YOUR NEXT STEP WITH FORMATIVE VENTURES
Now, you have decided to take the big plunge and seek venture capital funding.  As former entrepreneurs, we have been in your shoes and can appreciate that this is a huge and critical step that you are about to make.  We know that who you select as your investor will be critical to your success, so choose carefully.  Raising capital can be a long, drawn-out process that can consume a significant amount of your time and resources, so you need to focus your efforts.

To help us qualify your company as a potential fit for us, here are a few suggestions from our own firsthand experience that will help in evaluating the opportunity.

Get introduced to us by someone who knows us.  We know many people in the industry, and we have an extended network of venture partners that might include someone you know.

Be able to crisply define your business, and articulate what industry pain points you are uniquely trying to solve.

When sending us your initial company backgrounder, try not to send files that are too large (>1MB).  It’s not just the bandwidth management, but we prefer that you spend time to hone in on a presentation that is crisp, concise, and to the point.

Give us a clear idea of how big your market is, and who you think your initial customers will be in order to support your claims.

Provide an accurate background of each member of the management, as well as individual accomplishments that qualify that person for the team.

Thank you for considering Formative Ventures.  Because we invest in only 2-4 investments per year, we look carefully for talented teams that we can work closely with to build industry leading companies.  If we can collectively achieve this, everyone in our circle will win.

“

The Formative team was very resourceful, having introduced us to key partnership companies and other potential investors.  They provided us with a broad range of operating experiences that were critically beneficial to our company.”

Werner Sievers,
former CEO of Zyray Wireless
(acquired by Broadcom)