I've always been intrigued by family offices. They're like the dark matter in the universe. It could turn out that there's a huge amount of funding available that's invisible, but if you can find it, it's a huge untapped resource.
I chaired a panel with four family offices, and I have to say I came away deeply disappointed.
asically, the vibe was, "If you call us, we'll probably never invest. We have a network and we know who to reach out to from our network."
The discovery was that family offices, for the most part, operate as an old boys' club, and they know who to reach out to, but if you're a founder and you reach out to them, that may not be a useful exercise.
So absolutely do try to get in touch with family offices if you're a founder, but I wouldn't see it as a big part of the fundraising strategy.
@KanishkaNarayan has a Jekyll and Hyde personality:
By night, he is seducing startups with a vision of a great AI-first UK.
By day he's on television sprouting unspeakable nonsense about saving children by installing spyware on millions of phones, about needing to do ID checks on UK citizens, about taking down US companies.
So here's the thing:
Either he has no clue technically - which is very worrying given his AI job - or he knows it's all nonsense, he knows it's child safety masking a state surveillance plan. And he know it's technically impossible to work, it's a security disaster, and it's going to lead to a good fraction of UK citizens intentionally working around the law because they don't want to be mass surveilled.
And, given the experience in Australia, he knows it's going to be completely ineffective.
I guess it takes a politician to hold two such irreconcilable views and try to push them both.
It's hard to give credit for the Dr Jekyll side of the role, given the intentional misinformation being sprouted by Mr Hyde.
A system that can read every image on every phone, sold to you today as a babysitter for the under-18s, is exactly the system a future minister could repoint at protest photos, leaked documents, unflattering memes, or whatever sets off the moral panic of the week...
We're being pressured to accept digital surveillance by default, under the banner of child safety. The proposals stink, and should be fought tooth and nail - because we've already seen the inevitable resulting mission creep in the "Online Safety Act":
Our statement on the UK government’s demand that all content on all devices sold or used in the country be scanned, on the presumption of nudity, using a dystopian combination of age verification and content scanning. This proposal will not safeguard children. It endangers us all.
https://t.co/VdWe9uhi8p
@KanishkaNarayan Strange you say that, because the overwhleming public view of the government wanting to spy on people's phones and ID their internet usage is distrust, not trust.
In New York? Join @seedlegals Saturday 12:30PM (tomorrow!) for an inspirational end of NY Tech Week networking and picnic at Sheep Meadow in Central Park.
With over 130 people registered and 32 degrees Centigrade weather forecast, this is the place to be. See you there!
https://t.co/zHYAmy5qI0
Recording a podcast in his flat in NY with the delightful @anthonyrose.
Anthony is Founder & CEO at @seedlegals, the legaltech platform powering US & UK startups, and the man behind the BBC iPlayer.
We tried to make it up to the roof for another photo but an angry man chased us back down.
-----------------
@unbundledvc invests in Europe-based early stage software/AI startups focused on winning the US market;
because it's a filter for market size and founder ambition.
@MartinGTobias That's brilliant. How does the open sourcing work? We're about to launch Investor Matchmaking on @seedlegals. I'd love to find out more and brainstorm ideas.
Fundraising? This 15-minute New York-level energy video will take your fundraising to the next level.
I met the amazing David Cunic from UCS Advisors ("Use Common Sense Advisors!") who explains the mistakes founders make, how to avoid them, find investors and persuade them to invest in your company.
If you're going to need money in the next 12 months to fund your product, you should be planning that fundraise starting RIGHT NOW. Why? Because it takes longer than you think, and the delays are not where you think they are.
Hop on @seedlegals when you're ready to incorporate and raise, we're here to help you get there faster.
You know that those scare letters that get sent to US tech firms are unenforceable in the US. As indeed they should be, because if the UK can tell Americans (or indeed UK) companies what content they can or cannot have on their web sites, then so can China, North Korea and any other country. And that' s obviously not acceptable.
And that it takes seconds for anyone to use a VPN to access any web site.
This is all so pointless and just makes the UK look stupid globally, and smart people want to leave for more sensible countries.
Fundraising? Sure you'll need a pitch deck, but investors get so many pitch decks, you need something to stand out. Two minute pitch videos are the future.
Word is spreading about something new and exciting brewing on @seedlegals (shhhh...). Existing fundraising websites are soooo boring. Investor matchmaking is about to get reinvented.
Most pitch videos have poor lighting, poor sound, lack passion and energy, and don't explain the problem you're solving. Time to change that! So, some thoughts to inspire you to create your killer two-minute pitch video:
@Winterrose ... or, worse, all the other investors will want MFN as well, and then it's a race to the bottom, where if you offer better deal terms to one investor to get them on board, you have to offer those better deal terms to everyone else who is already on board.