Atrium Panel on Raising Series A

The folks at Atrium were kind enough to host me on a panel alongside Justin Kan (Atrium), Zach Perret (Plaid), and Niko Bonatsos (General Catalyst) moderated by Lisa Han (Atrium) last night. The topic was about raising Series A, and the audience was primarily seed stage entrepreneurs that would be gearing up for a raise soon.

I was impressed by the contributions of my co-panelists. My favorite moments were:

  • After Niko and I waxed on too long about the need for authenticity in pitches from founders and the process of “falling in love” during a pitch, Justin did a great job of deconstructing our words and turning them into practical advice. He advised constantly practicing your story, especially how you communicate your vision. All entrepreneurs have an authentic passion for what they are building, that’s why they endure the masochistic process of building a company in the early years. But, not all entrepreneurs are good at communication, and finding any excuse to practice telling your vision to a friend, colleague, or mentor means that it will come across more cleanly when you tell it to an investor. A pessimist might interpret the advice of aggressive practice as leading to INauthenticity because it will make your pitch too rehearsed, but this is precisely Justin’s (great) point: you can’t be authentic if you aren’t clearly communicating and that will only come with practice, work, and honing.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to join these smart folks on stage, so a big thank you to Atrium and Lisa Han for organizing and thinking to include myself and Spark.

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“Seeing ourselves clearly is the project of a lifetime.” -The Nix

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Andrew Parker

“Seeing ourselves clearly is the project of a lifetime.” -The Nix