Athleta (EF, Thursday, Week 2)
entrepreneurial-financeyear-twoRaise money before you need it. Even if you are successful at raising cash in a hurry, bad things happen to the firm (and terrible things happen to the firm's early investors).
"Hit it hard." -- James Currier, Ooga Labs
Raise more money than you need in as small a number of rounds as possible. Otherwise you will spend a third of your life pitching investors.
Pro formas are elaborate fictions. $50mn valuation in 4 years = interesting, $18mn valuation in 4 years = not interesting, and neither have anything to do with the underlying business.
Obvious points: more cash, sooner, with less risk > less cash, later, with more risk.