List Of 206 Venture Capital Funds

Step 2 - Deal screening

If your business fits within the venture capital firm’s selection criterias, you will be asked to an initial meeting. At this stage, and without a strong introduction, your answers are simply going to be checking off boxes for the VC. Market, revenu, product stage, founders, deal size etc.

There may be a 2 step deal screening, where you will be mostly answering the same questions again but to a higher ranked individual from the company.

Step 3 - Partners review

After a few back and forths, your lead contact during the deal screening will present your business at the partners review meeting. This is now out of your hands.

Step 4 - Due diligence

This step varies between venture capital firms, but generally, the larger the amounts the more intense the due diligence. This is about assessing the risk of the investment.

If you already have a lead investor on board, they may be responsible for the due dil and other VCs may just tag along. Especially for early stage deals.

Step 5 - Investment committee

Depending on the size of the fund, this can be a 1 to 1 meeting or a full on round table with all partners present. If you are here, you have passed all of the nitty gritty tests. This stage is generally a mix of due diligence feedback and high level questions with partners and general partners.

Step 6 - Closing the deal

Once the decision has been made, your lead contact will send you the offer. This can be as simple as a yes to all previously detailed terms or an offer that can be negotiated. It can also be a partial deal depending on XY&Z happening (for example, another fund must say yes).

Conclusion

The venture capital process is a long journey with drop offs at every stage. The good news is that the process is quite similar from one fund to the next, so it does get easier. Your answers and documents will be ready and stress levels will drop dramatically with each new meeting. Fundraising is definitely a skill. If you multiply the reps, you will get better.

The key here is to start talking to venture capital investors as early as possible and build trusted long term relationships that will help your business grow.