5 Founders Explain How to Raise Money During a Financial Crisis

As VCs triage their existing portfolio companies—how do you navigate trying to fundraise?

Joel Wish
Marker

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A photo of two colleagues in a warehouse, one of them is pointing to the left.
Photo: Maskot/Getty Images

LLike many of you, we’ve had to reorient our fundraising strategies as the current crisis has unfolded. Many of my portfolio companies have also asked for advice because they’ve never seen a crisis like this before. Over the years, I’ve found that the fastest way to get answers is to talk to people who’ve navigated similar circumstances to understand what to expect and get easy-to-take-action tips to inform our new strategy.

I spoke with dozens of my most trusted advisors, people who survived and thrived — or crashed and burned — during 2001 and 2008 and have stories to tell. This article contains some of the best tips from those conversations.

Before we get into that, you are probably asking yourself, how long and deep will this “slump” be? There is no easy or accurate answer. The best piece I found is from Tomasz Tunguz. Here is a graph from his piece showing the total amount invested per quarter during the last recession.

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