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Expert
MenuBlake Commagere angel investor, entrepreneur
8
Calls |
5
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- Reviews 5
- Answers 2
All I can say is "Amazing"! I cannot say enough about the value Blake provided to me. Way above and beyond what I was expecting. Trust me, don't wait, just book him right now! You will not regret it...and you'll want to talk to him again.
Source: Clarity Iman Sakka May 2, 2018Blake is the man! He schooled me in gaming with an Excellent call. He 10x'd all of my expectations, came in prepared with a ton of great ideas, and left me with actionable advice. On top of that, Blake was just a great guy and a pleasure to speak with. Will definitely be scheduling another call. Thanks Blake.
Source: Clarity John Hayward-Mayhew Aug 24, 2016i think i may love this man!
Source: Clarity Darin Singh Jul 14, 2015Blake is awesome. Spent time preparing for the call on his own beforehand, which was totally unnecessary but very much appreciated. Has a broad range of experience, and the fact that he's not pompous given that he's accomplished so much is also surprising.
Looking forward to connecting again with him soon!
Source: Clarity Darin Singh Jun 10, 2015Even for Venture Debt, 20% is absurdly high, don't take it. If you have sufficient revenues to pay back a loan at a predatory rate like that, then you'll easily be able to raise capital via equity or at a much, much lower interest rate.
I built and sold an enterprise company to IBM. While the fundraising climate was very different then, here are the things you should look out for:
As a general rule, if you're going to raise money, then you want to raise enough money that you can get the company to the next stage at which you'll be able to raise another round. Were I in your position, I would raise enough that I could confidently establish our LTV, churn, CAC. Once your LTV is at least 3x your CAC, you've built a business that many investors would readily fund.
A few tips:
1) You will _always_ need more money than you estimate. It is better to raise 30-50% more than your initial calculations of what you "need" - if you raise more than you need, you took a bit more dilution than necessary. If you raise less, the company will likely fail.
2) The CEO will likely be the best salesperson at this stage and for a time to come. Don't hire more than 2 additional salespeople until you are certain you have a scalable, repeatable playbook.
3) If you haven't read the sales learning curve - it's a quick intro to scaling a sales org. Running sales is very different than running eng. Very. https://hbr.org/2006/07/the-sales-learning-curve
Happy to share more about my experience if you'd like to do a call. Good luck!
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