Summary of How To Raise Money

Paul Graham

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Rating

7 Overall

8 Applicability

7 Innovation

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Recommendation

Two fears plague investors: They’ll invest in a start-up that flounders, or they’ll miss out on one that thrives. These conflicting fears often lead to confusing investor behavior that inexperienced start-up founders may misinterpret. The result is a recipe for start-up failure. Co-founder of the successful seed accelerator Y Combinator Paul Graham gives start-ups a set of applicable “if-then” rules to assist the fundraising process. getAbstract recommends this practical guide to entrepreneurs, CEOs and anyone navigating fund raising for a start-up.

In this summary, you will learn

How to avoid common fundraising stumbling blocks,
Which investors to prioritize and which to avoid, and
When to stop fund raising.

About the Author

Paul Graham is a programmer, writer and investor. He co-founded Y Combinator, one of the most successful seed accelerators in the world.

Summary

Start-ups should have distinct “phase one” and “phase two” fund raising stages. In phase one, you should “accept offers greedily,” while in phase two, you should be more selective. Fund raising isn’t what makes a start-up successful; the real challenge is building a product and then “listening to users...