[_gmnw]

Yeah, I second this.

I would definitely be interested to learn more about approaching VCs at the pre-seed/seed stage & pre-revenue/product market fit. Some questions I would love to see answered:

How do you raise money in stealth mode? (not saying that stealth mode is good, but it's crazy that people raise large sums of money before having a public facing product).

How do you get in front of VCs who haven't heard of you yet? This seems a bit easier in a Series A round as your investors can talk to your seed investors and there's probably a crunchbase page of your company.

How do you give your business a valuation before it's launched? I've been struggling a lot with this one, I've ran through the TAM/SAM/SOM but honestly feels like a shot in the dark still.

[gbasin]

Do the work.

It helps to have a pre-existing network or pedigree but it's not necessary. Research your space and opportunity. Become the #1 expert in the world. Then start talking to others. They will be impressed, and eventually you'll network your way to people you want raise money from.

It takes years if you're new to a space, but it can be worth it.

[cephaslr]

As far as I can tell if the team is prestigious enough, i.e. famous founders or stacked pedigrees, it can raise a few million without a single line of code. There are many examples of this that can be inferred if you look at crunchbase and linkedin start dates for various companies.

[JumpCrisscross]

The flip side of this: pitch someone with a track record to join your founding team. It will help with more than just fundraising.

[nl]

> How do you give your business a valuation before it's launched? I've been struggling a lot with this one, I've ran through the TAM/SAM/SOM but honestly feels like a shot in the dark still.

It is, and pre-launch it's honestly more whatever the market will bear.