20+ Fundraising Tips from First Round Capital

First Round Capital has a great new article up titled The Fundraising Wisdom That Helped Our Founders Raise $18B in Follow-On Capital. Every entrepreneur that’s raising money, or considering raising money, should head on over and read it. Here are 20+ tips from the post:

1. First, Fix Your Timeline
2. Target the Right Investors
   1. Vet the portfolio, pick the partner
3. Generate Scarcity
   1. Fundraise like a surfer — plan to take on investors in sets.
   2. Make it a race
4. The Wins and Sins of Pitching
   1. Surface all the burning questions
   2. Frame your problem in an original way
   3. Anticipate and address any objections
   4. Don’t bury your lead
   5. Explain the customer pain point faster with emotion
   6. Don’t just have a dedicated competition slide
   7. Put your team slide toward the end of the deck
   8. Keep your slides simple and rely more on what you say
   9. Make your appendix your arsenal
   10. Don’t stress about slide numbers
   11. Don’t roll with an entourage
   12. Pitch to your personality
   13. Sync your timeline and your mindset
   14. Exhibit unapologetic confidence
   15. Build credibility through vulnerability
   16. Don’t trigger the bullsh*t meter
5. Rehearsal Required
6. Putting it all Together

Read the post and soak in the fundraising wisdom — it’s worth your time.

What else? What are some more fundraising tips?