Tip from a VC: Raise More by Asking for Less

"If you are targeting angels and super-angels, the strategy of lowering your target may enable you to raise more money, more quickly."

Wise advice. The first time I ever tried to raise money I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. One of the key things I learned was that they all take comfort in not being the lead. It takes a lot guts to stick your neck out and be the first investor.

As a counterpoint, Brad Feld in Venture Deals advises to be ready to defend your number, and thus have a specific one.

Giving the investor a range (or not being able to describe why you came up with this specific number) gives them the impression that they won't be buying into growth, they will be financing an existing burn rate for indeterminate amount of time.

We actually raised our target on advice from Naval from AngelList, because our original target didn't incentivize VCs to get in if they wanted to. For our business, raising the target was actually more helpful with raising more money, because we got oversubscribed faster, but with a number of VCs in the round.