D-Day Ep. 1: It’s the day after D(emo)-Day. What do you do now?
It’s demo day season in London. Cue the free sandwiches, pretty pitch decks, hungry investor hordes, and nervous voices talking traction and user acquisition strat. If you’ve made it this far, congratulations, it’s only going to get harder from now on. 😁
Here’s your game plan for what happens next. If this is your very first startup, it can kind of seem like you now have to face the big bad world on your own, despite what your mentors tell you.
Assumptions before we move on:
Lots of accelerators/incubators/startup programmes out there — I’m speaking very generally to:
- early-stage startups graduating and looking to raise your very first round;
- if you even choose to raise after your programme (although chances are you’ll probably try to).
First, don’t stop building value.
The structure of a good programme should help to keep you on the ball, or why would you be there in the first place? The day after demo day can seem slightly anticlimactic (that’s what it felt like to me anyway); just another day at the office, really. But that’s honestly because you need to keep the momentum going.
Don’t take your foot off the pedal for anything, even raising a round.
You’ll be giving away value in exchange for runway, so it’s in your best interest to make sure you’ve got lots and lots of value built up. That can look like anything; it might be MAU, WoW growth, MoM growth, LOL (ok, maybe not that one).
If raising: do you really need to raise what everyone says you need to raise?
Remember, every little bit you give away is hard-earned value you’re chipping away at. Could you raise less? Should you raise more? You’ll make your mistakes on £150k, or £500k. You’re raising a round to risk capital, you’re not raising scaling capital. Might it be better to just raise £250k then so you can raise a proper bridge round before a Series A?
Importantly: remember everyone’s got different motivations for telling you to raise a certain amount. Programmes find the amount raised per cohort a steady and reliable metric to chart growth (debatable, but it is what it is), individual investors may want lots of bang for their buck, institutional investors might want some early skin in the game but can’t do more than that, the list can go on. But generally speaking all of us want you to succeed. :) Success just looks different to different people.
Cohort chat: so long and thanks for all the fish?
You’ve travelled the last few months with these mates, these men and women in arms, on the same-ish journey. Your paths will diverge after this.
But while the hullaballoo of raising goes on, support each other.
There will be clear favourites who will raise, there will be some of you that need a little bit more time to sort some stuff out, there will be some of you that will end the journey here because of various reasons. Whatever it is, keep on being there for each other.
Even though Ignite was over a year ago for me, I’m still talking with cohort-mates, and they’d be the first people I’d go to for a kick in the ass, or support in any other way!
Oh and seriously please don’t pay for office space unless you really have to. And if you do, don’t go somewhere shiny, you haven’t made it yet. Enforce an artificial constraint to push you further.
REMEMBER: It’s not about how much you raise right now, or in 6 months, or ever; it’s about building an epic business.
Liked this post? Share this with another founder who might need it, plus, here’s what’s coming up next week!
D-Day Ep. 2: Bits and bobs to remember when raising money after D(emo) Day.
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This post was written by YeeMun Thum, @thumyeemun, Partner at Potential VC. An ex-digital agency content strategist + corporate affairs manager from Malaysia, she was co-founder of UK online subscription eyewear startup @ScarlettofSoho (acquired by GlassesDirect). She likes pugs, iced coffee, and helping startups wherever she can.
