not saying you guys are sharky or VCs are sharky in general, but like that sharky term world has come back. [00:16:54] S1: So let me , um, maybe like to end, I've got like a few quick fire like mistakes and tips. Maybe I'll like, I'll I'll list some of those and just get your reaction on 'em . We think they're legit know , legit or whatever. Classic mistake number one. And it's like truly just fully avoidable mistake. I don't even know why people do it. But anyways , uh, just saying too much. So for example , uh, and I always ask, but like I would say 70% of founders know better and 30% still don't saying too much. So like how much are you raising? 3 million? Okay, cool. What terms? [00:17:24] S0: Let the VC come up with the price, see if it matches yours. Why would you put your , why would you put the line in the sand first?
00:17:24 · Lee Silverstone, Pablo Srugo
[00:17:24] S0: Let the VC come up with the price, see if it matches yours. Why would you put your , why would you put the line in the sand first? [00:17:29] S1: Exactly. Like either the price is too low, in which case I just, you know , you got a worse offer for me. The price is too high and I'm like , um, I'm not interested anymore. <laugh> , uh, yeah, none of those things are gonna help you Mistake number two. Actually I'm curious what you think about this one and it's again, is in the context. I don't think this applies to angels, but just in the context of VCs not being ready to pitch, like to truly pitch a story kind of founders sometimes get on , this happens to me 25% of the time. It's like, okay, cool, da da da . Um, and then I'm like, okay, well what do you wanna do? Like do you wanna have a conversation or do you have like a deck you wanna go through and they're like, oh, let's just have a conversation. [00:18:02] S0: Terrible. Terrible. Worst. Oh the worst. That's the worst, the worst thing. It's like go in, have a deck ready, present the deck, walk the person through it, control the conversation. This is a pitch. This is the, oh, let's just have a conversation is like, yeah, the , I terrible. Never do that. Horrible. [00:18:21] S1: If you have an opportunity to tell your story exactly how you want to, why wouldn't you take it? [00:18:27] S0: I think it comes from this like humility thing. People feel like it's like being humble or whatever, and it's like, no, you're, you're just shooting yourself in the foot . Terrible idea.
00:18:27 · Lee Silverstone, Pablo Srugo
[00:18:27] S0: I think it comes from this like humility thing. People feel like it's like being humble or whatever, and it's like, no, you're, you're just shooting yourself in the foot . Terrible idea. [00:18:34] S1: Mistake number three, setting timelines, right? So founders will come in and be like, yeah, so I'm staring , raising around and we're gonna close in four weeks. <laugh> . [00:18:42] S0: Yeah. Terrible idea. <laugh> , they're awful, right? But they're real. Like they're real. I'm not making these up . They're awful but they're real. And so many people do them. So many people do them with which is this like, yeah, we're closing on this date. No , no , no . It's like, do you even have a term sheet yet? Like, do you even have a lead? Like no, you're not gonna close on this date. And oh by the way, even if you do have a lead , you're probably not gonna close on that day 'cause things are gonna take longer than you think. Just like don't put lines in the sand. It makes you look stupid. [00:19:09] S1: It makes you look because at the end of the day, it's like, from my perspective, hearing that I'm like, you are not in control of that. So like I don't believe that you're gonna raise in four weeks and then when you don't raise in four weeks and you're still raising , you lost all credibility. So it's just a lose lose . [00:19:25] S0: Yeah. A hundred percent. Huge mistake. Never put a date on it unless there actually is a close date, in which case cool , but
00:19:25 · Lee Silverstone, Pablo Srugo
[00:19:25] S0: Yeah. A hundred percent. Huge mistake. Never put a date on it unless there actually is a close date, in which case cool , but [00:19:31] S1: Yes , of course . Yeah, of course. And that means you have a lead and all these sort of things and that's like a real thing. Yes, exactly. Um, okay, final mistake. This is actually, this is a tougher one, which is like the false start, but I have seen this happen many times. Company wants to raise a seed, wants to raise an A, isn't really there. And they could probably figure it out with a handful of conversations, but they decide to press the gas on it. They have like 50 conversations end up with nothing. And the problem is, and I don't think many founders realize this, you burn those leads, you burn them. [00:20:03] S0: Uh, I think hu huge mistake , uh, you're better off waiting until you are ready a hundred percent of the time. I agree. Like, and this is maybe a a a a bad analogy, but it's like you <laugh> you and the earlier the , in the beginning of the call you said is like, are we gonna do better on this one than they did the first one? Or is the second date gonna be better than the first? It's like if you have a bad first date, there's a bad first showing. Like, oh , it's so hard to come back from that. Right? And so I think you're so much better off waiting , uh, if, if you can, I mean the reality is some people can't wait, they gotta go. But you're gonna probably get worse terms . You gotta
00:20:03 · Lee Silverstone, Pablo Srugo
[00:20:03] S0: Uh, I think hu huge mistake , uh, you're better off waiting until you are ready a hundred percent of the time. I agree. Like, and this is maybe a a a a bad analogy, but it's like you <laugh> you and the earlier the , in the beginning of the call you said is like, are we gonna do better on this one than they did the first one? Or is the second date gonna be better than the first? It's like if you have a bad first date, there's a bad first showing. Like, oh , it's so hard to come back from that. Right? And so I think you're so much better off waiting , uh, if, if you can, I mean the reality is some people can't wait, they gotta go. But you're gonna probably get worse terms . You gotta [00:20:38] S1: Be Yeah, well like that, you know, oftentimes it's like I wanna raise an a, you're not there. Maybe you need to raise a bridge round , right? I wanna raise a c you're not there. Maybe you need to raise a bridge round . Right? But my point is like, like it's, it's , the thing is, what I think oftentimes founders that haven't gone through the process, don't realize is the first time you, you get an intro to an investor or you reach out to an investor, what you have on your side is innate curiosity from the investor's perspective. It's like, here's a company I don't know of. I haven't met them unless I'm sure I'm not gonna invest. Maybe I should at least take a 30 minute meeting and see what they're about. And especially true, if you get a warm intro, you meet that company and you pass, now you just lost that. Right?
00:20:38 · Pablo Srugo, Lee Silverstone
[00:20:38] S1: Be Yeah, well like that, you know, oftentimes it's like I wanna raise an a, you're not there. Maybe you need to raise a bridge round , right? I wanna raise a c you're not there. Maybe you need to raise a bridge round . Right? But my point is like, like it's, it's , the thing is, what I think oftentimes founders that haven't gone through the process, don't realize is the first time you, you get an intro to an investor or you reach out to an investor, what you have on your side is innate curiosity from the investor's perspective. It's like, here's a company I don't know of. I haven't met them unless I'm sure I'm not gonna invest. Maybe I should at least take a 30 minute meeting and see what they're about. And especially true, if you get a warm intro, you meet that company and you pass, now you just lost that. Right? [00:21:15] S0: And the other thing too, I would say, and this is a mistake I've made before, is you get these intros to VCs with really big names. You're not ready to go meet with that fund, but you're like excited by the name of the fund and walking into the meeting you're like, why am I doing this? I'm, I'm not ready <laugh> I know , I know they're gonna ask questions that are not good , that I'm not gonna have good answers for. And you should be very intellectually honest with yourself about if you should be going into that room or not. And I, and I think people don't do that enough 'cause they get excited about the brand name.