Fundraise From Home — Why I’m Excited
In early April, Ryan Hoover called to talk about an idea he was exploring with his partner at Weekend Fund, Vedika Jain.
At the time, “Fundraise From Home” didn’t have a name, but the basic idea was to create an easier way for entrepreneurs to meet top quality investors with a single video call.
I thought the idea was interesting for three reasons:
1. Fundraising is expensive and should be democratized:
Early stage entrepreneurs spend an insane amount of time pitching individual investors. Before COVID-19, this often included plane flights, Uber rides, and dozens of meetings. In a world with Zoom, this is a waste of time and money for entrepreneurs and investors.
In many cases, paying for these expenses out-of-pocket is not possible, especially for entrepreneurs living outside of traditional tech hubs.
As Harry Stebbings (The Twenty Minute VC) says, Fundraise From Home can “democratize access to funding” for founders around the world.
2.“One Click” access to multiple funds is a disruptive idea:
By giving entrepreneurs “one click” access to five top new funds, an entire seed round could happen in a one-hour Zoom call.
Fundraise From Home seems like a no-brainer as you apply to accelerators like Y-Combinator or raise traditional seed rounds.
I imagine a world where every entrepreneur starts their fundraising process by submitting a “Fundraise From Home” application because it’s so easy, almost like the common application for universities.
If the experiment is successful, Fundraise From Home could become the “next-gen of YC” (again credit Harry for the quote).
3. New funds are collaborative and have loud microphones:
Early stage investors are collaborative because we are usually not competitive. We think of ourselves as being a collective of investors rather than separate teams.
We are often former operators with very specific skills like product, design, and go-to-market. Now entrepreneurs can build an operator-led cap table that offers tangible value with a single-click.
As a bonus, we have loud microphones to help build your early community (perhaps more than any single fund). A few examples:
- Harry Stebbings runs the largest startup podcast in the world, The Twenty Minute VC , which has millions of listeners.
- Alexia Bonatsos was the co-editor of Techcrunch for many years and is a widely respected tastemaker throughout our industry.
- Ryan Hoover founded Product Hunt, which has a massive global footprint of entrepreneurs and investors. He and Vedika Jain are now building community products like Fundraise From Home at Weekend Fund.
- Niv Dror founded Shrug Capital which already has one of the most distinctive brands for a venture firm (all within about a year)
I am excited to see where this goes and encourage every entrepreneur in the world to apply. For a few minutes of your time, this feels like a no-brainer.
Apply: https://fundraisefromhome.com/
Thanks Ryan and Vedika for creating this special idea.
JMJ
