8 Things You Need to Know About Raising Venture Capital

If your startup is growing, at some point you will likely be seeking venture capital. Unlike angel investors, who typically write checks between $10,000 to $100,000, VCs can write multi-million dollar checks. This means that VCs support startup growth from seed to much later stages.

Because VCs deploy large amounts of capital and expect significant returns, the process of raising money from these so called institutional investors is far from trivial. At Techstars, we spend time with the companies talking about raising money, and in this post I'll discuss some of the things you need to know if you are looking to raise venture capital.

What's the Secret to Startup Success? Timing.

Most entrepreneurs have heard the commonly cited statistic that 90 percent of all technology startups (and let’s face it, the majority of modern startups are technology based) fail. Some fail because their products didn’t end up being what they thought it would. Some fail because they ran out of money. Others fail simply because their revenues couldn’t grow fast enough.

But these causes of death don’t exactly illustrate what went wrong for the startup during the course of its life, much in the same way that listing a heart attack as a cause of death doesn’t directly indicate an unhealthy lifestyle that may have led to it. Like with human life, some startup deaths come out of nowhere and can’t be helped, and some are both predictable and preventable.