Spencer Tasker

🚀 Helping founders grow better
🏦 Public VC | Growth Capital | M&A

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

Whenever I work with early-stage founders looking to raise, I basically always advise that we start with angels and family offices.

Why?

Well, I think that VCs are becoming more institutionalised and they're expecting more and more from founders earlier on.

But angels and family offices are very different and are beginning to fill that gap for early-stage founders looking to grow but need the flexibility to do so.

I usually advise we don’t just work with ANY angels and family offices but better still, look for the ones who built their wealth in your space.

That usually means they're more aligned with you, and they bring way more:

→ Patience
→ Flexibility
→ Domain expertise

Than 95% of VCs…

#VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #Finance #Startup #Investing #growthcapital #Fintech #MacroEconomics #AI #StockMarket

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

A pre-revenue founder I know just turned down $2M from a top VC!

The offer was double his ask. And he said no…

This founder was at MVP stage. He got a warm intro to a top VC for his pre-seed round.

After the call, the VC was all over him. Sending him constant emails.

He thought about it for a few days, then rejected it.

Why???

The VC's vision for the business was completely different from Garrett's. A different idea of where it needed to go to succeed.

So, he did the brave thing. He said no to the money…

Listen, I'm ex-PE and now help many founders across Canada and the US raise capital.

Of all the founders I speak to, I'd say 95% would have taken that money and pivoted.

But I have a lot of respect to this particular founder for sticking to his guns and building the business he actually wants to build.

And if it fails… Well I guess it's on him, there will be no one else to blame.

But I have a strong feeling that VC will be back later. 😉

#VentureCapital #PrivateEquity #Finance #Startup #Investing

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

The first thing investors look for: Signs of some momentum, not just promising ideas.

Agree?

Comment below 👇

#PrivateEquity #investing #VentureCapital #GrowthCapital

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

Just back from Volcano Innovation Summit in Antigua, Guatemala. 🌋

Founders, investors and operators from across LATAM and well beyond.

Great stage. Great speakers.

But that's actually not why I went.

I went for the side conversations.

Over lunch. In our AirBnB with 10 others.

While walking through the coffee farms.

Walking back over the cobbles.

That's where the real insights get said…

Overall, a great few days connecting with so many bright minds.

#VentureCapital #Startups #TechStartup

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

There's a whole industry now faking entrepreneurship full-time.

Building in public before building anything. Twelve side projects, zero customers.

A personal brand about the business instead of a business.

So how do you know which one you're doing?

Simple. Which one is paying you?

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

Told a founder last week to cancel every VC call in his diary for the next month. 😅

Not reschedule. Cancel.

He thought I'd lost it. Six months of warm intros, three-minute meetings, one partner who kept saying he was "excited to keep watching."

Watching. Not investing. Watching.

And that's the whole problem. He'd stopped building a company and started running a full-time fundraising operation for people who were never going to write the cheque.

So I said stop. Just stop.

Go quiet for a month and see what happens.

Because the second you stop chasing, they start wondering why. Then it's "oh shit, why?" and suddenly you're the one who can't be bothered. Which is the only position that's ever worked in that room.

It's like dating. Act like you're not fussed and they get very interested very quickly. Chase, and they can smell it from a mile off.

VCs are identical. Worse, honestly.

At least in dating, someone eventually tells you no lol 🤯

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

No competition is a fucking red flag.

Every time a founder tells me there's nobody else in the space, I hear the same thing.

Nobody wants this yet.

Competition means someone has already proved that people pay for it. That's the most expensive question in business, and a competitor answered it for you. For free.

The graveyard is full of companies with no competitors...

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

You've got a great product, a couple customers, and a few $ in revenue??

You don't have anything yet.

I've been around this crap for about a decade now. Three acquisitions with my own money, built one to $7M, sold it. So I think I'm reasonably qualified to tell you what people actually buy.

It's never the product/service. Not once. Not one time.
They buy revenue. A team. A system. A customer list.

Something that still works when you're not in the room.

Nobody's stealing it. Get up and go fucking build it...

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

Raising from VCs pre-revenue is fucking mental. And everyone's agreed to pretend it isn't.

No customers. No proof. No leverage.

So you take whatever terms are offered, from a couple of jack asses who’ve never built a business before
Then you spend three years trying to grow into a valuation grounded in hopes and dreams.

Before you give away all your power.

Go get one customer. One!

Watch how fast the conversation changes...

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

WTF! VC just killed my friend's company!
I’m in shock while writing this…

Three million ARR!. Five years of work. Gone.

Not because it was failing. Because 30% growth wasn't fast enough for some jackasses with 49 other bets who couldn't give a shit whether this one lived.

So he forced a pivot. And that was that. Five years, binned by a guy who probs spent about eleven minutes thinking about it.

The VC power-law dynamics don’t need your company to work. It needs one in fifty to work. You're not the bet. You're a lottery ticket they can afford to throw away if you don’t operate on their terms.

Is it just me, or is anyone else just fucking tired of watching good businesses die because they weren't running quite fast enough for someone else's agenda?

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

Fuck early-stage VC. 😳

It's a hell of a business model for the investors. Just not for founders.

You hand out someone else's money to 50 companies. 49 die. One works.

You get rich off the one. Write a post about pattern recognition. Raise a bigger fund.

And the founder who spent five years on one of the 49?
He gets a cap table that owes everyone but him.

The math isn't on your side. Nobody mentions that at the pitch event.

On balance it’s a trash capital source for the majority of early-stage startups. Of course outliers exist, in founders (obviously) and VC firms.

But the likelihood of you landing a top-tier early-stage VC is about the same as your startup reaching unicorn status.

There are many alternative sources of growth capital that founders can choose from that aren’t from over-opinionated VC’s who have never built anything before.

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

“I'd rather see my fu****g company burn than raise another dollar from VCs."

That's what a $10M ARR founder told me on a call.

I've known him for years. He’s a genuine friend of mine.
He's raised tens of millions. And I know he regrets nearly all of it.

Since that first investment round, they've had him on weekly calls. Questioning every decision he wants to make.

Now they're forcing him into an exit he doesn't actually even want!

Nearly a decade in venture and PE, and I've seen this probably 100 times.

So why does it keep happening???

Because nobody talks about alternative growth capital. And no, I don't mean debt.

Had he known his options two years ago, none of this would have happened…

Now he's finally getting the growth capital he actually needs.

So if you're sitting in a similar situation and wondering what your options are, it’s likely worth us having a chat...

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

Everyone’s talking about Maduro’s capture but Warren Buffet just stepped down as $brk CEO.

As always they are using the liberation of Venezuela as a distraction for the big news.

#madurocaptured #BerkshireHathaway

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

Trying to think of a boring industry with fairly high barriers to entry. Any ideas?

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

Anyone know LORA and want to make a difference on the modern day battlefield?

[Tristan Tate @TateTheTalisman]

I’ve got 10,000 dollars for the family of the man who was killed in the crowd supporting our president.

Can the community please help me find them?

Thank you ❤️🙏🏽😢

[Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok]

Hi @ubc, this one of your professors?

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

@johnrich Why cut the video short. Impossible to tell angle from this clip. Clearly he flinched and reacted to the gun fire and was in the process of repositioning himself since the shooter was 130m away as these guys are scanning for targets 300m+.

[Spencer Tasker @TaskerSpencer]

Who here knows a thing or two about RF jamming/disruption?

And wants to drop some Russian drones out of the sky.

#SlavaUkraini