I spent the last two months in the valley away from my team and close ones. Pitched my startup to several investors big and small. I had to learn the game and the local culture on the fly. I went through insane ups and downs while keeping it together (mostly).
In the end I returned with signed a term sheet with one of the biggest funds in the valley for about 2.5x the amount I was looking for. This quadruples the value of our shares from our last round in September. Assuming term sheet converts to money in the bank, me and my team will be moving to the bay in the next 6 months with enough backing to take a proper shot at building a huge company. And now, to actually get some work done :)
The bay is where it’s at for the kind of thing I want to do. The amount and seniority of people I spoke to face-to-face in 2 months in SF I didn’t speak to in 3 years in London. San Francisco is a city so dense with developers and startup folk that New Relic feels comfortable paying for poster ads on the street. Being where the density of talent is, is a no-brainer. Besides that, the money is there, the partners are there, and the developer thought leaders are mostly there. It’s kind of hard to make a case for being anywhere else, really. Plus, it’s a pretty awesome area to live in, on the balance.
I spent the last two months in the valley away from my team and close ones. Pitched my startup to several investors big and small. I had to learn the game and the local culture on the fly. I went through insane ups and downs while keeping it together (mostly).
In the end I returned with signed a term sheet with one of the biggest funds in the valley for about 2.5x the amount I was looking for. This quadruples the value of our shares from our last round in September. Assuming term sheet converts to money in the bank, me and my team will be moving to the bay in the next 6 months with enough backing to take a proper shot at building a huge company. And now, to actually get some work done :)
Well, congratulations. That sounds pretty great! Why move to the bay, was it a condition for investment or do you actually want to do that?
The bay is where it’s at for the kind of thing I want to do. The amount and seniority of people I spoke to face-to-face in 2 months in SF I didn’t speak to in 3 years in London. San Francisco is a city so dense with developers and startup folk that New Relic feels comfortable paying for poster ads on the street. Being where the density of talent is, is a no-brainer. Besides that, the money is there, the partners are there, and the developer thought leaders are mostly there. It’s kind of hard to make a case for being anywhere else, really. Plus, it’s a pretty awesome area to live in, on the balance.
I visited in December and it felt disconcertingly like London. How does the actual living compare?