I loved this post too for your focus on the key concept and boiling it very simply and concisely. This reflects my views as a CEO.
What more could the post have to give it that extra oomph so I could directly copy share to my team and they’d get viscerally the concept? I am not sure what the solution is, maybe an example and a counterexample or good/bad P$L and what happened, not the actual PL statement since that can get tactical and boring, but maybe a simplified real story to illustrate and saying what happened to each company. I’ve been a believer in using stories and analogies to send messages home (learned it from Maria CEO of Syndio) and trying to do that more.
Thanks so much Laura. Yeah, I struggled with how to give more tangible examples for this one, because every fundraising story, company, and P&L is unique... But I'll think on it (and future posts) with that lens of how to make it more valuable for the "directly copy share to my team" use case!
Love this post! Agree completely and I would add that a lot of companies also think investors want to hear a certain story when their P&L says a completely different story. Don't say you're building a PLG gtm and product when your P&L shows a business that is clearly more of a top down model. Instead match the story of your product to the story of your P&L. You can say you're testing a hypothesis on PLG and that will cost x amount of future spend but otherwise people will just completely pass over the round because the story and P&L don't match!
I loved this post too for your focus on the key concept and boiling it very simply and concisely. This reflects my views as a CEO.
What more could the post have to give it that extra oomph so I could directly copy share to my team and they’d get viscerally the concept? I am not sure what the solution is, maybe an example and a counterexample or good/bad P$L and what happened, not the actual PL statement since that can get tactical and boring, but maybe a simplified real story to illustrate and saying what happened to each company. I’ve been a believer in using stories and analogies to send messages home (learned it from Maria CEO of Syndio) and trying to do that more.
Thanks so much Laura. Yeah, I struggled with how to give more tangible examples for this one, because every fundraising story, company, and P&L is unique... But I'll think on it (and future posts) with that lens of how to make it more valuable for the "directly copy share to my team" use case!
Super interesting
Interesting insights!
Clear, Concise, Precise.
In a few words you have described what matters and what matters most today.
Love this post! Agree completely and I would add that a lot of companies also think investors want to hear a certain story when their P&L says a completely different story. Don't say you're building a PLG gtm and product when your P&L shows a business that is clearly more of a top down model. Instead match the story of your product to the story of your P&L. You can say you're testing a hypothesis on PLG and that will cost x amount of future spend but otherwise people will just completely pass over the round because the story and P&L don't match!
Great point. It is a huge issue when the narrative and the P&L don't match, especially in today's environment.
I agree fully -- but the balance sheet tells you where the story ends!
Such a great post - thanks for the highlights here.
Would be interesting to see a few pre or post money P&Ls during the era of “invest in the team and concept” for a part 2 follow up.