Takeaways from A Year at Rough Draft Ventures: FAQs for Founders

Powered by General Catalyst, Rough Draft Ventures is supporting and connecting the largest network of student entrepreneurs. As a Venture Fellow, my role is to get to know students on campus who are starting companies and invite top founders to pitch RDV for $25K in backing. After meeting over 60 teams this year, I’ve learned a tremendous amount. Based on that experience, here are some of the key take-aways for student founders and future Venture Fellows about pitching, and our broader set of resources here at RDV:

Getting in Touch with RDV

Our Venture Fellows want to be as approachable and helpful to student founders as possible. Outside of finding us on campus, here are some other ways you can get in touch with us:

1. Apply through our online application: We put together a simple and straightforward form; we check for submissions every day.
2. Ask for an intro: Know a mutual friend or a portfolio company we’ve backed? Ask them for a warm intro. This is one of the best ways to get in touch!
3. Email a Fellow: We get a number of pitches through our online application each day. However, I recommend establishing a personal relationship by emailing one of the Venture Fellows directly. A simple email can include two-sentences about what you’re building, a sentence about how many users you have, and a link to a deck or a demo. It’s also important to know that if you don’t feel that you’re quite ready to apply for funding, you can always email a Venture Fellow to ask for feedback.
4. Meet us at office hours: Although our Venture Fellows live in Boston and NYC, we’re location agnostic. Often times we hold office hours at campuses in places like LA or Chicago. Email us and we’ll be more than happy to let you know when we’re at your area next!
5. Apply to one of our industry programs: Our programming this year includes a summer incubator for startups focusing on SMBs and a $1M search for blockchain initiatives. We’re always adding new programs. Stay up to date by subscribing to our newsletter.

Pitching with RDV

We strive to make our pitch process simple and efficient. Pitches take place during the fall and spring semesters, when school is in session. In order to pitch, you’ll first meet with a Venture Fellow or two through informal coffee chats. If we think you’re ready, we’ll send you a short deck of guidelines and invite you in for a 30-minute pitch. At the pitch, you’ll walk into a room with all of our Venture Fellows, plug in your laptop, and dive in. We might ask a few questions during the pitch as we like to keep the discussion interactive. After you’ve pitched, we’ll try get you a decision within 24–48 hours. As you prepare, here are a few pieces of advice:

1. Each pitch is unique: Although pitches usually last 20 minutes, our best meetings are conversational. We appreciate when founders communicate a compelling narrative, with all founding team members contributing to help us understand the broader vision.
2. Pitch when you have a Rough Draft: Most teams that come in to pitch have MVPs or “rough drafts” in addition to a small but growing customer base. If you’re not sure if you’re ready, feel free to ask our Venture Fellows for advice.
3. We love to see a demo: Some of our favorite teams have emailed us one minute video demos or access codes to their online platforms/ apps beforehand so we can test them out. Nothing helps us understand what you’re building better than trying it out for ourselves.
4. Be prepared for the tough questions: If your business doesn’t work out in three years, where will you be? Why are you particularly passionate about this space? How did you and your teammates meet? What would be the next feature, product, or channel you target? Who is your competition? Is this a side project or are you diving in full-time? What do you believe your path to a $1 billion dollar business looks like?
5. Find a venture fellow with whom your vision resonates: If a Venture Fellow is particularly excited about what you’re building, they’ll be a stronger advocate during the pitch meeting and spend time convincing the rest of the team why we should back you.
6. Ask us the hard questions: We want to have a mutually beneficial relationship with our founders. During coffee chats with Venture Fellows or after your pitch, we hope you ask us questions that help you learn more about the Rough Draft community.

For more information on what we look for in a pitch, our Venture Fellow Jeremy shares his thoughts here.

Qualifications for Pitching

There are definitely exceptions, but in general, we tend to back teams where the following is true:

Team:

• At least one co-founder must be a student enrolled in school (undergraduate, graduate, post-doc) or recently dropped out.
• We like to back teams rather than solo founders, and we tend to back teams with at least one technical founder. We think it’s a great signal if you can convince those around you to take part in what you’re building.
• We’ll take a bet on you if you’ll take a bet on yourself! Although we don’t mandate or expect our student founders to drop out of school, we back teams that we think are serious about building sustainable businesses.

Incorporation & Funding:

• You must be or plan to be a Delaware C Corp (we don’t fund non-profits or LLC’s).
• We usually back teams at the earliest stage, prior to any rounds of funding.
• We feel we can best support portfolio companies within the US, not outside it.
• We focus on supporting software-centric companies.
• We like to see you outline what you’d use our investment for!

Growing with RDV

Asides from the funding, some other ways we help our portfolio network and student community include:

• Coaching our teams for YC interviews, applying to other accelerators, or raising Series A rounds.
• Connecting our teams with legal, incorporation, and banking services.
• Hosting intimate RDV founder chats, where you can learn from RDV and GC’s founder network.
• Utilizing RDV’s Student Founder Kit, with over $200k in free resources.
• Supporting female founders through our partnerships with programs like MIT FoundHers and Four94, and our Founding Well event. We’re also a female-majority VF team this year, which we’re proud of.
• Building community through our portfolio dinners and semester events.
• Powering hackathons and entrepreneurial competitions across Boston, NYC, and SF campuses.

Thanks to Natalie, Jenny Wang, Frank Wang, and Rough Draft Ventures.