Google's seed fund reached out
So Google's seed fund reached out, which needless to say was a pretty big deal for us.
They said they loved our onboarding product (https://boardme.app), and they'd like to discuss.
A week later we had a meeting which exceeded all of our expectations. It was super friendly and conversational, they seemed to understand the pain points we're solving clearly, and they put us in touch with another fund as well.
The attention we've been getting from investors since the summer is much more than what we expected at this stage. Well at any stage, really, because the thought of investment never crossed our minds.
The thing is, we're very confident when it comes to building products, because we've made our careers in this field. However, not so much when it comes to the "startup subculture", investments, fund raising, etc.
Did you have a similar experience with any of your startups? What are some things that you think inexperienced founders should know about this topic?
Good looking product, could do with this myself so I've just registered for early access.
I'm really glad to hear you like it! I know this is a strech, but would you be open to have a short meeting to discuss about how you would use it?
Do you want to raise venture capital? Most seed funds are predicated on the idea that you're going to raise an A round (and future rounds of funding), as this is primarily how they make their money: participating in future rounds that raise the valuation of their very early investment in your company.
So, if you're interested in going the venture route, it's important educate yourself on venture investing and fundraising. Make sure you have a solid understand ownership, dilution, liquidation prefs, preferred vs common stock, etc.
It's an excellent sign that Google's seed fund is interested in your company. If you were thinking previously that you wanted to raise money to grow your company into a big company very fast, venture capital is the best way to do that. There's nothing about venture that says you can't build the company you want, but venture capital is geared to investing in and building large companies very quickly. So, if that's what you want to do, awesome, you're on a great path; just make sure you understand the pros and cons and that you go into it knowing what you're getting into.
Hey thanks a lot for the input! What are some resources you would recommend, that I can use to educate myself on the subject?
Like I said, raising capital was not the plan, the interest from investors is a pleasant surprise. Our stance is that we are open to opportunities.
No problem. Venture Deals is a solid resource. I know there are some great blogs out there that try to demystify the process. This is another thing I've seen on the topic: https://www.holloway.com/g/venture-capital/about.
I was about recommending Venture Deals. This is a deep, no non-sense book.
Thanks a lot for the resources Alex!
My pleasure, hope it's helpful! Feel free to reach out if you have questions.
Are you planning to develop a solution to animated onboarding for Ios and Android apps? If you develop a solution for ios and android app onboarding please get in contact with me via [email protected] .
In this post do you mean GV or some other seed fund of Google? Can you advise me how to apply to GV for seed fund?
Thank you
Mikail Gürbüz
GV as in Gradient Ventures :-)
Hi Mikail,
We're focusing on web and desktop solutions right now, as well as PWAs and hybrid mobile solutions like Cordova and Ionic. That said, we're planning to expland onto the native mobile scene at some point in the future. All my experience is limited to my current experience, so I'm definitely not qualified to offer advice on the topic :)
Like I said, we didn't apply and we didn't search.
I would suggest you to read this article by @dhh.
P.S.: Your product looks very cool!
Thanks for the kind words and the resources!
Congratulations. Keep us updated. Oh, BTW when I was looking at your site, I noticed a typo. Under the "Modals" box, it should be "Seamlessly", not "Seemlessly".
Other than that, you have a great looking product that I will be checking out with interest for my own SaaS.
Hey Devan! Oh that's an embarassing typo, added it to the todo list - thanks for the heads up.
Really glad to hear you're interested!
“Don’t raise VC” is usually pretty good advice. That said, Google has a lot of brand power and the intangibles of working with them could be well worth the dilution/stress. Often those sort of companies use seed rounds as a way to get early access for a buyout down the line
Interesting perspective.
I don’t have any personal experience with raising capital, but I’ve recently attended some accelerator led workshops on making a company investment ready etc.
One thing repeated quite frequently: if you don’t need the money, don’t raise it. If you go with VCs, you should have a very clear plan on how much you need and for what. And not just “we’re going to spend X for new offices” but actual milestones you’re going to reach with that money.
So unless you think it’s the time to scale your product, I would consider putting this on hold.
However as I mentioned, I’m not that experienced with raising VC and would be keen to learn more if there is someone experienced in the field.
Hey Steph! Yeh those were our initial thoughts as well on the subject, that's why we didn't plan on raising. At the same time, we're all working dayjobs so it's not hard to imagine a better alternative.
This is amazing! Will definitely be reaching out.
Hey thanks!
My friend's startup had Googles Seed fund invest. It worked out well for them.
Oh interesting, can you ask your friend for some insights and suggestions?
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