Frontline Growth

Frontline Seed

What Founders Want

Investment Raised

Contents

How value of investment raised impacts what founders want from VCs

Of our 206 respondents, 87% had raised less than €2m at their current company at the time of the survey.

"How much investment has your company secured so far?"

For that most populous group, it was the fund’s knowledge of a sector that was most important factor (57%), followed by introductions to sales leads (34%).

By contrast, the 13% of respondents that had raised over €2m at the time of taking the survey put greater value on their personal relationship and chemistry with the person leading the deal (52%), and the fund’s ability to back the business in future rounds (41%).

“Each individual will have a different understanding of what a “good” founder-investor relationship looks like – some founders might even invite their VCs to their wedding. But the true nature of a relationship will become apparent during the most challenging times of company growth – and every startup will have challenging times. At those moments, being able to have an open and frank conversation with your investors could be the difference between a bump in the road and a total company derailment. Those founders who have raised more capital may well have already learnt that lesson for themselves.”
Will Prendergast Headshot
Will Prendergast
Partner, Frontline Seed

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Frontline Growth

For US companies at Series B–D, ready to make Europe their next growth engine

Frontline Seed

For European founders at Pre-Seed and Seed, making the US their biggest market