Arjay Ruggles’ Post

Here is a very useful forecast from SyndicateRoom on the health of early stage investing in 2024. Well worth a look if you're raising this year. "Businesses need to be properly funded to weather this environment." #runway #startups #investments #angelinvesting #cambridge #tech #cleantech #biotech

How to raise VC money in 2024? Why good companies will always gain investment? Listen to Mark Beeston - Illuminate Financial, Devin Kohli - Outward VC , Dan Chaplin - Dawn Capital who have all done some great things throughout the years, giving solid advice and understanding the struggles that they have been through. See their journeys and get to understand what VCs look for. Link to the full interview below 👇

Welcome to this week's Founder's Insights. Join me as I explore sponsor co-investments and discuss why rigid demands of co-investment may not always make sense! As investors become more experienced in joint ventures or passive investments, they often ask about the sponsor's co-investment. This means they want to know how much of their own money the sponsor is putting into the deal. While it may sound simple, it can get complicated due to the varying factors and circumstances surrounding each sponsor. If you're interested in learning more about investing with us at Lone Star Capital, please feel free to reach out directly.

Each day this week I will dive into one reason why unpacking your fund name to LPs is a better pitch than your pitch deck. Reason 2.: "It communicates your values." Yes, LPs care about your values, because your values are the underlying framework of how you operate and how you pick founders. It’s not about whether or not your values are wrong - it’s simply about understanding how they inform you, so the LP can understand your frameworks. As an LP, I need to understand how the Emerging Manager thinks and why they think the way they do. It helps me underwrite their decision-making and their ability to pick the best founders.

Our Investor Community is more than just a network—it's a space where investors can connect, learn, and grow together 🌟 Here’s a glimpse of what we offer: 🌐 Exclusive Access: Dive into tailored investment opportunities and build unique partnerships that align with your goals 🎓 Angel Investing Courses: Strengthen your strategies with expert-led courses, whether you’re just starting or looking to refine your approach 🔒 Vetted Membership: Connect with a network of carefully vetted professionals, ensuring you're surrounded by trusted, like-minded investors Ready to join a community built for investors like you? Join now at no cost using this link 👉 https://lnkd.in/dRV46qhy #Investing #AngelInvestors #InvestorCommunity #Connectd

We recently closed a small angel round and are raising our Pre-seed at Assisterr. I want to share 2 situations just to illustrate quite a repetitive scenario I had several times recently: UK-based VC: - "Oh, your valuation is too high. Please send us more materials, but it looks too high." - Did you invest in companies in our vertical recently? - "Not really, but we have plans..."; US investors: VC: "You are too humble with this range for valuation and your traction. It should be much higher". - Thank you. We are open to discussing the exact valuation with the Lead investor. - Then, 4 hours later, I got the message from the attached screenshot.

𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐚𝐩, 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞. 🚀 𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒’𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑒’𝑣𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠: 𝟏. 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞. Founders often try to figure out 30+ different skills needed for a successful raise, leading to frustration and delays. 𝟐. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐚𝐩 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. Our Raise Roadmap breaks down every part of the capital-raising journey. You’ll score yourself on key milestones like your business plan, cap table, and investor materials. This process ensures you stay on track, avoid mistakes, and impress investors with how prepared you are. 𝟑. 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭. Every Monday, we help you refine your documents. Every Thursday, we focus on building your investor CRM and filling your pipeline with the right investors. We’ll guide you step-by-step, helping you progress towards a successful raise. 𝐏𝐒) Want access to free roadmap & tools, plus support? More details in the comments! Jason Atkins Kane Templeton

When cold-called by Investors, especially VCs, make sure to do your due diligence before investing your time, effort, and revealing your secret sauce. They may ask for your pitch deck and schedule several meetings, only for you to discover later that they don't meet your criteria. Before engaging, you should request to see their pitch deck. Do they have a working fund? What is their favored ticket size? Identify some of their current investees, and so on. In a word, caution. #duediligence #dontwasteeffort #besmart

VC investing data for Q2 2024 is out from PitchBook and one area that stands out is Inception Investing - the very first rounds Look at that dispersion getting wider and wider Share of investments >$5M and 🤯 >$10M significantly up from 2019 As I've been saying, huge implications for founders, fund sizing etc as those multistage firms continue to write these super large checks in the "race to be first" which I've written about here: Read post: https://lnkd.in/ebVeu7bb

Angel investors are two type. 1) Great angel investors. 2) Ass**le angel investors. Here is how you could avoid becoming Ass**le angels. If you want to help founders and contribute start-up ecosystem. Instead of showing off an angel investor tag. Please share your yearly fund size and check size per investment. Also, add Industry you would like to invest in this financial year. Crunch base is a better option rather than doing gimmicks in LinkedIn.