Mixergy Forum: How to Raise Venture Capital
This is a guest post from Andrew Warner, Founder of Mixergy
To help startups navigate through the funding process, Mixergy recently invited two speakers to talk about how to get investment for a new business.
William Quigley, Managing Director at Clearstone Venture Partners, spoke from the point of view of an investor.
Rahul Sonnad gave the entrepreneur’s perspective, since he founded thePlatform which was sold to Comcast and is now working on his latest startup Geodelic Systems.
Each speaker gave a candid view of what new entrepreneurs should expect. William, for example, explained why most venture capitalists don’t say “no” to the entrepreneurs that they don’t fund. To help entrepreneurs pick up on clues that they’re being turned down, he gave them a list of phrases to look for. For example, when an investor says, “I’d like to see more traction,” what he’s really saying is, “I don’t believe your idea will work. Grow it to prove to me that you’re right.”
Sonnad talked about the hard times he faced in the first two years before he got funding for thePlatform. He talked about the different paths thePlatform took before settling on video distribution.
TechZulu was the media sponsor for this event. To view the event coverage hit the jump.