RTC #39: A crash course in understanding VCs

Hi everyone, here is today’s issue at a glance:

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📢 My favorite links of the week

👉 Understanding VCs: How to score a second meeting (Link) - My favorite this week

👉 Understanding VCs (II): This makes VCs wonder whether you have the right team and the right motivation (Link)

👉 Cold investor emails: Here’s what the best of them all have in common (Link)

👉 Does your startup meet the key criteria for an acquisition? (Link)

👉 Listen to this legend: Stay small -> figure it out -> scale (Link)

👉 Insights from a VC after 2,000+ meetings with founders (Link)

👉 Venture capital in China (spoiler: it is pretty big) (Link)

📖 Report of the week

Step-by-step guide: How Seed VCs make investment decisions

• You felt that the meeting with the VC went well - but then what?

• Have a look behind the scenes and see how the venture capital decision process continues

Over the last months, our Road-To-Capital community has grown strongly and many new subscribers have joined us.

Thank you very much for being part and a very warm welcome (again)!

The only purpose of Road-To-Capital?

Over the last weeks, I spoke with many newly subscribed founders about the topics they are most interested in and would love to learn more about. Here are some of the topics that have come up:

• How do VCs think differently across stages?

• How do VCs make money and what drives their investment decision?

• Bootstrap vs VC money - what makes sense for me

The funny (but also good) thing is that Road-To-Capital has been around for over 9 months, reaching issue 40 next week.

This means there is already some knowledge on all these topics out there.

Yes!

And today, I am sharing with you some of the Road-To-Capital issues on these topics that received the highest attention when they were published.

Looking at them feels like a short “Crash Course” in “Understanding VCs”.

Let's dive into these (hidden) gems...

Insight 1: How do VCs think differently across stages?

👉 “Series A” - explained!

👉 With unique insights from Peter Lasinger, co-founder of 3VC, one of the leading Series A VCs

Why have a look?

If you want to understand the concept of a Series A round and learn an unconventional success metric for start-ups’ success post Series A.

Insight 2: How do VCs make money and what drives their investment decision?

👉 “VC Power Law” - explained!

👉 The biggest secret in venture capital according to Peter Thiel

Why have a look?

This issue explains the fundamental principle in venture capital on investing and what it means for you as a founder.

Insight 3: Bootstrap vs VC money - what makes sense for me

👉 “VC money vs bootstrapping - explained!

👉 Learn how many startups are financed by VC money (and be surprised)

Why have a look?

Learn what route is right for your startup and why so many discussions and posts on LinkedIn are misleading.

📅 Calendar of main VC events in the upcoming weeks

“Networking is a lot like nutrition and fitness: we know what to do, the hard part is making it a top priority”

September
• TechBBQ | Copenaghen, Denmark | Sep 11-12
• Carbon Unbound Europe | London, UK | Sep 11-23
• France Digitale Day | Paris, France | Sep 18
• B2B Rocks | Paris, France | Sep 25-26
• TechChill Milano | Milan, Italy | Sep 25-27
• Italian Tech Week | Turin, Italy | Sep 25-27
• The Drop | Malmo, Sweden | Sep
• Bits & Pretzels | Munich, Germany | Sep 29 - Oct 1

October
• Sifted Summit | London, UK | Oct 2-3
• World Summit AI | Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Oct 9-10
• SaaStock | Dublin, Irland | Oct 14-16
• The Business Booster | Barcelona, Spain | Oct 16-17
• TechCrunch Disrupt | San Francisco, US | Oct 28-30
• 0100 Conference Mediterranean | Milan, Italy | Oct 28-30

Thank you for reading today’s issue. If you enjoyed it, leave a like or comment, and share it with your friends. Follow me on LinkedIn to never miss updates again.

Have a great week,
Stephan 👋

Issue #39 | 10 September