Ep. 40 The 3 Critical Things to Go from Seed to Series A
On the surface, getting from Seed Stage to your Series A should be a pretty straightforward proposition. You basically need to demonstrate three things: Great traction, a high performing team and leadership that everyone can be confident in. Well, that sounds pretty straight forward, right? But as we know, life isn't so simple. The Seed Stage is often anything but smooth. It's a nine to 24 month journey of endurance and resilience. Traction is slower than your early wins suggested they would be. Some part of your team is not performing the way you hoped.And as a Founder you and your founding team find yourself routinely overwhelmed putting out fire after fire, while learning how to lead a growing organization, which likely you've never actually done before. It's a lot.And the thing is, there's not a lot of training for this phase. There's plenty of accelerators and support systems for the pre-seed/idea stage. And there's a lot of stuff for established companies that need to grow.But there's not much support for Seed Stage Founders, when almost everything is being figured out - all while the clock is ticking to get to a Series A or a sustainable business.*In this week's Rocket Ship Founder episode, I break down: The 3 things you need to do to navigate Seed Stage journey Why Seed Stage is especially challenging (and how to attack it) The single biggest shift you can make to out of overwhelm and into confidence (even when things are crazy) This 14-minute listen is the advice I wish someone had given me as a Seed Stage Founder.*PS The Seed Stage MBA 3-Day bootcamp is coming June 13-15th! Get the essential skills knowledge to avoid costly pitfalls, extend your runway, and accelerate to Series A. Limited to 5 founders and their teams.