Fundraising Tip of the Week

🎉 Cristian R., Founding Partner of Iluminar Ventures, Shares How Early-Stage Founders Can Leverage Events for Fundraising

PomJuice Exclusive: You’ll often hear investors claim that attending too many events as an early-stage founder can send a negative signal. While this may be true to an extent, this should not discourage founders from attending events entirely. For startups who have launched a product but are still seeking product-market fit, the right events can provide valuable opportunities for networking, learning, and visibility. 

In a sit-down interview with PomJuice, Cristian Raygoza, Managing Partner of Iluminar Ventures, shares his take on how early-stage founders can approach events strategically. In addition to his responsibilities as an investor, Christian serves as the Executive Director of TrueColors LatAm, a non-profit advocacy group that promotes LGBTQ representation in the Latin American tech and venture ecosystem through content, panels, and events. By tapping into his wealth of experience in hosting events throughout Mexico, Christian understands the perspective of founders and investors, providing a holistic perspective on how to make the best use of events as an early-stage startup.

Below are a few highlights from our conversation; you can read the full article on LinkedIn.

Events to Prioritize and their Purpose at Early-Stage

According to Cristian, events that offer the most value for pre-Series A founders typically fall into three core areas: (1) fundraising support, (2) sales and customer engagement, and (3) brand/community-building. For fundraising, VC or startup service provider-hosted events are particularly beneficial. These events allow founders to meet investors interested in their specific problem space and other founders who can facilitate introductions to targeted, relevant investors. Here, founders can find their “tribe” and get support from people who’ve been in their shoes. 

Understand Investor Expectations and Prepare Accordingly

Investors attending these types of events are looking to assess the potential of the founders and their startups quickly. According to Cristian, “Many of us [investors] have the attention spans of peanuts (which I find correlates with the quantity of publicly available tweets)...it means you need to be willing and able to play the game.” During a conversation, investors ask themselves several questions to evaluate the founder they’re speaking to, such as:

• Is this person building something that is on-thesis for me?

• Is this person bullshitting me?

• Is this person self-aware, confident, and trustworthy?

• Are you here to sell me a vision or are you telling me how you're actively learning how to turn that vision into a reality?

Founders should be prepared to discuss their business comprehensively, demonstrating their deep understanding of the problem they are solving and their strategic focus. Being authentic, self-aware, and open to advice can help build a deeper relationship with investors beyond the initial pitch.

Leaving a Memorable Impression in a Sea of a Thousand Faces

Investors sit through hundreds of pitches every month and speak with over a thousand founders each year. Standing out from the crowd and leaving a lasting impression on investors can be difficult but achievable. For Raygoza, there are three major attributes he’s most impressed by with founders:

1. Competence - the ability to express a highly in-depth understanding of the problem they are solving, often with prior domain experience or a methodical and compelling narrative around their business if it's something at the frontier where domain experience is not possible

2. Integrity - the ability to communicate your competence and execution authentically and know its limitations. Often, first-time founders can take on a fake-it-til-you-make-it approach…I prefer it when folks very clearly articulate their confidence via how incredibly their team fills in their gaps of expertise or via how painful but rewarding it has been to acquire some kind of new expertise…Investors don't expect things to be going seamlessly, and if they do, you're probably going to have a rough time if they're on your cap table. 

3. Grit - this is distinct from just perseverance, which is the willingness to keep going. Sometimes, it takes grit to know when to pivot or quit. Grit is staring pain or possible death in the eyes and saying, "This might suck terribly, but I must do it for the greater goal." It can also mean leaning into your conviction even when the market or investors may not appear willing to throw money at you.

Building a Successful Company is a Team Sport

While events can be a valuable resource, it’s important to remember that being a successful startup CEO requires you to maintain an open mind and build a team of employees, advisors, and investors who can support you from beginning to end. I asked Christian to share a final piece of advice for our readers, which sums up this point quite well:

“Technical brilliance isn't an excuse for ineptitude in other areas. Especially for first-time founders, it is common to be in love with your product or your perception of yourself as uniquely capable. These things are wonderful but insufficient. You need great engineers, you need a great roadmap,  you need folks who can sell the heck out of your solution, you need advisors who can help open doors, and you need leadership who can make tough decisions with humility and grit. As an investor, I want you to build a great business and think expansively about what that means. Growing a business inevitably means growing your capabilities and experiences as a person and team, and the best teams to partner with will have folks who face their anxieties head-on by sprinting themselves into the necessary crucibles with gusto. Ego and pride only slow that down.”

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🔗 Links to Share & Save

• Hyper LatAm: Top 10 Latin American Startups to Watch in 2024

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• Business Insider: AI startups could see a wave of 'acquihires,' and it might get messy

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