Max Brun raised over $100M from top investors and shares what actually works in fundraising. He says early-stage is brutally hard, that press coverage makes easy term sheets look common when they're rare, and that you need a story plus real metrics and traction.
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And I believe you've raised a little bit over $100 million from some, some pretty awesome investors, you know. So what is the more recent kind of fundraising journey been like? And, you know, what are some of your biggest learnings around fundraising?
So I'm actually excited to share that we have not raised since '22. We raised our Series D in '22 and fortunately have grown into profitability. And so we are in the wonderful position of not needing to raise again, which is great. It's a great place to be because it really gives you control over your own destiny. You know, fundraising is hard. Fundraising is brutal, especially in those early days, because, you know, it is a full-time job. It is more than a full-time job. It is 3 full-time jobs in and of itself. And in those early stages, you don't have other people to shift the rest of your work to. And so it becomes 5 full-time jobs. But I think it's really about— I think when we have been successful in fundraising, it has been about really creating a compelling story, a compelling reason why, a compelling reason why you, um, and, and why now, and then metrics to back that up. I think that, you know, while we haven't been in that fundraising space for a while, I think more in this environment, metrics and traction are, are more important than ever. And being able to show what those metrics are and why those metrics matter and why that traction is going to lead to the next set of milestones. But it is, it is, people don't realize what I would say about fundraising is, you know, you read TechCrunch and all these things and it looks like term sheets are falling out of the sky. That is like less than 1% of companies. The rest of companies, all it takes is one and it might take 400 pitches before that happens. And that's okay. Like the founder who gets up there and is like, oh, it was so hard. I had to pitch 30 people before I got my term sheet. Like that is I was like, that was like a Tuesday before lunch. Like, that's the reality. And what you see and read in the press is not reality. And so just ignore it.
