Guest Blog - Is VC for Me?

While Rob is out of town this week, I am keeping the blog going. Yesterday I attended a venture capital and angel investing conference produced by FundingPost. The event was designed to give entrepreneurs access to advice from VCs and to give VCs introductions to some local, growing businesses.   The agenda also included a panel discussion that featured Konstantine Drakonakis of Launch Capital, James Robinson IV of RRE Ventures, Brian Hirsch of Greenhill SAVP, and Mark Davis of DFJ Gotham Ventures. When asked how entrepreneurs should prepare their business before seeking funding, Davis advised entrepreneurs to make sure venture capital or angel funding is really the best solution for their businesses. Understand how you will scale your business and how much capital you will actually require. The best answer may not be to seek funding, but to bootstrap your business. Think through the question, "are we a big business in need of capital or are we a small business that needs to finance correctly?" For more details on financing a small business from a VC's perspective, Davis created a matrix, "Common Financing Mistakes: Missing The Land Grab" and posted it on his site.  Drakonakis added that if you do decide to seek funding, develop a 12 to 18 month runway so you give yourself the time to plan for the next round of financing.  Stay tuned this week as I will share more tips from these VC Experts.- Daria Meoli, managing editor