I hear a lot of horror stories about investors. Many are
misunderstandings. Some are just outright false. Then there are those
that are true. Sadly, there are a lot of those.
There’s the alleged angel in the Baltic region who committed (in an
email) to leading a round and then refused to talk to the other
investors and eventually seemed to bury his head in the sand and
disappear. There are countless stories of mysterious Middle Eastern
angels who put teams through painful pitch, due diligence and
negotiation processes only to bail (post-term sheet) after months of
promises and B.S. about the money being delayed/lost/stolen/on the way.
This kills companies. I’ve watched great entrepreneurs with brilliant
ideas sink because they’ve been fucked around and because they made
poor choices. Many of the so-called “investors” involved are odious
individuals. I wanted to write something that will help people avoid
having to deal with them, so here are some tips.
Financial institutions are bound by a regulation called
KYC
(know your customer). It’s time we created KYI for investors. You
should want (and probably need) to know who’s investing, why they’re
investing, who they are, how they made their money, what else they’re up
to, what they’re like to work with, what’s their temperament and risk
appetite and other such useful tidbits.
Do some digging on the people you’re going to target — creep on their
AngelList,
CrunchBase,
LinkedIn
and other profiles. Check to see if they blog, tweet, judge at Startup
Weekends, mentor at accelerators, speak at conferences or do things that
the vast majority of other investors do. Are they talking about their
existing investments? Do they add value to industry conversations? Do
they seem credible? Do they appear mostly sane?
Red flag No. 1. If they don’t have an online profile
of any description, be a little wary. There are some super-wealthy
people who obviously don’t want to be on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and
other such platforms as they’re too busy in their walk-in humidors. But
in general terms, someone who has zero online profile makes my spidey
senses tingle.
Red flag No. 2. If you’re constantly dealing through
an intermediary, be wary. When you get into Series A/B/C, etc., it’s
more natural for this to happen. This is what venture capital is, to a
certain extent. In angel rounds, if you’re not regularly dealing
directly with the angel, this is likely a pattern that will repeat.
Also, you run the risk of Chinese whispers and subsequent
misunderstandings.
If someone’s going to give you anything between $5,000 and $500,000
that they could otherwise spend on a holiday, a car or a buy-to-let flat
in Walthamstow, they should probably want to look you in the eye and
talk face to face. Likewise, if you’re giving someone a single- or
double-digit percentage of your company, you’ll want to spend time with
them. If you ask to meet an investor and that never happens for various
spurious reasons, don’t take their money.
Ask to talk to companies that the investor has previously put money into. This leads us to
red flag No.3.
If they refuse this, or are sketchy about it, you should be very, very
wary. Talking to companies that your investor has previously put money
into is pretty normal due diligence for a startup. You should be asking
what the investor is like to work with; are they pushy, obnoxious,
needy, anxious, cool, useful or just good/bad/indifferent to work with.
Appear smarter than your lawyer. Also, get a lawyer.
The right investors should be happy to share this info with you. The
bad ones won’t want you to find out that they are secretly tools.
Incidentally, you don’t need an investor’s permission to do this — if
they have investments listed on LinkedIn, AngelList and other places,
just connect directly with the founder/CEO and ask.
Red flag No. 4. Watch out for loonie valuations. The
less sophisticated the investor, the more of your company they’ll want.
The classic instance is where the investor wants 51 percent of your
business. In most funding rounds, you should be aiming to give away
10-25 percent of your company. The lower end implies you’re a hot deal
or you’re doing something really well. The higher end implies it’s
riskier or perhaps the traction isn’t that great. In early rounds, my
personal feeling is that anything more than 25 percent is too high and
can create a disincentive for founders, staff and current/future
investors. Anyone who wants anything north of 25 percent is worth
spending some more due diligence time on.
Red flag No. 5. Watch out for people who aren’t at least reasonably amenable to standardized term sheets.
Seedsummit,
YC
and many others have produced great templates that are pretty standard.
Watch out for things like participating liquidity preferences (1x
liquidity preference is probably ok, others would argue it’s pretty
standard). Watch out for warrants, vesting clauses that are overly
punitive, full-ratchet anti-dilution clauses and stuff like that. If you
don’t understand these terms, you need to. Do yourself a favor and buy
Venture Deals and appear smarter than your lawyer. Also, get a lawyer.
Red flag No.6. Watch out for people who only bring
cash to the table. Introductions, advice, connections and guidance are
the most useful things that early-stage companies can get. The right
type of angel — usually one who’s been there and done that — is worth
10x their investment in this regard. They’ll shill for you at
conferences, introduce you to people, act as an additional BD/sales/HR
person and generally add way more than just cash to the equation. Ask
not what you can do for your investors (you should know the answer to
this already — make them a fuck ton of money), ask what your investors
can do for you.
If you’re feeling cheeky, send them
this.
But seriously — be upfront about asking what else they’re bringing
outside of cash — can they introduce you to potential clients or useful
contacts? Can they help with hiring or international growth? Do they
know the reporter covering your area at the biggest trade publication or
at the FT? Can they connect you with bigger investors when the time is
right?
Red flag No. 7. Watch out for people who want overly
complex financial projections (or other ludicrous requests) when you’re
pre-revenue or pre-product. Anyone with a brain in their head will know
that it is A) guesswork and B) producing this material is a time sink.
Do your homework. Do it early. Do it often.
Smart early-stage investors are backing the team, the market and the
idea — probably in that order. If someone’s looking for five-year
projections, you’d be as well off reading the tea leaves with them.
Definitely have your product roadmap in your head, and some ideas about
how you’re going to scale into new markets, etc. — and have an idea of
what you’d like to make, but you shouldn’t have to waste your time on
projections.
Red flag No. 8. Watch out for people who drop off
the face of the planet after giving you a soft commitment. As a species,
we’re not great at saying “no” to people, so a lot of investors will
simply break off contact instead of saying no. If someone drops off the
radar after saying they are in, it probably means they are out. If
they’re going on holiday, having surgery or doing something else that
prevents them from replying to an email/WhatsApp, etc.,they’ll probably
tell you.
Red flag No. 9. If your gut feeling is bad about
someone the first time you meet them, pay attention to that. You don’t
have to be best mates with all of your investors — in fact,
you shouldn’t be. But, you do have to at least tolerate them. If you’re
lucky, you’ll be talking to and emailing them once a month for the next
five to 10 years. Gut feeling is important.
I’m not saying discount an investment straight away, but if someone
feels off, creepy or just not right, spend a bit more time figuring out
why, and definitely do at least one more meeting to double-check that
feeling. I have taken on investors in previous businesses who I really
didn’t like when we first met, but they offered money. It ended like
this.
These are just a small subset of the things you should be looking for
when you’re talking to early-stage/angel investors. It’s equally as
applicable to later-stage investments, but in the early stages of a
business, this is serious stuff. The people you take on as investors at
the start can be a huge predictor of the success of future funding
rounds, or the company as a whole.
I’ve heard stories of people who had investors who were supposed to
put in the second tranche of funding, but couldn’t because their assets
had been seized by a country as a result of various nefarious deeds in
the past. I’ve met companies who’ve taken investments and then did their
due diligence on the investor — only to find out they were one of the
leading fugitives from a European country. As you can probably imagine,
having someone like that on your cap table is going to make it a lot
less likely that a tier-one VC will invest in your next round.
Do your homework. Do it early. Do it often. Don’t be afraid to
ask for references and more info about the person who’s investing. If
they’re sufficiently motivated and interested in you, they should be
happy to do it. If they’re sufficiently smart, they’ll respect you
asking. If they’re sufficiently sketchy, you need to think about casting
a wider net.