4 Traits That Predict Fundraising Success

Do You Have What It Takes to Win In the Valley?

We like to think about ourselves as rational beings. We claim that we usually think before we act. And we take a pride in our powerful analytical skills that let us throughly analyze pros and cons before making any decision.

Yeah, right.

In reality, approximately 90% of our decisions are intuitive, or rather based on heuristic evaluation — set of simple rules, hard-wired in our minds to let us efficiently make decisions. Thanks to this complex mechanism we can recognize the danger, find food, know with whom (more or less) to mate and how to make financial decisions (just read Gut Feelings by Gerd Gigerenzer).

Our rationality is in fact an advanced form of pattern recognition. And so is the rationality of Silicon Valley. The reason Silicon Valley has such a fertile soil for hi-tech is that it has the best pattern recognition system for success.

Do you want to know how to fit in? Read on.

I fundraised three times.

First fundraising took place back in Poland when UXPin was no more than a dream to revolutionize user experience design.

Second was a 9 months long exhaustive fight in Silicon Valley that resulted in having Andreessen/Horowitz, IDG Ventures, Gil Penchina, Mansour Salame and Innovation Nest on board. UXPin was much more matured, ready to take over the design world with the best product on the market.

Third, yet to be announced, was a 4 weeks roller coaster ride that brought us even more amazing investors on board. UXPin is on fire.

Looking back at all three fundraising events I’ve tried to find the pattern. The pattern that was a success predictor.

To start with I’ve focused on the leader of the project. Like it or not, but on the seed investment level, you’re to be judged. If you suck, even the best business behind you won’t help. Having that in mind, I tried to analyze myself and all the successful founders that I know. I’ve discussed the pattern with some of our investors to double-check if I’m not bulshitting you.

Here’s what I come up with:

1. Persistence & Adaptability

Great founders are able to remove the contradiction between persistence and adaptability. While they stubbornly maintain the dynamic of their progress, they adapt to the changing condition on the market. They’re able to learn (and they do listen!, but they do not accept every advice as an undeniable truth.

2. Integrity

Successful founders are morally mature and emotionally stable (more or less). They’re decent human beings and people want to spend time with them. They’re interesting. They are able to cover more topics in a conversation than just their project and they do not pretend to be perfect.

Let me give you a more personal story: The best meetings with VCs that I had (and I had about 80 of them in last 12 months) were not only about UXPin. We were discussing psychology, philosophy, cultural differences, sport… you name it. And I didn’t even formally pitch these investors, forcing my polish deck on the screen. Yet, I have them now on board today.

And a side note: to a certain level — being a weirdo is fine (you have to be crazy to dream about changing the world), above this level though your weirdness is just a risk factor for the business. Mind that.

3. Passion

Claiming that you’re passionate about your project doesn’t equal that you are truly passionate. Believe me, investors can see that. They see right through you. Do you really care about the problem you claim to solve or do you just consider your idea a cool & easy money harvester?

The latter doesn’t get capital. It’s a risk factor.

Do not fake passion. Find your passion and build a business around it. Easy, right?

4. Self-Confidence

You have to be self-confident. Self-confidency doesn’t mean that you need to brag and sell yourself. Be intellectually honest with yourself and build upon that. You have to know that this is going to work and you’re the one person that can make it happen. You can’t fake it.

If you have a problem with self-confidence: accept that failure may happen and visualize it for a brief moment. We fear what we don’t know. Say hello to failure and remove all the doubts from your mind. You’ll be fine.

And that’s the pattern. Can you train yourself to fit in?

Yes. To keep building a successful startup you need to keep building yourself.

Investors know that.