[adambenayoun]

I am a co-founder at a startup that just graduated from 500startups and as part of my fundraising process, I decided to approach Jeremie.

I think what's this post is missing is some context, Jeremie is running one of the most active seed fund in the world (200 investments is no feat) and they have a stellar reputation which is why I approached him - I did some due diligence with other entrepreneurs who provided me great recommendations as well.

Jeremie turned us down for various reasons but did in a timely manner and was being very honest about it (no sugar-coating or stalling the process to keep the door open like most VCs do).

I think if you're looking to take money from an unknown investor (who has made almost no investment), you should be doing your due diligence. However with a network of 200 backed companies - making a due diligence can be fast and take just a few days and I also think you should do that prior applying to Kima15 via Angellist.

Some cite the valuation not being favorable, however there are stages when your company is so immature and early that you shouldn't worry about over-optimizing for valuation and rather take some money at a lower valuation and move fast in order to make great progress that will let you close more money at a significantly higher valuation. If you are looking to build a company which might be the $100M-$1B valuation range then that low valuation will not have any significant impact on your outcome.

It is also very refreshing to see a seed fund publishing a SLA - I am looking at this as a very clever marketing feature - now people will remember Kima as the first seed fund that agreed to commit for a SLA for giving you an answer - one of the biggest pain in raising funds.

[loceng]

Every 1% of a billion dollars is $10,000,000 ... just saying. :)

If it's your only option for money, then sure - though if you're that ready for investment where a firm will give you a response/money within 15 days (along with what due diligence are they doing on you?) then you should likely shop around. $150k for 14%, 13%, 12%?

Obviously it doesn't just come down to %. I'd rather give some people 10% or 15% or more if they were the right fit. :)

So overall it's a moot point, but it's also not in some circumstances. :)

[throwaway893]

I've heard mostly negative things about Kima.

There's Jeremie's public negative statements about a company they invested in (Sparrow): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4277331.

They're also very price sensitive, which can create resentment even in companies that take their money.

[adambenayoun]

They're price sensitive and are quite open about it - I don't see why it would create resentment?

If they are approaching you and are trying to negotiate a lower price while other investors are on board on a higher valuation (I saw this happens quite a lot), I think that would be the kind of behavior that would create resentment both on the other investors and founders side.

However I haven't experienced it and my experience was that they turned me down because my valuation was too high for them and out of their comfort zone - did they try to negotiate me to a lower valuation? No.

[enraged_camel]

Use your main account if you want your comment to be taken seriously.

[jber]

Thanks Adam for your kind words. Still love a lot what you are doing at BinPress!

Good luck!