African-American Entrepreneurship
Trust me, sometimes, getting a NO from a VC — no matter how peculiarly it is delivered — could be the best thing that ever happens to you. (Image: istockphoto)

How to Raise Money When You’re an Underdog

John Belizaire
CEOPLAYBOOK

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I was super nervous.

It was one of the first meetings we had with venture capitalists.

This wasn’t just any venture capital meeting; this was among some of the top new firms in the space.

Let me put this in context.

It was the late 90s, right in the heart of the “dot-com” wave. Companies like Netscape (an early version of the internet browser, co-founded by Marc Andressen), and AOL (a bulletin board service) were the equivalent of Google or Facebook in terms of name recognition at the time.

There weren’t thousands of VCs to choose from back then. In 1996, total U.S. venture capital investments reached $9.4 billion. In the first quarter of 1997 (when we were raising money), it totaled about $2.4 Billion. Today, there are some funds that big.

Back then, there were only a few players in the space that had the “Midas touch.” Firms like Kleiner Perkins, Greylock, Venrock, and Mayfield were among the top players. All of those guys were in California with offices in Boston.

Boston’s list included Battery, Charles River, Atlas, Highland, Matrix.

There were a few new offshoots of these successful firms just forming in Boston. This particular meeting was with one of those offshoots.

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Published in CEOPLAYBOOK

A publication full of stories from real CEOs and practical sage advice.

Written by John Belizaire

CEO of Soluna. I am learning to be a better CEO — and getting 1% better every day. I share my stories from 20+ yrs experience on ceoplaybook.co.

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