I spent the bulk of this year fundraising, something which I was previously unfamiliar with (I've been in startups a few times, but there was always another "fundraising guy" who took that role. This time I rolled up my sleeve and helped with it.). We managed to get $12M+ and still going.
The big surprise was that I loved it. Pretty much every bit of it.
Everyone says it, but it'll never sink in until you experience it for yourself: fundraising is always an absurdly slow process where you get nowhere for months, until suddenly everything comes together last minute. For us, it took 4 months of mostly nos, until we got a big name to say yes and suddenly we went from 10% subscribed to 3x oversubscribed with investors calling us with a raging case of FOMO. This is always the process, in any deal I've ever been involved in, as investor or on the other side.
The big surprise was that I loved it. Pretty much every bit of it.
Everyone says it, but it'll never sink in until you experience it for yourself: fundraising is always an absurdly slow process where you get nowhere for months, until suddenly everything comes together last minute. For us, it took 4 months of mostly nos, until we got a big name to say yes and suddenly we went from 10% subscribed to 3x oversubscribed with investors calling us with a raging case of FOMO. This is always the process, in any deal I've ever been involved in, as investor or on the other side.