Brandon Watson talks frankly about his startup and its investors(mixergy.com)
mixergy.com
Brandon Watson talks frankly about his startup and its investors
http://mixergy.com/bullied-board-lessons-funded-startup-brandon-watson-imsafer/
3 comments
Well, hopefully now on his second attempt he gets better leverage on the deal.
Someone must know who this first tier VC was that hosed him. Anybody here know about this?
One day I will post the story...one day.
We'll be waiting! Thanks for the great interview, Brandon.
Nice interview, nutpuncher!
I know someone is reading my blog posts when they use that phrase...awesome!
Haven't read your blog, but I did read your reply to me on this site yesterday. I'm sure your blog is a literary masterpiece if it makes liberal use of the term "nutpunch."
* He was able to raise about $1 MM in 8 days because he built up good relations with investors over the years.
* He didn't get as good a deal as he could have from his investors because: as a first time entrepreneur he didn't have enough leverage + he needed to move fast + he didn't want to lose the deal.
* His board pushed him to sacrifice revenue for growth.
* Lack of revenue forced him to seek another round of funding.
* When, at the last minute, a VC dropped his deal, all the others walked away too.
* When he sold his company, his investors made a small profit, but he was "flushed out" because of the deal he made when he got his funding.
Bottom line: He protected his investors. His investors protected themselves. No one went out of their way to protect him, the entrepreneur. Still, none of this soured him on entrepreneurship.