Many of my friends and employees at Cobalt have asked me what fundraising is like and what the first steps are to start a company. I’ve written this post to help demystify some of the process based on my experience raising 5 rounds over my career (Seed through Series C with Cobalt Robotics and Seed for Posmetrics (YC W13)). I hope many more people will start their own companies in the future and work at places that encourage entrepreneurship. Enjoy!
A market size of $1 billion is not necessary if your seed round valuation is reasonable, e.g. $5 million. This allows early investors to see a possible 10x at less than $10 million ARR which is less than 1% of a $1 billion market. Later stages might be more of an issue…
Great article! Really does help demystify the process!