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Getting Past NO!


It is important to set a timetable when raising money. Depending on your situation four weeks might be a reasonable amount of time to spend raising money, while in other cases six months might be just as reasonable. The truth is that most startups never get to yes. Marc Andreessen has an interesting perspective, ‘One “no” doesn’t mean anything — the VC could just be having a bad day, or she had a bad experience with another company in your category, or she had a bad experience with another company with a similar name, or she had a bad experience with another founder who kind of looks like you, or her Mercedes SLR McLaren’s engine could have blown up on the freeway that morning — it could be anything. Go meet with more VCs.’

Marc’s advice:

  • Lay the groundwork to go back in later (i.e. don’t burn that bridge, usually ‘no’ means not right now)
  • Consider the environment (i.e. no in 1999 means your plan was really bad, no in 2002 means the market was running scared)
  • Retool your plan (Marc compares the process to peeling an onion, you have to be willing to ‘peel layers of risk’ off of your deal to get to yes)

Of course there are hundreds of reasons VCs say no including: founder risk, market risk, competition risk, timing risk, financing risk, marketing risk, distribution risk, technology risk, product risk, hiring risk, location risk and so on.