Raising your first round
A few spots left
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity" – Seneca
Raising the first round of capital for your company is a mix of luck and preparation. The preparation is developing the story, the deck, and the plan for where the money will get you. The luck is finding the people that see the opportunity you demonstrate by your preparation.
There are degrees of luck. If you are very lucky you match perfectly with a thesis and timeframe of a high performing fund and partner who see the opportunity and will invest to supercharge your plan and help you grow as a founding team. If you are only a little lucky you will raise the round from many different funders and none of them have the time to help. For most first rounds of investment, it is somewhere in between, but they all require you to be prepared.
At Eigenspace, we know that founders need to build businesses. Some of these businesses can become wealth engines. Founders that are prepared have better luck to take advantage of the opportunities along the path. By building a business that benefits the founders, the employees, and the investors you increase your chances of luck because more people have a real interest in your success.
We want to help you get lucky
What is luck in the context of your startup?
For us, it's about preparation and opportunity. This is about being prepared and understanding what potential investors are looking for in early-stage companies like yours. And the opportunities to connect with them at the right time, both for you and for them.
We are looking for founders and teams that are likely raising financing beyond friends and family. To get the most out of this, we’re looking for companies that have the following attributes:
You have some customer traction and a clear idea of who is using their product.
Your pitch deck is ready and you have sent it out but not got the response you had hoped.
You have co-founders, maybe a team and are raising $250k to $2M.
Making your own luck
This is a process with no guarantees.
We help founders be prepared. This means an understanding of the expectations of venture capital as related to your company. We do this through a combination of workshops, peer discussions and weekly one-on-one coaching with your team. This is part education, part coaching, part therapy. But the goal is clear, it’s to prepare you to raise a round of capital. And we’re doing our best to share our experience/opinions about what we want to see. It’s one part education, one part investment memo, one part community.
We’re trying to prepare you to connect with potential investors. We are trying to prepare you for the unknown.
Our program is less structured. But it is focused on having you prepared for the unknown and creating opportunities for serendipity with the right people. Our goal isn’t a demo day, a stage full of presentations. Our goal is to connect you with interested peers, other founders, investors and mentors. A day of small room meetings with people who are capable of investing, followed by a dinner to build relationships.
We don’t want to waste anyone’s time (yours, ours, potential investors). We’re prepared to invest time, money and social capital. But there are no guarantees. We can’t promise that you’ll raise money at the end. All we can do is help you be prepared and provide an opportunity to be lucky.
Only a few spots left and we will evaluate applications as they come in
Our program is lightweight and nimble, (“you’ve heard of this 8 minute abs” Something About Mary). It’s 2 hours per week.
We are looking for up to 10 companies to join us for our first Founders & Funders social.
We have just a few spots left.
This is an open call to founders that are currently raising that would be willing to commit to working with us to prepare. Fill out our application or drop me an email jesse at Eigenspace.com.