Can you provide any links or books that'd provide guidance on speaking "their language"? Seems like a wonderful opportunity to educate. I'd love to learn more as someone that tried to raise money, albeit from a smaller sample (~50 engagements), and failed miserably.
That's a great question. Let me go through my collection and see if I can find any that might provide guidance.
I found that it was like a fraternity, though. I only learned it by hanging out with them. Kind of like how doctors call bruises 'hematoma's. They all know what it means, but it wouldn't occur to us normies to call it that.
If that book doesn't exist, maybe somebody should write it!
Assuming you believe you aren't able to secure commitments >$1M in publisher cash for that book, then?
Does that exist for tech books?
Unless you're a best-seller, swinging a deal like that's hard - in any genre =]
Re:The Business of SaaS
by alex_hitchins on Tuesday February 20, 2018 @03:05PM
(#16423669)
Thanks for your posts, very encouraging and all good advice. I'm going to booststrap for the first one. As you say, try > fail, try again > fail, try yet again > modicum of interest.
Really is good to hear your words of encouragement.
Seriously - good luck.
IF I knew then, what I know now - I would be too afraid to start. But all progress is made by people who are not too afraid to start. I wish you all the luck and fortune in the world.
I found one. They didn't get it. I ended up quitting: "Fine - I will do it myself".
I remember the first meetings I had a 6.30am or 7.00am at breakfast places with VCs... They would listen and then (essentially) pat me on my head and say: "You're a nice boy. Go back to being an engineering cube-monkey".
It was so frustrating. I did not know what I was doing. I was a fairly competent engineer - but I did not know the code-words for the VC-world or the business-world (and there is definitely a tribal language).
Finally - mostly by luck - I found a guy to partner with. We ended up raising $100M, before we got caught in the back-wash of the dot-com implosion (we weren't a dot-com, but it didn't matter).
Now - I know how to speak their language to them. But I will say: It's hard. The only way to learn is to get into it. Go try to sell. Fail. Get dirty. You'll figure it out.
I believe in you! :-)
EDIT: I do remember this. This was the 90s, but I remember that I pitched customer-types and investor-types about 2000 times in about 350 days (a year). I am an engineer, not a sales-type, so this was uncomfortable. But I updated my/our pitch deck after every meeting. You do get better with practice. It sounds cold, but I would say: "Hit The Road".