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It took 11 months and 181 investor meetings to raise @vimcal's last round
Fundraising at the bottom of the market... really sucked
Here are 5 crucial things to know if you're raising in 2024:
John Li
1,801 posts
John Li
@jaylbird11
Human bean. Co-founder & CEO @vimcal
- What @elonmusk said yesterday reminds me of an absolutely legendary Steve Jobs story someone once told me that maybe 10 people know about. In the 2000's, Steve was re-negotiating the royalties for iTunes on the phone with the CEO of one of the 3 big music labels.
00:00 - Replying to @jaylbird11"No, I don't think YOU understand. Distribution is king, and iTunes is the future of the music industry. You need us, not the other way around." Then the punchline: "And if distribution is king, I'M MOTHERFUCKING KING KONG!!"
- Replying to @jaylbird11The line went silent for what seemed like an eternity as the teams on both sides were completely caught off-guard. "Our team will follow up." The label CEO knew he didn't have leverage and hung up. Don't strong arm the guy with leverage.
- At this point, I'm fully convinced that crispy writing is the one skill that can pull you higher in any field. Check out these two emails I got for a marketing role at @vimcal โย one from a director and the other from a 16-yr old kid. Who would you rather take a chance on?
- Most people don't know this, but we launched @vimcal with 1.5 months of runway left and came within days of dying We prepped one final Hail Mary while also prepping legal docs to shut down But then, a $5K check saved Vimcal Here's the story of how we barely escaped death:
- I personally onboarded @vimcal's first 1000 users โ CEOs, investors, and even celebrities โ over Zoom. Turns out everyone is lacking the same thing: control over their time. Here are 5 unconventional ways to conquer your day:
- Replying to @jaylbird11The label CEO, a legend himself in Hollywood, told Steve they're raising royalties by 50%. "We're not paying a dime more than last year," Steve straight rejected the notion.
- Replying to @jaylbird11If you liked this untold story don't forgot to give it a RT ๐คWhat @elonmusk said yesterday reminds me of an absolutely legendary Steve Jobs story someone once told me that maybe 10 people know about. In the 2000's, Steve was re-negotiating the royalties for iTunes on the phone with the CEO of one of the 3 big music labels.00:00
- I have exciting news to share ๐ @Vimcal just closed a $4.5M seed round led by the amazing team at @altosvc! A big thank you to @IndianIdle & @TechCrunch, our world-class team, and you, our users. Big things to come. LFG!! ๐๐
- Replying to @jaylbird11"Steve, I don't think you understand. I can pull our catalog right now and iTunes will lose half of the top of the charts, and then it'll be worth nothing." The label CEO, a world-class negotiator, pushed back firmly. Unfortunately for him, that was the last straw for Steve.
- โจ I'm excited to finally announce Free Time Finder โ your AI scheduling assistant When someone sends you their availabilities, you can *literally* throw it into your calendar and @vimcal will show you when you're free. It's absolute magic. Demo:
00:00 - Replying to @jaylbird11First off, some stats: - Round: Series Seed - Duration: 11 months - Dec-June angels only - June-Oct funds only - Total convos: 181 (108 VCs, 73 angels) - Total Rejections: 146 - Ghosted: 14x - Bad actors: 2 - VC offers: 7
