Ask HN: How to make sure VCS don't lowball us?
This is my first time raising money and wondering what some of the unwritten rules, dark secrets, lowballing techniques VCs use that I should watch out for?
In my experience VCs optimize for percent ownership and valuation uplift on subsequent rounds. So lower valuations allow them to get more per dollar invested and larger gains on subsequent rounds. The places to negotiate are pre vs post money valuation, deal closing costs, board seats, voting shares. Ultimately these matter a lot more than valuation which is just a vanity metric.