Lessons from Raising $22 Million & Failing (Shruti Shah, Move Loot) - Get Sh!t Done Podcast
“We raised our seed round of $2.8M in 2 1/2 weeks”
Sounds sexy, right?
One of the saddest things I see from some founders is an excessive focus on fundraising as their “saving grace”. Yet, they have no traction or lack a clear path forward to generate traction.
Many founders are wasting their time finding investors because A. They haven't de-risked the investment through traction or B. They aren't VC-backable.
Even the best founders and teams fail but they had traction where investors were willing to take the risk like Shruti Shah. -Her company was generating $30K MRR when they raised a seed of $2.8M in 2.5 weeks. -A Chinese billionaire CAME TO HER to offer $11M for Series A. -She went through YC.
Did checks guarantee success? Nope.
Shruti spills the tea and more importantly her lessons from scaling and failing: -Dangers of growth for growth's sake. -Pivoting away from the original model to raise more capital that decreased revenue nearly 7X. -What led to growing a team 3X & laying off 1/2 a month later. -Why she’s creating a founder-friendly fund around alternative financing.
About Shruti Shah She is an advisor, investor, consultant, and coach who works closely with early-stage startup founders as they work to scale their businesses. She's in the process of launching a new fund that has developed a new model to fund startups. She was most recently an Entrepreneur in Residence at Silicon Valley Bank where she worked with the early-stage practice team on strategic partnerships. She was previously the co-founder and COO of Y Combinator-backed Move Loot, an online full-service marketplace for buying and selling used furniture, where she led the national expansion and general business operations. Over the course of three years, she and her co-founding team raised $22 million dollars to scale the business across the United States. Move Loot was featured in numerous publications including Forbes, TechCrunch, Bloomberg Business Week, CNN, TIME, Fortune, and more.
#getsshitdonepodcast #shegetsshitdone
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on other Platforms.
Ready to Join the F*ck 4% Movement?
Here’s how you can Get Sh!t Done and scale successfully on your own terms today…
Join the Tribe List here
Apply to the Accelerator here.
Take a Superpower Scaling School Course here.
Become a Get Sh!t Done Queen. Join the Membership Waiting List here.