My Seed round was so painful to raise, that I am left with a deep hatred for VCs in general. Now that I should raise a Series A, this boiling anger holds me back. I just can't outgrow it.
2 answers from the community
Start a new company instead of raising a series A?
Use the old company as proof of concept?
I don't know if you want any advice, or just to vent.
But from someone that has both failed and won at the game of raising money, here are my latest thoughts.
Ask yourself why you are raising money.
Why now, why for these specific reasons, what are the alternatives, why not the alternatives.
Then say to yourself as the VC, who cares?
The VC world is not human, it is purely a numbers game. You're very unlikely to find a fund that has an ounce of emotion, so be careful not to project human expectations on to VC's.
Instead, get your strategy in order. What was it, how did you execute on it successfully, how did you fail, what is it now, what do you need to do now to test it further.
It's all a game, unfortunately, and VC's are 80% more likely fund a team than an idea. So show them that the team can execute with determined "planning and learning" along the way.