Brains and hearts were buzzing with energy, excitement, knowledge and passion at StartupGrind 2020, a global conference in the heart of Silicon Valley, where dreamers searched for new collaborations, learning, and creative juices to inspire and support them in their entrepreneurial endeavors of shaping magic. At StartupGrind, we heard that startups exist to make customers’ lives easier in some way by solving their problems. We heard that startups need to find the niche in the market and fill it with products that customers desire; hence, empathy should step before passion, and being shoulder to shoulder with those who are suffering the problem will result in better products. And users flock to simple products. We also heard that venture capitalists (VCs) want to invest in entrepreneurs who ask themselves what they would do if they were crazy. Last not least, we heard that startups need to be guided by great missions in order to attract resources, such as vast capital and right people.
This year’s conference brought together over 8,000 attendees and 150 speakers representing 96 countries to unite, collaborate, and expand their skills in over 100 engaging panel sessions and workshops. During the opening note, Derek Andersen, founder and CEO of StartupGrind, appealed to entrepreneurial community to “give more than take” following the conference’s purpose on helping others before helping yourself and giving value to everyone. Andersen’s words echoed with stormy audience’s applause: ”StartupGrind is not negative, is not about working to work. It’s not about grinding yourself to the bone and ruining your family, your friendships and the world in the pursuit of money and professional success. There is no point in gaining the world if you lose your soul in the process. True unicorns are not the companies that have big valuations, but true unicorns are people who successfully scale their business and their lives at the same time.” And StartupGrind was all about celebrating entrepreneurship, opening up, sharing experiences, and learning from others.
There was a lot of buzz around topics that especially affect entrepreneurs at early stage like team building, fundraising, product development, scaling, branding and marketing, just to name a few. VC stage was packed with curious entrepreneurs listening attentively to practices and insights of investors, including female representatives, from Cowboy Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Ada Ventures, Jane VC, and Scale Venture Partners.
10 key takeaways emerging from the talks on the VC stage:
- Very few funds focus on pre-seed financing, with only 126 compared to 1,036 at seed stage. Pre-seed is underserved. Validate the problem and the market when you are looking for pre-seed, and it’s good to have MVP.
- Keeping up with your vision is important even if investors don’t agree with you. Find someone who understands it and believes in it.
- Q&A is more important for investors than pitch. Be prepared to answer all questions. Investors have a comprehensive plan about your company with all numbers related to your industry.
- Getting to Quick No. During your conversations with investors get to Quick No so you go to Quick Yes somewhere else.
- Entrepreneurs have big outcomes if they try to focus on bigger markets. Investors are on a lookout for bigger markets and returns.
- Investors seek a founder-market fit figuring out if the founder is able to build the company. How is this founder going to be perceived by the rest of the market? Can he/she attract talented people?
- Inventors want to know if there is a market validation outside of the founder’s close circle, if the market exists for the product/service that customers are willing to pay.
- The founder is responsible to investors and the board. Investors look what’s driving that team. Why they have built that product? Everything comes to the team.
- How do you negotiate your term sheets? It depends on the number of investors you have lined up. Don’t sneak something past as a founder. Investors want highly motivated founder because it’s a very hard journey. The investors want you motivated for the business.
- Investor plus founder(s) must equal a good team. Choose your VCs carefully who are likely to be a good fit for your company, keeping in mind quality over quantity, because they will work with you for a long haul, on average, from 7 to 10 years. You can divorce from your spouse but not from your investor. To have a perspective here, in the U.S., an average marriage lasts 7 years. Hence, pick your investors wisely for right reasons.
Building startup is an endless volatility in the middle where you can endure between joy and failure. But what defines your company’s success and differentiate it from the rest is the fact how you can endure and face this endless volatility, how you can gain confidence from doubt, how far you can stretch the muscle of resourcefulness in times of thirst and hunger. But always look forward to progress because it begets more progress, and everything is impossible until someone does it. Be the one who does it.